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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 18602 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE FOURTH "R"
+
+                         By George O. Smith
+
+
+
+
+Published by
+DELL PUBLISHING CO., INC.
+1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
+New York, New York 10017
+
+Copyright 1959, by George O. Smith
+All rights reserved. For information contact:
+Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
+
+Printed in the United States of America.
+
+First Dell printing--April 1979
+
+[Transcribers note: This is a rule 6 clearance. A copyright renewal has
+not been found.]
+
+
+
+
+BOOK ONE:
+
+FUTURE IMPROMPTU
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+
+James Quincy Holden was five years old.
+
+His fifth birthday was not celebrated by the usual horde of noisy, hungry
+kids running wild in the afternoon. It started at seven, with cocktails.
+They were served by his host, Paul Brennan, to the celebrants, the boy's
+father and mother. The guest of honor sipped ginger ale and nibbled at
+canapés while he was presented with his gifts: A volume of Kipling's
+_Jungle Tales_, a Spitz Junior Planetarium, and a build-it-yourself kit
+containing parts for a geiger counter and an assortment of radioactive
+minerals to identify. Dinner was served at eight, the menu selected by
+Jimmy Holden--with the exception of the birthday cake and its five proud
+little candles which came as an anticipated surprise from his "Uncle"
+Paul Brennan.
+
+After dinner, they listened to some music chosen by the boy, and the
+evening wound up with three rubbers of bridge. The boy won.
+
+They left Paul Brennan's apartment just after eleven o'clock. Jimmy
+Holden was tired and pleasantly stuffed with good food. But he was
+stimulated by the party. So, instead of dropping off to sleep, he sat
+comfortably wedged between his father and mother, quietly lost in his own
+thoughts until the car was well out of town.
+
+Then he said, "Dad, why did you make that sacrifice bid on the last
+hand?" Father and son had been partners.
+
+"You're not concerned about losing the rubber, are you?" It had been the
+only rubber Jimmy lost.
+
+"No. It's only a game," said Jimmy. "I'm just trying to understand."
+
+His father gave an amused groan. "It has to do with the laws of
+probability and the theory of games," he said.
+
+The boy shook his head. "Bridge," he said thoughtfully, "consists of
+creating a logical process of play out of a random distribution of
+values, doesn't it?"
+
+"Yes, if you admit that your definition is a gross oversimplification. It
+would hardly be a game if everything could be calculated beforehand."
+
+"But what's missing?"
+
+"In any game there is the element of a calculated risk."
+
+Jimmy Holden was silent for a half-mile thinking that one over. "How," he
+asked slowly, "can a risk be calculated?"
+
+His father laughed. "In fine, it can't. Too much depends upon the
+personality of the individual."
+
+"Seems to me," said Jimmy, "that there's not much point in making a bid
+against a distribution of values known to be superior. You couldn't hope
+to make it; Mother and Uncle Paul had the cards."
+
+His father laughed again. "After a few more courses in higher
+mathematics, James, you'll begin to realize that some of the highest
+mathematics is aimed at predicting the unpredictable, or trying to lower
+the entropy of random behavior--"
+
+Jimmy Holden's mother chuckled. "Now explain entropy," she said. "James,
+what your father has been failing to explain is really not subject to
+simple analysis. Who knows why any man will hazard his hard-earned money
+on the orientation of a pair of dice? No amount of education nor academic
+study will explain what drives a man. Deep inside, I suppose it is the
+same force that drives everybody. One man with four spades will take a
+chance to see if he can make five, and another man with directorships in
+three corporations will strive to make it four."
+
+Jimmy's father chuckled. "Some families with one infant will try to make
+it two--"
+
+"Not on your life!"
+
+"--And some others are satisfied with what they've got," finished Jimmy
+Holden's father. "James, some men will avoid seeing what has to be done;
+some men will see it and do it and do no more; and a few men will see
+what has to be done, do it, and then look to the next inevitable problem
+created by their own act--"
+
+A blinding flash of light cut a swath across the road, dazzling them.
+Around the curve ahead, a car careened wide over the white line. His
+mother reached for him, his father fought the wheel to avoid the crash.
+Jimmy Holden both heard and felt the sharp _Bang!_ as the right front
+tire went. The steering wheel snapped through his father's hands by half
+a turn. There was a splintering crash as the car shattered its way
+through the retaining fence, then came a fleeting moment of breathless
+silence as if the entire universe had stopped still for a heartbeat.
+
+Chaos! His mother's automatic scream, his father's oath, and the rending
+crash split the silence at once. The car bucked and flipped, the doors
+were slammed open and ripped off against a tree that went down. The car
+leaped in a skew turn and began to roll and roll, shedding metal and
+humans as it racketed down the ravine.
+
+Jimmy felt himself thrown free in a tumbleturn that ended in a heavy
+thud.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When breath and awareness returned, he was lying in a depression filled
+with soft rotting leaves.
+
+He was dazed beyond hurt. The initial shock and bewilderment oozed out of
+him, leaving him with a feeling of outrage, and a most peculiar sensation
+of being a spectator rather than an important part of the violent drama.
+It held an air of unreality, like a dream that the near-conscious sleeper
+recognizes as a dream and lives through it because he lacks the conscious
+will to direct it.
+
+Strangely, it was as if there were three or more of him all thinking
+different things at the same time. He wanted his mother badly enough to
+cry. Another part of him said that she would certainly be at his side if
+she were able. Then a third section of his confused mind pointed out that
+if she did not come to him, it was because she herself was hurt deeply
+and couldn't.
+
+A more coldly logical portion of his mind was urging him to get up and
+_do_ something about it. They had passed a telephone booth on the
+highway; lying there whimpering wasn't doing anybody any good. This
+logical part of his confused mind did not supply the dime for the
+telephone slot nor the means of scaling the heights needed to insert
+the dime in the adult-altitude machine.
+
+Whether the dazzle of mental activity was serial or simultaneous isn't
+important. The fact is that it was completely disorganized as to plan
+or program, it leaped from one subject to another until he heard the
+scrabble and scratch of someone climbing down the side of the ravine.
+
+Any noise meant help. With relief, Jimmy tried to call out.
+
+But with this arrival of help, afterfright claimed him. His mouth
+worked silently before a dead-dry throat and his muscles twitched in
+uncontrolled nervousness; he made neither sound nor motion. Again he
+watched with the unreal feeling of being a remote spectator. A cone of
+light from a flashlight darted about and it gradually seeped into Jimmy's
+shocked senses that this was a new arrival, picking his way through the
+tangle of brush, following the trail of ruin from the broken guard rail
+to the smashed car below.
+
+The newcomer paused. The light darted forward to fall upon a crumpled
+mass of cloth.
+
+With a toe, the stranger probed at crushed ribs. A pitifully feeble
+moan came from the broken rag doll that lay on the ground. The searcher
+knelt with his light close to peer into the bloody face, and,
+unbelieving, Jimmy Holden heard the voice of his mother straining
+to speak, "Paul--I--we--"
+
+The voice died in a gurgle.
+
+The man with the flashlight tested the flaccid neck by bending the head
+to one side and back sharply. He ended this inspection by letting the
+head fall back to the moist earth. It landed with a thud of finality.
+
+The cold brutality of this stranger's treatment of his mother shocked
+Jimmy Holden into frantic outrage. The frozen cry for help changed into
+protesting anger; no one should be treated that--
+
+"One!" muttered the stranger flatly.
+
+Jimmy's burst of protest died in his throat and he watched, fascinated,
+as the stranger's light moved in a sweep forward to stop a second time.
+"And there's number two!" The callous horror was repeated. Hypnotically,
+Jimmy Holden watched the stranger test the temples and wrists and try a
+hand under his father's heart. He watched the stranger make a detailed
+inspection of the long slash that laid open the entire left abdomen and
+he saw the red that seeped but did not flow.
+
+"That's that!" said the stranger with an air of finality. "Now--" and he
+stood up to swing his flashlight in widening circles, searching the area
+carefully.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jimmy Holden did not sicken. He went cold. He froze as the dancing
+flashlight passed over his head, and relaxed partially when it moved
+away in a series of little jumps pausing to give a steady light for
+close inspection. The light swung around and centered on the smashed
+automobile. It was upside down, a ruin with one wheel still turning idly.
+
+The stranger went to it, and knelt to peer inside. He pried ripped metal
+away to get a clear sight into the crushed interior. He went flat on his
+stomach and tried to penetrate the area between the crumpled car-top and
+the bruised ground, and he wormed his way in a circle all around the car,
+examining the wreck minutely.
+
+The sound of a distant automobile engine became audible, and the
+searching man mumbled a curse. With haste he scrambled to his feet and
+made a quick inspection of the one wabbly-turning wheel. He stripped a
+few shards of rubber away, picked at something in the bent metal rim, and
+put whatever he found in his pocket. When his hand came from the pocket
+it held a packet of paper matches. With an ear cocked at the road above
+and the sound of the approaching car growing louder, the stranger struck
+one match and touched it to the deck of matches. Then with a callous
+gesture he tossed the flaring pack into a pool of spilled gasoline. The
+fuel went up in a blunt _whoosh_!
+
+The dancing flames revealed the face of Jimmy Holden's "Uncle" Paul
+Brennan, his features in a mask that Jimmy Holden had never seen before.
+
+With the determined air of one who knows that still another piece lies
+hidden, Paul Brennan started to beat back and forth across the trail of
+ruin. His light swept the ground like the brush of a painter, missing no
+spot. Slowly and deliberately he went, paying no attention to the
+creeping tongues of flame that crept along damp trails of spilled
+gasoline.
+
+Jimmy Holden felt helplessly alone.
+
+For "Uncle" Paul Brennan was the laughing uncle, the golden uncle; his
+godfather; the bringer of delightful gifts and the teller of fabulous
+stories. Classmate of his father and admirer of his mother, a friend to
+be trusted as he trusted his father and mother, as they trusted Paul
+Brennan. Jimmy Holden did not and could not understand, but he could feel
+the presence of menace. And so with the instinct of any trapped animal,
+he curled inward upon himself and cringed.
+
+Education and information failed. Jimmy Holden had been told and told and
+instructed, and the words had been graven deep in his mind by the same
+fabulous machine that his father used to teach him his grammar and his
+vocabulary and his arithmetic and the horde of other things that made
+Jimmy Holden what he was: "If anything happens to us, you must turn to
+Paul Brennan!"
+
+But nothing in his wealth of extraordinary knowledge covered the way to
+safety when the trusted friend turned fiend.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Shaken by the awful knowledge that all of his props had been kicked out
+from under him, now at last Jimmy Holden whimpered in helpless fright.
+Brennan turned towards the sound and began to beat his way through the
+underbrush.
+
+Jimmy Holden saw him coming. It was like one of those dreams he'd had
+where he was unable to move, his muscles frozen, as some unknown horror
+stalked him. It could only end in a terrifying fall through cold space
+towards a tremendous lurch against the bedsprings that brought little
+comfort until his pounding heart came back to normal. But this was no
+dream; it was a known horror that stalked him, and it could not end as
+a dream ends. It was reality.
+
+The horror was a close friend turned animal, and the end was more
+horrible because Jimmy Holden, like all other five-year-olds, had
+absolutely no understanding nor accurate grasp of the concept called
+_death_. He continued to whimper even though he realized that his fright
+was pointing him out to his enemy. And yet he had no real grasp of the
+concept _enemy_. He knew about pain; he had been hurt. But only by falls,
+simple misadventures, the needles of inoculation administered by his
+surgeon mother, a paddling for mischief by his engineer father.
+
+But whatever unknown fate was coming was going to be worse than "hurt."
+It was frightful.
+
+Then fate, assisted by Brennan's own act of trying to obliterate any
+possible evidence by fire, attracted a savior. The approaching car
+stopped on the road above and a voice called out, "Hello, down there!"
+
+Brennan could not refuse to answer; his own car was in plain sight by the
+shattered retaining fence. He growled under his breath, but he called
+back, "Hello, the road! Go get the police!"
+
+"Can we help?"
+
+"Beyond help!" cried Brennan. "I'm all right. Get the cops!"
+
+The car door slammed before it took off. Then came the unmistakable
+sounds of another man climbing down the ravine. A second flashlight swung
+here and there until the newcomer faced Brennan in the little circle of
+light.
+
+"What happened?" asked the uninvited volunteer.
+
+Brennan, whatever his thoughts, said in a voice filled with standard
+concern: "Blowout. Then everything went blooey."
+
+"Anyone--I mean how many--?"
+
+"Two dead," said Brennan, and then added because he had to, "and a little
+boy lost."
+
+The stranger eyed the flames and shuddered. "In there?"
+
+"Parents were tossed out. Boy's missing."
+
+"Bad," said the stranger. "God, what a mess. Know 'em?"
+
+"Holdens. Folks that live in the big old house on the hill. My best
+friend and his wife. I was following them home," lied Brennan glibly.
+"C'mon let's see if we can find the kid. What about the police?"
+
+"Sent my wife. Telephone down the road."
+
+Paul Brennan's reply carried no sound of disappointment over being
+interrupted. "Okay. Let's take a look. You take it that way, and I'll
+cover this side."
+
+The little-boy mind did not need its extensive education to understand
+that Paul Brennan needed no more than a few seconds of unobserved
+activity, after which he could announce the discovery of the third death
+in a voice cracked with false grief.
+
+Animal instinct took over where intelligence failed. The same force that
+caused Jimmy Holden to curl within himself now caused him to relax; help
+that could be trusted was now at hand. The muscles of his throat relaxed.
+He whimpered. The icy paralysis left his arms and legs; he kicked and
+flailed. And finally his nervous system succeeded in making their contact
+with his brain; the nerves carried the pain of his bumps and scratches,
+and Jimmy Holden began to hurt. His stifled whimper broke into a
+shuddering cry, which swiftly turned into sobbing hysteria.
+
+He went out of control. Nothing, not even violence, would shake him back
+until his accumulation of shock upon shock had been washed away in tears.
+
+The sound attracted both men. Side by side they beat through the
+underbrush. They reached for him and Jimmy turned toward the stranger.
+The man picked the lad out of the bed of soft rotting leaves, cradled him
+and stroked his head. Jimmy wrapped his small arms around the stranger's
+neck and held on for life.
+
+"I'll take him," said Brennan, reaching out.
+
+Jimmy's clutch on the stranger tightened.
+
+"You won't pry him loose easily," chuckled the man. "I know. I've got a
+couple of these myself."
+
+Brennan shrugged. "I thought perhaps--"
+
+"Forget it," said the stranger. "Kid's had trouble. I'll carry him to the
+road, you take him from there."
+
+"Okay."
+
+Getting up the ravine was a job of work for the man who carried Jimmy
+Holden. Brennan gave a hand, aided with a lift, broke down brush, and
+offered to take Jimmy now and again. Jimmy only clung tighter, and the
+stranger waved Brennan away with a quick shake of his head.
+
+By the time they reached the road, sirens were wailing on the road up
+the hill. Police, firemen, and an ambulance swarmed over the scene. The
+firemen went to work on the flaming car with practiced efficiency; the
+police clustered around Paul Brennan and extracted from him a story that
+had enough truth in it to sound completely convincing. The doctors from
+the ambulance took charge of Jimmy Holden. Lacking any other accident
+victim, they went to work on him with everything they could do.
+
+They gave him mild sedation, wrapped him in a warm blanket, and put him
+to bed on the cot in the ambulance with two of them watching over him. In
+the presence of so many solicitous strangers, Jimmy's shock and fright
+diminished. The sedation took hold. He dropped off in a light doze that
+grew less fitful as time went on. By the time the official accident
+report program was over, Jimmy Holden was fast asleep and resting
+comfortably.
+
+He did not hear Paul Brennan's suggestion that Jimmy go home with him,
+to Paul Brennan's personal physician, nor did Jimmy hear the ambulance
+attendants turn away Brennan's suggestion with hard-headed medical
+opinion. Brennan could hardly argue with the fact that an accident victim
+would be better off in a hospital under close observation. Shock demanded
+it, and there was the hidden possibility of internal injury or concussion
+to consider.
+
+So Jimmy Holden awoke with his accident ten hours behind him, and the
+good sleep had completed the standard recuperative powers of the healthy
+child. He looked around, collecting himself, and then remembered the
+accident. He cringed a bit and took another look and identified his
+surroundings as some sort of a children's ward or dormitory.
+
+He was in a crib.
+
+He sat up angrily and rattled the gate of the crib. Putting James Quincy
+Holden in a baby's crib was an insult.
+
+He stopped, because the noise echoed through the room and one of the
+younger patients stirred in sleep and moaned. Jimmy Holden sat back and
+remembered. The vacuum that was to follow the loss of his parents was not
+yet in evidence. They were gone and the knowledge made him unhappy, but
+he was not cognizant of the real meaning or emotion of grief. With almost
+the same feeling of loss he thought of the _Jungle Book_ he would never
+read and the Spitz Planetarium he would never see casting its little star
+images on his bedroom ceiling. Burned and ruined, with the atomic energy
+kit--and he had hoped that he could use the kit to tease his father into
+giving him some education in radioactivity. He was old enough to learn--
+
+Learn--?
+
+_No more, now that his father and mother were dead._
+
+Some of the real meaning of his loss came to him then, and the growing
+knowledge that this first shocking loss meant the ultimate loss of
+everything was beginning to sink in.
+
+He broke down and cried in the misery of his loss and his helplessness;
+ultimately his emotion began to cry itself out, and he began to feel
+resentment against his position. The animal desire to bite back at
+anything that moved did not last long, it focused properly upon the
+person of his tormentor. Then for a time, Jimmy Holden's imagination
+indulged in a series of little vignettes in which he scored his victory
+over Paul Brennan. These little playlets went through their own
+evolution, starting with physical victory reminiscent of his
+Jack-and-the-Beanstalk days to a more advanced triumph of watching Paul
+Brennan led away in handcuffs whilst the District Attorney scanned the
+sheaf of indisputable evidence provided by James Quincy Holden.
+
+Somewhere along about this point in his fantasy, a breath of the
+practical entered, and Jimmy began to consider the more sensible problem
+of what sort of information this sheaf of evidence would contain.
+
+Still identifying himself with the books he knew, Jimmy Holden had
+progressed from the fairy story--where the villain was evil for no more
+motive than to provide menace to the hero--to his more advanced books,
+where the villain did his evil deeds for the logical motive of personal
+gain.
+
+Well, what had Paul Brennan to gain?
+
+Money, for one thing--he would be executor of the Holden Estate. But
+there wasn't enough to justify killing. Revenge? For what? Jealousy? For
+whom? Hate? Envy? Jimmy Holden glossed the words quickly, for they were
+no more than words that carried definitions that did not really explain
+them. He could read with the facility of an adult, but a book written for
+a sophisticated audience went over his head.
+
+No, there was only one possible thing of appreciable value; the one thing
+that Paul Brennan hoped to gain was the device over which they had worked
+through all the long years to perfect: The Holden Electromechanical
+Educator! Brennan wanted it badly enough to murder for its possession!
+
+And with a mind and ingenuity far beyond his years, Jimmy Holden knew
+that he alone was the most active operator in this vicious drama. It was
+not without shock that he realized that he himself could still be killed
+to gain possession of his fabulous machine. For only with all _three_
+Holdens dead could Paul Brennan take full and unquestioned possession.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With daylight clarity he knew what he had to do. In a single act of
+destruction he could simultaneously foil Paul Brennan's plan and ensure
+his own life.
+
+Permanently installed in Jimmy Holden's brain by the machine itself were
+the full details of how to recreate it. Indelibly he knew each wire and
+link, lever and coil, section by section and piece by piece. It was
+incomprehensible information, about in the same way that the printing
+press "knows" the context of its metal plate. Step by step he could
+rebuild it once he had the means of procuring the parts, and it would
+work even though he had not the foggiest notion (now) of what the various
+parts did.
+
+So if the delicate heart of his father's machine were utterly destroyed,
+Paul Brennan would be extremely careful about preserving the life of
+James Quincy Holden.
+
+He considered his position and what he knew:
+
+Physically, he was a five-year-old. He stood forty-one inches tall and
+weighed thirty-nine pounds. A machinist's hammer was a two-handed tool
+and a five-pound sack of sugar was a burden. Doorknobs and latches were a
+problem in manipulation. The negotiation of a swinging door was a feat of
+muscular engineering. Electric light switches were placed at a tiptoe
+reach because, naturally, everything in the adult world is designed by
+the adults for the convenience of adults. This makes it difficult for the
+child who has no adult to do his bidding.
+
+Intellectually, Jimmy Holden was something else.
+
+Reverting to a curriculum considered sound prior to Mr. Dewey's
+often-questionable and more often misused programs of schooling, Jimmy's
+parents had trained and educated their young man quite well in the
+primary informations of fact. He read with facility and spoke with a fine
+vocabulary--although no amount of intellectual training could make his
+voice change until his glands did. His knowledge of history, geography
+and literature were good, because he'd used them to study reading. He was
+well into plane geometry and had a smattering of algebra, and there had
+been a pause due to a parental argument as to the advisability of his
+memorizing a table of six-place logarithms via the Holden machine.
+
+Extra-curricularly, Jimmy Holden had acquired snippets, bits, and
+wholesale chunks of a number of the arts and sciences and other
+aggregations of information both pertinent and trivial for one reason
+or another. As an instance, he had absorbed an entire bridge book by
+Charles Goren just to provide a fourth to sit in with his parents and
+Paul Brennan.
+
+Consequently, James Holden had in data the education of a boy of about
+sixteen, and in other respects, much more.
+
+He escaped from the hospital simply because no one ever thought that a
+five-year-old boy would have enough get-up-and-go to climb out of his
+crib, rummage a nearby closet, dress himself, and then calmly walk out.
+The clothing of a cocky teen-ager would have been impounded and his
+behavior watched.
+
+They did not miss him for hours. He went, taking the little
+identification card from its frame at the foot of his bed--and that
+ruined the correlation between tag and patient.
+
+By the time an overworked nurse stopped to think and finally asked,
+"Kitty, are you taking care of the little boy in Bed 6 over in 219?" and
+received the answer, "No, aren't you?" Jimmy Holden was trudging up the
+hill towards his home. Another hour went by with the two worried nurses
+surreptitiously searching the rest of the hospital in the simple hope
+that he had wandered away and could be restored before it came to the
+attention of the officials. By the time they gave up and called in other
+nurses (who helped them in their anxiety to conceal) Jimmy was entering
+his home.
+
+Each succeeding level of authority was loath to report the truth to the
+next higher up.
+
+By the time the general manager of the hospital forced himself to call
+Paul Brennan, Jimmy Holden was demolishing the last broken bits of
+disassembled subassemblies he had smashed from the heart-circuit of the
+Holden Electromechanical Educator. He was most thorough. Broken glass
+went into the refuse buckets, bent metal was buried in the garden,
+inflammables were incinerated, and meltables and fusibles slagged down in
+ashes that held glass, bottle, and empty tin-can in an unrecognizable
+mass. He left a gaping hole in the machine that Brennan could not
+fill--nor could any living man fill it now but James Quincy Holden.
+
+And only when this destruction was complete did Jimmy Holden first begin
+to understand his father's statement about the few men who see what has
+to be done, do it, _and then_ look to the next inevitable problem created
+by their own act.
+
+It was late afternoon by the time Jimmy had his next moves figured out.
+He left the home he'd grown up in, the home of his parents, of his own
+babyhood. He'd wandered through it for the last time, touching this and
+saying goodbye to that. He was certain that he would never see his things
+again, nor the house itself, but the real vacuum of his loss hadn't yet
+started to form. The concepts of "never" and "forever" were merely words
+that had no real impact.
+
+So was the word "Farewell."
+
+But once his words were said, Jimmy Holden made his small but confident
+way to the window of a railroad ticket agent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+
+You are a ticket agent, settled in the routine of your job. From nine to
+five-thirty, five days a week, you see one face after another. There are
+cheerful faces, sullen faces, faces that breathe garlic, whiskey, chewing
+gum, toothpaste and tobacco fumes. Old faces, young faces, dull faces,
+scarred faces, clear faces, plain faces and faces so plastered with
+makeup that their nature can't be seen at all. They bark place-names at
+you, or ask pleasantly about the cost of round-trip versus one-way
+tickets to Chicago or East Burlap. You deal with them and then you wait
+for the next.
+
+Then one afternoon, about four o'clock, a face barely visible over the
+edge of the marble counter looks up at you with a boy's cheerful freckled
+smile. You have to stand up in order to see him. You smile, and he grins
+at you. Among his belongings is a little leather suitcase, kid's size,
+but not a toy. He is standing on it. Under his arm is a collection of
+comic books, in one small fist is the remains of a candy bar and in the
+other the string of a floating balloon.
+
+"Well, young man, where to? Paris? London? Maybe Mars?"
+
+"No, sir," comes the piping voice, "Roun-tree."
+
+"Roundtree? Yes, I've heard of that metropolis," you reply. You look over
+his head, there aren't any other customers in line behind him so you
+don't mind passing the time of day. "Round-trip or one-way?"
+
+"One-way," comes the quick reply.
+
+This brings you to a slow stop. He does not giggle nor prattle, nor
+launch into a long and involved explanation with halting, dependent
+clauses. This one knows what he wants and how to ask for it. Quite a
+little man!
+
+"How old are you, young fellow?"
+
+"I was five years old yesterday."
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"I'm James Holden."
+
+The name does not ring any bells--because the morning newspaper is
+purchased for its comic strips, the bridge column, the crossword puzzle,
+and the latest dope on love-nest slayings, peccadilloes of the famous,
+the cheesecake photo of the inevitable actress-leaving-for-somewhere, and
+the full page photograph of the latest death-on-the-highway debacle. You
+look at the picture but you don't read the names in the caption, so you
+don't recognize the name, and you haven't been out of your little cage
+since lunchtime and Jimmy Holden was not missing then. So you go on:
+
+"So you're going to go to Roundtree."
+
+"Yessir."
+
+"That costs a lot of money, young Mister Holden."
+
+"Yessir." Then this young man hands you an envelope; the cover says,
+typewritten: _Ticket Clerk, Midland Railroad_.
+
+A bit puzzled, you open the envelope and find a five-dollar bill folded
+in a sheet of manuscript paper. The note says:
+
+  Ticket Clerk
+  Midland Railroad
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  This will introduce my son, James Holden. As a birthday present, I am
+  sending him for a visit to his grandparents in Roundtree, and to make
+  the adventure complete, he will travel alone. Pass the word along to
+  keep an eye on him but don't step in unless he gets into trouble. Ask
+  the dining car steward to see that he eats dinner on something better
+  than candy bars.
+
+  Otherwise, he is to believe that he is making this trip completely on
+  his own.
+
+  Sincerely, Louis Holden.
+
+  PS: Divide the change from this five dollars among you as tips. L.H.
+
+And so you look down at young Mister Holden and get a feeling of
+vicarious pleasure. You stamp his ticket and hand it to him with a
+gesture. You point out the train-gate he is to go through, and you tell
+him that he is to sit in the third railroad car. As he leaves, you pick
+up the telephone and call the station-master, the conductor, and since
+you can't get the dining-car steward directly, you charge the conductor
+with passing the word along.
+
+Then you divide the change. Of the two-fifty, you extract a dollar,
+feeling that the Senior Holden is a cheapskate. You slip the other buck
+and a half into an envelope, ready for the conductor's hand. He'll think
+Holden Senior is more of a cheapskate, and by the time he extracts his
+cut, the dining car steward will _know_ that Holden Senior is a
+cheapskate. But--
+
+Then a face appears at your window and barks, "Holyoke, Mass.," and your
+normal day falls back into shape.
+
+The response of the people you tell about it varies all the way from
+outrage that anybody would let a kid of five go alone on such a dangerous
+mission to loud bragging that he, too, once went on such a journey, at
+four and a half, and didn't need a note.
+
+But Jimmy Holden is gone from your window, and you won't know for at
+least another day that you've been suckered by a note painstakingly
+typewritten, letter by letter, by a five-year-old boy who has a most
+remarkable vocabulary.
+
+Jimmy's trip to Roundtree was without incident. Actually, it was easy
+once he had hurdled the ticket-seller with his forged note and the
+five-dollar bill from the cashbox in his father's desk. His error in not
+making it a ten was minor; a larger tip would not have provided him with
+better service, because the train crew were happy to keep an eye on the
+adventurous youngster for his own small sake. Their mild resentment
+against the small tip was directed against the boy's father, not the
+young passenger himself.
+
+He had one problem. The train was hardly out of the station before
+everybody on it knew that there was a five-year-old making a trip all
+by himself. Of course, he was not to be bothered, but everybody wanted
+to talk to him, to ask him how he was, to chatter endlessly at him.
+Jimmy did not want to talk. His experience in addressing adults was
+exasperating. That he spoke lucid English instead of babygab did not
+compel a rational response. Those who heard him speak made over him
+with the same effusive superiority that they used in applauding a
+golden-haired tot in high heels and a strapless evening gown sitting
+on a piano and singing, _Why Was I Born?_ in a piping, uncertain-toned
+voice. It infuriated him.
+
+So he immersed himself in his comic books. He gave his name politely
+every five minutes for the first fifty miles. He turned down offers of
+candy with, "Mommy says I mustn't before supper." And when dinnertime
+came he allowed himself to be escorted through the train by the
+conductor, because Jimmy knew that he couldn't handle the doors without
+help.
+
+The steward placed a menu in front of him, and then asked carefully, "How
+much money do you want to spend, young man?"
+
+Jimmy had the contents of his father's cashbox pinned to the inside of
+his shirt, and a five-dollar bill folded in a snap-top purse with some
+change in his shirt pocket. He could add with the best of them, but he
+did not want any more attention than he was absolutely forced to attract.
+So he fished out the snap-top purse and opened it to show the steward his
+five-dollar bill. The steward relaxed; he'd had a moment of apprehension
+that Holden Senior might have slipped the kid a half-dollar for dinner.
+(The steward had received a quarter for his share of the original
+two-fifty.)
+
+Jimmy looked at the "Child's Dinner" menu and pointed out a plate: lamb
+chop and mashed potatoes. After that, dinner progressed without incident.
+Jimmy topped it off with a dish of ice cream.
+
+The steward made change. Jimmy watched him carefully, and then said,
+"Daddy says I'm supposed to give you a tip. How much?"
+
+The steward looked down, wondering how he could explain the standard
+dining car tip of fifteen or twenty percent of the bill. He took a
+swallow of air and picked out a quarter. "This will do nicely," he said
+and went off thankful that all people do not ask waiters how much they
+think they deserve for the service rendered.
+
+Thus Jimmy Holden arrived in Roundtree and was observed and convoyed--but
+not bothered--off the train.
+
+It is deplorable that adults are not as friendly and helpful to one
+another as they are to children; it might make for a more pleasant world.
+As Jimmy walked along the station platform at Roundtree, one of his
+former fellow-passengers walked beside him. "Where are you going, young
+man? Someone going to meet you, of course?"
+
+"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I'm supposed to take a cab--"
+
+"I'm going your way, why not ride along with me?"
+
+"Sure it's all right?"
+
+"Sure thing. Come along." Jimmy never knew that this man felt good for a
+week after he'd done his good turn for the year.
+
+His grandfather opened the door and looked down at him in complete
+surprise. "Why, Jimmy! What are you doing here? Who brought--"
+
+His grandmother interrupted, "Come in! Come in! Don't just stand there
+with the door open!"
+
+Grandfather closed the door firmly, grandmother knelt and folded Jimmy
+in her arms and crooned over him, "You poor darling. You brave little
+fellow. Donald," she said firmly to her husband, "go get a glass of warm
+milk and some cookies." She led Jimmy to the old-fashioned parlor and
+seated him on the sofa. "Now, Jimmy, you relax a moment and then you can
+tell me what happened."
+
+Jimmy sighed and looked around. The house was old, and comfortably
+sturdy. It gave him a sense of refuge, of having reached a safe haven at
+last. The house was over-warm, and there was a musty smell of over-aged
+furniture, old leather, and the pungence of mothballs. It seemed to
+generate a feeling of firm stability. Even the slightly stale air--there
+probably hadn't been a wide open window since the storm sashes were
+installed last autumn--provided a locked-in feeling that conversely meant
+that the world was locked out.
+
+Grandfather brought in the glass of warmed milk and a plate of cookies.
+He sat down and asked, "What happened, Jimmy?"
+
+"My mother and father are--"
+
+"You eat your cookies and drink your milk," ordered his grandmother. "We
+know. That Mr. Brennan sent us a telegram."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was slightly more than twenty-four hours since Jimmy Holden had blown
+out the five proud candles on his birthday cake and begun to open his
+fine presents. Now it all came back with a rush, and when it came back,
+nothing could stop it.
+
+Jimmy never knew how very like a little boy of five he sounded that
+night. His speech was clear enough, but his troubled mind was too full
+to take the time to form his headlong thoughts into proper sentences.
+He could not pause to collect his thoughts into any chronology, so it
+came out going back and forth all in a single line, punctuated only by
+necessary pauses for the intake of breath. He was close to tears before
+he was halfway through, and by the time he came to the end he stopped in
+a sob and broke out crying.
+
+His grandfather said, "Jimmy, aren't you exaggerating? Mr. Brennan isn't
+that sort of a man."
+
+"He is too!" exploded Jimmy through his tears. "I saw him!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Donald, this is no time to start cross-examining a child." She crossed
+the room and lifted him onto her lap; she stroked his head and held his
+cheek against her shoulder. His open crying subsided into deep sobs; from
+somewhere she found a handkerchief and made him blow his nose--once,
+twice, and then a deep thrice. "Get me a warm washcloth," she told her
+husband, and with it she wiped away his tears. The warmth soothed Jimmy
+more.
+
+"Now," she said firmly, "before we go into this any more we'll have a
+good night's sleep."
+
+The featherbed was soft and cozy. Like protecting mother-wings, it folded
+Jimmy into its bosom, and the warm softness drew out of Jimmy whatever
+remained of his stamina. Tonight he slept of weariness and exhaustion,
+not of the sedation given last night. Here he felt at home, and it was
+good.
+
+And as tomorrows always had, tomorrow would take care of itself.
+
+Jimmy Holden's father and mother first met over an operating table,
+dressed in the white sterility that leaves only the eyes visible. She
+wielded the trephine that laid the patient's brain bare, he kept track of
+the patient's life by observing the squiggles on the roll of graph paper
+that emerged from his encephalograph. She knew nothing of the craft of
+the delicate instrument-creator, and he knew even less of the craft of
+surgery. There had been a near-argument during the cleaning-up session
+after the operation; the near-argument ended when they both realized that
+neither of them understood a word of what the other was saying. So the
+near-argument became an animated discussion, the general meaning of
+which became clear: Brain surgeons should know more about the intricacies
+of electromechanics, and the designers of delicate, precision
+instrumentation should know more about the mass of human gray matter they
+were trying to measure.
+
+They pooled their intellects and plunged into the problem of creating an
+encephalograph that would record the infinitesimal irregularities that
+were superimposed upon the great waves. Their operation became large;
+they bought the old structure on top of the hill and moved in, bag and
+baggage. They cohabited but did not live together for almost a year;
+Paul Brennan finally pointed out that Organized Society might permit a
+couple of geniuses to become research hermits, but Organized Society
+still took a dim view of cohabitation without a license. Besides, such
+messy arrangements always cluttered up the legal clarity of chattels,
+titles, and estates.
+
+They married in a quiet ceremony about two years prior to the date that
+Louis Holden first identified the fine-line wave-shapes that went with
+determined ideas. When he recorded them and played them back, his brain
+re-traced its original line of thought, and he could not even make a
+mental revision of the way his thoughts were arranged. For two years
+Louis and Laura Holden picked their way slowly through this field;
+stumped at one point for several months because the machine was strictly
+a personal proposition. Recorded by one of them, the playback was clear
+to that one, but to the other it was wild gibberish--an inexplicable
+tangle of noise and colored shapes, odors and tastes both pleasant and
+nasty, and mingled sensations. It was five years after their marriage
+before they found success by engraving information in the brain by
+sitting, connected to the machine, and reading aloud, word for word, the
+information that they wanted.
+
+It went by rote, as they had learned in childhood. It was the tiresome
+repetition of going over and over and over the lines of a poem or the
+numbers of the multiplication table until the pathway was a deeply
+trodden furrow in the brain. Forever imprinted, it was retained until
+death. Knowledge is stored by rote.
+
+To accomplish this end, Louis Holden succeeded in violating all of the
+theories of instrumentation by developing a circuit that acted as a sort
+of reverberation chamber which returned the wave-shape played into it
+back to the same terminals without interference, and this single circuit
+became the very heart of the Holden Electromechanical Educator.
+
+With success under way, the Holdens needed an intellectual guinea pig, a
+virgin mind, an empty store-house to fill with knowledge. They planned a
+twenty-year program of research, to end by handing their machine to the
+world complete with its product and instructions for its use and a list
+of pitfalls to avoid.
+
+The conception of James Quincy Holden was a most carefully-planned
+parenthood. It was not accomplished without love or passion. Love had
+come quietly, locking them together physically as they had been bonded
+intellectually. The passion had been deliberately provoked during the
+proper moment of Laura Holden's cycle of ovulation. This scientific
+approach to procreation was no experiment, it was the foregone-conclusive
+act to produce a component absolutely necessary for the completion of
+their long program of research. They happily left to Nature's Choice the
+one factor they could not control, and planned to accept an infant of
+either sex with equal welcome. They loved their little boy as they loved
+one another, rejoiced with him, despaired with him, and made their own
+way with success and mistake, and succeeded in bringing Jimmy to five
+years of age quite normal except for his education.
+
+Now, proficiency in brain surgery does not come at an early age, nor does
+world-wide fame in the field of delicate instrumentation. Jimmy's parents
+were over forty-five on the date of his birth.
+
+Jimmy's grandparents were, then, understandably aged seventy-eight and
+eighty-one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The old couple had seen their life, and they knew it for what it was.
+They arose each morning and faced the day knowing that there would be no
+new problem, only recurrence of some problem long solved. Theirs was a
+comfortable routine, long gone was their spirit of adventure, the
+pleasant notions of trying something a new and different way. At their
+age, they were content to take the easiest and the simplest way of doing
+what they thought to be Right. Furthermore, they had lived long enough to
+know that no equitable decision can be made by listening to only one side
+of any argument.
+
+While young Jimmy was polishing off a platter of scrambled eggs the
+following morning, Paul Brennan arrived. Jimmy's fork stopped in midair
+at the sound of Brennan's voice in the parlor.
+
+"You called him," he said accusingly.
+
+Grandmother Holden said, "He's your legal guardian, James."
+
+"But--I don't--can't--"
+
+"Now, James, your father and mother knew best."
+
+"But they didn't know about Paul Brennan. I won't go!"
+
+"You must."
+
+"I won't!"
+
+"James," said Grandmother Holden quietly, "you can't stay here."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"We're not prepared to keep you."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+Grandmother Holden despaired. How could she make this youngster
+understand that eighty is not an age at which to embark upon the process
+of raising a five-year-old to maturity?
+
+From the other room, Paul Brennan was explaining his side as he'd given
+it to the police. "--Forgot the land option that had to be signed. So I
+took off after them and drove fast enough to catch up. I was only a
+couple of hundred yards behind when it happened."
+
+"He's a liar!" cried Jimmy Holden.
+
+"That's not a nice thing to say."
+
+"It's true!"
+
+"Jimmy!" came the reproachful tone.
+
+"It's true!" he cried.
+
+His grandfather and Paul Brennan came into the kitchen. "Ah, Jimmy,"
+said Paul in a soothing voice, "why did you run off? You had everybody
+worried."
+
+"You did! You lie! You--"
+
+"James!" snapped his grandfather. "Stop that talk at once!"
+
+"Be easy with him, Mr. Holden. He's upset. Jimmy, let's get this settled
+right now. What did I do and how do I lie?"
+
+"Oh, please Mr. Brennan," said his grandmother. "This isn't necessary."
+
+"Oh, but it is. It is very important. As the legal guardian of young
+James, I can't have him harboring some suspicion as deep as this. Come
+on, Jimmy. Let's talk it out right now. What did I do and how am I
+lying?"
+
+"You weren't behind. You forced us off the road."
+
+"How could he, young man?" demanded Grandfather Holden.
+
+"I don't know, but he did."
+
+"Wait a moment, sir," said Brennan quietly. "It isn't going to be enough
+to force him into agreement. He's got to see the truth for itself, of his
+own construction from the facts. Now, Jimmy, where was I when you left my
+apartment?"
+
+"You--you were there."
+
+"And didn't I say--"
+
+"One moment," said Grandfather Holden. "Don't lead the witness."
+
+"Sorry. James, what did I do?"
+
+"You--" then a long pause.
+
+"Come on, Jimmy."
+
+"You shook hands with my father."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then you--kissed my mother on the cheek."
+
+"And then, again?"
+
+"And then you carried my birthday presents down and put them in the car."
+
+"Now, Jimmy, how does your father drive? Fast or slow?"
+
+"Fast."
+
+"So now, young man, you tell me how I could go back up to my apartment,
+get my coat and hat, get my car out of the garage, and race to the top of
+that hill so that I could turn around and come at you around that curve?
+Just tell me that, young man."
+
+"I--don't know--how you did it."
+
+"It doesn't make sense, does it?"
+
+"--No--"
+
+"Jimmy, I'm trying to help you. Your father and I were fraternity
+brothers in college. I was best man at your parents' wedding. I am your
+godfather. Your folks were taken away from both of us--and I'm hoping to
+take care of you as if you were mine." He turned to Jimmy's grandparents.
+"I wish to God that I could find the driver of that other car. He didn't
+hit anybody, but he's as guilty of a hit-and-run offence as the man who
+does. If I ever find him, I'll have him in jail until he rots!"
+
+"Jimmy," pleaded his grandmother, "can't you see? Mr. Brennan is only
+trying to help. Why would he do the evil thing you say he did?"
+
+"Because--" and Jimmy started to cry. The utter futility of trying to
+make people believe was too much to bear.
+
+"Jimmy, please stop it and be a man," said Brennan. He put a hand on
+Jimmy's shoulder. Jimmy flung it aside with a quick twist and a turn.
+"Please, Jimmy," pleaded Brennan. Jimmy left his chair and buried his
+face in a corner of the wall.
+
+"Jimmy, believe me," pleaded Brennan. "I'm going to take you to live in
+your old house, among your own things. I can't replace your folks, but I
+can try to be as close to your father as I know how. I'll see you through
+everything, just as your mother and father want me to."
+
+"No!" exploded Jimmy through a burst of tears.
+
+Grandfather Holden grunted. "This is getting close to the tantrum stage,"
+he said. "And the only way to deal with a tantrum is to apply the flat of
+the hand to the round of the bottom."
+
+"Please," smiled Brennan. "He's a pretty shaken youngster. He's
+emotionally hurt and frightened, and he wants to strike out and hurt
+something back."
+
+"I think he's done enough of that," said Grandfather Holden. "When Louis
+tossed one of these fits of temper where he wouldn't listen to any
+reason, we did as we saw fit anyway and let him kick and scream until
+he got tired of the noise he made."
+
+"Let's not be rough," pleaded Jimmy's grandmother. "He's just a little
+boy, you know."
+
+"If he weren't so little he'd have better sense," snapped Grandfather.
+
+"James," said Paul Brennan quietly, "do you see you're making trouble for
+your grandparents? Haven't we enough trouble as it is? Now, young man,
+for the last time, will you walk or will you be carried? Whichever,
+Jimmy, we're going back home!"
+
+James Holden gave up. "I'll go," he said bitterly, "but I hate you."
+
+"He'll be all right," promised Brennan. "I swear it!"
+
+"Please, Jimmy, be good for Mr. Brennan," pleaded his grandmother. "After
+all, it's for your own good." Jimmy turned away, bewildered, hurt and
+silent. He stubbornly refused to say goodbye to his grandparents.
+
+He was trapped in the world of grown-ups that believed a lying adult
+before they would even consider the truth of a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+
+The drive home was a bitter experience. Jimmy was sullen, and very quiet.
+He refused to answer any question and he made no reply to any statement.
+Paul Brennan kept up a running chatter of pleasantries, of promises and
+plans for their future, and just enough grief to make it sound honest.
+Had Paul Brennan actually been as honest as his honeyed tones said he
+was, no one could have continued to accuse him. But no one is more
+difficult to fool than a child--even a normal child. Paul Brennan's
+protestations simply made Jimmy Holden bitter.
+
+He sat silent and unhappy in the far corner of the front seat all the way
+home. In his mind was a nameless threat, a dread of what would come once
+they were inside--either inside of Paul Brennan's apartment or inside of
+his own home--with the door locked against the outside world.
+
+But when they arrived, Paul Brennan continued his sympathetic attitude.
+To Jimmy it was sheer hypocrisy; he was not experienced enough to know
+that a person can commit an act and then convince himself that he hadn't.
+
+"Jimmy," said Brennan softly, "I have not the faintest notion of
+punishment. None whatsoever. You ruined your father's great invention.
+You did that because you thought it was right. Someday when you change
+your mind and come to believe in me, I'll ask you to replace it because I
+know you can. But understand me, young man, I shall not ask you until you
+make the first suggestion yourself!"
+
+Jimmy remained silent.
+
+"One more thing," said Brennan firmly. "Don't try that stunt with the
+letter to the station agent again. It won't work twice. Not in this town
+nor any other for a long, long time. I've made a sort of family-news item
+out of it which hit a lot of daily papers. It'll also be in the company
+papers of all the railroads and buslines, how Mr. What's-his-name at the
+Midland Railroad got suckered by a five-year-old running away from home.
+Understand?"
+
+Jimmy understood but made no sign.
+
+"Then in September we'll start you in school," said Brennan.
+
+This statement made no impression upon young James Holden whatsoever. He
+had no intention of enduring this smothering by overkindness any longer
+than it took him to figure out how to run away, and where to run to. It
+was going to be a difficult thing. Cruel treatment, torture, physical
+harm were one thing; this act of being a deeply-concerned guardian was
+something else. A twisted arm he could complain about, a bruise he could
+show, the scars of lashing would give credence to his tale. But who would
+listen to any complaint about too much kindness?
+
+Six months of this sort of treatment and Jimmy Holden himself would begin
+to believe that his parents were monsters, coldly stuffing information in
+the head of an infant instead of letting him grow through a normal
+childhood. A year, and Jimmy Holden would be re-creating his father's
+reverberation circuit out of sheer gratitude. He'd be cajoled into
+signing his own death-warrant.
+
+But where can a five-year-old hide? There was no appeal to the forces of
+law and order. They would merely pop him into a squad car and deliver him
+to his guardian.
+
+Law and order were out. His only chance was to lose himself in some gray
+hinterland where there were so many of his own age that no one could keep
+track of them all. Whether he would succeed was questionable. But until
+he tried, he wouldn't know, and Jimmy was desperate enough to try
+anything.
+
+He attended the funeral services with Paul Brennan. But while the pastor
+was invoking Our Heavenly Father to accept the loving parents of orphaned
+James, James the son left the side of his "Uncle" Paul Brennan, who knelt
+in false piety with his eyes closed.
+
+Jimmy Holden had with him only his clothing and what was left of the wad
+of paper money from his father's cashbox still pinned to the inside of
+his shirt.
+
+This time Jimmy did not ride in style. Burlap sacks covered him when
+night fell; they dirtied his clothing and the bottom of the freight car
+scuffed his shoes. For eighteen hours he hid in the jolting darkness, not
+knowing and caring less where he was going, so long as it was away!
+
+He was hungry and thirsty by the time the train first began to slow down.
+It was morning--somewhere. Jimmy looked furtively out of the slit at the
+edge of the door to see that the train was passing through a region of
+cottages dusted black by smoke, through areas of warehouse and factory,
+through squalor and filth and slum; and vacant lots where the spread of
+the blight area had been so fast that the outward improvement had not
+time to build. Eventually the scene changed to solid areas of railroad
+track, and the trains parked there thickened until he could no longer
+see the city through them.
+
+Ultimately the train stopped long enough for Jimmy to squeeze out through
+the slit at the edge of the door.
+
+The train went on and Jimmy was alone in the middle of some huge city.
+He walked the noisome sidewalk trying to decide what he should do next.
+Food was of high importance, but how could he get it without attracting
+attention to himself? He did not know. But finally he reasoned that a
+hot dog wagon would probably take cash from a youngster without asking
+embarrassing questions, so long as the cash wasn't anything larger than
+a five-dollar bill.
+
+He entered the next one he came to. It was dirty; the windows held
+several years' accumulation of cooking grease, but the aroma was terrific
+to a young animal who'd been without food since yesterday afternoon.
+
+The counterman did not like kids, but he put away his dislike at the
+sight of Jimmy's money. He grunted when Jimmy requested a dog, tossed one
+on the grill and went back to reading his newspaper until some inner
+sense told him it was cooked. Jimmy finished it still hungry and asked
+for another. He finished a third and washed down the whole mass with a
+tall glass of highly watered orange juice. The counterman took his money
+and was very careful about making the right change; if this dirty kid had
+swiped the five-spot, it could be the counterman's problem of explaining
+to someone why he had overcharged. Jimmy's intelligence told him that
+countermen in a joint like this didn't expect tips, so he saved himself
+that hurdle. He left the place with a stomach full of food that only the
+indestructible stomach of a five-year-old could handle and now, fed and
+reasonably content, Jimmy began to seek his next point of contact.
+
+He had never been in a big city before. The sheer number of human beings
+that crowded the streets surpassed his expectations. The traffic was not
+personally terrifying, but it was so thick that Jimmy Holden wondered how
+people drove without colliding. He knew about traffic lights and walked
+with the green, staying out of trouble. He saw groups of small children
+playing in the streets and in the empty lots. Those not much older than
+himself were attending school.
+
+He paused to watch a group of children his own age trying to play
+baseball with a ragged tennis ball and the handle from a broom. It was a
+helter-skelter game that made no pattern but provided a lot of fun and
+screaming. He was quite bothered by a quarrel that came up; two of his
+own age went at one another with tiny fists flying, using words that
+Jimmy hadn't learned from his father's machine.
+
+He wondered how he might join them in their game. But they paid him no
+attention, so he didn't try.
+
+At lunchtime Jimmy consumed another collection of hot dogs. He continued
+to meander aimlessly through the city until schooltime ended, then he saw
+the streets and vacant lots fill with older children playing games with
+more pattern to them. It was a new world he watched, a world that had not
+been a part of his education. The information he owned was that of the
+school curriculum; it held nothing of the daily business of growing up.
+He knew the general rules of big-league baseball, but the kid-business of
+stickball did not register.
+
+He was at a complete loss. It was sheer chance and his own tremendous
+curiosity that led him to the edge of a small group that were busily
+engaged in the odd process of trying to jack up the front of a car.
+
+It wasn't a very good jack; it should have had the weight of a full adult
+against the handle. The kids strained and put their weight on the jack,
+but the handle wouldn't budge though their feet were off the ground.
+
+Here was the place where academic information would be useful--and the
+chance for an "in." Jimmy shoved himself into the small group and said,
+"Get a longer handle."
+
+They turned on him suspiciously.
+
+"Whatcha know about it?" demanded one, shoving his chin out.
+
+"Get a longer handle," repeated Jimmy. "Go ahead, get one."
+
+"G'wan--"
+
+"Wait, Moe. Maybe--"
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"I'm Jimmy."
+
+"Jimmy who?"
+
+"Jimmy--James." Academic information came up again. "Jimmy. Like the
+jimmy you use on a window."
+
+"Jimmy James. Any relation to Jesse James?"
+
+James Quincy Holden now told his first whopper. "I," he said, "am his
+grandson."
+
+The one called Moe turned to one of the younger ones. "Get a longer
+handle," he said.
+
+While the younger one went for something to use as a longer handle, Moe
+invited Jimmy to sit on the curb. "Cigarette?" invited Moe.
+
+"I don't smoke," said Jimmy.
+
+"Sissy?"
+
+Adolescent-age information looking out through five-year-old eyes assayed
+Moe. Moe was about eight, maybe even nine; taller than Jimmy but no
+heavier. He had a longer reach, which was an advantage that Jimmy did not
+care to hazard. There was no sure way to establish physical superiority;
+Jimmy was uncertain whether any show of intellect would be welcome.
+
+"No," he said. "I'm no sissy. I don't like 'em."
+
+Moe lit a cigarette and smoked with much gesturing and flickings of ashes
+and spitting at a spot on the pavement. He was finished when the younger
+one came back with a length of water pipe that would fit over the handle
+of the jack.
+
+The car went up with ease. Then came the business of removing the hubcap
+and the struggle to loose the lugbolts. Jimmy again suggested the
+application of the length of pipe. The wheel came off.
+
+"C'mon, Jimmy," said Moe. "We'll cut you in."
+
+"Sure," nodded Jimmy Holden, willing to see what came next so long as it
+did not have anything to do with Paul Brennan. Moe trundled the car wheel
+down the street, steering it with practiced hands. A block down and a
+block around that corner, a man with a three-day growth of whiskers
+stopped a truck with a very dirty license plate. Moe stopped and the
+man jumped out of the truck long enough to heave the tire and wheel into
+the back.
+
+The man gave Moe a handful of change which Moe distributed among the
+little gang. Then he got in the truck beside the driver and waved for
+Jimmy to come along.
+
+"What's that for?" demanded the driver.
+
+"He's a smarty pants," said Moe. "A real good one."
+
+"Who're you?"
+
+"Jimmy--James."
+
+"What'cha do, kid?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Moe, what did this kid sell you?"
+
+"You and your rusty jacks," grunted Moe. "Jimmy James here told us how to
+put a long hunk of pipe on the handle."
+
+"Jimmy James, who taught you about leverage?" demanded the driver
+suspiciously.
+
+Jimmy Holden believed that he was in the presence of an educated man.
+"Archimedes," he said solemnly, giving it the proper pronunciation.
+
+The driver said to Moe, "Think he's all right?"
+
+"He's smart enough."
+
+"Who're your parents, kid?"
+
+Jimmy Holden realized that this was a fine time to tell the truth, but
+properly diluted to taste. "My folks are dead," he said.
+
+"Who you staying with?"
+
+"No one."
+
+The driver of the truck eyed him cautiously for a moment. "You escaped
+from an orphan asylum?"
+
+"Uh-huh," lied Jimmy.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Ain't saying."
+
+"Wise, huh?"
+
+"Don't want to get sent back," said Jimmy.
+
+"Got a flop?"
+
+"Flop?"
+
+"Place to sleep for the night."
+
+"No."
+
+"Where'd you sleep last night?"
+
+"Boxcar."
+
+"Bindlestiff, huh?" roared the man with laughter.
+
+"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I've no bindle."
+
+The man's roar of laughter stopped abruptly. "You're a pretty wise kid,"
+he said thoughtfully.
+
+"I told y' so," said Moe.
+
+"Shut up," snapped the man. "Kid, do you want a flop for the night?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"Okay. You're in."
+
+"What's your name?" asked Jimmy.
+
+"You call me Jake. Short for Jacob. Er--here's the place."
+
+The "Place" had no other name. It was a junkyard. In it were car parts,
+wrecks with parts undamaged, whole motors rusting in the air, axles,
+wheels, differential assemblies and transmissions from a thousand cars of
+a thousand different parentages. Hubcaps abounded in piles sorted to size
+and shape. Jake drove the little pickup truck into an open shed. The tire
+and wheel came from the back and went immediately into place on a
+complicated gadget. In a couple of minutes, the tire was off the wheel
+and the inner tube was out of the casing. Wheel, casing, and inner tube
+all went into three separate storage piles.
+
+Not only a junkyard, but a stripper's paradise. Bring a hot car in here
+and in a few hours no one could find it. Its separated parts would be
+sold piece by piece and week by week as second-hand replacements.
+
+Jake said, "Dollar-fifty."
+
+"Two," said Moe.
+
+"One seventy-five."
+
+"Two."
+
+"Go find it and put it back."
+
+"Gimme the buck-six," grunted Moe. "Pretty cheap for a good shoe, a
+wheel, and a sausage."
+
+"Bring it in alone next time, and I'll slip you two-fifty. That gang you
+use costs, too. Now scram, Jimmy James and I got business to talk over."
+
+"He taking over?"
+
+"Don't talk stupid. I need a spotter. You're too old, Moe. And if he's
+any good, you gotta promotion coming."
+
+"And if he ain't?"
+
+"Don't come back!"
+
+Moe eyed Jimmy Holden. "Make it good--Jimmy." There was malice in Moe's
+face.
+
+Jake looked down at Jimmy Holden. With precisely the same experienced
+technique he used to estimate the value of a car loaded with road dirt,
+rust, and collision-smashed fenders, Jake stripped the child of the
+dirty clothing, the scuffed shoes, the mussed hair, and saw through to
+the value beneath. Its price was one thousand dollars, offered with no
+questions asked for information that would lead to the return of one
+James Quincy Holden to his legal guardian.
+
+It wasn't magic on Jake's part. Paul Brennan had instantly offered a
+reward. And Jake made it his business to keep aware of such matters.
+
+How soon, wondered Jake, might the ante be raised to two Gee? Five? And
+in the meantime, if things panned, Jimmy could be useful as a spotter.
+
+"You afraid of that Moe punk, Jimmy?"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Good, but keep an eye on him. He'd sell his mother for fifty cents clear
+profit--seventy-five if he had to split the deal. Now, kid, do you know
+anything about spotting?"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Hungry?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"All right. Come on in and we'll eat. Do you like Mulligan?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"Good. You and me are going to get along."
+
+Inside of the squalid shack, Jake had a cozy set-up. The filth that he
+encouraged out in the junkyard was not tolerated inside his shack. The
+dividing line was halfway across the edge of the door; the inside was as
+clean, neat, and shining as the outside was squalid.
+
+"You'll sleep here," said Jake, waving towards a small bedroom with a
+single twin bunk. "You'll make yer own bed and take a shower every
+night--or out! Understand?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"Good. Now, let's have chow, and I'll tell you about this spotting
+business. You help me, and I'll help you. One blab and back you go to
+where you came from. Get it?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+And so, while the police of a dozen cities were scouring their beats for
+a homeless, frightened five-year-old, Jimmy Holden slept in a comfortable
+bed in a clean room, absolutely disguised by an exterior that looked like
+an abandoned manure shed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+
+Jimmy discovered that he was admirably suited to the business of
+spotting. The "job turnover" was high because the spotter must be young
+enough to be allowed the freedom of the preschool age, yet be mature
+enough to follow orders.
+
+The job consisted of meandering through the streets of the city, in
+the aimless patterns of youth, while keeping an eye open for parked
+automobiles with the ignition keys still in their locks.
+
+Only a very young child can go whooping through the streets bumping
+pedestrians, running wildly, or walking from car to car twiggling each
+door handle and peering inside as if he were imitating a door-to-door
+salesman, occasionally making a minor excursion in one shop door and out
+the other.
+
+He takes little risk. He merely spots the target. He reports that there
+is such-and-such a car parked so-and-so, after which he goes on to spot
+the next target. The rest of the business is up to the men who do the
+actual stealing.
+
+Jimmy's job-training program took only one morning. That same afternoon
+he went to work for Jake's crew.
+
+Jake's experience with kids had been no more than so-so promising. He
+used them because they were better than nothing. He did not expect them
+to stay long; they were gobbled up by the rules of compulsory education
+just about the age when they could be counted upon to follow orders.
+
+He felt about the same with Jimmy Holden; the "missing person" report
+stated that one of the most prominent factors in the lad's positive
+identification was his high quality of speech and his superior
+intelligence. (This far Paul Brennan had to go, and he had divulged
+the information with great reluctance.)
+
+But though Jake needed a preschool child with intelligence, he did not
+realize the height of Jimmy Holden's.
+
+It was obvious to Jimmy on the second day that Jake's crew was not taking
+advantage of every car spotted. One of them had been a "natural" to
+Jimmy's way of thinking. He asked Jake about it: "Why didn't you take the
+sea-green Ford in front of the corner store?"
+
+"Too risky."
+
+"Risky?"
+
+Jake nodded. "Spotting isn't risky, Jimmy. But picking the car up is.
+There is a very dangerous time when the driver is a sitting duck. From
+the moment he opens the car door he is in danger. Sitting in the chance
+of getting caught, he must start the car, move it out of the parking
+space into traffic, and get under way and gone before he is safe."
+
+"But the sea-green Ford was sitting there with its engine running!"
+
+"Meaning," nodded Jake, "that the driver pulled in and made a fast dash
+into the store for a newspaper or a pack of cigarettes."
+
+"I understand. Your man could get caught. Or," added Jimmy thoughtfully,
+"the owner might even take his car away before we got there."
+
+Jake nodded. This one was going to make it easy for him.
+
+As the days wore on, Jimmy became more selective. He saw no point in
+reporting a car that wasn't going to be used. An easy mark wedged between
+two other cars couldn't be removed with ease. A car parked in front of a
+parking meter with a red flag was dangerous, it meant that the time was
+up and the driver should be getting nervous about it. A man who came
+shopping along the street to find a meter with some time left by the
+former driver was obviously looking for a quick-stop place--whereas the
+man who fed the meter to its limit was a much better bet.
+
+Jake, thankful for what Fate had brought him, now added refinements of
+education. Cars parked in front of supermarkets weren't safe; the owner
+might be standing just inside the big plate glass window. The car parked
+hurriedly just before the opening of business was likely to be a good bet
+because people are careless about details when they are hurrying to punch
+the old time clock.
+
+Jake even closed down his operations during the calculated danger
+periods, but he made sure to tell Jimmy Holden why.
+
+From school-closing to dinnertime Jimmy was allowed to do as he pleased.
+He found it hard to enjoy playing with his contemporaries, and Jake's
+explanation about dangerous times warned Jimmy against joining Moe and
+his little crew of thieves. Jimmy would have enjoyed helping in the
+stripping yard, but he had not the heft for it. They gave him little
+messy jobs to do that grimed his hands and made Jake's stern rule of
+cleanliness hard to achieve. Jimmy found it easier to avoid such jobs
+than to scrub his skin raw.
+
+One activity he found to his ability was the cooking business.
+
+Jake was a stew-man, a soup-man, a slum-gullion man. The fellows who
+roamed in and out of Jake's Place dipped their plate of slum from the
+pot and their chunk of bread from the loaf and talked all through this
+never-started and never-ended lunch. With the delicacy of his "inside"
+life, Jake knew the value of herbs and spices and he was a hard
+taskmaster. But inevitably, Jimmy learned the routine of brewing a bucket
+of slum that suited Jake's taste, after which Jimmy was now and then
+permitted to take on the more demanding job of cooking the steaks and
+chops that made their final evening meal.
+
+Jimmy applied himself well, for the knowledge was going to be handy. More
+important, it kept him from the jobs that grimed his hands.
+
+He sought other pursuits, but Jake had never had a resident spotter
+before and the play-facilities provided were few. Jimmy took to
+reading--necessarily, the books that Jake read, that is, approximately
+equal parts of science fiction and girlie-girlie books. The science
+fiction he enjoyed; but he was not able to understand why he wasn't
+interested in the girlie books. So Jimmy read. Jake even went out of his
+way to find more science fiction for the lad.
+
+Ultimately, Jimmy located a potential source of pleasure.
+
+He spotted a car with a portable typewriter on the back seat. The car was
+locked and therefore no target, but it stirred his fancy. Thereafter he
+added a contingent requirement to his spotting. A car with a typewriter
+was more desirable than one without.
+
+Jimmy went on to further astound Jake by making a list of what the
+customers were buying. After that he concentrated on spotting those cars
+that would provide the fastest sale for their parts.
+
+It was only a matter of time; Jimmy spotted a car with a portable
+typewriter. It was not as safe a take as his others, but he reported it.
+Jake's driver picked it up and got it out in a squeak; the car itself
+turned up to be no great find.
+
+Jimmy claimed the typewriter at once.
+
+Jake objected: "No dice, Jimmy."
+
+"I want it, Jake."
+
+"Look, kid, I can sell it for twenty."
+
+"But I want it."
+
+Jake eyed Jimmy thoughtfully, and he saw two things. One was a
+thousand-dollar reward standing before him. The other was a row of prison
+bars.
+
+Jake could only collect one and avoid the other by being very sure that
+Jimmy Holden remained grateful to Jake for Jake's shelter and protection.
+
+He laughed roughly. "All right, Jimmy," he said. "You lift it and you can
+have it."
+
+Jimmy struggled with the typewriter, and succeeded only because it was a
+new one made of the titanium-magnesium-aluminum alloys. It hung between
+his little knees, almost--but not quite--touching the ground.
+
+"You have it," said Jake. He lifted it lightly and carried it into the
+boy's little bedroom.
+
+Jimmy started after dinner. He picked out the letters with the same
+painful search he'd used in typing his getaway letter. He made the
+same mistakes he'd made before. It had taken him almost an hour and
+nearly fifty sheets of paper to compose that first note without an
+error; that was no way to run a railroad; now Jimmy was determined
+to learn the proper operation of this machine. But finally the jagged
+tack-tack--pause--tack-tack got on Jake's nerves.
+
+Jake came in angrily. "You're wasting paper," he snapped. He eyed Jimmy
+thoughtfully. "How come with your education you don't know how to type?"
+
+"My father wouldn't let me."
+
+"Seems your father wouldn't let you do anything."
+
+"He said that I couldn't learn until I was old enough to learn properly.
+He said I must not get into the habit of using the hunt-and-peck system,
+or I'd never get out of it."
+
+"So what are you doing now?"
+
+"My father is dead."
+
+"And anything he said before doesn't count any more?"
+
+"He promised me that he'd start teaching me as soon as my hands were big
+enough," said Jimmy soberly. "But he isn't here any more. So I've got to
+learn my own way."
+
+Jake reflected. Jimmy was a superior spotter. He was also a potential
+danger; the other kids played it as a game and didn't really realize what
+they were doing. This one knew precisely what he was doing, knew that it
+was wrong, and had the lucidity of speech to explain in full detail. It
+was a good idea to keep him content.
+
+"If you'll stop that tap-tapping for tonight," promised Jake, "I'll get
+you a book tomorrow. Is it a deal?"
+
+"You will?"
+
+"I will if you'll follow it."
+
+"Sure thing."
+
+"And," said Jake, pushing his advantage, "you'll do it with the door
+closed so's I can hear this TV set."
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+Jake kept his word.
+
+On the following afternoon, not only was Jimmy presented with one of the
+standard learn-it-yourself books on touch-typing, but Jake also contrived
+a sturdy desk out of one old packing case and a miniature chair out of
+another. Both articles of home-brewed furniture Jake insisted upon having
+painted before he permitted them inside his odd dwelling, and that
+delayed Jimmy one more day.
+
+But it was only one more day; and then a new era of experience began for
+Jimmy.
+
+It would be nice to report that he went at it with determination,
+self-discipline, and system, following instructions to the letter and
+emerging a first-rate typist.
+
+Sorry. Jimmy hated every minute of it. He galled at the pages and pages
+of _juj juj juj frf frf frf_. He cried with frustration because he could
+not perform the simple exercise to perfection. He skipped through the
+book so close to complete failure that he hurled it across the room, and
+cried in anger because he had not the strength to throw the typewriter
+after it. Throw the machine? He had not the strength in his pinky to
+press the carriage-shift key!
+
+Part of his difficulty was the size of his hands, of course. But most of
+his trouble lay deep-seated in his recollection of his parents' fabulous
+machine. It would have made a typist of him in a single half-hour
+session, or so he thought.
+
+He had yet to learn about the vast gulf that lies between theory and
+practice.
+
+It took Jimmy several weeks of aimless fiddling before he realized that
+there was no easy short-cut. Then he went back to the _juj juj juj frf
+frf frf_ routine and hated it just as much, but went on.
+
+He invented a kind of home-study "hooky" to break the monotony. He would
+run off a couple of pages of regular exercise, and then turn back to the
+hunt-and-peck system of typing to work on a story. He took a furtive glee
+in this; he felt that he was getting away with something. In mid-July,
+Jake caught him at it.
+
+"What's going on?" demanded Jake, waving the pages of manuscript copy.
+
+"Typing," said Jimmy.
+
+Jake picked up the typing guidebook and waved it under Jimmy's nose.
+"Show me where it says you gotta type anything like, 'Captain Brandon
+struggled against his chains when he heard Lady Hamilton scream. The
+pirate's evil laugh rang through the ship. "Curse you--"'"
+
+Jake snorted.
+
+"But--" said Jimmy faintly.
+
+"But nothing!" snapped Jake. "Stop the drivel and learn that thing! You
+think I let you keep the machine just to play games? We gotta find a way
+to make it pay off. Learn it good!"
+
+He stamped out, taking the manuscript with him. From that moment on,
+Jimmy's furtive career as an author went on only when Jake was either out
+for the evening or entertaining. In any case, he did not bother Jimmy
+further, evidently content to wait until Jimmy had "learned it good"
+before putting this new accomplishment to use. Nor did Jimmy bother him.
+It was a satisfactory arrangement for the time being. Jimmy hid his
+"work" under a pile of raw paper and completed it in late August. Then,
+with the brash assurance of youth, he packed and mailed his first
+finished manuscript to the editor of _Boy's Magazine_.
+
+His typing progressed more satisfactorily than he realized, even though
+he was still running off page after page of repetitious exercise,
+leavened now and then by a page of idiotic sentences the letters of
+which were restricted to the center of the typewriter keyboard. The
+practice, even the hunt-and-peck relaxation from discipline, exercised
+the small muscles. Increased strength brought increased accuracy.
+
+September rolled in, the streets emptied of school-aged children and the
+out-of-state car licenses diminished to a trickle. With the end of the
+carefree vacation days went the careless motorist.
+
+Jake, whose motives were no more altruistic than his intentions were
+legal, began to look for a means of disposing of Jimmy Holden at the
+greatest profit to himself. Jake stalled only because he hoped that the
+reward might be stepped up.
+
+But it was Jimmy's own operations that closed this chapter of his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+
+Jimmy had less scout work to do and no school to attend; he was too small
+to help in the sorting of car parts and too valuable to be tossed out. He
+was in the way.
+
+So he was in Jake's office when the mail came. He brought the bundle to
+Jake's desk and sat on a box, sorting the circulars and catalogs from the
+first class. Halfway down the pile was a long envelope addressed to
+_Jimmy James_.
+
+He dropped the rest with a little yelp. Jake eyed him quickly and
+snatched the letter out of Jimmy's hands.
+
+"Hey! That's mine!" said Jimmy. Jake shoved him away.
+
+"Who's writing you?" demanded Jake.
+
+"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.
+
+"Shut up!" snapped Jake, unfolding the letter. "I read _all_ the mail
+that comes here first."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Shut your mouth and your teeth'll stay in," said Jake flatly. He
+separated a green slip from the letter and held the two covered while he
+read. "Well, well," he said. "Our little Shakespeare!" With a disdainful
+grunt Jake tossed the letter to Jimmy.
+
+Eagerly, Jimmy took the letter and read:
+
+  Dear Mr. James:
+
+  We regret the unconscionable length of time between your submission and
+  this reply. However, the fact that this reply is favorable may be its
+  own apology. We are enclosing a check for $20.00 with the following
+  explanation:
+
+  Our policy is to reject all work written in dialect. At the best we
+  request the author to rewrite the piece in proper English and frame
+  his effect by other means. Your little story is not dialect, nor is it
+  bad literarily, the framework's being (as it is) a fairly good example
+  of a small boy's relating in the first person one of his adventures,
+  using for the first time his father's typewriter. But you went too far.
+  I doubt that even a five-year-old would actually make as many
+  typographical errors.
+
+  However, we found the idea amusing, therefore our payment. One of our
+  editors will work your manuscript into less-erratic typescript for
+  eventual publication.
+
+  Please continue to think of us in the future, but don't corn up your
+  script with so many studied blunders.
+
+  Sincerely,
+  Joseph Brandon, editor,
+  Boy's Magazine.
+
+"Gee," breathed Jimmy, "a check!"
+
+Jake laughed roughly. "Shakespeare," he roared. "Don't corn up your
+stuff! You put too many errors in! Wow!"
+
+Jimmy's eyes began to burn. He had no defense against this sarcasm. He
+wanted praise for having accomplished something, instead of raucous
+laughter.
+
+"I wrote it," he said lamely.
+
+"Oh, go away!" roared Jake.
+
+Jimmy reached for the check.
+
+"Scram," said Jake, shutting his laughter off instantly.
+
+"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.
+
+Jake paused, then laughed again. "Okay, smart kid. Take it and spend it!"
+He handed the check to Jimmy Holden.
+
+Jimmy took it quickly and left.
+
+He wanted to eye it happily, to gloat over it, to turn it over and over
+and to read it again and again; but he wanted to do it in private.
+
+He took it with him to the nearest bank, feeling its folded bulk and
+running a fingernail along the serrated edge.
+
+He re-read it in the bank, then went to a teller's window. "Can you cash
+this, please?" he asked.
+
+The teller turned it over. "It isn't endorsed."
+
+"I can't reach the desk to sign it," complained Jimmy.
+
+"Have you an account here?" asked the teller politely.
+
+"Well, no sir."
+
+"Any identification?"
+
+"No--no sir," said Jimmy thoughtfully. Not a shred of anything did he
+have to show who he was under either name.
+
+"Who is this Jimmy James?" asked the teller.
+
+"Me. I am."
+
+The teller smiled. "And you wrote a short story that sold to _Boy's
+Magazine_?" he asked with a lifted eyebrow. "That's pretty good for a
+little guy like you."
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+The teller looked over Jimmy's head; Jimmy turned to look up at one of
+the bank's policemen. "Tom, what do you make of this?"
+
+The policeman shrugged. He stooped down to Jimmy's level. "Where did you
+get this check, young fellow?" he asked gently.
+
+"It came in the mail this morning."
+
+"You're Jimmy James?"
+
+"Yes sir." Jimmy Holden had been called that for more than half a year;
+his assent was automatic.
+
+"How old are you, young man?" asked the policeman kindly.
+
+"Five and a half."
+
+"Isn't that a bit young to be writing stories?"
+
+Jimmy bit his lip. "I wrote it, though."
+
+The policeman looked up at the teller with a wink. "He can tell a good
+yarn," chuckled the policeman. "Shouldn't wonder if he could write one."
+
+The teller laughed and Jimmy's eyes burned again. "It's mine," he
+insisted.
+
+"If it's yours," said the policeman quietly, "we can settle it fast
+enough. Do your folks have an account here?"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Hmmm. That makes it tough."
+
+Brightly, Jimmy asked, "Can I open an account here?"
+
+"Why, sure you can," said the policeman. "All you have to do is to bring
+your parents in."
+
+"But I want the money," wailed Jimmy.
+
+"Jimmy James," explained the policeman with a slight frown to the teller,
+"we can't cash a check without positive identification. Do you know what
+positive identification means?"
+
+"Yes sir. It means that you've got to be sure that this is me."
+
+"Right! Now, those are the rules. Now, of course, you don't look like
+the sort of young man who would tell a lie. I'll even bet your real
+name is Jimmy James, Jr. But you see, we have no proof, and our boss
+will be awful mad at us if we break the rules and cash this check without
+following the rules. The rules, Jimmy James, aren't to delay nice, honest
+people, but to stop people from making mistakes. Mistakes such as taking
+a little letter out of their father's mailbox. If we cashed that check,
+then it couldn't be put back in father's mailbox without anybody knowing
+about it. And that would be real bad."
+
+"But it's mine!"
+
+"Sonny, if that's yours, all you have to do is to have your folks come in
+and say so. Then we'll open an account for you."
+
+"Yes sir," said Jimmy in a voice that was thick with tears of frustration
+close to the surface. He turned away and left.
+
+Jake was still in the outside office of the Yard when Jimmy returned. The
+boy was crestfallen, frustrated, unhappy, and would not have returned at
+all if there had been another place where he was welcome. He expected
+ridicule from Jake, but Jake smiled.
+
+"No luck, kid?"
+
+Jimmy just shook his head.
+
+"Checks are tough, Jimmy. Give up, now?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"No? What then?"
+
+"I can write a letter and sign it," said Jimmy, explaining how he had
+outfoxed the ticket seller.
+
+"Won't work with checks, Jimmy. For me now, if I was to be polite and
+dressed right they might cash a twenty if I showed up with my social
+security card, driver's license, identification card with photograph
+sealed in, and all that junk. But a kid hasn't got a chance. Look, Jimmy,
+I'm sorry for this morning. To-morrow morning we'll go over to my bank
+and I'll have them cash it for you. It's yours. You earned it and you
+keep it. Okay? Are we friends again?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+Gravely they shook hands. "Watch the place, kid," said Jake. "I got to
+make a phone call."
+
+In the morning, Jake dressed for business and insisted that Jimmy put on
+his best to make a good impression. After breakfast, they set out. Jake
+parked in front of a granite building.
+
+"This isn't any bank," objected Jimmy. "This is a police station."
+
+"Sure," responded Jake. "Here's where we get you an identification card.
+Don't you know?"
+
+"Okay," said Jimmy dubiously.
+
+Inside the station there were a number of men in uniform and in plain
+clothing. Jake strode forward, holding Jimmy by one small hand. They
+approached the sergeant's desk and Jake lifted Jimmy up and seated him on
+one edge of the desk with his feet dangling.
+
+The sergeant looked at them with interest but without surprise.
+
+"Sergeant," said Jake, "this is Jimmy James--as he calls himself when
+he's writing stories. Otherwise he is James Quincy Holden."
+
+Jimmy went cold all over.
+
+Jake backed through the circle that was closing in; the hole he made was
+filled by Paul Brennan.
+
+It was not the first betrayal in Jimmy James's young life, but it was
+totally unexpected. He didn't know that the policeman from the bank had
+worried Jake; he didn't know that Jake had known all along who he was; he
+didn't know how fast Brennan had moved after the phone call from Jake.
+But his young mind leaped past the unknown facts to reach a certain, and
+correct, conclusion.
+
+He had been sold out.
+
+"Jimmy, Jimmy," came the old, pleading voice. "Why did you run away?
+Where have you been?"
+
+Brennan stepped forward and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Without
+a shadow of doubt," he said formally, "this is James Quincy Holden. I so
+identify him. And with no more ado, I hand you the reward." He reached
+into his inside pocket and drew out an envelope, handing it to Jake. "I
+have never parted with one thousand dollars so happily in my life."
+
+Jimmy watched, unable to move. Brennan was busy and cheerful, the model
+of the man whose long-lost ward has been returned to him.
+
+"So, James, shall we go quietly or shall we have a scene?"
+
+Trapped and sullen, Jimmy Holden said nothing. The officers helped him
+down from the desk. He did not move. Brennan took him by a hand that was
+as limp as wet cloth. Brennan started for the door. The arm lifted until
+the link was taut; then, with slow, dragging steps, James Quincy Holden
+started toward home.
+
+Brennan said, "You understand me, don't you, Jimmy?"
+
+"You want my father's machine."
+
+"Only to help you, Jimmy. Can't you believe that?"
+
+"No."
+
+Brennan drove his car with ease. A soft smile lurked around his lips. He
+went on, "You know what your father's machine will do for you, don't you,
+Jimmy?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But have you ever attended school?"
+
+"No." But Jimmy remembered the long hours and hours of study and practice
+before he became proficient with his typewriter. For a moment he felt
+close to tears. It had been the only possession he truly owned, now it
+was gone. And with it was gone the author's first check. The thrill of
+that first check is far greater than Graduation or the First Job. It is
+approximately equal to the flush of pride that comes when the author's
+story hits print with his NAME appended.
+
+But Jimmy's typewriter was gone, and his check was gone. Without a doubt
+the check would turn up cashed--through the operations of Jake Caslow.
+
+Brennan's voice cut into his thoughts. "You will attend school, Jimmy.
+You'll have to."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Oh, now look, Jimmy. There are laws that say you must attend school.
+The only way those laws can be avoided is to make an appeal to the law
+itself, and have your legal guardian--myself--ask for the privilege of
+tutoring you at home. Well, I won't do it."
+
+He drove for a moment, thinking. "So you're going to attend school," he
+said, "and while you're there you're going to be careful not to disclose
+by any act or inference that you already know everything they can teach
+you. Otherwise they will ask some embarrassing questions. And the first
+thing that happens to you is that you will be put in a much harder place
+to escape from than our home, Jimmy. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes sir," the boy said sickly.
+
+"But," purred Uncle Paul Brennan, "you may find school very boring. If
+so, you have only to say the word--rebuild your father's machine--and go
+on with your career."
+
+"I w--" Jimmy began automatically, but his uncle stopped him.
+
+"You won't, no," he agreed. "Not now. In the meantime, then, you will
+live the life proper to your station--and your age. I won't deny you a
+single thing, Jimmy. Not a single thing that a five-year-old can want."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+
+Paul Brennan moved into the Holden house with Jimmy.
+
+Jimmy had the run of the house--almost. Uncle Paul closed off the upper
+sitting room, which the late parents had converted into their laboratory.
+_That_ was locked. But the rest of the house was free, and Jimmy was once
+more among the things he had never hoped to see again.
+
+Brennan's next step was to hire a middle-aged couple to take care of
+house and boy. Their name was Mitchell; they were childless and regretted
+it; they lavished on Jimmy the special love and care that comes only from
+childless child-lovers.
+
+Though Jimmy was wary to the point of paranoia, he discovered that he
+wanted for nothing. He was kept clean and his home kept tidy. He was fed
+well--not only in terms of nourishment, but in terms of what he liked.
+
+Then ... Jimmy began to notice changes.
+
+_Huckleberry Finn_ turned up missing. In its place on the shelf was a
+collection of Little Golden Books.
+
+His advanced Mecanno set was "broken"--so Mrs. Mitchell told him. Uncle
+Paul had accidentally crushed it. "But you'll like this better," she
+beamed, handing him a fresh new box from the toy store. It contained
+bright-colored modular blocks.
+
+Jimmy's parents had given him canvasboard and oil paints; now they were
+gone. Jimmy would have admitted he was no artist; but he didn't enjoy
+retrogressing to his uncle's selection--finger paints.
+
+His supply of drawing paper was not tampered with. But it was not
+replaced. When it was gone, Jimmy was presented with a blackboard and
+boxes of colored chalk.
+
+By Christmas every possession was gone--replaced--the new toys tailored
+to Jimmy's physical age. There was a Christmas tree, and under it a pile
+of gay bright boxes. Jimmy had hardly the heart to open them, for he knew
+what they would contain.
+
+He was right.
+
+Jimmy had everything that would keep a five-year-old boy
+contented ... and not one iota more. He objected; his objections got him
+nowhere. Mrs. Mitchell was reproachful: Ingratitude, Jimmy! Mr. Mitchell
+was scornful: Maybe James would like to vote and smoke a pipe?
+
+And Paul Brennan was very clear. There was a way out of this, yes. Jimmy
+could have whatever he liked. There was just this one step that must be
+taken first; the machine must be put back together again.
+
+When it came time for Jimmy to start school he was absolutely delighted;
+nothing, nothing could be worse than this.
+
+At first it was a novel experience.
+
+He sat at a desk along with forty-seven other children of his size,
+neatly stacked in six aisles with eight desks to the tier. He did his
+best to copy their manners and to reproduce their halting speech and
+imperfect grammar. For the first couple of weeks he was not noticed.
+
+The teacher, with forty-eight young new minds to study, gave him his
+2.08% of her total time and attention. Jimmy Holden was not a deportment
+problem; his answers to the few questions she directed at him were
+correct. Therefore he needed less attention and got less; she spent her
+time on the loud, the unruly and those who lagged behind in education.
+
+Because his total acquaintance with children of his own age had been
+among the slum kids that hung around Jake Caslow's Place, Jimmy found his
+new companions an interesting bunch.
+
+He watched them, and he listened to them. He copied them and in two weeks
+Jimmy found them pitifully lacking and hopelessly misinformed. They could
+not remember at noon what they had been told at ten o'clock. They had
+difficulty in reading the simple pages of the First Reader.
+
+But he swallowed his pride and stumbled on and on, mimicking his friends
+and remaining generally unnoticed.
+
+If written examinations were the rule in the First Grade, Jimmy would
+have been discovered on the first one. But with less than that 2% of the
+teacher's time directed at him, Jimmy's run of correct answers did not
+attract notice. His boredom and his lack of attention during daydreams
+made him seem quite normal.
+
+He began to keep score on his classmates on the fly-leaf of one of his
+books. Jimmy was a far harsher judge than the teacher. He marked them
+either wrong or right; he gave no credit for trying, or for their
+stumbling efforts to express their muddled ideas and incomplete grasp. He
+found their games fun at first, but quickly grew bored. When he tried to
+introduce a note of strategy they ignored him because they did not
+understand. They made rules as they went along and changed them as they
+saw fit. Then, instead of complying with their own rules, they pouted-up
+and sulked when they couldn't do as they wanted.
+
+But in the end it was Jimmy's lack of experience in acting that tripped
+him.
+
+Having kept score on his playmates' answers, Jimmy knew that some fairly
+high percentage of answers must inevitably be wrong. So he embarked upon
+a program of supplying a certain proportion of errors. He discovered that
+supplying a wrong answer that was consistent with the age of his
+contemporaries took too much of his intellect to keep his actions
+straight. He forgot to employ halting speech and childlike grammar. His
+errors were delivered in faultless grammar and excellent self-expression;
+his correct answers came out in the English of his companions;
+mispronounced, ill-composed, and badly delivered.
+
+The contrast was enough to attract even 2.08% of a teacher.
+
+During the third week of school, Jimmy was day-dreaming during class.
+Abruptly his teacher snapped, "James Holden, how much is seven times
+nine?"
+
+"Sixty-three," replied Jimmy, completely automatic.
+
+"James," she said softly, "do you know the rest of your numbers?"
+
+Jimmy looked around like a trapped animal. His teacher waited him out
+until Jimmy, finding no escape, said, "Yes'm."
+
+"Well," she said with a bright smile. "It's nice to know that you do. Can
+you do the multiplication table?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Let's hear you."
+
+Jimmy looked around. "No, Jimmy," said his teacher. "I want you to say
+it. Go ahead." And then as Jimmy hesitated still, she addressed the
+class. "This is important," she said. "Someday you will have to learn it,
+too. You will use it all through life and the earlier you learn it the
+better off you all will be. _Knowledge_," she quoted proudly, "_is
+power_! Now, Jimmy!"
+
+Jimmy began with two-times-two and worked his way through the long table
+to the twelves. When he finished, his teacher appointed one of the
+better-behaved children to watch the class. "Jimmy," she said, "I'm going
+to see if we can't put you up in the next grade. You don't belong here.
+Come along."
+
+They went to the principal's office. "Mr. Whitworth," said Jimmy's
+teacher, "I have a young genius in my class."
+
+"A young genius, Miss Tilden?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. He already knows the multiplication table."
+
+"You do, James? Where did you learn it?"
+
+"My father taught me."
+
+Principal and teacher looked at each another. They said nothing but they
+were both recalling stories and rumors about the brilliance of his
+parents. The accident and death had not escaped notice.
+
+"What else did they teach you, James?" asked Mr. Whitworth. "To read and
+write, of course?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"History?"
+
+Jimmy squirmed inwardly. He did not know how much to admit. "Some," he
+said noncommittally.
+
+"When did Columbus discover America?"
+
+"In Fourteen Ninety-Two."
+
+"Fine," said Mr. Whitworth with a broad smile. He looked at Miss Tilden.
+"You're right. Young James should be advanced." He looked down at Jimmy
+Holden. "James," he said, "we're going to place you in the Second Grade
+for a tryout. Unless we're wrong, you'll stay and go up with them."
+
+Jimmy's entry into Second Grade brought a different attitude. He had
+entered school quietly just for the sake of getting away from Paul
+Brennan. Now he was beginning to form a plan. If he could go from First
+to Second in a matter of three weeks, then, by carefully disclosing his
+store of knowledge bit-by-bit at the proper moment, he might be able to
+go through school in a short time. Moreover, he had tasted the first
+fruits of recognition. He craved more.
+
+Somewhere was born the quaint notion that getting through school would
+automatically make him an adult, with all attendant privileges.
+
+So Jimmy Holden dropped all pretense. His answers were as right as he
+could make them. He dropped the covering mimickry of childish speech
+and took personal pride in using grammar as good as that of his teacher.
+
+This got him nothing. The Second Grade teacher was of the "progressive"
+school; she firmly believed that everybody, having been created equal,
+had to stay that way. She pointedly avoided giving Jimmy any opportunity
+to show his capability.
+
+He bided his time with little grace.
+
+He found his opportunity during the visit of a school superintendent.
+During this session Jimmy hooted when one of his fellows said that
+Columbus proved the world was round.
+
+Angrily she demanded that Jimmy tell her who did prove it, and Jimmy
+Holden replied that he didn't know whether it was Pythagoras or one of
+his followers, but he did know that it was one of the few things that
+Aristotle ever got right. This touched her on a sore spot. She admired
+Aristotle and couldn't bear to hear the great man accused of error.
+
+She started baiting Jimmy with loaded questions and stopped when
+Jimmy stated that Napoleon Bonaparte was responsible for the invention
+of canned food, the adoption of the metric system, and the development
+of the semaphore telegraph. This stopped all proceedings until Jimmy
+himself found the references in the Britannica. That little feat of
+research-reference impressed the visiting superintendent. Jimmy Holden
+was jumped into Third Grade.
+
+Convinced that he was on the right trolley, Jimmy proceeded to plunge in
+with both feet. Third Grade Teacher helped. Within a week he was being
+called upon to aid the laggards. He stood out like a lighthouse; he was
+the one who could supply the right answers when the class was stumped.
+His teacher soon began to take a delight in belaboring the class for a
+minute before turning to Jimmy for the answer. Heaven forgive him, Jimmy
+enjoyed it. He began to hold back slyly, like a comedian building up the
+tension before a punch-line.
+
+His classmates began to call him "old know-it-all." Jimmy did not realize
+that it was their resentment speaking. He accepted it as deference to his
+superior knowledge. The fact that he was not a part of their playtime
+life did not bother him one iota. He knew very well that his size alone
+would cut him out of the rough and heavy games of his classmates; he did
+not know that he was cut out of their games because they disliked him.
+
+As time wore on, some of the rougher ones changed his nickname from
+"know-it-all" to "teacher's pet"; one of them used rougher language
+still. To this Jimmy replied in terms he'd learned from Jake Caslow's
+gutters. All that saved him from a beating was his size; even the ones
+who disliked him would not stand for the bully's beating up a smaller
+child.
+
+But in other ways they picked on him. Jimmy reasoned out his own
+relationship between intelligence and violence. He had yet to learn the
+psychology of vandalism--but he was experiencing it.
+
+Finding no enjoyment out of play periods, Jimmy took to staying in. The
+permissive school encouraged it; if Jimmy Holden preferred to tinker with
+a typewriter instead of playing noisy games, his teacher saw no wrong in
+it--for his Third Grade teacher was something of an intellectual herself.
+
+In April, one week after his sixth birthday, Jimmy Holden was jumped
+again.
+
+Jimmy entered Fourth Grade to find that his fame had gone before him; he
+was received with sullen glances and turned backs.
+
+But he did not care. For his birthday, he received a typewriter from Paul
+Brennan. Brennan never found out that the note suggesting it from Jimmy's
+Third Grade teacher had been written after Jimmy's prompting.
+
+So while other children played, Jimmy wrote.
+
+He was not immediately successful. His first several stories were
+returned; but eventually he drew a winner and a check. Armed with
+superior knowledge, Jimmy mailed it to a bank that was strong in
+advertising "mail-order" banking. With his first check he opened a
+pay-by-the-item, no-minimum-balance checking account.
+
+Gradually his batting average went up, but there were enough returned
+rejections to make Paul Brennan view Jimmy's literary effort with quiet
+amusement. Still, slowly and in secret, Jimmy built up his bank balance
+by twenties, fifties, an occasional hundred.
+
+For above everything, by now Jimmy knew that he could not go on through
+school as he'd planned.
+
+If his entry into Fourth Grade had been against scowls and resentment
+from his classmates, Fifth and Sixth would be more so. Eventually the day
+would come when he would be held back. He was already mingling with
+children far beyond his size. The same permissive school that graduated
+dolts so that their stupid personalities wouldn't be warped would keep
+him back by virtue of the same idiotic reasoning.
+
+He laid his plans well. He covered his absence from school one morning
+and thereby gained six free hours to start going about his own business
+before his absence could be noticed.
+
+This was his third escape. He prayed that it would be permanent.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK TWO:
+
+THE HERMIT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+
+Seventy-five miles south of Chicago there is a whistle-stop called
+Shipmont. (No ship has ever been anywhere near it; neither has a
+mountain.) It lives because of a small college; the college, in turn,
+owes its maintenance to an installation of great interest to the Atomic
+Energy Commission.
+
+Shipmont is served by two trains a day--which stop only when there
+is a passenger to get on or off, which isn't often. These passengers,
+generally speaking, are oddballs carrying attaché cases or eager young
+men carrying miniature slide rules.
+
+But on this day came a woman and a little girl.
+
+Their total visible possessions were two battered suitcases and one
+battered trunk. The little girl was neatly dressed, in often-washed and
+mended clothing; she carried a small covered basket, and there were
+breadcrumbs visible on the lid. She looked bewildered, shy and
+frightened. She was.
+
+The mother was thirty, though there were lines of worry on her forehead
+and around her eyes that made her look older. She wore little makeup and
+her clothing had been bought for wear instead of for looks. She looked
+around, leaned absently down to pat the little girl and straightened as
+the station-master came slowly out.
+
+"Need anything, ma'am?" He was pleasant enough. Janet Bagley appreciated
+that; life had not been entirely pleasant for her for some years.
+
+"I need a taxicab, if there is one."
+
+"There is. I run it after the train gets in for them as ain't met. You're
+not goin' to the college?" He pronounced it "collitch."
+
+Janet Bagley shook her head and took a piece of paper from her bag. "Mr.
+Charles Maxwell, Rural Route Fifty-three, Martin's Hill Road," she read.
+Her daughter began to whimper.
+
+The station-master frowned. "Hum," he said, "that's the Herm--er, d'you
+know him?"
+
+Mrs. Bagley said: "I've never met him. What kind of a man is he?"
+
+That was the sort of question the station-master appreciated. His job was
+neither demanding nor exciting; an opportunity to talk was worth having.
+He said cheerfully, "Why, I don't rightly know, ma'am. Nobody's ever seen
+him."
+
+"Nobody?"
+
+"Nope. Nobody. Does everything by mail."
+
+"My goodness, what's the matter with him?"
+
+"Don't rightly know, ma'am. Story is he was once a professor and got in
+some kind of big explosion. Burned the hide off'n his face and scarred up
+his hands something turrible, so he don't want to show himself. Rented
+the house by mail, pays his rent by mail. Orders stuff by mail. Mostly
+not real U-nited States Mail, y'know, because we don't mind dropping off
+a note to someone in town. I'm the local mailman, too. So when I find a
+note to Herby Wharton, the fellow that owns the general store, I drop it
+off. Margie Clark over at the bank says he writes. Gets checks from New
+York from publishing companies." The station-master looked around as if
+he were looking for Soviet spies. "He's a scientist, all right. He's
+doin' something important and hush-hush up there. Lots and lots of boxes
+and packin' cases I've delivered up there from places like Central
+Scientific and Labotory Supply Company. Must be a smart feller. You
+visitin' him?"
+
+"Well, he hired me for housekeeper. By mail." Mrs. Bagley looked puzzled
+and concerned.
+
+Little Martha began to cry.
+
+"It'll be all right," said the station-master soothingly. "You keep your
+eye open," he said to Mrs. Bagley. "Iff'n you see anything out of line,
+you come right back and me and the missus will give you a lift. But he's
+all right. Nothin' goin' on up there that I know of. Fred Riordan--he's
+the sheriff--has watched the place for days and days and it's always
+quiet. No visitors. No nothin'. Know what I think? I think he's
+experimenting with something to take away the burn scars. That's whut
+I think. Well, hop in and I'll drive you out there."
+
+"Is it going to cost much?"
+
+"Nothin' this trip. We'll charge it to the U-nited States Mail. Got a
+package goin' out. Was waitin' for something else to go along with it,
+but you're here and we can count that. This way to the only taxicab
+service in Shipmont."
+
+The place looked deserted. It was a shabby old clapboard house; the
+architecture of the prosperous farmer of seventy-five years ago. The
+grounds were spacious but the space was filled with scrub weeds. A
+picket fence surrounded the weeds with uncertain security. The
+windows--those that could be seen, that is--were dirty enough to prevent
+seeing inside with clarity, and what transparency there was left was
+covered by curtains. The walk up the "lawn" was flagstone with crabgrass
+between the stones.
+
+The station-master unshipped the small trunk and stood it just inside the
+fence. He parked the suitcases beside it. "Never go any farther than
+this," he explained. "So far's I know, you're the first person to ever
+head up thet walk to the front door."
+
+Mrs. Bagley rapped on the door. It opened almost instantly.
+
+"I'm--" then Mrs. Bagley dropped her eyes to the proper level. To the lad
+who was standing there she said, "I'm Mrs. Bagley. Your father--a Mr.
+Charles Maxwell is expecting me."
+
+"Come in," said Jimmy Holden. "Mr. Maxwell--well, he isn't my father. He
+sent me to let you in."
+
+Mrs. Bagley entered and dropped her suitcases in the front hall. Martha
+held back behind her mother's skirt. Jimmy closed the door and locked it
+carefully, but left the key in the keyhole with a gesture that Mrs.
+Bagley could not mistake. "Please come in here and sit down," said James
+Holden. "Relax a moment." He turned to look at the girl. He smiled at
+her, but she cowered behind her mother's skirt as if she wanted to bury
+her face but was afraid to lose sight of what was going on around her.
+
+"What's your name?" asked James.
+
+She retreated, hiding most of her face. Mrs. Bagley stroked her hair and
+said, "Now, Martha, come on. Tell the little boy your name."
+
+Purely as a matter of personal pride, James Holden objected to the
+"little boy" but he kept his peace because he knew that at eight years
+old he was still a little boy. In a soothing way, James said, "Come on
+out, Martha. I'll show you some girl-type toys we've got."
+
+The girl's head emerged slowly, "I'm Martha Bagley," she announced.
+
+"How old are you?"
+
+"I'm seven."
+
+"I'm eight," stated James. "Come on."
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked around. She saw that the dirt on the windows was all
+on the outside. The inside was clean. So was the room. So were the
+curtains. The room needed a dusting--a most thorough dusting. It had been
+given a haphazard lick-and-a-promise cleanup not too long ago, but the
+cleanup before that had been as desultory as the last, and without a
+doubt the one before and the one before that had been of the same sort of
+half-hearted cleaning. As a woman and a housekeeper, Mrs. Bagley found
+the room a bit strange.
+
+The furniture caught her eye first. A standard open bookcase, a low sofa,
+a very low cocktail-type table. The chair she stood beside was standard
+looking, so was the big easy chair opposite. Yet she felt large in the
+room despite its old-fashioned high ceiling. There were several low
+footstools in the room; ungraceful things that were obviously wooden
+boxes covered with padding and leatherette. The straight chair beside her
+had been lowered; the bottom rung between the legs was almost on the
+floor.
+
+She realized why she felt big. The furniture in the room had all been cut
+down.
+
+She continued to look. The strangeness continued to bother her and she
+realized that there were no ash trays; there was none of the usual
+clutter of things that a family drops in their tracks. It was a room
+fashioned for a small person to live in but it wasn't lived-in.
+
+The lack of hard cleanliness did not bother her very much. There had been
+an effort here, and the fact that this Charles Maxwell was hiring a
+housekeeper was in itself a statement that the gentleman knew that he
+needed one. It was odd, but it wasn't ominous.
+
+She shook her daughter gently and said, "Come on, Martha. Let's take a
+look at these girl-type toys."
+
+James led them through a short hallway, turned left at the first door,
+and then stood aside to give them a full view of the room. It was a
+playroom for a girl. It was cleaner than the living room, and as--well,
+untouched. It had been furnished with girl-toys that some catalog
+"recommended as suitable for a girl of seven."
+
+The profusion of toys overwhelmed little Martha. She stood just inside of
+the door with her eyes wide, glancing back and forth. She took one slow
+step forward, then another. Then she quickened. She moved through the
+room looking, then putting out a slow, hesitant hand to touch very
+gently. Tense, as if she were waiting for the warning not to touch,
+Martha finally caressed the hair of a baby doll.
+
+Mrs. Bagley smiled. "I'll have a time prying her loose from here," she
+said.
+
+James nodded his head. "Let her amuse herself for a bit," he said. "With
+Martha occupied, you can give your attention to a more delicate matter."
+
+Mrs. Bagley forgot that she was addressing an eight-year-old boy. His
+manner and his speech bemused her. "Yes," she said. "I do want to get
+this settled with your mysterious Charles Maxwell. Do you expect him
+down, or shall I go upstairs--?"
+
+"This may come as a shock, Mrs. Bagley, but Charles Maxwell isn't here."
+
+"Isn't here?" she echoed, in a tone of voice that clearly indicated that
+she had heard the words but hadn't really grasped their full meaning. "He
+won't be gone long, will he?"
+
+James watched her covertly, then said in a matter-of-fact voice, "He left
+you a letter."
+
+"Letter?"
+
+"He was called away on some urgent business."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Please read the letter. It explains everything."
+
+He handed her an envelope addressed to "Mrs. Janet Bagley." She looked
+at it from both sides, in the womanlike process of trying to divine its
+contents instead of opening it. She looked at James, but James sat
+stolidly waiting. Mrs. Bagley was going to get no more information from
+him until she read that letter, and James was prepared to sit it out
+until she did. It placed Mrs. Bagley in the awkward position of having
+to decide what to do next. Then the muffled sound of little-girl crooning
+came from the distant room. That brought the realization that as odd as
+this household was, it was a _home_. Mrs. Bagley delayed no further. She
+opened the letter and read:
+
+  My Dear Mrs. Bagley:
+
+  I deeply regret that I am not there to greet you, but it was not
+  possible. However, please understand that insofar as I am concerned,
+  you were hired and have been drawing your salary from the date that I
+  forwarded railroad fare and traveling expenses. Any face-to-face
+  meeting is no more than a pleasantry, a formal introduction. It must
+  not be considered in any way connected with the thought of a "Final
+  Interview" or the process of "Closing the Deal."
+
+  Please carry on as if you had been in charge long before I departed,
+  or--considering my hermitlike habits--the way you would have carried
+  on if I had not departed, but instead was still upstairs and hard at
+  work with most definite orders that I was not to be disturbed for
+  anything less important than total, personal disaster.
+
+  I can offer you a word of explanation about young James. You will find
+  him extraordinarily competent for a youngster of eight years. Were he
+  less competent, I might have delayed my departure long enough to pass
+  him literally from my supervision to yours. However, James is quite
+  capable of taking care of himself; this fact you will appreciate fully
+  long before you and I meet face-to-face.
+
+  In the meantime, remember that our letters and the other references
+  acquaint us with one another far better than a few short hours of
+  personal contact.
+
+  Sincerely,
+  Charles Maxwell
+
+"Well!" said Mrs. Bagley. "I don't know what to say."
+
+Jimmy smiled. "You don't have to say anything," he said.
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked at the youngster. "I don't think I like your Mr.
+Maxwell," she said.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"He's practically shanghaied me here. He knows very well that I couldn't
+possibly leave you here all alone, no matter how I disliked the
+situation. He's practically forced me to stay."
+
+James suppressed a smile. He said, "Mrs. Bagley, the way the trains run
+in and out of Shipmont, you're stuck for an overnight stay in any case."
+
+"You don't seem to be perturbed."
+
+"I'm not," he said.
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked at James carefully. His size; his physique was
+precisely that of the eight-year-old boy. There was nothing malformed nor
+out-of-proportion; yet he spoke with an adult air of confidence.
+
+"I am," she admitted.
+
+"Perturbed? You needn't be," he said. "You've got to remember that
+writers are an odd lot. They don't conform. They don't punch time-clocks.
+They boast of having written a novel in three weeks but they don't
+mention the fact that they sat around drinking beer for six months
+plotting it."
+
+"Meaning what?"
+
+"Meaning that Maxwell sees nothing wrong in attending to his own affairs
+and expecting you to attend to yours."
+
+"But what shall I do?"
+
+James smiled. "First, take a look around the house and satisfy yourself.
+You'll find the third floor shut off; the rooms up there are Maxwell's,
+and no one goes in but him. My bedroom is the big one in the front of the
+second floor. Pick yourself a room or a suite of rooms or move in all
+over the rest of the house. Build yourself a cup of tea and relax. Do as
+he says: Act as if you'd arrived before he took off, that you'd met and
+agreed verbally to do what you've already agreed to do by letter. Look at
+it from his point of view."
+
+"What is his point of view?"
+
+"He's a writer. He rented this house by mail. He banks by mail and shops
+by mail and makes his living by writing. Don't be surprised when he hires
+a housekeeper by mail and hands her the responsibility in writing. He
+lives by the written word."
+
+Mrs. Bagley said, "In other words, the fact that he offered me a job in
+writing and I took it in writing--?"
+
+"Writing," said James Holden soberly, "was invented for the express
+purpose of recording an agreement between two men in a permanent form
+that could be read by other men. The whole world runs on the theory that
+no one turns a hand until names are signed to written contracts--and here
+you sit, not happy because you weren't contracted-for by a personal
+chit-chat and a handshake."
+
+Mrs. Bagley was taken aback slightly by this rather pointed criticism.
+What hurt was the fact that, generally speaking, it was true and
+especially the way he put it. The young man was too blunt, too
+out-spokenly direct. Obviously he needed someone around the place who
+wasn't the self-centered writer-type. And, Mrs. Bagley admitted to
+herself, there certainly was no evidence of evil-doing here.
+
+No matter what, Charles Maxwell had neatly trapped her into staying by
+turning her own maternal responsibility against her.
+
+"I'll get my bags," she said.
+
+James Holden took a deep breath. He'd won this hurdle, so far so good.
+Now for the next!
+
+Mrs. Bagley found life rather unhurried in the days that followed. She
+relaxed and tried to evaluate James Holden. To her unwarned mind, the boy
+was quite a puzzle.
+
+There was no doubt about his eight years, except that he did not whoop
+and holler with the aimlessness of the standard eight-year-old boy. His
+vocabulary was far ahead of the eight-year-old and his speech was in
+adult grammar rather than halting. It was, she supposed, due to his
+constant adult company; children denied their contemporaries for
+playmates often take on attitudes beyond their years. Still, it was a bit
+on the too-superior side to please her. It was as if he were the result
+of over-indulgent parents who'd committed the mistake of letting the
+child know that their whole universe revolved about him.
+
+Yet Maxwell's letters said that he was motherless, that he was not
+Maxwell's son. This indicated a probable history of broken homes and
+remarriages. Mrs. Bagley thought the problem over and gave it up. It
+was a home.
+
+Things went on. They started warily but smoothly at first with Mrs.
+Bagley asking almost incessantly whether Mr. Maxwell would approve of
+this or that and should she do this or the other and, phrased cleverly,
+indicated that she would take the word of young James for the time being
+but there would be evil sputterings in the fireplace if the programs
+approved by young James Holden were not wholly endorsed by Mr. Charles
+Maxwell.
+
+At the end of the first week, supplies were beginning to run short and
+still there was no sign of any return of the missing Mr. Maxwell. With
+some misgiving, Mrs. Bagley broached the subject of shopping to James.
+The youngster favored Mrs. Bagley with another smile.
+
+"Yes," he said calmly. "Just a minute." And he disappeared upstairs to
+fetch another envelope. Inside was a second letter which read:
+
+  My Dear Mrs. Bagley:
+
+  Attached you will find letters addressed to several of the local
+  merchants in Shipmont, explaining your status as my housekeeper and
+  directing them to honor your purchases against my accounts. Believe me,
+  they recognize my signature despite the fact that they might not
+  recognize me! There should be no difficulty. I'd suggest, however, that
+  you start a savings account at the local bank with the enclosed salary
+  check. You have no idea how much weight the local banker carries in his
+  character-reference of folks with a savings account.
+
+  Otherwise, I trust things are pleasant.
+
+  Sincerely,
+  Charles Maxwell.
+
+"Things," she mused aloud, "are pleasant enough."
+
+James nodded. "Good," he said. "You're satisfied, then?"
+
+Mrs. Bagley smiled at him wistfully. "As they go," she said, "I'm
+satisfied. Lord knows, you're no great bother, James, and I'll be most
+happy to tell Mr. Maxwell so when he returns."
+
+James nodded. "You're not concerned over Maxwell, are you?"
+
+She sobered. "Yes," she said in a whisper. "Yes, I am. I'm afraid that
+he'll change things, that he'll not approve of Martha, or the way dinner
+is made, or my habits in dishwashing or bedmaking or marketing or
+something that will--well, put me right in the role of a paid
+chambermaid, a servant, a menial with no more to say about the running
+of the house, once he returns."
+
+James Holden hesitated, thought, then smiled.
+
+"Mrs. Bagley," he said apologetically, "I've thrown you a lot of curves.
+I hope you won't mind one more."
+
+The woman frowned. James said hurriedly, "Oh, it's nothing bad, believe
+me. I mean--Well, you'll have to judge for yourself.
+
+"You see, Mrs. Bagley," he said earnestly, "there isn't any Charles
+Maxwell."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Janet Bagley, with the look of a stricken animal, sat down heavily. There
+were two thoughts suddenly in her mind: _Now I've got to leave_, and,
+_But I can't leave_.
+
+She sat looking at the boy, trying to make sense of what he had said.
+Mrs. Bagley was a young woman, but she had lived a demanding and
+unrelenting life; her husband dead, her finances calamitous, a baby to
+feed and raise ... there had been enough trouble in her life and she
+sought no more.
+
+But she was also a woman of some strength of character.
+
+Janet Bagley had not been able to afford much joy, but when things were
+at their worst she had not wept. She had been calm. She had taken what
+inexpensive pleasures she could secure--the health of her daughter, the
+strength of her arms to earn a living, the cunning of her mind to make a
+dollar do the work of five. She had learned that there was no bargain
+that was not worth investigating; the shoddiest goods were worth owning
+at a price; the least attractive prospect had to be faced and understood,
+for any commodity becomes a bargain when the price is right. There was
+no room for laziness or indulgence in her life. There was also no room
+for panic.
+
+So Janet Bagley thought for a moment, and then said: "Tell me what you're
+talking about, James."
+
+James Holden said immediately: "I am Charles Maxwell. That is, 'Charles
+Maxwell' is a pen name. He has no other existence."
+
+"But--"
+
+"But it's true, Mrs. Bagley," the boy said earnestly. "I'm only eight
+years old, but I happen to be earning my own living--as a writer, under
+the name of, among others, Charles Maxwell. Perhaps you've looked up some
+of the 'Charles Maxwell' books? If so, you may have seen some of the book
+reviews that were quoted on the jackets--I remember one that said that
+Charles Maxwell writes as though he himself were a boy, with the
+education of an adult. Well, that's the fact of the case."
+
+Mrs. Bagley said slowly, "But I did look Mr. Max--I mean, I did look you
+up. There was a complete biographical sketch in _Woman's Life_.
+Thirty-one years old, I remember."
+
+"I know. I wrote it. It too was fiction."
+
+"You wrote--but why?"
+
+"Because I was asked to write it," said James.
+
+"But, well--what I mean, is--Just who is Mr. Maxwell? The man at the
+station said something about a hermit, but--"
+
+"The Hermit of Martin's Hill is a convenient character carefully prepared
+to explain what might have looked like a very odd household," said James
+Holden. "Charles Maxwell, the Hermit, does not exist except in the minds
+of the neighbors and the editors of several magazines, and of course, the
+readers of those pages."
+
+"But he wrote me himself." The bewildered woman paused.
+
+"That's right, Mrs. Bagley. There's absolutely nothing illegal about a
+writer's using a pen name. Absolutely nothing. Some writers become so
+well-known by their pseudonym that they answer when someone calls them.
+So long as the writer isn't wanted by the F.B.I. for some heinous crime,
+and so long as he can unscramble the gobbledygook on Form 1040, stay out
+of trouble, pay his rent, and make his regular contributions to Social
+Security, nobody cares what name he uses."
+
+"But where are your parents? Have you no friends? No legal guardian? Who
+handles your business affairs?"
+
+James said in a flat tone of recital, "My parents are dead. What friends
+and family I have, want to turn me over to my legal guardian. My legal
+guardian is the murderer of my parents and the would-have-been murderer
+of me if I hadn't been lucky. Someday I shall prove it. And I handle my
+affairs myself, by mail, as you well know. I placed the advertisement,
+wrote the letters of reply, wrote those letters that answered specific
+questions and asked others, and I wrote the check that you cashed in
+order to buy your railroad ticket, Mrs. Bagley. No, don't worry. It's
+good."
+
+Mrs. Bagley tried to digest all that and failed. She returned to the
+central point. "But you're a minor--"
+
+"I am," admitted James Holden. "But you accepted my checks, your bank
+accepted my checks, and they've been honored by the clearing houses. My
+own bank has been accepting them for a couple of years now. It will
+continue to be that way until something goes wrong and I'm found out. I'm
+taking every precaution that nothing goes wrong."
+
+"Still--"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, look at me. I am precisely what I seem to be. I am a young
+male human being, eight years old, possessed of a good command of the
+English language and an education superior to the schooling of any
+high-school graduate. It is true that I am an infant in the eyes of the
+law, so I have not the right to hold the ear of the law long enough to
+explain my competence."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Listen a moment," insisted James. "You can't hope to hear it all in one
+short afternoon. It may take weeks before you fully understand."
+
+"You assume that I'll stay, then?"
+
+James smiled. Not the wide open, simple smile of youth but the knowing
+smile of someone pleased with the success of his own plans. "Mrs. Bagley,
+of the many replies to my advertisement, yours was selected because you
+are in a near-desperate position. My advertisement must have sounded
+tailor-made to fit your case; a young widow to work as resident
+housekeeper, child of preschool or early school age welcome. Well, Mrs.
+Bagley, your qualifications are tailor-made for me, too. You are in need,
+and I can give you what you need--a living salary, a home for you and
+your daughter, and for your daughter an education that will far transcend
+any that you could ever provide for her."
+
+"And how do you intend to make that come to pass?"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, at the present time there are only two people alive who
+know the answer to that question. I am one of them. The other is my
+so-called legal 'guardian' who would be most happy to guard me right out
+of my real secret. You will be the third person alive to know that my
+mother and father built a machine that produces the same deeply-inlaid
+memory-track of information as many months of learning-by-repetition.
+With that machine, I absorbed the information available to a high-school
+student before I was five. I am rebuilding that machine now from plans
+and specifications drilled into my brain by my father. When it is
+complete, I intend to become the best informed person in the world."
+
+"That isn't right," breathed Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"Isn't it?" asked James seriously. "Isn't it right? Is it wrong, when at
+the present time it takes a man until he is almost thirty years old
+before he can say that his education is complete?"
+
+"Well, I suppose you're right."
+
+James eyed Mrs. Bagley carefully. He said softly, "Mrs. Bagley, tell me,
+would you give Martha a college education if you had--or will you if you
+have at the time--the wherewithal to provide it?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"You have it here," said James. "So long as you stay to protect it."
+
+"But won't it make--?" her voice trailed away uncertainly.
+
+"A little intellectual monster out of her?" laughed the boy. "Maybe.
+Maybe I am, too. On the other hand it might make a brilliant woman out of
+her. She might be a doctor if she has the capacity of a brilliant doctor.
+My father's machine is no monster-maker, Mrs. Bagley. With it a person
+could memorize the Britannica. And from the Britannica that person would
+learn that there is much good in the world and also that there is rich
+reward for being a part of that capacity for good."
+
+"I seem to have been outmaneuvered," said Mrs. Bagley with a worried
+frown.
+
+James smiled. "Not at all," he said. "It was just a matter of finding
+someone who wanted desperately to have what I wanted to give, and of
+course overcoming the natural adult reluctance to admit that anybody
+my size and age can operate on grown-up terms."
+
+"You sound so sure of yourself."
+
+"I am sure of myself. And one of the more important things in life is to
+understand one's limitations."
+
+"But couldn't you convince them--?"
+
+"One--you--I can convince. Maybe another, later. But if I tackle the
+great American public, I'm licked by statistics. My guess is that there
+is one brand-new United States citizen born every ten seconds. It takes
+me longer than ten seconds to convince someone, that I know what I'm
+talking about. But so long as I have an accepted adult out front, running
+the store, I don't have to do anything but sit backstage, run the hidden
+strings, and wait until my period of growth provides me with a stature
+that won't demand any explanation."
+
+From the playroom, Martha came running. "Mummy! Mummy!" she cried in a
+shrill voice filled with the strident tones of alarm, "Dolly's sick and
+I can't leave her!"
+
+Mrs. Bagley folded her daughter in her arms. "We won't leave," she said.
+"We're staying."
+
+James Holden nodded with satisfaction, but one thing he realized then and
+there: He simply had to rush the completion of his father's machine.
+
+He could not stand the simpering prattle of Martha Bagley's playgames.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+
+The arrival of Mrs. Bagley changed James Holden's way of life far more
+than he'd expected. His basic idea had been to free himself from the
+hours of dishwashing, bedmaking, dusting, cleaning and straightening
+and from the irking chore of planning his meals far enough ahead to
+obtain sustenance either through mail or carried note. He gave up his
+haphazard chores readily. Mrs. Bagley's menus often served him dishes
+that he wouldn't have given house-room; but he also enjoyed many meals
+that he could not or would not have taken the time to prepare.
+
+He did have some faint notion that being freed from the household toil
+would allow him sixteen or eighteen hours at the typewriter, but he was
+not greatly dismayed to find that this did not work.
+
+When he wrote himself out, he relaxed by reading, or sitting quietly
+planning his next piece. Even that did not fill his entire day. To take
+some advantage of his time, James began to indulge in talk-fests with
+Mrs. Bagley.
+
+These were informative. He was learning from her how the outside world
+was run, from one who had no close association with his own former life.
+Mrs. Bagley was by no means well-informed on all sides of life, but she
+did have her opinions and her experiences and a fair idea of how things
+went on in her own level. And, of course, James had made this choice
+because of the girl. He wanted a companion of his own age. Regardless of
+what Mrs. Bagley really thought of this matter of rapid education, James
+proposed to use it on Martha. That would give him a companion of his own
+like, they would come closer to understanding one another than he could
+ever hope to find understanding elsewhere.
+
+So he talked and played with Martha in his moments of relaxation. And he
+found her grasp of life completely unreal.
+
+James could not get through to her. He could not make her stop
+play-acting in everything that she did not ignore completely. It worried
+him.
+
+With the arrival of summer, James and Martha played outside in the fresh
+air. They made a few shopping excursions into town, walking the mile and
+more by taking their time, and returning with their shopping load in the
+station-master's taxicab mail car. But on these expeditions, James hung
+close to Martha lest her babbling prattle start an unwelcome line of
+thought. She never did it, but James was forever on edge.
+
+This source of possible danger drove him hard. The machine that was
+growing in a mare's-nest on the second floor began to evolve faster.
+
+James Holden's work was a strangely crude efficiency. The prototype had
+been built by his father bit by bit and step by step as its design
+demanded. Sections were added as needed, and other sections believed
+needed were abandoned as the research showed them unnecessary. Louis
+Holden had been a fine instrumentation engineer, but his first models
+were hay-wired in the breadboard form. James copied his father's
+work--including his father's casual breadboard style. And he added some
+inefficiencies of his own.
+
+Furthermore, James was not strong enough to lift the heavier assemblies
+into place. James parked the parts wherever they would sit.
+
+To Mrs. Bagley, the whole thing was bizarre and unreasonable. Given her
+opinion, with no other evidence, she would have rejected the idea at
+once. She simply did not understand anything of a technical nature.
+
+One day she bluntly asked him how he knew what he was doing.
+
+James grinned. "I really _don't_ know what I'm doing," he admitted. "I'm
+only following some very explicit directions. If I knew the pure theory
+of my father's machine I could not design the instrumentation that would
+make it work. But I can build a reproduction of my father's machine from
+the directions."
+
+"How can that be?"
+
+James stopped working and sat on a packing case. "If you bought a
+lawn-mower," he said, "it might come neatly packed in a little box with
+all the parts nested in cardboard formers and all the little nuts and
+bolts packed in a bag. There would be a set of assembly directions,
+written in such a way as to explain to anybody who can read that Part A
+is fastened to Bracket B using Bolt C, Lockwasher D, and Nut E. My
+father's one and only recognition of the dangers of the unforeseeable
+future was to drill deep in my brain these directions. For instance," and
+he pointed to a boxed device, "that thing is an infra-low frequency
+amplifier. Now, I haven't much more than a faint glimmer of what the
+thing is and how it differs from a standard amplifier, but I know that it
+must be built precisely thus-and-so, and finally it must be fitted into
+the machine per instructions. Look, Mrs. Bagley." James picked up a
+recently-received package, swept a place clear on the packing case and
+dumped it out. It disgorged several paper bags of parts, some large
+plates and a box. He handed her a booklet. "Try it yourself," he said.
+"That's a piece of test equipment made in kit form by a commercial outfit
+in Michigan. Follow those directions and build it for me."
+
+"But I don't know anything about this sort of thing."
+
+"You can read," said James with a complete lack of respect. He turned
+back to his own work, leaving Mrs. Bagley leafing her way through the
+assembly manual.
+
+To the woman it was meaningless. But as she read, a secondary thought
+rose in her mind. James was building this devilish-looking nightmare, and
+he had every intention of using it on her daughter! She accepted without
+understanding the fact that James Holden's superior education had come of
+such a machine--but it had been a machine built by a competent mechanic.
+She stole a look at James. The anomaly puzzled her.
+
+When the lad talked, his size and even the thin boyish voice were negated
+by the intelligence of his words, the size of his vocabulary, the clarity
+of his statements. Now that he was silent, he became no more than an
+eight-year-old lad who could not possibly be doing anything constructive
+with this mad array of equipment. The messiness of the place merely made
+the madness of the whole program seem worse.
+
+But she turned back to her booklet. Maybe James was right. If she could
+assemble this doodad without knowing the first principle of its
+operation, without even knowing from the name what the thing did, then
+she might be willing to admit that--messy as it looked--the machine could
+be reconstructed.
+
+Trapped by her own interest, Mrs. Bagley pitched in.
+
+They took a week off to rearrange the place. They built wooden shelves to
+hold the parts in better order. These were by no means the work of a
+carpenter, for Mrs. Bagley's aim with a saw was haphazard, and her
+batting average with a hammer was about .470; but James lacked the
+strength, so the construction job was hers. Crude as it was, the place
+looked less like a junkshop when they were done. Work resumed on the
+assembly of the educator.
+
+Of course the writing suffered.
+
+The budget ran low. James was forced to abandon the project for his
+typewriter. He drove himself hard, fretting and worrying himself into a
+stew time after time. And then as August approached, Nature stepped in to
+add more disorder.
+
+James entered a "period of growth." In three weeks he gained two inches.
+
+His muscles, his bones and his nervous system ceased to coordinate. He
+became clumsy. His handwriting underwent a change, so severe that James
+had to practically forge his own signature of Charles Maxwell. To avoid
+trouble he stopped the practice of writing individual checks for the
+bills and transferred a block sum of money to an operating account in
+Mrs. Bagley's name.
+
+His fine regimen went to pieces.
+
+He embarked on a haphazard program of sleeping, eating and working at odd
+hours, and his appetite became positively voracious. He wanted what he
+wanted when he wanted it, even if it were the middle of the night. He
+pouted and groused when he didn't get it. In calmer moments he hated
+himself for these tantrums, but no amount of self-rationalization stopped
+them.
+
+During this period, James was by no means an efficient youngster. His
+writing suffered the ills of both his period of growth and his upset
+state of mind. His fingers failed to coordinate on his typewriter and his
+manuscript copy turned out rough, with strikeovers, xxx-outs, and gross
+mistakes. The pile of discarded paper massed higher than his finished
+copy until Mrs. Bagley took over and began to retype his rough script
+for him.
+
+His state of mind remained chaotic.
+
+Mrs. Bagley began to treat him with special care. She served him warm
+milk and insisted that he rest. Finally she asked him why he drove
+himself so hard.
+
+"We are approaching the end of summer," he said, "and we are not
+prepared."
+
+"Prepared for what?"
+
+They were relaxing in the living room, James fretting and Mrs. Bagley
+seated, Martha Bagley asprawl on the floor turning the pages of a
+crayon-coloring book. "Look at us," he said. "I am a boy of eight, your
+daughter is a girl of seven. By careful dress and action I could pass for
+a child one year younger, but that would still make me seven. Last summer
+when I was seven, I passed for six."
+
+"Yes, but--?"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, there are laws about compulsory education. Sooner or later
+someone is going to get very curious about us."
+
+"What do you intend to do about it?"
+
+"That's the problem," he said. "I don't really know. With a lot of
+concentrated effort I can probably enter school if I have to, and keep my
+education covered up. But Martha is another story."
+
+"I don't see--?" Mrs. Bagley bit her lip.
+
+"We can't permit her to attend school," said James.
+
+"You shouldn't have advertised for a woman with a girl child!" said Mrs.
+Bagley.
+
+"Perhaps not. But I wanted someone of my own age and size around so that
+we can grow together. I'm a bit of a misfit until I'm granted the right
+to use my education as I see fit."
+
+"And you hope to make Martha another misfit?"
+
+"If you care to put it that way," admitted James. "Someone has to start.
+Someday all kids will be educated with my machine and then there'll be no
+misfits."
+
+"But until then--?"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, I am not worried about what is going to happen next year. I
+am worried about what is going to happen next month."
+
+Mrs. Bagley sat and watched him for a moment. This boy was worried, she
+could see that. But assuming that any part of his story was true--and it
+was impossible to doubt it--he had ample cause.
+
+The past years had given Mrs. Bagley a hard shell because it was useful
+for survival; to keep herself and her child alive she had had to be
+permanently alert for every threat. Clearly this was a threat. Martha was
+involved. Martha's future was, at the least, bound to be affected by what
+James did.
+
+And the ties of blood and habit made Martha's future the first
+consideration in Janet Bagley's thoughts.
+
+But not the only consideration; for there is an in-born trait in the
+human race which demands that any helpless child should be helped. James
+was hardly helpless; but he certainly was a child. It was easy to forget
+it, talking to him--until something came up that the child could not
+handle.
+
+Mrs. Bagley sighed. In a different tone she asked, "What did you do last
+year?"
+
+"Played with Rags on the lawn," James said promptly. "A boy and his dog
+is a perfectly normal sight--in the summer. Then, when school opened, I
+stayed in the house as much as I could. When I had to go out I tried to
+make myself look younger. Short pants, dirty face. I don't think I could
+get away with it this year."
+
+"I think you're right," Mrs. Bagley admitted. "Well, suppose you could do
+what you wish this year? What would that be?"
+
+James said: "I want to get my machine working. Then I want to use it on
+Martha."
+
+"On Martha! But--"
+
+James said patiently: "It won't hurt her, Mrs. Bagley. There isn't any
+other way. The first thing she needs is a good command of English."
+
+"English?" Mrs. Bagley hesitated, and was lost. After all, what was wrong
+with the girl's learning proper speech?
+
+"Martha is a child both physically and intellectually. She has been
+talked to about 'right' and 'wrong' and she knows that 'telling the
+truth' is right, but she doesn't recognize that talking about fairies is
+a misstatement of the truth. Question her carefully about how we live,
+and you'll get a fair approximation of the truth."
+
+"So?"
+
+"But suppose someone asks Martha about the Hermit of Martin's Hill?"
+
+"What do you fear?"
+
+"We might play upon her make-believe stronger than we have. She play-acts
+his existence very well. But suppose someone asks her what he eats, or
+where he gets his exercise, or some other personal question. She hasn't
+the command of logic to improvise a convincing background."
+
+"But why should anybody ask such personal questions?" asked Mrs. Bagley.
+
+James said patiently: "To ask personal questions of an adult is 'prying'
+and is therefore considered improper and antisocial. To ask the same
+questions of a child is proper and social. It indicates a polite interest
+in the world of the child. You and I, Mrs. Bagley, have a complete
+picture of the Hermit all prepared, and with our education we can
+improvise plausible answers. I've hoped to finish my machine early enough
+to provide Martha with the ability to do the same."
+
+"So what can we do?"
+
+"About the only thing we can do is to hide," said James. "Luckily,
+most of the business is conducted out of this place by mail. Write
+letters to some boarding school situated a good many miles from here.
+Ask the usual routine questions about entering a seven-year-old girl
+and an eight-year-old boy for one semester. Robert Holmes, our
+postmaster-taxicab driver-station-master, reads everything that isn't
+sealed. He will read the addresses, and he will see replies and read
+their return address."
+
+"And then we'll pretend to send you and Martha to boarding school?"
+
+James nodded. "Confinement is going to be difficult, but in this climate
+the weather gets nasty early and that keeps people out of one another's
+hair."
+
+"But this station-master business--?"
+
+"We've got to pull some wool over Robert's eyes," said James. "Somehow,
+we've got to make it entirely plausible. You've got to take Martha and me
+away and come back alone just as if we were in school."
+
+"We should have a car," said Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"A car is one piece of hardware that I could never justify," said James.
+"Nor," he chuckled, "buy from a mail-order house because I couldn't
+accept delivery. I bought furniture from Sears and had it delivered
+according to mailed instructions. But I figured it better to have the
+folks in Shipmont wondering why Charles Maxwell didn't own a car than to
+have them puzzling why he owned one that never was used, nor even moved.
+Besides, a car--costs--"
+
+Mrs. Bagley smiled with real satisfaction. "There," she said, "I think I
+can help. I can buy the car."
+
+James was startled. "But can you afford it?"
+
+Mrs. Bagley nodded seriously. "James," she said, "I've been scratching
+out an existence on hard terms and I've had to make sure of tomorrow.
+Even when things were worst, I tried to put something away--some weeks it
+was only a few pennies, sometimes nothing at all. But--well, I'm not
+afraid of tomorrow any more."
+
+James was oddly pleased. While he was trying to find a way to say it,
+Mrs. Bagley relieved him of the necessity. "It won't be a brand-new
+convertible," she warned. "But they tell me you can get something that
+runs for two or three hundred dollars. Tim Fisher has some that look
+about right in his garage--and besides," she said, clinching it, "it
+gives me a chance to give out a little more Maxwell and boarding-school
+propaganda."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+
+The letter was a masterpiece of dissembling. It suggested, without
+promising, that Charles Maxwell intended to send his young charge to
+boarding school along with his housekeeper's daughter. It asked the
+school's advice and explained the deformity that made Charles Maxwell a
+recluse. The reply could hardly have been better if they'd penned it
+themselves for the signature of the faculty advisor. It discussed the
+pros and cons of away-from-home schooling and went on at great length to
+discuss the attitude of children and their upbringing amid strange
+surroundings. It invited a long and inconclusive correspondence--just
+what James wanted.
+
+The supposed departure for school went off neatly, no one in the town of
+Shipmont was surprised when Mrs. Bagley turned up buying an automobile of
+several years' vintage because this was a community where everybody had
+one.
+
+The letters continued at the rate of one every two or three weeks. They
+were picked up by Mrs. Bagley who let it be known that these were
+progress reports. In reality, they were little tracts on the theory of
+child education. They kept up the correspondence for the information it
+contained, and also because Mrs. Bagley enjoyed this contact with an
+outer world that contained adults.
+
+Meanwhile, James ended his spurt of growth and settled down. Work on his
+machine continued when he could afford to buy the parts, and his writing
+settled down into a comfortable channel once more. In his spare time
+James began to work on Martha's diction.
+
+Martha could not have been called a retarded child. Her trouble was lack
+of constant parental attention during her early years. With father gone
+and mother struggling to live, Martha had never overcome some of the
+babytalk-diction faults. There was still a trace of the omitted 'B' here
+and there. 'Y' was a difficult sound; the color of a lemon was "Lellow."
+Martha's English construction still bore marks of the baby. "Do you have
+to--" came out as "Does you has to--?"
+
+James Holden's father had struggled in just this way through his early
+experimental days, when he despaired of ever getting the infant James out
+of the baby-prattle stage. He could not force, he could not even coerce.
+All that his father could do was to watch quietly as baby James acquired
+the awareness of things. Then he could step in and supply the correct
+word-sound to name the object. In those early days the progress of James
+Holden was no greater than the progress of any other infant. Holden
+Senior followed the theory of ciphers; no cryptologist can start
+unravelling a secret message until he is aware of the fact that some
+hidden message exists. No infant can be taught a language until some
+awareness tells the tiny brain that there is some definite connection
+between sound and sight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For the next few weeks James worked with Martha on her speech, and hated
+it. So slow, so dreary! But it was necessary, he thought, to keep her
+from establishing any more permanent errors, so that when the machine was
+ready there would be at least a blank slate to write on, not one all
+scribbled over with mistakes.
+
+Time passed; the weather grew colder; the machine spread its scattered
+parts over his workroom.
+
+Janet Bagley knew that the machine was growing, but it had not occurred
+to her that it would be finished. She had grown accustomed to her life on
+Martin's Hill. By her standards, it was easy. She made three meals each
+day, cleaned the rooms, hung curtains, sewed clothing for Martha and
+herself, did the shopping and had time enough left over to take
+excursions in her little car and keep her daughter out of mischief. It
+was pleasant. It was more than pleasant, it was safe.
+
+And then the machine was finished.
+
+Mrs. Bagley took a sandwich and a glass of milk to James and found him
+sitting on a chair, a heavy headset covering most of his skull, reading
+aloud from a textbook on electronic theory.
+
+Mrs. Bagley stopped at the door, unaccountably startled.
+
+James looked up and shut off his work. "It's finished," he said with
+grave pride.
+
+"All of it?"
+
+"Well," he said, pondering, "the basic part. It works."
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked at the scramble of equipment in the room as though it
+were an enemy. It didn't look finished. It didn't even look safe. But she
+trusted James, although she felt at that moment that she would grow old
+and die before she understood why and how any collection of apparatus
+could be functional and still be so untidy. "It--could teach me?"
+
+"If you had something you want to memorize."
+
+"I'd like to memorize some of the pet recipes from my cookbook."
+
+"Get it," directed James.
+
+She hesitated. "How does it work?" she wanted to know first.
+
+He countered with another question. "How do we memorize anything?"
+
+She thought. "Why, by repeating and repeating and rehearsing and
+rehearsing."
+
+"Yes," said James. "So this device does the repetition for you.
+Electromechanically."
+
+"But how?"
+
+James smiled wistfully. "I can give you only a thumbnail sketch," he
+said, "until I have had time to study the subjects that lead up to the
+final theory."
+
+"Goodness," exclaimed Mrs. Bagley, "all I want is a brief idea. I
+wouldn't understand the principles at all."
+
+"Well, then, my mother, as a cerebral surgeon, knew the anatomy of the
+human brain. My father, as an instrument-maker, designed and built
+encephalographs. Together, they discovered that if the great waves of the
+brain were filtered down and the extremely minute waves that ride on top
+of them were amplified, the pattern of these superfine waves went through
+convolutions peculiar to certain thoughts. Continued research refined
+their discovery.
+
+"Now, the general theory is that the cells of the brain act sort of like
+a binary digital computer, with certain banks of cells operating to store
+sufficient bits of information to furnish a complete memory. In the
+process of memorization, individual cells become activated and linked by
+the constant repetition.
+
+"Second, the brain within the skull is a prisoner, connected to the
+'outside' by the five standard sensory channels of sight, sound, touch,
+taste, and smell. Stimulate a channel, and the result is a certain
+wave-shape of electrical impulse that enters the brain and--sort of like
+the key to a Yale lock--fits only one combination of cells. Or if no
+previous memory is there, it starts its own new collection of cells to
+linking and combining. When we repeat and repeat, we are deepening the
+groove, so to speak.
+
+"Finally comes the Holden Machine. The helmet makes contact with the
+skull in those spots where the probes of the encephalograph are placed.
+When the brain is stimulated into thought, the brain waves are monitored
+and recorded, amplified, and then fed back to the same brain-spots. Not
+once, but multifold, like the vibration of a reed or violin string. The
+circuit that accepts signals, amplifies them, returns them to the same
+set of terminals, and causes them to be repeated several hundred times
+per millisecond without actually ringing or oscillating is the real
+research secret of the machine. My father's secret and now mine."
+
+"And how do we use it?"
+
+"You want to memorize a list of ingredients," said James. "So you will
+put this helmet on your head with the cookbook in your hands. You will
+turn on the machine when you have read the part you want to memorize just
+to be sure of your material. Then, with the machine running, you
+carefully read aloud the passage from your book. The vibrating amplifier
+in the machine monitors and records each electrical impulse, then
+furnishes it back to your brain as a successive series of repetitious
+vibrations, each identical in shape and magnitude, just as if you had
+actually read and re-read that list of stuff time and again."
+
+"And then I'll know it cold?"
+
+James shook his head. "Then you'll be about as confused as you've ever
+been. For several hours, none of it will make sense. You'll be thinking
+things like a 'cup of salt and a pinch of water,' or maybe, 'sugar three
+of mustard and two spoonthree teas.' And then in a few hours all of this
+mish-mash will settle itself down into the proper serial arrangement; it
+will fit the rest of your brain-memory-pattern comfortably."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I don't know. It has something to do with the same effect one gets out
+of studying. On Tuesday one can read a page of textbook and not grasp a
+word of it. Successive readings help only a little. Then in about a week
+it all becomes quite clear, just as if the brain had sorted it and filed
+it logically among the other bits of information. Well, what about that
+cookbook?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Bagley, with the air of someone agreeing to have a tooth
+pulled when it hasn't really started to hurt, "I'll get it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden allowed himself a few pleasant daydreams. The most
+satisfactory of all was one of himself pleading his own case before the
+black-robed Justices of the Supreme Court, demolishing his detractors
+with a flow of his brilliance and convincing them beyond any doubt that
+he did indeed have the right to walk alone. That there be no question of
+his intellect, James proposed to use his machine to educate himself to
+completion. He would be the supreme student of the arts and the sciences,
+of law, language, and literature. He would know history and the
+humanities, and the dreams and aims of the great philosophers and
+statesmen, and he would even be able to quote in their own terms the
+drives of the great dictators and some of the evil men so that he could
+draw and compare to show that he knew the difference between good and
+bad.
+
+But James Holden had no intention of sharing this limelight.
+
+His superb brilliance was to be compared to the average man's, not to
+another one like him. He had the head start. He intended to keep it until
+he had succeeded in compelling the whole world to accept him with the
+full status of a free adult.
+
+Then, under his guidance, he would permit the world-wide use of his
+machine.
+
+His loneliness had forced him to revise that dream by the addition of
+Martha Bagley; he needed a companion, contemporary, and foil. His mental
+playlet no longer closed with James Holden standing alone before the
+Bench. Now it ended with Martha saying proudly, "James, I knew you could
+do it."
+
+Martha Bagley's brilliance would not conflict with his. He could
+stay ahead of her forever. But he had no intention of allowing some
+experienced adult to partake of this program of enforced education. He
+was, therefore, going to find himself some manner or means of preventing
+Mrs. Bagley from running the gamut of all available information.
+
+James Holden evaluated all people in his own terms, he believed that
+everybody was just as eager for knowledge as he was.
+
+So he was surprised to find that Mrs. Bagley's desire for extended
+education only included such information as would make her own immediate
+personal problems easier. Mrs. Bagley was the first one of the mass of
+people James was destined to meet who not only did not know how or why
+things worked, but further had no intention whatsoever of finding out.
+
+Instead of trying to monopolize James Holden's machine, Mrs. Bagley was
+satisfied to learn a number of her pet recipes. After a day of thought
+she added her social security number, blood type, some birthdays, dates,
+a few telephone numbers and her multiplication tables. She announced that
+she was satisfied. It solved James Holden's problem--and stunned him
+completely.
+
+But James had very little time to worry about Mrs. Bagley's attitude. He
+found his hands full with Martha.
+
+Martha played fey. Her actions and attitude baffled James, and even
+confused her mother. There was no way of really determining whether the
+girl was scared to death of the machine itself, or whether she simply
+decided to be difficult. And she uttered the proper replies with all of
+the promptness--and intelligence--of a ventriloquist's dummy:
+
+"You don't want to be ignorant, do you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You want to be smart, like James, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You know the machine won't hurt, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then let's try it just once, please?"
+
+"No."
+
+Back to the beginning again. Martha would agree to absolutely anything
+except the educator.
+
+Leaving the argument to Mrs. Bagley, James sat down angrily with a book.
+He was so completely frustrated that he couldn't read, but he sat there
+leafing the pages slowly and making a determined show of not lifting his
+head.
+
+Mrs. Bagley went on for another hour before she reached the end of her
+own patience. She stood up almost rigid with anger. James never knew how
+close Mrs. Bagley was to making use of a hairbrush on her daughter's
+bottom. But Mrs. Bagley also realized that Martha had to go into this
+process willing to cooperate. So, instead of physical punishment, she
+issued a dictum:
+
+"You'll go to your room and stay there until you're willing!"
+
+And at that point Martha ceased being stubborn and began playing games.
+
+She permitted herself to be led to the chair, and then went through a
+routine of skittishness, turning her head and squirming incessantly,
+which made it impossible for James to place the headset properly. This
+went on until he stalked away and sat down again. Immediately Martha sat
+like a statue. But as soon as James reached for the little screws that
+adjusted the electrodes, Martha started to giggle and squirm. He stalked
+away and sat through another session between Martha and her mother.
+
+Late in the afternoon James succeeded in getting her to the machine;
+Martha uttered a sentence without punctuating it with little giggles, but
+it came as elided babytalk.
+
+"Again," he commanded.
+
+"I don't wan' to."
+
+"Again!" he snapped.
+
+Martha began to cry.
+
+That, to James, was the end. But Mrs. Bagley stepped forward with a
+commanding wave for James to vacate the premises and took over. James
+could not analyze her expression, but it did look as if it held relief.
+He left the room to them; a half hour later Mrs. Bagley called him back.
+
+"She's had it," said Mrs. Bagley. "Now you can start, I think."
+
+James looked dubious; but said, "Read this."
+
+"Martha?"
+
+Martha took a deep breath and said, nicely, "'A' is the first
+letter of the English Alphabet."
+
+"Good." He pressed the button. "Again? Please?"
+
+Martha recited it nicely.
+
+"Fine," he said. "Now we'll look up 'Is' and go on from there."
+
+"My goodness," said Mrs. Bagley, "this is going to take months."
+
+"Not at all," said James. "It just goes slowly at the start. Most of the
+definitions use the same words over and over again. Martha really knows
+most of these simple words, we've just got to be dead certain that her
+own definition of them agrees wholly and completely with ours. After a
+couple of hours of this minute detail, we'll be skipping over everything
+but new words. After all, she only has to work them over once, and as we
+find them, we'll mark them out of the book. Ready, Martha?"
+
+"Can't read it."
+
+James took the little dictionary. "Um," he said. "Hadn't occurred to me."
+
+"What?" asked Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"This thing says, Three-rd pers period sing periodic indic period of Be,'
+the last in heavy bold type. Can't have Martha talking in abbreviations,"
+he chuckled. He went to the typewriter and wrote it out fully. "Now read
+that," he directed.
+
+She did and again the process went through without a hitch. Slowly, but
+surely, they progressed for almost two hours before Martha rebelled.
+James stopped, satisfied with the beginning.
+
+But as time wore on into the late autumn, Martha slowly--oh, so
+slowly!--began to realize that there was importance to getting things
+right. She continued to tease. But she did her teasing before James
+closed the "Run" button.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+
+Once James progressed Martha through the little dictionary, he began with
+a book of grammar. Again it started slowly; he had to spend quite a bit
+of time explaining to Martha that she did indeed know all of the terms
+used in the book of grammar because they'd all been defined by the
+dictionary, now she was going to learn how the terms and their
+definitions were used.
+
+James was on more familiar ground now. James, like Martha, had learned
+his first halting sentence structure by mimicking his parents, but he
+remembered the process of learning why and how sentences are constructed
+according to the rules, and how the rules are used rather than intuition
+in forming sentences.
+
+Grammar was a topic that could not be taken in snippets and bits. Whole
+paragraphs had to be read until Martha could read them without a halt or
+a mispronunciation, and then committed to memory with the "Run" button
+held down. At the best it was a boring process, even though it took only
+minutes instead of days. It was not conflicting, but it was confusing.
+It installed permanently certain solid blocks of information that were
+isolated; they stood alone until later blocks came in to connect them
+into a whole area.
+
+Each session was numbing. Martha could take no more than a couple of
+hours, after which her reading became foggy. She wanted a nap after each
+session and even after the nap she went around in a bemused state of
+mental dizziness.
+
+Life settled down once more in the House on Martin's Hill. James worked
+with the machine himself and laid out lessons to guide Martha. Then,
+finished for the day with education, James took to his typewriter while
+Martha had her nap. It filled the days of the boy and girl completely.
+
+This made an unexpected and pleasant change in Mrs. Bagley's routine. It
+had been a job to keep Martha occupied. Now that Martha was busy, Mrs.
+Bagley found time on her own hands; without interruption, her housework
+routine was completed quite early in the afternoon.
+
+Mrs. Bagley had never made any great point of getting dressed for dinner.
+She accumulated a collection of house-frocks; printed cotton washables
+differing somewhat in color and cut but functionally identical. She wore
+them serially as they came from the row of hangers in her closet.
+
+Now she began to acquire some dressier things, wearing them even during
+her shopping trips.
+
+James paid little attention to this change in his housekeeper's routine,
+but he approved. Mrs. Bagley was also taking more pains with the 'do' of
+her hair, but the boy's notice was not detailed enough to take a
+part-by-section inventory of the whole. In fact, James gave the whole
+matter very little thought until Mrs. Bagley made a second change after
+her return from town, appearing for dinner in what James could only
+classify as a party dress.
+
+She asked, "James, do you mind if I go out this evening?"
+
+James, startled, shrugged and said, "No, I guess not."
+
+"You'll keep an ear out for Martha?"
+
+The need for watching a sleeping girl of seven and a half did not
+penetrate. "What's up?" he asked.
+
+"It's been months since I saw a movie."
+
+James shrugged again, puzzled. "You saw the 'Bride of Frankenstein' last
+night on TV," he pointed out.
+
+"I first saw that old horror when I was about your age," she told him
+with a trace of disdain.
+
+"I liked it."
+
+"So did I at eight and a half. But tonight I'm going to see a _new_
+picture."
+
+"Okay," said James, wondering why anybody in their right mind would go
+out on a chilly night late in November just to see a moving picture when
+they could stay at home and watch one in comfort. "Have a good time."
+
+He expected Mrs. Bagley to take off in her car, but she did not. She
+waited until a brief _toot_! came from the road. Then, with a swirl of
+motion, she left.
+
+It took James Holden's limited experience some little time to identify
+the event with some similar scenes from books he'd read; even with him,
+reading about it was one world and seeing it happen was another thing
+entirely.
+
+For James Holden it opened a new area for contemplation. He would have to
+know something about this matter if he hoped to achieve his dreamed-of
+status as an adult.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Information about the relation between man and woman had not been
+included in the course of education devised by his father and mother.
+Therefore his physical age and his information on the delicate subject
+were approximately parallel.
+
+His personal evaluation of the subject was uncomplicated. At some age not
+much greater than his own, boys and girls conglomerated in a mass that
+milled around in a constant state of flux and motion, like individual
+atoms of gas compressed in a container. Meetings and encounters took
+place both singly and in groups until nearly everybody had been in touch
+with almost everybody else. Slowly the amorphous mass changed. Groups
+became attracted by mutual interests. Changes and exchanges took place,
+and then a pair-formation began to take place. The pair-formation went
+through its interchanges both with and without friction as the
+settling-down process proceeded. At times predictable by comparing it
+to the statistics of radioactivity, the pair-production resulted in
+permanent combination, which effectively removed this couple from free
+circulation.
+
+James Holden had no grasp or feeling for the great catalyst that causes
+this pair-production; he saw it only for its sheer mechanics. To him, the
+sensible way to go about this matter was to get there early and move
+fast, because one stands to make a better choice when there is a greater
+number of unattached specimens from which to choose. Those left over are
+likely to have flaws.
+
+And so he pondered, long after Martha had gone to bed.
+
+He was still up and waiting when he heard the car stop at the gate.
+He watched them come up the walk arm in arm, their stride slow and
+lingering. They paused for several moments on the doorstep, once there
+was a short, muted laugh. The snick of the key came next and they came
+into the hallway.
+
+"No, please don't come in," said Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"But--" replied the man.
+
+"But me no buts. It's late, Tim."
+
+Tim? Tim? That would probably be Timothy Fisher. He ran the local garage
+where Mrs. Bagley bought her car. James went on listening shamelessly.
+
+"Late? Phooey. When is eleven-thirty late?"
+
+"When it's right now," she replied with a light laugh. "Now, Tim. It's
+been very--"
+
+There came a long silence.
+
+Her voice was throaty when the silence broke. "Now, will you go?"
+
+"Of course," he said.
+
+"Not that way, silly," she said. "The door's behind you."
+
+"Isn't the door I want," he chuckled.
+
+"We're making enough noise to wake the dead," she complained.
+
+"Then let's stop talking," he told her.
+
+There was another long silence.
+
+"Now please go."
+
+"Can I come back tomorrow night?"
+
+"Not tomorrow."
+
+"Friday?"
+
+"Saturday."
+
+"It's a date, then."
+
+"All right. Now get along with you."
+
+"You're cruel and heartless, Janet," he complained. "Sending a man out in
+that cold and storm."
+
+"It isn't storming, and you've a fine heater in that car of yours."
+
+"I'd rather have you."
+
+"Do you tell that to all the girls?"
+
+"Sure. Even Maggie the Washerwoman is better than an old car heater."
+
+Mrs. Bagley chuckled throatily. "How is Maggie?"
+
+"She's fine."
+
+"I mean as a date."
+
+"Better than the car heater."
+
+"Tim, you're a fool."
+
+"When I was a kid," said Tim reflectively, "there used to be a female
+siren in the movies. Her pet line used to be 'Kiss me, my fool!' Theda
+Bara, I think. Before talkies. Now--"
+
+"No, Tim--"
+
+Another long silence.
+
+"Now, Tim, you've simply _got_ to go!"
+
+"Yeah, I know. You've convinced me."
+
+"Then why aren't you going?"
+
+He chuckled. "Look, you've convinced me. I can't stay so I'll go,
+obviously. But now that we've covered this problem, let's drop the
+subject for a while, huh?"
+
+"Don't spoil a fine evening, Tim."
+
+"Janet, what's with you, anyway?"
+
+"What do you mean, 'what's with me?'"
+
+"Just this. Somewhere up in the house is this oddball Maxwell who hides
+out all the time. He's either asleep or busy. Anyway, he isn't here. Do
+you have to report in, punch a time clock, tuck him in--or do you turn
+into a pumpkin at the stroke of twelve?"
+
+"Mr. Maxwell is paying me wages to keep house for him. That's all. Part
+of my wages is my keep. But it doesn't entitle me to have full run of the
+house or to bring guests in at midnight for a two-hour good-night
+session."
+
+"I'd like to tell this bird a thing or two," said Tim Fisher sharply. "He
+can't keep you cooped up like--like--"
+
+"Nobody is keeping me cooped up," she said. "Like what?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"You said 'like--'"
+
+"Skip it. What I meant is that you can't moulder, Janet. You've got to
+get out and meet people."
+
+"I've been out and I've met people. I've met you."
+
+"All to the good."
+
+"Fine. So you invited me out, and I went. It was fun. I liked it. You've
+asked me, and I've said that I'd like to do it again on Saturday. I've
+enjoyed being kissed, and I'll probably enjoy it again on Saturday. So--"
+
+"I'd think you'd enjoy a lot of it."
+
+"Because my husband has been gone for five years?"
+
+"Oh, now Janet--"
+
+"That's what you meant, isn't it?"
+
+"No. You've got me wrong."
+
+"Tim, stop it. You're spoiling a fine evening. You should have gone
+before it started to spoil. Now please put your smile on again and leave
+cheerfully. There's always Saturday--if you still want it."
+
+"I'll call you," he said.
+
+The door opened once more and then closed. James took a deep breath, and
+then stole away quietly to his own room.
+
+By some instinct he knew that this was no time to intercept Mrs. Bagley
+with a lot of fool questions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To the surprise and puzzlement of young James Quincy Holden, Mr. Timothy
+Fisher telephoned early upon the following evening. He was greeted quite
+cordially by Mrs. Bagley. Their conversation was rambling and inane,
+especially when heard from one end only, and it took them almost ten
+minutes to confirm their Saturday night date. That came as another shock.
+
+Well, not quite. The explanation bothered him even more than the fact
+itself. As a further extension of his little mechanical mating process,
+James had to find a place for the like of Jake Caslow and the women Jake
+knew. None of them were classed in the desirable group, all of them were
+among the leftovers. But of course, since none of them were good enough
+for the 'good' people, they were good enough for one another, and that
+made it all right--for them.
+
+But Mrs. Bagley was not of their ilk. It was not right that she should be
+forced to take a leftover.
+
+And then it occurred to him that perhaps Mrs. Bagley was not really
+taking the leftover, Tim Fisher, but instead was using Tim Fisher's
+company as a means toward meeting a larger group, from which there might
+be a better specimen. So he bided his time, thinking deeply around the
+subject, about which he knew nothing whatsoever.
+
+Saturday night was a repeat of Wednesday. They stayed out later, and upon
+their return they took possession of the living room for at least an hour
+before they started their routine about the going-home process. With
+minor variations in the dialog, and with longer and more frequent
+silences, it almost followed the Wednesday night script. The variation
+puzzled James even more. This session went according to program for a
+while until Tim Fisher admitted with regret that it was, indeed, time for
+him to depart. At which juncture Mrs. Bagley did not leap to her feet to
+accept his offer to do that which she had been asking him to do for a
+half hour. Mrs. Bagley compounded the affair by sighing deeply and
+agreeing with him that it was a shame that it was so late and that she,
+too, wished that he could stay a little longer. This, of course, put them
+precisely where they were a half hour earlier and they had to start the
+silly business all over again.
+
+They parted after a final fifteen-minute discussion at the front door.
+This discussion covered Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and finally came to
+agreement on Wednesday.
+
+And so James Holden went to bed that night fully convinced that in a town
+of approximately two thousand people--he did not count the two or three
+hundred A.E.C.-College group as part of the problem--there were entirely
+too few attractive leftovers from which Mrs. Bagley could choose.
+
+But as this association grew, it puzzled him even more. For in his
+understanding, any person forced to accept a second-rate choice does so
+with an air of resignation, but not with a cheerful smile, a sparkle in
+the eyes, and two hours of primping.
+
+James sought the answer in his books but they were the wrong volumes for
+reference of this subject. He considered the local Public Library only
+long enough to remember that it carried a few hundred books suitable for
+the A.E.C.-College crew and a thousand or so of second-hand culls donated
+by local citizens during cleanup campaigns. He resorted to buying books
+by mail through advertisements in newspapers and magazines and received a
+number of volumes of medical treatises, psychological texts, and a book
+on obstetrics that convinced him that baby-having was both rare and
+hazardous. He read _By Love Possessed_ but he did not recognize the many
+forms of love portrayed by the author because the volume was not
+annotated with signs or provided with a road map, and he did not know
+it when he read about it.
+
+He went through the Kinsey books and absorbed a lot of data and graphs
+and figures on human behavior that meant nothing to him. James was not
+even interested in the incidence of homosexuality among college students
+as compared to religious groups, or in the comparison between premarital
+experience and level of education. He knew the words and what the words
+meant as defined in other words. But they were only words and did not
+touch him where he lived.
+
+So, because none of the texts bothered to explain why a woman says Yes,
+when she means No, nor why a woman will cling to a man's lapels and press
+herself against him and at the same time tell him he has to go home,
+James remained ignorant. He could have learned more from Lord Byron,
+Shelley, Keats, or Browning than from Kinsey, deLee, or the "Instructive
+book on Sex, forwarded under plain wrapper for $2.69 postpaid."
+
+Luckily for James, he did not study any of his material via the medium of
+his father's machine or it would have made him sick. For he was not yet
+capable of understanding the single subject upon which more words have
+been expended in saying less than any other subject since the dawn of
+history.
+
+His approach was academic, he could have been reading the definitive
+material on the life-cycle of the beetle insofar as any stir of his own
+blood was concerned.
+
+From his study he did identify a couple of items. Tim Fisher obviously
+desired extramarital relations with Mrs. Bagley--or was it premarital
+relations? Probably both. Logic said that Mrs. Bagley, having already
+been married to Martha's father, could hardly enter into _pre_marital
+relations, although Tim could, since he was a bachelor. But they wouldn't
+be _pre_marital with Tim unless he followed through and married Mrs.
+Bagley. And so they must be _extra_marital. But whatever they were
+called, the Book said that there was about as much on one side as on the
+other.
+
+With a mind mildly aware of the facts of life, distorted through the eyes
+of near-nine James Holden, he watched them and listened in.
+
+As for Mrs. Bagley, she did not know that she was providing part of James
+Holden's extraliterary education. She enjoyed the company of Tim Fisher.
+Hesitantly, she asked James if she could have Tim for dinner one evening,
+and was a bit surprised at his immediate assent. They planned the
+evening, cleaned the lower part of the house of every trace of its
+current occupancy, and James and Martha hied themselves upstairs. Dinner
+went with candlelight and charcoal-broiled steak--and a tray taken aloft
+for "Mr. Maxwell" was consumed by James and Martha. The evening went
+smoothly. They listened to music and danced, they sat and talked. And
+James listened.
+
+Tim was not the same man. He sat calm and comfortably on the low sofa
+with Mrs. Bagley's head on his shoulder, both of them pleasantly bemused
+by the dancing fireplace and with each other's company. He said, "Well,
+I'm glad this finally happened."
+
+"What happened?" she replied in a murmur.
+
+"Getting the invite for dinner."
+
+"Might have been sooner, I suppose. Sorry."
+
+"What took you so long?"
+
+"Just being cautious, I guess."
+
+He chuckled. "Cautious?"
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+Tim laughed.
+
+"What's so darned funny?"
+
+"Women."
+
+"Are we such a bunch of clowns?"
+
+"Not clowns, Janet. Just funny."
+
+"All right, genius. Explain that."
+
+"A woman is a lovely creature who sends a man away so that he can't do
+what she wants him to do most of all."
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+"She feeds him full of rare steak until he wants to crawl off in a corner
+like the family mutt and go to sleep. Once she gets him in a somnolent
+state, she drapes herself tastefully on his shoulder and gets soft and
+warm and willing."
+
+Mrs. Bagley laughed throatily. "Just start getting active," she warned,
+"and you'll see how fast I can beat a hasty retreat."
+
+"Janet, what _is_ with you?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"What are you hiding?"
+
+"Hiding?"
+
+"Yes, confound it, hiding!" he said, his voice turning hard. "Just who is
+this Charles Maxwell character, anyway?"
+
+"Tim, please--"
+
+His voice lowered again. "Janet," he said softly, "you're asking me to
+trust you, and at the same time you're not trusting me."
+
+"But I've nothing to hide."
+
+"Oh, stop it. I'm no schoolboy, Janet. If you have nothing to hide, why
+are you acting as if you were sitting on the lid?"
+
+"I still don't know what you're talking about."
+
+"Your words say so, but your tone is the icy haughtiness that dares me,
+mere male that I am, to call your lie. I've a half-notion to stomp
+upstairs and confront your mysterious Maxwell--if he indeed exists."
+
+"You mustn't. He'd--"
+
+"He'd what? I've been in this house for hours day and night and now all
+evening. I've never heard a sound, not the creak of a floorboard, the
+slam of a door, the opening of a window, nor the distant gurgle of cool,
+clear water, gushing into plumbing. So you've been married. This I know.
+You have a daughter. This I accept. Your husband is dead. This happens to
+people every day; nice people, bad people, bright people, dull people.
+There was a young boy here last summer. Him I do not know, but you and
+your daughter I do know about. I've checked--"
+
+"How dare you check--?"
+
+"I damn well dare check anything and anybody I happen to be personally
+interested in," he stormed. "As a potential bed partner I wouldn't give a
+hoot who you were or what you were. But before I go to the point of
+dividing the rest of my life on an exclusive contract, I have the right
+to know what I'm splitting it with."
+
+"You have no right--"
+
+"Balderdash! I have as much right as anybody to look at the record. I
+grant you the same right to look up my family and my friends and the
+status of my bank account and my credit rating and my service record.
+Grant it? Hell, I couldn't stop you. Now, what's going on? Where is your
+daughter and where is that little boy? And where--if he exists--is this
+Charles Maxwell?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James had heard enough. No matter which way this was going, it would end
+up wrong. He was proud of Mrs. Bagley's loyalty, but he knew that it was
+an increasing strain and could very well lead to complications that could
+not be explained away without the whole truth. He decided that the only
+thing to do was to put in his own oar and relieve Mrs. Bagley.
+
+He walked in, yawning. He stood between them, facing Tim Fisher. Behind
+him, Mrs. Bagley cried, "Now see--you've awakened him!"
+
+In a dry-throated voice, Tim said, "I thought he was away at school. Now,
+what's the story?"
+
+"It isn't her story to tell," said James. "It's mine."
+
+"Now see here--"
+
+"Mr. Fisher, you can't learn anything by talking incessantly."
+
+Tim Fisher took a step forward, his face dark, his intention to shake the
+truth out of somebody. James held up a hand. "Sit down a moment and
+listen," he ordered.
+
+The sight of James and the words that this child was uttering stopped Tim
+Fisher. Puzzled, he nodded dumbly, found a chair, and sat on the front
+edge of it, poised.
+
+"The whereabouts of Mr. Maxwell is his own business and none of yours.
+Your criticism is unfounded and your suspicions unworthy. But since you
+take the attitude that this is some of your business, we don't mind
+telling you that Mr. Maxwell is in New York on business."
+
+Tim Fisher eyed the youngster. "I thought you were away at school," he
+repeated.
+
+"I heard you the first time," said James. "Obviously, I am not. Why I am
+not is Mr. Maxwell's business, not yours. And by insisting that something
+is wrong here and demanding the truth, you have placed Mrs. Bagley in the
+awkward position of having to make a decision that divides her loyalties.
+She has had the complete trust of Mr. Maxwell for almost a year and a
+half. Now, tell me, Mr. Fisher, to whom shall she remain loyal?"
+
+"That isn't the point--"
+
+"Yes, it is the point, Mr. Fisher. It is exactly the point. You're asking
+Mrs. Bagley to tell you the details of her employer's business, which is
+unethical."
+
+"How much have you heard?" demanded Fisher crossly.
+
+"Enough, at least to know what you've been hammering at."
+
+"Then you know that I've as much as said that there was some suspicion
+attached."
+
+"Suspicion of what?"
+
+"Well, why aren't you in school?"
+
+"That's Mr. Maxwell's business."
+
+"Let me tell you, youngster, it is more than your Mr. Maxwell's business.
+There are laws about education and he's breaking them."
+
+James said patiently: "The law states that every child shall receive an
+adequate education. The precise wording I do not know, but it does
+provide for schooling outside of the state school system if the parent or
+guardian so prefers, and providing that such extraschool education is
+deemed adequate by the state. Can you say that I am not properly
+educated, Mr. Fisher?"
+
+"Well, you'd hardly expect me to be an expert on the subject."
+
+"Then I'd hardly expect you to pass judgment, either," said James
+pointedly.
+
+"You're pretty--" Tim Fisher caught his tongue at the right moment. He
+felt his neck getting hot. It is hard enough to be told that you are
+off-base and that your behavior has been bad when an adult says the
+damning words. To hear the same words from a ten-year-old is unbearable.
+Right or wrong, the adult's position is to turn aside or shut the child
+up either by pulling rank or cuffing the young offender with an open
+hand. To have this upstart defend Mrs. Bagley, in whose presence he could
+hardly lash back, put Mr. Fisher in a very unhappy state of mind. He
+swallowed and then asked, lamely, "Why does he have to be so furtive?"
+
+"What is your definition of 'furtive'?" asked James calmly. "Do you
+employ the same term to describe the operations of that combination
+College-A.E.C. installation on the other side of town?"
+
+"That's secret--"
+
+"Implying that atomic energy is secretly above-board, legal, and
+honorable, whereas Mr. Maxwell's--"
+
+"But we know about atomic energy."
+
+"Sure we do," jeered James, and the sound of his immature near-treble
+voice made the jeer very close to an insult. "We know _all_ about atomic
+energy. Was the Manhattan Project called 'furtive' until Hiroshima gave
+the story away?"
+
+"You're trying to put words in my mouth," objected Tim.
+
+"No, I'm not. I'm merely trying to make you understand something
+important to everybody. You come in here and claim by the right of
+personal interest that we should be most willing to tell you our
+business. Then in the next breath you defend the installation over on the
+other side of town for their attitude in giving the bum's rush to people
+who try to ask questions about their business. Go read your Constitution,
+Mr. Fisher. It says there that I have as much right to defend my home
+against intruders as the A.E.C. has to defend their home against spies."
+
+"But I'm not intruding."
+
+James nodded his head gently. "Not," he said, "until you make the grave
+error of equating personal privacy with culpable guilt."
+
+"I didn't mean that."
+
+"You should learn to say what you mean," said James, "instead of trying
+to pry information out of someone who happens to be fond of you."
+
+"Now see here," said Tim Fisher, "I happen to be fond of her too, you
+know. Doesn't that give me some rights?"
+
+"Would you expect to know all of her business if she were your wife?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Suppose she were working in the A.E.C.-College?"
+
+"Well, that--er--"
+
+"Would be different?"
+
+"Well, now--"
+
+"I talked this right around in its circle for a purpose," said James.
+"Stop and think for a moment. Let's discuss me. Mr. Fisher, where would
+you place me in school?"
+
+"Er--how old are you?"
+
+"Nine," said James. "In April."
+
+"Well, I'm not sure--"
+
+"Exactly. Do you suppose that I could sit in a classroom among my
+nine-year-old contemporaries very long without being found out?"
+
+"Er--no--I suppose not."
+
+"Mr. Fisher, how long do you think I could remain a secret if I attended
+high school, sitting at a specially installed desk in a class among
+teenagers twice my size?"
+
+"Not very long."
+
+"Then remember that some secrets are so big that you have to have armed
+guards to keep them secret, and others are so easy to conceal that all
+you need is a rambling old house and a plausible façade."
+
+"Why have you told me all this?"
+
+"Because you have penetrated this far by your own effort, justified by
+your own personal emotions, and driven by an urge that is all-powerful if
+I am to believe the books I've read on the subject. You are told this
+much of the truth so that you won't go off half-cocked with a fine
+collection of rather dangerous untruths. Understand?"
+
+"I'm beginning to."
+
+"Well, whether Mrs. Bagley accepts your offer of marriage or not,
+remember one thing: If she were working for the A.E.C. you'd be proud of
+her, and you'd also be quite careful not to ask questions that would
+cause her embarrassment."
+
+Tim Fisher looked at Mrs. Bagley. "Well?" he asked.
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked bleak. "Please don't ask me until I've had a chance to
+discuss all of the angles with Mr. Maxwell, Tim."
+
+"Maxwell, again."
+
+"Tim," she said in a quiet voice, "remember--he's an employer, not an
+emotional involvement."
+
+James Holden looked at Tim Fisher. "And if you'll promise to keep this
+thing as close a secret as you would some information about atomic
+energy, I'll go to bed and let you settle your personal problems in
+private. Good night!"
+
+He left, reasonably satisfied that Tim Fisher would probably keep their
+secret for a time, at least. The hinted suggestion that this was as
+important a government project as the Atomic Energy Commission's works
+would prevent casual talk. There was also the slim likelihood that Tim
+Fisher might enjoy the position of being on the inside of a big secret,
+although this sort of inner superiority lacks true satisfaction. There
+was a more solid chance that Tim Fisher, being the ambitious man that he
+was, would keep their secret in the hope of acquiring for himself some
+of the superior knowledge and the advanced ability that went with it.
+
+But James was certain that the program that had worked so well with Mrs.
+Bagley would fail with Tim Fisher. James had nothing material to offer
+Tim. Tim was the kind of man who would insist upon his wife being a
+full-time wife, physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
+
+And James suddenly realized that Tim Fisher's own ambition and character
+would insist that Mrs. Bagley, with Martha, leave James Holden to take up
+residence in a home furnished by Tim Fisher upon the date and at time she
+became Mrs. Timothy Fisher.
+
+He was still thinking about the complications this would cause when he
+heard Tim leave. His clock said three-thirty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden's mechanical educator was a wonderful machine, but there
+were some aspects of knowledge that it was not equipped to impart. The
+glandular comprehension of love was one such; there were others. In all
+of his hours under the machine James had not learned how personalities
+change and grow.
+
+And yet there was a textbook case right before his eyes.
+
+In a few months, Janet Bagley had changed from a frightened and
+belligerent mother-animal to a cheerful young prospective wife. The
+importance of the change lay in the fact that it was not polar, nothing
+reversed; it was only that the emphasis passed gradually from the
+protection of the young to the development of Janet Bagley herself.
+
+James could not very well understand, though he tried, but he couldn't
+miss seeing it happen. It was worrisome. It threatened complications.
+
+There was quite a change that came with Tim Fisher's elevation in status
+from steady date to affianced husband, heightened by Tim Fisher's partial
+understanding of the situation at Martin's Hill.
+
+Then, having assumed the right to drop in as he pleased, he went on to
+assume more "rights" as Mrs. Bagley's fiancé. He brought in his friends
+from time to time. Not without warning, of course, for he understood the
+need for secrecy. When he brought friends it was after warning, and very
+frequently after he had helped them to remove the traces of juvenile
+occupancy from the lower part of the house.
+
+In one way, this took some of the pressure off. The opening of the
+"hermit's" house to the friends of the "hermit's" housekeeper's fiancé
+and friends was a pleasant evidence of good will; people stopped
+wondering, a little.
+
+On the other hand, James did not wholly approve. He contrasted this with
+what he remembered of his own home life. The guests who came to visit his
+mother and father were quiet and earnest. They indulged in animated
+discussions, argued points of deep reasoning, and in moments of
+relaxation they indulged in games that demanded skill and intellect.
+
+Tim Fisher's friends were noisy and boisterous. They mixed highballs.
+They danced to music played so loud that it made the house throb. They
+watched the fights on television and argued with more volume than logic.
+
+They were, to young James, a far cry from his parents' friends.
+
+But, as he couldn't do anything about it, he refused to worry about it.
+James Holden turned his thoughts forward and began to plan how he was
+going to face the culmination of this romance next September Fifteenth.
+He even suspected that there would probably be a number of knotty little
+problems that he now knew nothing about; he resolved to allow some
+thinking-time to cope with them when, as, and if.
+
+In the meantime, the summer was coming closer.
+
+He prepared to make a visible show of having Mr. Charles Maxwell leave
+for a protracted summer travel. This would ease the growing problem of
+providing solid evidence of Maxwell's presence during the increasing
+frequency of Tim Fisher's visits and the widening circle of Mrs. Bagley's
+acquaintances in Shipmont. At the same time he and Martha would make a
+return from the Bolton School for Youth. This would allow them their
+freedom for the summer; for the first time James looked forward to it.
+Martha Bagley was progressing rapidly. This summer would see her over and
+done with the scatter-brain prattle that gave equal weight to fact or
+fancy. Her store of information was growing; she could be relied upon to
+maintain a fairly secure cover. Her logic was not to James Holden's
+complete satisfaction but she accepted most of his direction as necessary
+information to be acted upon now and reasoned later.
+
+In the solving of his immediate problems, James can be forgiven for
+putting Paul Brennan out of his mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+
+But Paul Brennan was still alive, and he had not forgotten.
+
+While James was, with astonishing success, building a life for himself in
+hiding, Brennan did everything he could to find him. That is to say, he
+did everything that--under the circumstances--he could afford to do.
+
+The thing was, the boy had got clean away, without a trace.
+
+When James escaped for the third, and very successful, time, Brennan was
+helpless. James had planned well. He had learned from his first two
+efforts. The first escape was a blind run toward a predictable objective;
+all right, that was a danger to be avoided. His second was entirely
+successful--until James created his own area of danger. Another lesson
+learned.
+
+The third was planned with as much care as Napoleon's deliverance from
+the island.
+
+James had started by choosing his time. He'd waited until Easter Week.
+He'd had a solid ten days during which he would be only one of countless
+thousands of children on the streets; there would be no slight suspicion
+because he was out when others were in.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James didn't go to school that day. That was common; children in the
+lower grades are often absent, and no one asks a question until they
+return, with the proper note from the parent. He was not missed anywhere
+until the school bus that should have dropped him off did not. This was
+an area of weakness that Brennan could not plug; he could hardly justify
+the effort of delivering and fetching the lad to and from school when the
+public school bus passed the Holden home. Brennan relied upon the
+Mitchells to see James upon the bus and to check him off when he
+returned. Whether James would have been missed earlier even with a
+personal delivery is problematical; certainly James would have had to
+concoct some other scheme to gain him his hours of free time.
+
+At any rate, the first call to the school connected the Mitchells with a
+grumpy-voiced janitor who growled that teachers and principals had headed
+for their hills of freedom and wouldn't be back until Monday Week. It
+took some calling to locate a couple of James Holden's classmates who
+asserted that he hadn't been in school that day.
+
+Paul Brennan knew at once what had happened, but he could not raise an
+immediate hue-and-cry. He fretted because of the Easter Week vacation; in
+any other time the sight of a school-aged boy free during school hours
+would have caused suspicion. During Easter Week vacation, every schoolboy
+would be free. James would also be protected by his size. A youngster
+walking alone is not suspect; his folks _must_ be close by. The fact that
+it was "again" placed Paul Brennan in an undesirable position. This was
+not the youthful adventure that usually ends about three blocks from
+home. This was a repeat of the first absence during which James had been
+missing for months. People smile at the parents of the child who packs
+his little bag with a handkerchief and a candy bar to sally forth into
+the great big world, but it becomes another matter when the lad of six
+leaves home with every appearance of making it stick. So Brennan had to
+play it cozy, inviting newspaper reporters to the Holden home to display
+what he had to offer young James and giving them free rein to question
+Brennan's housekeeper and general factotum, the Mitchells. With
+honest-looking zeal, Paul Brennan succeeded in building up a picture that
+depicted James as ungrateful, hard to understand, wilful, and something
+of an intellectual brat.
+
+Then the authorities proceeded to throw out a fine-mesh dragnet. They
+questioned and cross-questioned bus drivers and railroad men. They made
+contact with the local airport even though its facilities were only used
+for a daisy-cutting feeder line. Posters were printed and sent to all
+truck lines for display to the truck drivers. The roadside diners were
+covered thoroughly. And knowing the boy's ability to talk convincingly,
+the authorities even went so far as to try the awesome project of making
+contact with passengers bound out-of-town with young male children in
+tow.
+
+Had James given them no previous experience to think about, he would have
+been merely considered a missing child and not a deliberate runaway.
+Then, instead of dragging down all of the known avenues of standard
+escape, the townspeople would have organized a tree-by-tree search of the
+fields and woods with hundreds of men walking hand in hand to inspect
+every square foot of the ground for either tracks or the child himself.
+But the _modus operandi_ of young James Holden had been to apply sly
+touches such as writing letters and forging signatures of adults to
+cause the unquestioned sale of railroad tickets, or the unauthorized ride
+in the side-door Pullman.
+
+Therefore, while the authorities were extending their circle of search
+based upon the velocity of modern transportation, James Holden was making
+his slow way across field and stream, guided by a Boy Scout compass and a
+U.S. Geodetic Survey map to keep him well out of the reach of roadway or
+town. With difficulty, but with dogged determination, he carried a light
+cot-blanket into which he had rolled four cans of pork and beans. He had
+a Boy Scout knife and a small pair of pliers to open it with. He had
+matches. He had the Boy Scout Handbook which was doubly useful; the pages
+devoted to woodsman's lore he kept for reference, the pages wasted on the
+qualifications for merit badges he used to start fires. He enjoyed
+sleeping in the open because it was spring and pleasantly warm, and
+because the Boy Scout Manual said that camping out was fun.
+
+A grown man with an objective can cover thirty or forty miles per day
+without tiring. James made it ten to fifteen. Thus, by the time the
+organized search petered out for lack of evidence and manpower--try
+asking one question of everybody within a hundred-mile radius--James was
+quietly making his way, free of care, like a hardy pioneer looking for a
+homestead site.
+
+The hint of kidnap went out early. The Federal Bureau of Investigation,
+of course, could not move until the waiting period was ended, but they
+did collect information and set up their organization ready to move
+into high speed at the instant of legal time. But then no ransom letter
+came; no evidence of the crime of kidnapping. This did not close the
+case; there were other cases on record where a child was stolen by adults
+for purposes other than ransom. It was not very likely that a child of
+six would be stolen by a neurotic adult to replace a lost infant, and
+Paul Brennan was personally convinced that James Holden had enough
+self-reliance to make such a kidnap attempt fail rather early in the
+game. He could hardly say so, nor could he suggest that James had indeed
+run away deliberately and skilfully, and with planned steps worthy of a
+much older person. He could only hint and urge the F.B.I. into any action
+that he could coerce them into taking; he did not care how or who brought
+James back just so long as the child was returned to his custody.
+
+Then as the days wore into weeks with no sign, the files were placed
+in the inactive drawer. Paul Brennan made contact with a few private
+agencies.
+
+He was stopped here, again, by another angle. The Holdens were by no
+means wealthy. Brennan could not justify the offer of some reward so
+large that people simply could not turn down the slim chance of
+collecting. If the missing one is heir to a couple of million dollars,
+the trustees can justify a reward of a good many thousand dollars for his
+return. The amount that Brennan was prepared to offer could not compel
+the services of a private agency on a full-time basis. The best and the
+most interested of the agencies took the case on a contingent basis; if
+something turned their way in the due course of their work they'd
+immediately take steps. Solving the case of a complete disappearance on
+the part of a child who virtually vanished into thin air would be good
+advertising, but their advertising budget would not allow them to put one
+man on the case without the first shred of evidence to point the way.
+
+If Paul Brennan had been above-board, he could have evoked a lot of
+interest. The search for a six-year-old boy with the educational
+development of a youth of about eighteen, informed through the services
+of an electromechanical device, would have fired public interest,
+Government intervention, and would also have justified Paul Brennan's
+depth of interest. But Paul Brennan could say nothing about the excellent
+training, he could only hint at James Holden's mental proficiency which
+was backed up by the boy's school record. As it was, Paul Brennan's
+most frightful nightmare was one where young James was spotted by some
+eagle-eyed detective and then in desperation--anything being better than
+an enforced return to Paul Brennan--James Holden pulled out all the stops
+and showed everybody precisely how well educated he really was.
+
+In his own affairs, Paul still had to make a living, which took up his
+time. As guardian and trustee of the Holden Estate, he was responsible to
+the State for his handling of James Holden's inheritance. The State takes
+a sensible view of the disbursements of the inheritance of a minor.
+Reasonable sums may be spent on items hardly deemed necessities to the
+average person, but the ceiling called "reasonable" is a flexible term
+and subject to close scrutiny by the State.
+
+In the long run it was Paul Brennan's own indefensible position that made
+it impossible to prosecute a proper search for the missing James Holden.
+Brennan suspected James of building up a bank account under some false
+name, but he could not saunter into banks and ask to examine their
+records without a Court order. Brennan knew that James had not taken off
+without preparation, but the examination of the stuff that James left
+behind was not very informative. There was a small blanket missing and
+Mrs. Mitchell said that it looked as though some cans had been removed
+from the stock but she could not be sure. And in a large collection of
+boy's stuff, one would not observe the absence of a Boy Scout knife and
+other trivia. Had a 100% inventory been available, the list of missing
+items would have pointed out James Holden's avenue of escape.
+
+The search for an adult would have included questioning of banks. No one
+knows whether such a questioning would have uncovered the bank-by-mail
+routine conducted under the name of Charles Maxwell. It is not a regular
+thing, but the receipt of a check drawn on a New York bank, issued by a
+publishing company, and endorsed to be paid to the account of so-and-so,
+accompanied by a request to open an account in that name might never be
+connected with the manipulations of a six-year-old genius, who was
+overtly just plain bright.
+
+And so Paul Brennan worried himself out of several pounds for fear
+that James would give himself away to the right people. He cursed the
+necessity of keeping up his daily work routine. The hue-and-cry he could
+not keep alive, but he knew that somewhere there was a young boy entirely
+capable of reconstructing the whole machine that Paul Brennan wanted so
+desperately that he had killed for it.
+
+Paul Brennan was blocked cold. With the F.B.I. maintaining a hands-off
+attitude because there was no trace of any Federal crime involved, the
+case of James Holden was relegated to the missing-persons files. It
+became the official opinion that the lad had suffered some mishap and
+that it would only be a matter of time before his body was discovered.
+Paul Brennan could hardly prove them wrong without explaining the whole
+secret of James Holden's intelligence, competence, and the certainty that
+the young man would improve upon both as soon as he succeeded in
+rebuilding the Holden Electromechanical Educator.
+
+With the F.B.I. out of the picture, the local authorities waiting for the
+discovery of a small body, and the state authorities shelving the case
+except for the routine punch-card checks, official action died. Brennan's
+available reward money was not enough to buy a private agency's interest
+full-time.
+
+Brennan could not afford to tell anybody of his suspicion of James
+Holden's source of income, for the idea of a child's making a living by
+writing would be indefensible without full explanation. However, Paul
+Brennan resorted to reading of magazines edited for boys. Month after
+month he bought them and read them, comparing the styles of the many
+writers against the style of the manuscript copy left behind by James.
+
+Brennan naturally assumed that James would use a pen name. Writers often
+used pen names to conceal their own identity for any one of several
+reasons. A writer might use three or more pen names, each one identified
+with a known style of writing, or a certain subject or established
+character. But Paul Brennan did not know all there was to know about the
+pen-name business, such as an editor assigning a pen name to prevent the
+too-often appearance of some prolific writer, or conversely to make one
+writer's name seem exclusive with his magazine; nor could Brennan know
+that a writer's literary standing can be kept high by assigning a pen
+name to any second-rate material he may be so unfortunate as to turn out.
+
+Paul Brennan read many stories written by James Holden under several
+names, including the name of Charles Maxwell, but Brennan's
+identification according to literary style was no better than if he had
+tossed a coin.
+
+And so, blocked by his own guilt and avarice from making use of the legal
+avenues of approach, Paul Brennan fumed and fretted away four long years
+while James Holden grew from six to ten years old, hiding under the guise
+of the Hermit of Martin's Hill and behind the pleasant adult façade of
+Mrs. Janet Bagley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+
+If Paul Brennan found himself blocked in his efforts to find James Holden
+and the re-created Holden Educator, James himself was annoyed by one
+evident fact: Everything he did resulted in spreading the news of the
+machine itself.
+
+Had he been eighteen or so, he might have made out to his own taste. In
+the days of late teen-age, a youth can hold a job and rent a room, buy
+his own clothing and conduct himself to the limit of his ability. At ten
+he is suspect, because no one will permit him to paddle his own canoe. At
+a later age James could have rented a small apartment and built his
+machine alone. But starting as young as he did, he was forced to hide
+behind the cover of some adult, and he had picked Mrs. Bagley because he
+could control her both through her desire for security and the promise of
+a fine education for the daughter Martha Bagley.
+
+The daughter was a two-way necessity; she provided him with a
+contemporary companion and also gave him a lever to wield against the
+adult. A lone woman could have made her way without trouble. A lone woman
+with a girl-child is up against a rather horrifying problem of providing
+both support and parental care. He felt that he had done what he had to
+do, up to the point where Mrs. Bagley became involved with Tim Fisher or
+anybody else. This part of adulthood was not yet within his grasp.
+
+But there it was and here it is, and now there was Martha to complicate
+the picture. Had Mrs. Bagley been alone, she and Tim could go off and
+marry and then settle down in Timbuctoo if they wanted to. But not with
+Martha. She was in the same intellectual kettle of sardines as James. Her
+taste in education was by no means the same. She took to the mathematical
+subjects indifferently, absorbing them well enough--once she could be
+talked into spending the couple of hours that each day demanded--but
+without interest. Martha could rattle off quotations from literary
+masters, she could follow the score of most operas (her voice was a bit
+off-key but she knew what was going on) and she enjoyed all of the
+available information on keeping a house in order. Her eye and her mind
+were, as James Holden's, faster than her hand. She went through the same
+frustrations as he did, with different tools and in a different medium.
+The first offside snick of the scissors she knew to be bad before she
+tried the pattern for size, and the only way she could correct such
+defective work was to practice and practice until her muscles were
+trained enough to respond to the direction of her mind.
+
+Remove her now and place her in a school--even the most advanced
+school--and she would undergo the unhappy treatment that James had
+undergone these several years ago.
+
+And yet she could not be cut loose. Martha was as much a part of this
+very strange life as James was. So this meant that any revision in
+overall policy must necessarily include the addition of Tim Fisher and
+not the subtraction of Mrs. Bagley and Martha.
+
+"Charles Maxwell" had to go.
+
+James's problem had not changed. His machine must be kept a secret as
+long as he could. The machine was his, James Quincy Holden's property by
+every known and unwritten legal right of direct, single, uncluttered
+inheritance. The work of his parents had been stopped by their death, but
+it was by no means finished with the construction of the machine. To the
+contrary, the real work had only begun with the completion of the first
+working model. And whether he turned out to be a machine-made genius, an
+over-powered dolt, or an introverted monster it was still his own
+personal reason for being alive.
+
+He alone should reap the benefit or the sorrow, and had his parents lived
+they would have had their right to reap good or bad with him. Good or
+bad, had they lived, he would have received their protection.
+
+As it was, he had no protection whatsoever. Until he could have and hold
+the right to control his own property as he himself saw fit, he had to
+hide just as deep from the enemy who would steal it as he must hide from
+the friend who would administrate it as a property in escrow for his own
+good, since he as a minor was legally unable to walk a path both fitting
+and proper for his feet.
+
+So, the facts had to be concealed. Yet all he was buying was time.
+
+By careful juggling, he had already bought some. Months with Jake Caslow,
+a few months stolidly fighting the school, and two with the help of Mrs.
+Bagley and Martha. Then in these later months there had been more
+purchased time; time gained by the post-dated engagement and the
+procrastinated marriage, which was now running out.
+
+No matter what he did, it seemed that the result was a wider spread of
+knowledge about the Holden Electromechanical Educator.
+
+So with misgiving and yet unaware of any way or means to circumvent the
+necessity without doing more overall harm, James decided that Tim Fisher
+must be handed another piece of the secret. A plausible piece, with as
+much truth as he would accept for the time being. Maybe--hand Tim Fisher
+a bit with great gesture and he would not go prying for the whole?
+
+His chance came in mid-August. It was after dinner on an evening
+uncluttered with party or shower or the horde of just-dropped-in-friends
+of whom Tim Fisher had legion.
+
+Janet Bagley and Tim Fisher sat on the low divan in the living room
+half-facing each other. Apart, but just so far apart that they could
+touch with half a gesture, they were discussing the problem of domicile.
+They were also still quibbling mildly about the honeymoon. Tim Fisher
+wanted a short, noisy one. A ten-day stay in Hawaii, flying both ways,
+with a ten-hour stopover in Los Angeles on the way back. Janet Bagley
+wanted a long and lazy stay somewhere no closer than fifteen hundred
+miles to the nearest telephone, newspaper, mailbox, airline, bus stop, or
+highway. She'd take the 762-day rocket trip to Venus if they had one
+available. Tim was duly sympathetic to her desire to get away from her
+daily grind for as long a time as possible, but he also had a garage to
+run, and he was by no means incapable of pointing out the practical side
+of crass commercialism.
+
+But unlike the problem of the honeymoon, which Janet Bagley was willing
+to discuss on any terms for the pleasure of discussing it, the problem of
+domicile had been avoided--to the degree of being pointed.
+
+For Janet Bagley was still torn between two loyalties. Hers was not
+a lone loyalty to James Holden, there had been almost a complete
+association with the future of her daughter in the loyalty. She realized
+as well as James did, that Martha must not be wrested from this life and
+forced to live, forever an outcast, raised mentally above the level of
+her age and below the physical size of her mental development. Mrs.
+Bagley thought only of Martha's future; she gave little or no thought on
+the secondary part of the problem. But James knew that once Martha was
+separated from the establishment, she could not long conceal her advanced
+information, and revealing that would reveal its source.
+
+And so, as they talked together with soft voices, James Holden decided
+that he could best buy time by employing logic, finance, and good common
+sense. He walked into the living room and sat across the coffee table
+from them. He said, "You'll have to live here, you know."
+
+The abrupt statement stunned them both. Tim sat bolt upright and
+objected, "I'll see to it that we're properly housed, young fellow."
+
+"This isn't charity," replied James. "Nor the goodness of my little
+heart. It's a necessity."
+
+"How so?" demanded Tim crossly. "It's my life--and Janet's."
+
+"And--Martha's life," added James.
+
+"You don't think I'm including her out, do you?"
+
+"No, but you're forgetting that she isn't to be popped here and there as
+the fancy hits you, either. She's much to be considered."
+
+"I'll consider her," snapped Tim. "She shall be my daughter. If she will,
+I'll have her use my name as well as my care and affection."
+
+"Of course you will," agreed James. The quick gesture of Mrs. Bagley's
+hand towards Tim, and his equally swift caress in reply were noticed but
+not understood by James. "But you're not thinking deeply enough about
+it."
+
+"All right. You tell me all about it."
+
+"Martha must stay here," said James. "Neither of you--nor Martha--have
+any idea of how stultifying it can be to be forced into school under the
+supervision of teachers who cannot understand, and among classmates
+whose grasp of any subject is no stronger than a feeble grope in the
+mental dawn."
+
+"Maybe so. But that's no reason why we must run our life your way."
+
+"You're wrong, Mr. Fisher. Think a moment. Without hesitation, you will
+include the education of Martha Bagley along with the 'care and
+affection' you mentioned a moment ago."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"This means, Mr. Fisher, that Martha, approaching ten years old,
+represents a responsibility of about seven more years prior to her
+graduation from high school and another four years of college--granting
+that Martha is a standard, normal, healthy young lady. Am I right?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"Well, since you are happy and willing to take on the responsibility of
+eleven years of care and affection and the expense of schooling the girl,
+you might as well take advantage of the possibilities here and figure on
+five years--or less. If we cannot give her the equal of a master's degree
+in three, I'm shooting in the dark. Make it five, and she'll have her
+doctor's degree--or at least it's equivalent. Does that make sense?"
+
+"Of course it does. But--"
+
+"No buts until we're finished. You'll recall the tales we told you about
+the necessity of hiding out. It must continue. During the school year we
+must not be visible to the general public."
+
+"But dammit, I don't want to set up my family in someone else's house,"
+objected Tim Fisher.
+
+"Buy this one," suggested James. "Then it will be yours. I'll stay on and
+pay rent on my section."
+
+"You'll--now wait a minute! What are you talking about?"
+
+"I said, _'I'll pay rent on my section,'_" said James.
+
+"But this guy upstairs--" Tim took a long breath. "Let's get this
+straight," he said, "now that we're on the subject, what about Mr.
+Charles Maxwell?"
+
+"I can best quote," said James with a smile, "'Oh, what a tangled web we
+weave, when first we practice to deceive!'"
+
+"That's Shakespeare."
+
+"Sorry. That's Sir Walter Scott. _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_. Canto
+Six, Stanza Seventeen. The fact of the matter is that we could go on
+compounding this lie, but it's time to stop it. Mr. Charles Maxwell
+does not exist."
+
+"I don't understand!"
+
+"Hasn't it puzzled you that this hermit-type character that never puts a
+foot out of the house has been out and gone on some unstated vacation or
+business trip for most of the spring and summer?"
+
+"Hadn't given it a thought," said Fisher with a fatuous look at Mrs.
+Bagley. She mooned back at him. For a moment they were lost in one
+another, giving proof to the idea that blinder than he who will not
+see is the fellow who has his eye on a woman.
+
+"Charles Maxwell does not exist except in the minds of his happy
+readers," said James. "He is a famous writer of boys' stories and known
+to a lot of people for that talent. Yet he is no more a real person
+than Lewis Carroll."
+
+"But Lewis Carroll did exist--"
+
+"As Charles L. Dodgson, a mathematician famous for his work in symbolic
+logic."
+
+"All right! Then who writes these stories? Who supports you--and this
+house?"
+
+"I do!"
+
+Tim blinked, looked around the room a bit wildly and then settled on
+Martha, looking at her helplessly.
+
+"It's true, Tim," she said quietly. "It's crazy but it works. I've been
+living with it for years."
+
+Tim considered that for a full minute. "All right," he said shortly. "So
+it works. But why does any kid have to live for himself?" He eyed James.
+"Who's responsible for you?"
+
+"I am!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Got an hour?" asked James with a smile. "Then listen--"
+
+At the end of James Holden's long explanation, Tim Fisher said, "Me--?
+Now, I need a drink!"
+
+James chuckled, "Alcoholic, of course--which is Pi to seven decimal
+places if you ever need it. Just count the letters."
+
+Over his glass, Tim eyed James thoughtfully. "So if this is true, James,
+just who owns that fabulous machine of yours?"
+
+"It is mine, or ours."
+
+"You gave me to believe that it was a high-priority Government project,"
+he said accusingly.
+
+"Sorry. But I would lie as glibly to God Himself if it became necessary
+to protect myself by falsehood. I'm sorry it isn't a Government project,
+but it's just as important a secret."
+
+"Anything as big as this _should_ be the business of the Government."
+
+"Perhaps so. But it's mine to keep or to give, and it's mine to study."
+James was thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose that you can argue that
+anything as important as this should be handed over to the authorities
+immediately; that a large group of men dedicated to such a study can
+locate its difficulties and its pitfalls and failures far swifter than
+a single youth of eleven. Yet by the right of invention, a process
+protected by the Constitution of the United States and circumvented by
+some very odd rulings on the part of the Supreme Court, it is mine by
+inheritance, to reap the exclusive rewards for my family's work. Until
+I'm of an age when I am deemed capable of managing my own life, I'd be
+'protected' out of my rights if I handed this to anybody--including the
+Government. They'd start a commission full of bureaucrats who'd first
+use the machine to study how to best expand their own little empire,
+perpetuate themselves in office, and then they'd rule me out on the
+quaint theory that education is so important that it mustn't be wasted
+on the young."
+
+Tim Fisher smiled wryly. He turned to Janet Bagley. "How do you want it?"
+he asked her.
+
+"For Martha's sake, I want it his way," she said.
+
+"All right. Then that's the way we'll have it," said Tim Fisher. He eyed
+James somewhat ruefully. "You know, it's a funny thing. I've always
+thought this was a screwy set-up, and to be honest, I've always thought
+you were a pretty bumptious kid. I guess you had a good reason. Anyway, I
+should have known Janet wouldn't have played along with it unless she had
+a reason that was really helping somebody."
+
+James saw with relief that Tim had allied himself with the cause; he was,
+in fact, very glad to have someone knowledgeable and levelheaded in on
+the problem. Anyway he really liked Tim, and was happy to have the
+deception out of the way.
+
+"That's all right," he said awkwardly.
+
+Tim laughed. "Hey, will this contraption of yours teach me how to adjust
+a set of tappets?"
+
+"No," said James quickly. "It will teach you the theory of how to chop
+down a tree but it can't show you how to swing an axe. Or," he went on
+with a smile, "it will teach you how to be an efficient accountant--but
+you have to use your own money!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the house on Martin's Hill, everybody won. Tim Fisher objected at
+first to the idea of gallivanting off on a protracted honeymoon, leaving
+a nine-year-old daughter in the care of a ten-year-old boy. But
+Janet--now Mrs. Fisher--pointed out that James and Martha were both quite
+competent, and furthermore there was little to be said for a honeymoon
+encumbered with a little pitcher that had such big ears, to say nothing
+of a pair of extremely curious eyes and a rather loud voice. And
+furthermore, if we allow the woman's privilege of adding one furthermore
+on top of another, it had been a long, long time since Janet had enjoyed
+a child-free vacation. So she won. It was not Hawaii by air for a ten-day
+stay. It was Hawaii by ship with a sixty-day sojourn in a hotel that
+offered both seclusion and company to the guests' immediate preference.
+
+James Holden won more time. He felt that every hour was a victory. At
+times he despaired because time passed so crawlingly slow. All the wealth
+of his education could not diminish that odd sense of the time-factor
+that convinces all people that the length of the years diminish as age
+increases. Far from being a simple, amusing remark, the problem has been
+studied because it is universal. It is psychological, of course, and it
+is not hard to explain simply in terms of human experience plus the known
+fact that the human senses respond to the logarithm of the stimulus.
+
+With most people, time is reasonably important. We live by the clock, and
+we die by the clock, and before there were clocks there were candles
+marked in lengths and sand flowing through narrow orifices, water
+dripping into jars, and posts stuck in the ground with marks for the
+shadow to divide the day. The ancient ones related womanhood to the moon
+and understood that time was vital in the course of Life.
+
+With James, time was more important, perhaps, than to any other human
+being alive. He was fighting for time, always. His was not the immature
+desire of uneducated youth to become adult overnight for vague reasons.
+
+With James it was an honest evaluation of his precarious position. He
+had to hide until he was deemed capable of handling his own affairs,
+after which he could fight his own battles in his own way without the
+interference of the laws that are set up to protect the immature.
+
+With Tim Fisher and his brand-new bride out of the way, James took a deep
+breath at having leaped one more hurdle. Then he sat down to think.
+
+Obviously there is no great sea-change that takes place at the Stroke Of
+Midnight on the date of the person's 21st birthday; no magic wand is
+waved over his scalp to convert him in a moment of time from a puling
+infant to a mature adult. The growth of child to adult is as gradual as
+the increase of his stature, which varies from one child to the next.
+
+The fact remained that few people are confronted by the necessity of
+making a decision based upon the precise age of the subject. We usually
+cross this barrier with no trouble, taking on our rights and
+responsibilities as we find them necessary to our life. Only in probating
+an estate left by the demise of both parents in the presence of minor
+children does this legal matter of precise age become noticeable. Even
+then, the control exerted over the minor by the legal guardian diminishes
+by some obscure mathematical proportion that approaches zero as the minor
+approaches the legal age of maturity. Rare is the case of the reluctant
+guardian who jealously relinquishes the iron rule only after the proper
+litigation directs him to let go, render the accounting for audit, and
+turn over the keys to the treasury to the rightful heir.
+
+James Holden was the seldom case. James Holden needed a very adroit
+lawyer to tell him how and when his rights and privileges as a citizen
+could be granted, and under what circumstances. From the evidence already
+at hand, James saw loopholes available in the matter of the legal age of
+twenty-one. But he also knew that he could not approach a lawyer with
+questions without giving full explanation of every why and wherefore.
+
+So James Holden, already quite competent in the do-it-himself method of
+cutting his own ice, decided to study law. Without any forewarning of the
+monumental proportions of the task he faced, James started to acquire
+books on legal procedure and the law.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With the return of Tim and Janet Fisher matters progressed well. Mrs.
+Fisher took over the running of the household; Tim continued his running
+of the garage and started to dicker for the purchase of the house on
+Martin's Hill. The "Hermit" who had returned before the wedding remained
+temporarily. With a long-drawn plan, Charles Maxwell would slowly fade
+out of sight. Already his absence during the summer was hinting as being
+a medical study; during the winter he would return to the distant
+hospital. Later he would leave completely cured to take up residence
+elsewhere. Beyond this they planned to play it by ear.
+
+James and Martha, freed from the housework routine, went deep into study.
+
+Christmas passed and spring came and in April, James marked his eleventh
+birthday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+
+One important item continued to elude James Holden. The Educator could
+not be made to work in "tandem." In less technical terms, the Educator
+was strictly an individual device, a one-man-dog. The wave forms that
+could be recorded were as individual as fingerprints and pore-patterns
+and iris markings. James could record a series of ideas or a few pages of
+information and play them back to himself. During the playback he could
+think in no other terms; he could not even correct, edit or improve the
+phrasing. It came back word for word with the faithful reproduction of
+absolute fidelity. Similarly, Martha could record a phase of information
+and she, too, underwent the same repetition when her recording was played
+back to her.
+
+But if Martha's recording were played through to James, utter confusion
+came. It was a whirling maze of colors and odors, sound, taste and touch.
+
+It spoiled some of James Holden's hopes; he sought the way to mass-use,
+his plan was to employ a teacher to digest the information and then via
+the Educator, impress the information upon many other brains each coupled
+to the machine. This would not work.
+
+He made an extra headset late in June and they tried it, sitting
+side-by-side and still it did not work. With Martha doing the reading,
+she got the full benefit of the machine and James emerged with a whirling
+head full of riotous colors and other sensations. At one point he hoped
+that they might learn some subject by sitting side-by-side and reading
+the text in unison, but from this they received the information horribly
+mingled with equal intensity of sensory noise.
+
+He did not abandon this hope completely. He merely put it aside as a
+problem that he was not ready to study yet. He would re-open the question
+when he knew more about the whole process. To know the whole process
+meant studying many fields of knowledge and combining them into a
+research of his own.
+
+And so James entered the summer months as he'd entered them before; Tim
+and Janet Fisher took off one day and returned the next afternoon with a
+great gay show of "bringing the children home for the summer."
+
+Even in this day of multi-billion-dollar budgets and farm surpluses that
+cost forty thousand dollars per hour for warehouse rental, twenty-five
+hundred dollars is still a tidy sum to dangle before the eyes of any
+individual. This was the reward offered by Paul Brennan for any
+information as to the whereabouts of James Quincy Holden.
+
+If Paul Brennan could have been honest, the information he could have
+supplied would have provided any of the better agencies with enough
+lead-material to track James Holden down in a time short enough to make
+the reward money worth the effort. Similarly, if James Holden's
+competence had been no greater than Brennan's scaled-down description,
+he could not have made his own way without being discovered.
+
+Bound by his own guilt, Brennan could only fret. Everything including
+time, was running against him.
+
+And as the years of James Holden's independence looked toward the sixth,
+Paul Brennan was willing to make a mental bet that the young man's
+education was deeper than ever.
+
+He would have won. James was close to his dream of making his play for an
+appearance in court and pleading for the law to recognize his competence
+to act as an adult. He abandoned all pretense; he no longer hid through
+the winter months, and he did not keep Martha under cover either. They
+went shopping with Mrs. Fisher now and then, and if any of the folks in
+Shipmont wondered about them, the fact that the children were in the care
+and keeping of responsible adults and were oh-so-quick on the uptake
+stopped anybody who might have made a fast call to the truant officer.
+
+Then in the spring of James Holden's twelfth year and the sixth of
+his freedom, he said to Tim Fisher. "How would you like to collect
+twenty-five hundred dollars?"
+
+Fisher grinned. "Who do you want killed?"
+
+"Seriously."
+
+"Who wouldn't?"
+
+"All right, drop the word to Paul Brennan and collect the reward."
+
+"Can you protect yourself?"
+
+"I can quote Gladstone from one end to the other. I can cite every civil
+suit regarding the majority or minority problem that has any importance.
+If I fail, I'll skin out of there in a hurry on the next train. But I
+can't wait forever."
+
+"What's the gimmick, James?"
+
+"First, I am sick and tired of running and hiding, and I think I've got
+enough to prove my point and establish my rights. Second, there is a bit
+of cupidity here; the reward money is being offered out of my own
+inheritance so I feel that I should have some say in where it should go.
+Third, the fact that I steer it into the hands of someone I'd prefer to
+get it tickles my sense of humor. The trapper trapped; the bopper bopped;
+the sapper hoist by his own petard."
+
+"And--?"
+
+"It isn't fair to Martha, either. So the sooner we get this whole affair
+settled, the sooner we can start to move towards a reasonable way of
+life."
+
+"Okay, but how are we going to work it? I can't very well turn up by
+myself, you know."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"People would think I'm a heel."
+
+"Let them think so. They'll change their opinion once the whole truth is
+known." James smiled. "It'll also let you know who your true friends
+are."
+
+"Okay. Twenty-five hundred bucks and a chance at the last laugh sounds
+good. I'll talk it over with Janet."
+
+That night they buried Charles Maxwell, the Hermit of Martin's Hill.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THREE:
+
+THE REBEL
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+
+In his years of searching, Paul Brennan had followed eleven fruitless
+leads. It had cost him over thirteen hundred dollars and he was prepared
+to go on and on until he located James Holden, no matter how much it
+took. He fretted under two fears, one that James had indeed suffered a
+mishap, and the other that James might reveal his secret in a dramatic
+announcement, or be discovered by some force or agency that would place
+the whole process in hands that Paul Brennan could not reach.
+
+The registered letter from Tim Fisher culminated this six years of
+frantic search. Unlike the previous leads, this spoke with authority,
+named names, gave dates, and outlined sketchily but adequately the
+operations of the young man in very plausible prose. Then the letter went
+on in the manner of a man with his foot in a cleft stick; the writer did
+not approve of James Holden's operations since they involved his wife and
+newly-adopted daughter, but since wife and daughter were fond of James
+Holden, the writer could not make any overt move to rid his household of
+the interfering young man. Paul Brennan was asked to move with caution
+and in utter secrecy, even to sending the reward in cash to a special
+post-office box.
+
+Paul Brennan's reaction was a disappointment to himself. He neither felt
+great relief nor the desire to exult. He found himself assaying his own
+calmness and wondering why he lacked emotion over this culmination of so
+many years of futile effort. He re-read the letter carefully to see if
+there were something hidden in the words that his subconscious had
+caught, but he found nothing that gave him any reason to believe that
+this letter was a false lead. It rang true; Brennan could understand Tim
+Fisher's stated reaction and the man's desire to collect. Brennan even
+suspected that Fisher might use the reward money for his own private
+purpose.
+
+It was not until he read the letter for the third time that he saw the
+suggestion to move with caution and secrecy not as its stated request to
+protect the writer, but as an excellent advice for his own guidance.
+
+And then Paul Brennan realized that for six years he had been
+concentrating upon the single problem of having James Holden returned to
+his custody, and in that concentration he had lost sight of the more
+important problem of achieving his true purpose of gaining control of the
+Holden Educator. The letter had not been the end of a long quest, but
+just the signal to start.
+
+Paul Brennan of course did not give a fig for the Holden Estate nor the
+welfare of James. His only interest was in the machine, and the secret of
+that machine was locked in the young man's mind and would stay that way
+unless James could be coerced into revealing it. The secret indubitably
+existed as hardware in the machine rebuilt in the house on Martin's Hill,
+but Brennan guessed that any sight of him would cause James to repeat his
+job of destruction. Brennan also envisioned a self-destructive device
+that would addle the heart of the machine at the touch of a button,
+perhaps booby-traps fitted like burglar alarms that would ruin the
+machine at the first touch of an untrained hand.
+
+Brennan's mind began to work. He must plan his moves carefully to acquire
+the machine by stealth. He toyed with the idea of murder and rejected it
+as too dangerous to chance a repeat, especially in view of the existence
+of the rebuilt machine.
+
+Brennan read the letter again. It gave him to think. James had obviously
+succeeded in keeping his secret by imparting it to a few people that he
+could either trust or bind to him, perhaps with the offer of education
+via the machine, which James and only James maintained in hiding could
+provide. Brennan could not estimate the extent of James Holden's
+knowledge but it was obvious that he was capable of some extremely
+intelligent planning. He was willing to grant the boy the likelihood of
+being the equal of a long and experienced campaigner, and the fact that
+James was in the favor of Tim Fisher's wife and daughter meant that the
+lad would be able to call upon them for additional advice. Brennan
+counted the daughter Martha in this planning program, most certainly
+James would have given the girl an extensive education, too. Everything
+added up, even to Tim Fisher's resentment.
+
+But there was not time to ponder over the efficiency of James Holden's
+operations. It was time for Paul Brennan to cope, and it seemed sensible
+to face the fact that Paul Brennan alone could not plot the illegal
+grab of the Holden Educator and at the same time masquerade as the
+deeply-concerned loving guardian. He could label James Holden's little
+group as an organization, and if he was to combat this organization he
+needed one himself.
+
+Paul Brennan began to form a mental outline of his requirements. First he
+had to figure out the angle at which to make his attack. Once he knew the
+legal angle, then he could find ruthless men in the proper position of
+authority whose ambitions he could control. He regretted that the elder
+Holden had not allowed him to study civil and criminal law along with his
+courses in real estate and corporate law. As it was, Brennan was unsure
+of his legal rights, and he could not plan until he had researched the
+problem most thoroughly.
+
+To his complete surprise, Paul Brennan discovered that there was no law
+that would stay an infant from picking up his marbles and leaving home.
+So long as the minor did not become a ward of responsibility of the
+State, his freedom was as inviolable as the freedom of any adult. The
+universal interest in missing-persons cases is overdrawn because of their
+dramatic appeal. In every case that comes to important notice, the
+missing person has left some important responsibilities that had to be
+satisfied. A person with no moral, legal, or ethical anchor has every
+right to pack his suitcase and catch the next conveyance for parts
+unknown. If he is found by the authorities after an appeal by friends or
+relatives, the missing party can tell the police that, Yes he did leave
+home and, No he isn't returning and, furthermore he does not wish his
+whereabouts made known; and all the authorities can report is that the
+missing one is hale, happy, and hearty and wants to stay missing.
+
+Under the law, a minor is a minor and there is no proposition that
+divides one degree of minority from another. Major decisions, such as
+voting, the signing of binding contracts of importance, the determination
+of a course of drastic medical treatment, are deemed to be matters that
+require mature judgment. The age for such decisions is arbitrarily set at
+age twenty-one. Acts such as driving a car, sawing a plank, or buying
+food and clothing are considered to be "skills" that do not require
+judgment and therefore the age of demarcation varies with the state and
+the state legislature's attitude.
+
+James was a minor; presumably he could repudiate contracts signed while a
+minor, at the time he reached the age of twenty-one. From a practical
+standpoint, however, anything that James contracted for was expendable
+and of vital necessity. He could not stop payment on a check for his
+rent, nor claim that he had not received proper payment for his stories
+and demand damages. Paul Brennan might possibly interfere with the smooth
+operation by squawking to the bank that Charles Maxwell was a phantom
+front for the minor child James Holden. And bankers, being bankers, might
+very well clog up the operation with a lot of questions. But there was
+the possibility that James Holden, operating through the agency of an
+adult, would switch his method. He could even go so far as to bring
+Brennan to lawsuit to have Brennan stopped from his interference. Child
+or not, James Holden had been running a checking account by mail for a
+number of years which could be used as evidence of his good faith and
+ability.
+
+Indeed, the position of James Holden was so solid that Brennan could only
+plead personal interest and personal responsibility in the case for
+securing a writ of habeas corpus to have the person of James Holden
+returned to his custody and protection. And this of itself was a bit on
+the dangerous side. A writ of habeas corpus will, by law, cause the
+delivery of the person to the right hands, but there is no part of the
+writ that can be used to guarantee that the person will remain
+thereafter. If Brennan tried to repeat this program, James Holden was
+very apt to suggest either the rather rare case of Barratry or
+Maintenance against Brennan. Barratry consists of the constant harassment
+of a citizen by the serial entry of lawsuit after lawsuit against him,
+each of which he must defend to the loss of time and money--and the tying
+up of courts and their officials. Maintenance is the re-opening of the
+same suit and its charges time after time in court after court. One need
+only be sure of the attitude of the plaintiff to strike back; if he is
+interested in heckling the defendant and this can be demonstrated in
+evidence, the heckler is a dead duck. Such a response would surely damage
+Paul Brennan's overt position as a responsible, interested, affectionate
+guardian of his best friends' orphaned child.
+
+Then to put the top on the bottle, James Holden had crossed state lines
+in his flight from home. This meant that the case was not the simple
+proposition of appearing before a local magistrate and filing an
+emotional appeal. It was interstate. It smacked of extradition, and James
+Holden had committed no crime in either state.
+
+To Paul Brennan's qualifications for his henchmen, he now added the need
+for flouting the law if the law could not be warped to fit his need.
+
+Finding a man with ambition, with a casual disregard for ethics, is not
+hard in political circles. Paul Brennan found his man in Frank Manison,
+a rising figure in the office of the District Attorney. Manison had
+gubernatorial ambitions, and he was politically sharp. He personally
+conducted only those cases that would give him ironclad publicity; he
+preferred to lower the boom on a lighter charge than chance an acquittal.
+Manison also had a fine feeling for anticipating public trends, a sense
+of the drama, and an understanding of public opinion.
+
+He granted Brennan a conference of ten minutes, and knowing from long
+experience that incoming information flows faster when it is not
+interrupted, he listened attentively, oiling and urging the flow by
+facial expressions of interest and by leaning forward attentively
+whenever a serious point was about to come forth. Brennan explained about
+James Holden, his superior education, and what it had enabled the lad to
+do. He explained the education not as a machine but as a "system of
+study" devised by James Holden's parents, feeling that it was better to
+leave a few stones lying flat and unturned for his own protection.
+Manison nodded at the end of the ten-minute time-limit, used his desk
+interphone to inform his secretary that he was not to be disturbed until
+further notice (which also told Paul Brennan that he was indeed
+interested) and then said:
+
+"You know you haven't a legal leg to stand on, Brennan."
+
+"So I find out. It seems incredible that there isn't any law set up to
+control the activity of a child."
+
+"Incredible? No, Brennan, not so. To now it hasn't been necessary. People
+just do not see the necessity of laws passed to prevent something that
+isn't being done anyway. The number of outmoded laws, ridiculous laws,
+and laws passed in the heat of public emotion are always a subject for
+public ridicule. If the state legislature were to pass a law stating that
+any child under fourteen may not leave home without the consent of his
+parents, every opposition newspaper in the state would howl about the
+waste of time and money spent on ridiculous legislation passed to govern
+activities that are already under excellent control. They would poll the
+state and point out that for so many million children under age fourteen,
+precisely zero of them have left home to set up their own housekeeping.
+One might just as well waste the taxpayer's money by passing a law that
+confirms the Universal Law of Gravity.
+
+"But that's neither here nor there," he said. "Your problem is to figure
+out some means of exerting the proper control over this intelligent
+infant."
+
+"My problem rises higher than that," said Brennan ruefully. "He dislikes
+me to the point of blind, unreasonable hatred. He believes that I am the
+party responsible for the death of his parents and furthermore that the
+act was deliberate. Tantamount to a charge of first-degree murder."
+
+"Has he made that statement recently?" asked Manison.
+
+"I would hardly know."
+
+"When last did you hear him say words to that effect?"
+
+"At the time, following the accidental death of his parents, James Holden
+ran off to the home of his grandparents. Puzzled and concerned, they
+called me as the child's guardian. I went there to bring him back to his
+home. I arrived the following morning and it was during that session that
+James Holden made the accusation."
+
+"And he has not made it since, to the best of your knowledge?"
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"Hardly make anything out of that. Seven years ago. Not a formal charge,
+only a cry of rage, frustration, hysterical grief. The complaint of a
+five-year-old made under strain could hardly be considered slanderous.
+It is too bad that the child hasn't broken any laws. Your success in
+collecting him the first time was entirely due to the associations he'd
+made with this automobile thief--Caslow, you said his name was. We can't
+go back to that. The responsibility has been fixed, I presume, upon Jake
+Caslow in another state. Brennan, you've a real problem: How can you be
+sure that this James Holden will disclose his secret system of study even
+if we do succeed in cooking up some legal means of placing him and keep
+him in your custody?"
+
+Brennan considered, and came to the conclusion that now was the time to
+let another snibbet of information go. "The system of study consists of
+an electronic device, the exact nature of which I do not understand. The
+entire machine is large and cumbersome. In it, as a sort of 'heart,' is a
+special circuit. Without this special circuit the thing is no more than
+an expensive aggregation of delicate devices that could be used elsewhere
+in electronics. One such machine stands unused in the Holden Home because
+the central circuit was destroyed beyond repair or replacement by young
+James Holden. He destroyed it because he felt that this secret should
+remain his own, the intellectual inheritance from his parents. There is
+one other machine--undoubtedly in full function and employed daily--in
+the house on Martin's Hill under James Holden's personal supervision."
+
+"Indeed? How, may I ask?"
+
+"It was rebuilt by James Holden from plans, specifications, and
+information engraved on his brain by his parents through the use of their
+first machine. Unfortunately, I have every reason to believe that this
+new machine is so booby-trapped and tamper-protected that the first
+interference by someone other than James Holden will cause its
+destruction."
+
+"Um. It might be possible to impound this machine as a device of high
+interest to the State," mused Manison. "But if we start any proceeding
+as delicate as that, it will hit every newspaper in the country and our
+advantage will be lost."
+
+"Technically," said Paul Brennan, "you don't know that such a machine
+exists. But as soon as young Holden realizes that you know about his
+machine, he'll also know that you got the information from me." Brennan
+sat quietly and thought for a moment. "There's another distressing angle,
+too," he said at last. "I don't think that there is a soul on earth who
+knows how to run this machine but James Holden. Steal it or impound it or
+take it away legally, you've got to know how it runs. I doubt that we'd
+find a half-dozen people on the earth who'd willingly sit in a chair with
+a heavy headset on, connected to a devilish aggregation of electrical
+machinery purported to educate the victim, while a number of fumblers
+experimented with the dials and the knobs and the switches. No sir, some
+sort of pressure must be brought to bear upon the youngster."
+
+"Um. Perhaps civic pride? Might work. Point out to him that he is in
+control of a device that is essential to the security of the United
+States. That he is denying the children of this country the right to
+their extensive education. Et cetera?"
+
+"Could be. But how are you going to swing it, technically in ignorance of
+the existence of such a machine?"
+
+"Were I a member of the Congressional Committee on Education, I could
+investigate the matter of James Holden's apparent superiority of
+intellect."
+
+"And hit Page One of every newspaper in the country," sneered Brennan.
+
+"Well, I'm not," snapped Manison angrily. "However, there is a way,
+perhaps several ways, once we find the first entering wedge. After all,
+Brennan, the existence of a method of accelerating the course of
+educational training is of the utmost importance to the future of not
+only the United States of America, but the entire human race. Once I can
+locate some plausible reason for asking James Holden the first question
+about anything, the remainder of any session can be so slanted as to
+bring into the open any secret knowledge he may have. We, to make the
+disclosure easier, shall hold any sessions in the strictest of secrecy.
+We can quite readily agree with James Holden's concern over the
+long-range effectiveness of his machine and state that secrecy is
+necessary lest headstrong factions take the plunge into something that
+could be very detrimental to the human race instead of beneficial.
+Frankly, Mr. Brennan," said Manison with a wry smile, "I should like to
+borrow that device for about a week myself. It might help me locate some
+of the little legal points that would help me." He sighed. "Yes," he said
+sadly, "I know the law, but no one man knows all of the finer points.
+Lord knows," he went on, "if the law were a simple matter of behaving as
+it states, we'd not have this tremendous burden. But the law is subject
+to interpretation and change and argument and precedent--Precedent? Um,
+here we may have an interesting angle, Brennan. I must look into it."
+
+"Precedent?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. Any ruling that we were to make covering the right of a
+seven, eight, or nine year old to run his own life as he sees fit will be
+a ruling that establishes precedent."
+
+"And--?"
+
+"Well, up to now there's no ruling about such a case; no child of ten has
+ever left home to live as he prefers. But this James Holden is apparently
+capable of doing just that--and any impartial judge deliberating such a
+case would find it difficult to justify a decision that placed the
+competent infant under the guardianship and protection of an adult who is
+less competent than the infant."
+
+Brennan's face turned dark. "You're saying that this Holden kid is
+smarter than I am?"
+
+"Sit down and stop sputtering," snapped Manison. "What were you doing at
+six years old, Brennan? Did you have the brains to leave home and protect
+yourself by cooking up the plausible front of a very interesting
+character such as the mythical Hermit of Martin's Hill? Were you writing
+boys' stories for a nationwide magazine of high circulation and
+accredited quality? Could you have planned your own dinner and prepared
+it, or would you have dined on chocolate bars washed down with strawberry
+pop? Stop acting indignant. Start thinking. If for no other reason than
+that we don't want to end up selling pencils on Halstead Street because
+we're not quite bright, we've got to lay our hands on that machine. We've
+got to lead, not follow. Yet at the present time I'll wager that your
+James Holden is going to give everybody concerned a very rough time. Now,
+let me figure out the angles and pull the wires. One thing that nobody
+can learn from any electronic machine is how to manipulate the component
+people that comprise a political machine. I'll be in touch with you,
+Brennan."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The ring at the door was Chief of Police Joseph Colling and another
+gentleman. Janet Fisher answered the door, "Good evening, Mr. Colling.
+Come in?"
+
+"Thank you," said Colling politely. "This is Mr. Frank Manison, from the
+office of the State Department of Justice."
+
+"Oh? Is something wrong?"
+
+"Not that we know of," replied Manison. "We're simply after some
+information. I apologize for calling at eight o'clock in the evening, but
+I wanted to catch you all under one roof. Is Mr. Fisher home? And the
+children?"
+
+"Why, yes. We're all here." Janet stepped aside to let them enter the
+living room, and then called upstairs. Mr. Manison was introduced around
+and Tim Fisher said, cautiously, "What's the trouble here?"
+
+"No trouble that we know of," said Manison affably. "We're just after
+some information about the education of James Holden, a legal minor, who
+seems never to have been enrolled in any school."
+
+"If you don't mind," replied Tim Fisher, "I'll not answer anything
+without the advice of my attorney."
+
+Janet Fisher gasped.
+
+Tim turned with a smile. "Don't you like lawyers, honey?"
+
+"It isn't that. But isn't crying for a lawyer an admission of some sort?"
+
+"Sure is," replied Tim Fisher. "It's an admission that I don't know all
+of my legal rights. If lawyers come to me because they don't know all
+there is to know about the guts of an automobile, I have every right to
+the same sort of consultation in reverse. Agree, James?"
+
+James Holden nodded. "The man who represents himself in court has a fool
+for a client," he said. "I think that's Daniel Webster, but I'm not
+certain. No matter; it's right. Call Mr. Waterman, and until he arrives
+we'll discuss the weather, the latest dope in high-altitude research, or
+nuclear physics."
+
+Frank Manison eyed the lad. "You're James Holden?"
+
+"I am."
+
+Tim interrupted. "We're not answering _anything_," he warned.
+
+"Oh, I don't mind admitting my identity," said James. "I've committed no
+crime, I've broken no law. No one can point to a single act of mine that
+shows a shred of evidence to the effect that my intentions are not
+honorable. Sooner or later this whole affair had to come to a showdown,
+and I'm prepared to face it squarely."
+
+"Thank you," said Manison. "Now, without inviting comment, let me explain
+one important fact. The state reserves the right to record marriages,
+births, and deaths as a simple matter of vital statistics. We feel that
+we have every right to the compiling of the census, and we can justify
+our feeling. I am here because of some apparent irregularities, records
+of which we do not have. If these apparent irregularities can be
+explained to our satisfaction for the record, this meeting will be ended.
+Now, let's relax until your attorney arrives."
+
+"May I get you some coffee or a highball?" asked Janet Fisher.
+
+"Coffee, please," agreed Frank Manison. Chief Colling nodded quietly.
+They relaxed over coffee and small talk for a half hour. The arrival of
+Waterman, Tim Fisher's attorney, signalled the opening of the discussion.
+
+"First," said Manison, his pencil poised over a notebook, "Who lives here
+in permanent residence, and for how long?" He wrote rapidly as they told
+him. "The house is your property?" he asked Tim, and wrote again. "And
+you are paying a rental on certain rooms of this house?" he asked James,
+who nodded.
+
+"Where did you attend school?" he asked James.
+
+"I did not."
+
+"Where did you get your education?"
+
+"By a special course in home study."
+
+"You understand that under the state laws that provide for the education
+of minor children, the curriculum must be approved by the state?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And has it?"
+
+Waterman interrupted. "Just a moment, Mr. Manison. In what way must the
+curriculum be approved? Does the State study all textbooks and the manner
+in which each and every school presents them? Or does the State merely
+insist that the school child be taught certain subjects?"
+
+"The State merely insists that certain standards of education be
+observed."
+
+"In fact," added James, "the State does not even insist that the child
+_learn_ the subjects, realizing that some children lack the intellect to
+be taught certain subjects completely and fully. Let's rather say that
+the State demands that school children be exposed to certain subjects in
+the hope that they 'take.' Am I not correct?"
+
+"I presume you are."
+
+"Then I shall answer your question. In my home study, I have indeed
+followed the approved curriculum by making use of the approved textbooks
+in their proper order. I am aware of the fact that this is not the same
+State, but if you will consult the record of my earlier years in
+attendance at a school selected by my legal guardian, you'll find that I
+passed from preschool grade to Fourth Grade in a matter of less than half
+a year, at the age of five-approaching-six. If this matter is subject to
+question, I'll submit to any course of extensive examination your
+educators care to prepare. The law regarding compulsory education in this
+state says that the minor child must attend school until either the age
+of eighteen, or until he has completed the standard eight years of
+grammar school and four years of high school. I shall then stipulate that
+the suggested examination be limited to the schooling of a high school
+graduate."
+
+"For the moment we'll pass this over. We may ask that you do prove your
+contention," said Manison.
+
+"You don't doubt that I can, do you?" asked James.
+
+Manison shook his head. "No, at this moment I have no doubt."
+
+"Then why do you bother asking?"
+
+"I am here for a rather odd reason," said Manison. "I've told you the
+reservations that the State holds, which justify my presence. Now, it is
+patently obvious that you are a very competent young man, James Holden.
+The matter of making your own way is difficult, as many adults can
+testify. To have contrived a means of covering up your youth, in addition
+to living a full and competent life, demonstrates an ability above and
+beyond the average. Now, the State is naturally interested in anything
+that smacks of acceleration of the educational period. Can you understand
+that?"
+
+"Naturally. None but a dolt would avoid education."
+
+"Then you agree with our interest?"
+
+"I--"
+
+"Just a moment, James," said Waterman. "Let's put it that you understand
+their interest, but that you do not necessarily agree."
+
+"I understand," said James.
+
+"Then you must also understand that this 'course of study' by which you
+claim the equal of a high-school education at the age of ten or eleven
+(perhaps earlier) must be of high importance."
+
+"I understand that it might," agreed James.
+
+"Then will you explain why you have kept this a secret?"
+
+"Because--"
+
+"Just a moment," said Waterman again. "James, would you say that your
+method of educating yourself is completely perfected?"
+
+"Not completely."
+
+"Not perfected?" asked Manison. "Yet you claim to have the education of a
+high-school graduate?"
+
+"I so claim," said James. "But I must also point out that I have acquired
+a lot of mish-mash in the course of this education. For instance, it is
+one thing to study English, its composition, spelling, vocabulary,
+construction, rules and regulations. One must learn these things if he is
+to be considered literate. In the course of such study, one also becomes
+acquainted with English literature. With literature it is enough to
+merely be acquainted with the subject. One need not know the works of
+Chaucer or Spenser intimately--unless one is preparing to specialize in
+the English literature of the writers of that era. Frankly, sir, I should
+hate to have my speech colored by the flowery phrases of that time, and
+the spelling of that day would flunk me out of First Grade if I made use
+of it. In simple words, I am still perfecting the method."
+
+"Now, James," went on Waterman, "have you ever entertained the idea of
+not releasing the details of your method?"
+
+"Occasionally," admitted James.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Until we know everything about it, we can not be certain that its
+ultimate effect will be wholly beneficial."
+
+"So, you see," said Waterman to Manison, "the intention is reasonable.
+Furthermore, we must point out that this system is indeed the invention
+created by the labor and study of the parents of James Holden, and as
+such it is a valuable property retained by James Holden as his own by the
+right of inheritance. The patent laws of the United States are clear, it
+is the many conflicting rulings that have weakened the system. The law
+itself is contained in the Constitution of the United States, which
+provides for the establishment of a Patent Office as a means to encourage
+inventors by granting them the exclusive right to the benefits of their
+labor for a reasonable period of time--namely seventeen years with
+provision for a second period under renewal."
+
+"Then why doesn't he make use of it?" demanded Manison.
+
+"Because the process, like so many another process, can be copied and
+used by individuals without payment, and because there hasn't been a
+patent suit upheld for about forty years, with the possible exception
+of Major Armstrong's suit against the Radio Corporation of America,
+settled in Armstrong's favor after about twenty-five years of expensive
+litigation. A secret is no longer a secret these days, once it has been
+written on a piece of paper and called to the attention of a few million
+people across the country."
+
+"You realize that anything that will give an extensive education at an
+early age is vital to the security of the country."
+
+"We recognize that responsibility, sir," said Waterman quietly. "We also
+recognize that in the hands of unscrupulous men, the system could be
+misused. We also realize its dangers, and we are trying to avoid them
+before we make the announcement. We are very much aware of the important,
+although unfortunate, fact that James Holden, as a minor, can have his
+rights abridged. Normally honest men, interested in the protection of
+youth, could easily prevent him from using his own methods, thus
+depriving him of the benefits that are legally his. This could be
+done under the guise of protection, and the result would be the
+super-education of the protectors--whose improving intellectual
+competence would only teach them more and better reasons for depriving
+the young man of his rights. James Holden has a secret, and he has a
+right to keep that secret, and his only protection is for him to continue
+to keep that secret inviolate. It was his parents' determination not to
+release this process upon the world until they were certain of the
+results. James is a living example of their effort; they conceived him
+for the express purpose of providing a virgin mind to educate by their
+methods, so that no outside interference would becloud their results. If
+this can be construed as the illegal experimentation on animals under the
+anti-vivisection laws, or cruelty to children, it was their act, not his.
+Is that clear?"
+
+"It is clear," replied Manison. "We may be back for more discussion on
+this point. I'm really after information, not conducting a case, you
+know."
+
+"Well, you have your information."
+
+"Not entirely. We've another point to consider, Mr. Waterman. It is
+admittedly a delicate point. It is the matter of legal precedent.
+Granting everything you say is true--and I'll grant that hypothetically
+for the purpose of this argument--let's assume that James Holden
+ultimately finds his process suitable for public use. Now, happily to
+this date James had not broken any laws. He is an honorable individual.
+Let's now suppose that in the near future, someone becomes educated by
+his process and at the age of twelve or so decided to make use of his
+advanced intelligence in nefarious work?"
+
+"All right. Let's suppose."
+
+"Then you tell me who is responsible for the person of James Holden?"
+
+"He is responsible unto himself."
+
+"Not under the existing laws," said Manison. "Let's consider James just
+as we know him now. Who says, 'go ahead,' if he has an attack of acute
+appendicitis?"
+
+"In the absence of someone to take the personal responsibility," said
+James quietly, "the attending doctor would toss his coin to see whether
+his Oath of Hippocrates was stronger than his fear of legal reprisals.
+It's been done before. But let's get to the point, Mr. Manison. What do
+you have in mind?"
+
+"You've rather pointedly demonstrated your preference to live here rather
+than with your legally-appointed guardian."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, young man, I suggest that we get this matter settled legally. You
+are not living under the supervision of your guardian, but you are indeed
+living under the auspices of people who are not recognized by law as
+holding the responsibility for you."
+
+"So far there's been no cause for complaint."
+
+"Let's keep it that way," smiled Manison. "I'll ask you to accept a writ
+of habeas corpus, directing you to show just cause why you should not be
+returned to the custody of your guardian."
+
+"And what good will that do?"
+
+"If you can show just cause," said Manison, "the Court will follow
+established precedent and appoint Mr. and Mrs. Fisher as your responsible
+legal guardians--if that is your desire."
+
+"Can this be done?" asked Mrs. Fisher.
+
+"It's been done before, time and again. The State is concerned primarily
+with the welfare of the child; children have been legally removed from
+natural but unsuitable parents, you know." He looked distressed for a
+moment and then went on, "The will of the deceased is respected, but the
+law recognizes that it is the living with which it must be primarily
+concerned, that mistakes can be made, and that such errors in judgment
+must be rectified in the name of the public weal."
+
+"I've been--" started James but Attorney Waterman interrupted him:
+
+"We'll accept the service of your writ, Mr. Manison." And to James after
+the man had departed: "Never give the opposition an inkling of what you
+have in mind--and always treat anybody who is not in your retainer as
+opposition."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+
+The case of Brennan vs. Holden opened in the emptied court room of Judge
+Norman L. Carter, with a couple of bored members of the press wishing
+they were elsewhere. For the first two hours, it was no more than
+formalized outlining of the whole situation.
+
+The plaintiff identified himself, testified that he was indeed the legal
+guardian of the minor James Quincy Holden, entered a transcript of the
+will in evidence, and then went on to make his case. He had provided
+a home atmosphere that was, to the best of his knowledge, the type of
+home atmosphere that would have been highly pleasing to the deceased
+parents--especially in view of the fact that this home was one and the
+same house as theirs and that little had been changed. He was supported
+by the Mitchells. It all went off in the slow, cumbersome dry phraseology
+of the legal profession and the sum and substance of two hours of
+back-and-forth question-and-answer was to establish the fact that Paul
+Brennan had provided a suitable home for the minor, James Quincy Holden,
+and that the minor James Quincy Holden had refused to live in it and had
+indeed demonstrated his objections by repeatedly absenting himself
+wilfully and with premeditation.
+
+The next half hour covered a blow-by-blow account of Paul Brennan's
+efforts to have the minor restored to him. The attorneys for both sides
+were alert. Brennan's counsel did not even object when Waterman paved the
+way to show why James Holden wanted his freedom by asking Brennan:
+
+"Were you aware that James Holden was a child of exceptional intellect?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you've testified that when you moved into the Holden home, you found
+things as the Holdens had provided them for their child?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In your opinion, were these surroundings suitable for James Holden?"
+
+"They were far too advanced for a child of five."
+
+"I asked specifically about James Holden."
+
+"James Holden was five years old."
+
+Waterman eyed Brennan with some surprise, then cast a glance at Frank
+Manison, who sat at ease, calmly watching and listening with no sign of
+objection. Waterman turned back to Brennan and said, "Let's take one more
+turn around Robin Hood's Barn, Mr. Brennan. First, James Holden was an
+exceptional child?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And the nature of his toys and furnishings?"
+
+"In my opinion, too advanced for a child of five."
+
+"But were they suitable for James Holden?"
+
+"James Holden was a child of five."
+
+Waterman faced Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "I submit that the
+witness is evasive. Will you direct him to respond to my direct question
+with a direct answer?"
+
+"The witness will answer the question properly," said Judge Carter with
+a slight frown of puzzlement, "unless counsel for the witness has some
+plausible objection?"'
+
+"No objection," said Manison.
+
+"Please repeat or rephrase your question," suggested Judge Carter.
+
+"Mr. Brennan," said Waterman, "you've testified that James was an
+exceptional child, advanced beyond his years. You've testified that the
+home and surroundings provided by James Holden's parents reflected this
+fact. Now tell me, were the toys, surroundings, and the home suitable for
+James Holden?"
+
+"In my opinion, no."
+
+"And subsequently you replaced them with stuff you believed more suitable
+for a child of five, is that it?"
+
+"Yes. I did, and you are correct."
+
+"To which he objected?"
+
+"To which James Holden objected."
+
+"And what was your response to his objection?"
+
+"I overruled his objection."
+
+"Upon what grounds?"
+
+"Upon the grounds that the education and the experience of an adult
+carries more wisdom than the desires of a child."
+
+"Now, Mr. Brennan, please listen carefully. During the months following
+your guardianship, you successively removed the books that James Holden
+was fond of reading, replaced his advanced Meccano set with a set of
+modular blocks, exchanged his oil-painting equipment for a child's
+coloring books and standard crayolas, and in general you removed
+everything interesting to a child with known superiority of intellect?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And your purpose in opening this hearing was to convince this Court that
+James Holden should be returned by legal procedure to such surroundings?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"No more questions," said Waterman. He sat down and rubbed his forehead
+with the palm of his right hand, trying to think.
+
+Manison said, "I have one question to ask of Janet Fisher, known formerly
+as Mrs. Bagley."
+
+Janet Fisher was sworn and properly identified.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Fisher, prior to your marriage to Mr. Fisher and during your
+sojourn with James Holden in the House on Martin's Hill, did you
+supervise the activities of James Holden?"
+
+"No," she said.
+
+"Thank you," said Manison. He turned to Waterman and waved him to any
+cross-questioning.
+
+Still puzzled, Waterman asked, "Mrs. Fisher, who did supervise the House
+on Martin's Hill?"
+
+"James Holden."
+
+"During those years, Mrs. Fisher, did James Holden at any time conduct
+himself in any other manner but the actions of an honest citizen? I mean,
+did he perform or suggest the performance of any illegal act to your
+knowledge?"
+
+"No, he did not."
+
+Waterman turned to Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "it seems quite
+apparent to me that the plaintiff in this case has given more testimony
+to support the contentions of my client than they have to support their
+own case. Will the Court honor a petition that the case be dismissed?"
+
+Judge Norman L. Carter smiled slightly. "This is irregular," he said.
+"You should wait for that petition until the plaintiff's counsel has
+closed his case, you know." He looked at Frank Manison. "Any objection?"
+
+Manison said, "Your Honor, I have permitted my client to be shown in this
+questionable light for no other purpose than to bring out the fact that
+any man can make a mistake in the eyes of other men when in reality he
+was doing precisely what he thought to be the best thing to do for
+himself and for the people within his responsibility. The man who raises
+his child to be a roustabout is wrong in the eyes of his neighbor who is
+raising his child to be a scientist, and vice versa. We'll accept the
+fact that James Holden's mind is superior. We'll point out that there
+have been many cases of precocious children or child geniuses who make a
+strong mark in their early years and drop into oblivion by the time
+they're twenty. Now, consider James Holden, sitting there discussing
+something with his attorney--I have no doubt in the world that he could
+conjugate Latin verbs, discuss the effect of the Fall of Rome on Western
+Civilization, and probably compute the orbit of an artificial satellite.
+But can James Holden fly a kite or shoot a marble? Has he ever had the
+fun of sliding into third base, or whittling on a peg, or any of the
+other enjoyable trivia of boyhood? Has he--"
+
+"One moment," said Judge Carter. "Let's not have an impassioned oration,
+counsel. What is your point?"
+
+"James Holden has a legal guardian, appointed by law at the express will
+of his parents. Headstrong, he has seen fit to leave that protection. He
+is fighting now to remain away from that protection. I can presume that
+James Holden would prefer to remain in the company of the Fishers where,
+according to Mrs. Fisher, he was not responsible to her whatsoever, but
+rather ran the show himself. I--"
+
+"You can't make that presumption," said Judge Carter. "Strike it from the
+record."
+
+"I apologize," said Manison. "But I object to dismissing this case until
+we find out just what James Holden has in mind for his future."
+
+"I'll hold Counsel Waterman's petition in abeyance until the point you
+mention is in the record," said Judge Carter. "Counsel, are you
+finished?"
+
+"Yes," said Manison. "I'll rest."
+
+"Mr. Waterman?"
+
+Waterman said, "Your Honor, we've been directed to show just cause why
+James Holden should not be returned to the protection of his legal
+guardian. Counsel has implied that James Holden desires to be placed in
+the legal custody of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher. This is a pardonable error
+whether it stands in the record or not. The fact is that James Holden
+does not need protection, nor does he want protection. To the contrary,
+James Holden petitions this Court to declare him legally competent so
+that he may conduct his own affairs with the rights, privileges, and
+indeed, even the _risks_ taken by the status of adult.
+
+"I'll point out that the rules and laws that govern the control and
+protection of minor children were passed by benevolent legislators to
+prevent exploitation, cruelty, and deprivation of the child's life by
+men who would take advantage of his immaturity. However we have here a
+young man of twelve who has shown his competence to deal with the adult
+world by actual practice. Therefore it is our contention that protective
+laws are not only unnecessary, but undesirable because they restrict the
+individual from his desire to live a full and fruitful life.
+
+"To prove our contention beyond any doubt, I'll ask that James Holden be
+sworn in as my first witness."
+
+Frank Manison said, "I object, Your Honor. James Holden is a minor and
+not qualified under law to give creditable testimony as a witness."
+
+Waterman turned upon Manison angrily. "You really mean that you object to
+my case _per se_."
+
+"That, too," replied Manison easily.
+
+"Your Honor, I take exception! It is my purpose to place James Holden on
+the witness stand, and there to show this Court and all the world that he
+is of honorable mind, properly prepared to assume the rights of an adult.
+We not only propose to show that he acted honorably, we shall show that
+James Holden consulted the law to be sure that whatever he did was not
+illegal."
+
+"Or," added Manison, "was it so that he would know how close to the limit
+he could go without stepping over the line?"
+
+"Your Honor," asked Waterman, "can't we have your indulgence?"
+
+"I object! The child is a minor."
+
+"I accept the statement!" stormed Waterman. "And I say that we intend to
+prove that this minor is qualified to act as an adult."
+
+"And," sneered Manison, "I'll guess that one of your later arguments will
+be that Judge Carter, having accepted this minor as qualified to deliver
+sworn testimony, has already granted the first premise of your argument."
+
+"I say that James Holden has indeed shown his competence already by
+actually doing it!"
+
+"While hiding under a false façade!"
+
+"A façade forced upon him by the restrictive laws that he is petitioning
+the Court to set aside in his case so that he need hide no longer."
+
+Frank Manison said, "Your Honor, how shall the case of James Holden be
+determined for the next eight or ten years if we do grant James Holden
+this legal right to conduct his own affairs as an adult? That we must
+abridge the laws regarding compulsory education is evident. James Holden
+is twelve years and five months old. Shall he be granted the right to
+enter a tavern to buy a drink? Will his request for a license to marry be
+honored? May he enter the polling place and cast his vote? The contention
+of counsel that the creation of Charles Maxwell was a physical necessity
+is acceptable. But what happens without 'Maxwell'? Must we prepare a card
+of identity for James Holden, stating his legal status, and renew it
+every year like an automobile license because the youth will grow in
+stature, add to his weight, and ultimately grow a beard? Must we enter on
+this identification card the fact that he is legally competent to sign
+contracts, rent a house, write checks, and make his own decision about
+the course of dangerous medical treatment--or shall we list those items
+that he is not permitted to do such as drinking in a public place, cast
+his vote, or marry? This State permits a youth to drive an automobile at
+the age of sixteen, this act being considered a skill rather than an act
+that requires judgment. Shall James Holden be permitted to drive an
+automobile even though he can not reach the foot pedals from any position
+where he can see through the windshield?"
+
+Judge Carter sat quietly. He said calmly, "Let the record show that I
+recognize the irregularity of this procedure and that I permit it only
+because of the unique aspects of this case. Were there a Jury, I would
+dismiss them until this verbal exchange of views and personalities has
+subsided.
+
+"Now," he went on, "I will not allow James Holden to take the witness
+stand as a qualified witness to prove that he is a qualified witness.
+I am sure that he can display his own competence with a flow of academic
+brilliance, or his attorney would not have tried to place him upon the
+stand where such a display could have been demonstrated. Of more
+importance to the Court and to the State is an equitable disposition
+of the responsibility to and over James Quincy Holden."
+
+Judge Norman L. Carter leaned forward and looked from Frank Manison to
+James Holden, and then to Attorney Waterman.
+
+"We must face some awkward facts," he said. "If I rule that he be
+returned to Mr. Brennan, he will probably remain no longer than he finds
+it convenient, at which point he will behave just as if this Court had
+never convened. Am I not correct, Mr. Manison?"
+
+"Your Honor, you are correct. However, as a member of the Department of
+Justice of this State, I suggest that you place the responsibility in my
+hands. As an Officer of the Court, my interest would be to the best
+interest of the State rather than based upon experience, choice, or
+opinion as to what is better for a five-year-old or a child prodigy. In
+other words, I would exert the control that the young man needed. At the
+same time I would not make the mistakes that were made by Mr. Brennan's
+personal opinion of how a child should be reared."
+
+Waterman shouted, "I object, Your Honor. I object--"
+
+Brennan leaped to his feet and cried, "Manison, you can't freeze me
+out--"
+
+James Holden shrilled, "I won't! I won't!"
+
+Judge Carter eyed them one by one, staring them into silence. Finally he
+looked at Janet Fisher and said, "May I also presume that you would be
+happy to resume your association with James Holden?"
+
+She nodded and said, "I'd be glad to," in a sincere voice. Tim Fisher
+nodded his agreement.
+
+Brennan whirled upon them and snarled. "My reward money--" but he was
+shoved down in his seat with a heavy hand by Frank Manison who snapped,
+"Your money bought what it was offered for. So now shut up, you utter
+imbecile!"
+
+Judge Norman L. Carter cleared his throat and said, "This great concern
+over the welfare of James Holden is touching. We have Mr. Brennan already
+twice a loser and yet willing to try it for three times. We have Mr. and
+Mrs. Fisher who are not dismayed at the possibility of having their home
+occupied by a headstrong youth whose actions they cannot control. We find
+one of the ambitious members of the District Attorney's Office offering
+to take on an additional responsibility--all, of course, in the name of
+the State and the welfare of James Holden. Finally we have James Holden
+who wants no part of the word 'protection' and claims the ability to run
+his own life.
+
+"Now it strikes me that assigning the responsibility for this young
+man's welfare is by no means the reason why you all are present, and it
+similarly occurs to me that the young man's welfare is of considerably
+less importance than the very interesting question of how and why this
+young man has achieved so much."
+
+With a thoughtful expression, Judge Carter said, "James Holden, how did
+you acquire this magnificent education at the tender age of twelve-plus?"
+
+"I--"
+
+"I object!" cried Frank Manison. "The minor is not qualified to give
+testimony."
+
+"Objection overruled. This is not testimony. I have every right in the
+world to seek out as much information from whatever source I may select;
+and I have the additional right to inspect the information I receive to
+pass upon its competence and relevance. Sit down, counsel!"
+
+Manison sat grumpily and Judge Carter eyed James again, and James took a
+full breath. This was the moment he had been waiting for.
+
+"Go on, James. Answer my question. Where did you come by your knowledge?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden stood up. This was the question that had to arise; he was
+only surprised it had taken so long.
+
+He said calmly: "Your Honor, you may not ask that question."
+
+"I may not?" asked Judge Carter with a lift of his eyebrows.
+
+"No sir. You may not."
+
+"And just why may I not?"
+
+"If this were a criminal case, and if you could establish that some of my
+knowledge were guilty knowledge, you could then demand that I reveal the
+source of my guilty knowledge and under what circumstance it was
+obtained. If I refused to disclose my source, I could then be held in
+contempt of court or charged with being an accessory to the corpus of the
+crime. However, this is a court hearing to establish whether or not I am
+competent under law to manage my own affairs. How I achieve my mental
+competence is not under question. Let us say that it is a process that is
+my secret by the right of inheritance from my parents and as such it is
+valuable to me so long as I can demand payment for its use."
+
+"This information may have a bearing on my ruling."
+
+"Your Honor, the acquisition of knowledge or information _per se_ is
+concomitant with growing up. I can and will demonstrate that I have the
+equivalent of the schooling necessary to satisfy both this Court and the
+State Board of Education. I will state that my education has been
+acquired by concentration and application in home study, and that I admit
+to attendance at no school. I will provide you or anybody else with a
+list of the books from which I have gleaned my education. But whether I
+practice Yoga, Dianetics, or write the lines on a sugarcoated pill and
+swallow it is my trade secret. It can not be extracted from me by any
+process of the law because no illegality exists."
+
+"And what if I rule that you are not competent under the law, or withhold
+judgment until I have had an opportunity to investigate these ways and
+means of acquiring an accelerated education?"
+
+"I'll then go on record as asking you to disbar yourself from this
+hearing on the grounds that you are not an impartial judge of the justice
+in my case."
+
+"Upon what grounds?"
+
+"Upon the grounds that you are personally interested in being provided
+with a process whereby you may acquire an advanced education yourself."
+
+The judge looked at James thoughtfully for a moment. "And if I point out
+that any such process is of extreme interest to the State and to the
+Union itself, and as such must be disclosed?"
+
+"Then I shall point out that your ruling is based upon a personal opinion
+because you don't know anything about the process. If I am ruled a legal
+minor you cannot punish me for not telling you my secrets, and if I am
+ruled legally competent, I am entitled to my own decision."
+
+"You are within your rights," admitted Judge Carter with some interest.
+"I shall not make such a demand. But I now ask you if this process of
+yours is both safe and simple."
+
+"If it is properly used with some good judgment."
+
+"Now listen to me carefully," said Judge Carter. "Is it not true that
+your difficulties in school, your inability to get along with your
+classmates, and your having to hide while you toiled for your livelihood
+in secret--these are due to this extensive education brought about
+through your secret process?"
+
+"I must agree, but--"
+
+"You must agree," interrupted Judge Carter. "Yet knowing these unpleasant
+things did not deter you from placing, or trying to place, the daughter
+of your housekeeper in the same unhappy state. In other words, you hoped
+to make an intellectual misfit out of her, too?"
+
+"I--now see here--"
+
+"You see here! Did you or did you not aid in the education of Martha
+Bagley, now Martha Fisher?"
+
+"Yes, I did, and--"
+
+"Was that good judgment, James Holden?"
+
+"What's wrong with higher education?" demanded James angrily.
+
+"Nothing, if it's acquired properly."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Now listen again. If I were to rule in your favor, would Martha Fisher
+be the next bratling in a long and everlasting line of infant supermen
+applying to this and that and the other Court to have their legal
+majority ruled, each of them pointing to your case as having established
+precedence?"
+
+"I have no way of predicting the future, sir. What may happen in the
+future really has no bearing in evidence here."
+
+"Granted that it does not. But I am not going to establish a dangerous
+precedent that will end with doctors qualified to practice surgery before
+they are big enough to swing a stethoscope or attorneys that plead a case
+before they are out of short pants. I am going to recess this case
+indefinitely with a partial ruling. First, until this process of yours
+comes under official study, I am declaring you, James Holden, to be a
+Ward of this State, under the jurisdiction of this Court. You will have
+the legal competence to act in matters of skill, including the signing of
+documents and instruments necessary to your continued good health. In all
+matters that require mature judgment, you will report to this Court and
+all such questions shall be rendered after proper deliberation either in
+open session or in chambers, depending upon the Court's opinion of their
+importance. The court stenographer will now strike all of the testimony
+given by James Holden from the record."
+
+"I object!" exploded Brennan's attorney, rising swiftly and with one hand
+pressing Brennan down to prevent him from rising also.
+
+"All objections are overruled. The new Ward of the State will meet with
+me in my chambers at once. Court is adjourned."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The session was stormy but brief. Holden objected to everything, but the
+voice of Judge Carter was loud and his stature was large; they overrode
+James Holden and compelled his attention.
+
+"We're out of the court," snapped Judge Carter. "We no longer need
+observe the niceties of court etiquette, so now shut up and listen!
+Holden, you are involved in a thing that is explosively dangerous. You
+claim it to be a secret, but your secret is slowly leaking out of your
+control. You asked for your legal competence to be ruled. Fine, but if I
+allowed that, every statement made by you about your education would be
+in court record and your so-called secret that much more widespread. How
+long do you think it would have been before millions of people howled at
+your door? Some of them yelping for help and some of them bitterly
+objecting to tampering with the immature brain? You'd be accused of
+brainwashing, of making monsters, of depriving children of their heritage
+of happiness--and in the same ungodly howl there would be voices as
+loudly damning you for not tossing your process into their laps. And
+there would be a number trying to get to you on the sly so that they
+could get a head start over the rest.
+
+"You want your competence affirmed legally? James, you have not the
+stature nor the voice to fight them off. Even now, your little secret is
+in danger and you'll probably have to bribe a few wiseacres with a touch
+of accelerated knowledge to keep them from spilling the whole story, even
+though I've ruled your testimony incompetent and immaterial and stricken
+from the record. Now, we'll study this system of yours under controlled
+conditions as your parents wanted, and we'll have professional help and
+educated advice, and both you and your process shall be under the
+protection of my Court, and when the time comes you shall receive the
+kudos and benefits from it. Understand?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"Good. Now, as my first order, you go back to Shipmont and pack your
+gear. You'll report to my home as soon as you've made all the
+arrangements. There'll be no more hiding out and playing your little
+process in secret either from Paul Brennan--yes, I know that you believe
+that he was somehow instrumental in the death of your parents but have no
+shred of evidence that would stand in court--or the rest of the world. Is
+that, and everything else I've said in private, very clear?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Good. Now, be off with you. And do not hesitate to call upon me if there
+is any interference whatsoever."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+
+Judge Carter insisted and won his point that James Holden accept
+residence in his home.
+
+He did not turn a hair when the trucks of equipment arrived from the
+house on Martin's Hill; he already had room for it in the cellar. He
+cheerfully allowed James the right to set it up and test it out. He
+respected James Holden's absolute insistence that no one be permitted to
+touch the special circuit that was the heart of the entire machine. Judge
+Carter also counter-requested--and enforced the request--that he be
+allowed to try the machinery out. He took a simple reading course in
+higher mathematics, after discovering that Holden's machine would not
+teach him how to play the violin. (Judge Carter already played the
+violin--but badly.)
+
+Later, the judge committed to memory the entire book of Bartlett's Famous
+Quotations despite the objection of young Holden that he was cluttering
+up his memory with a lot of useless material. The Judge learned (as James
+had learned earlier) that the proper way to store such information in the
+memory was to read the book with the machine turned in "stand-by" until
+some section was encountered that was of interest. Using this method, the
+judge picked and pecked at the Holy Bible, a number of documents that
+looked like important governmental records, and a few books in modern
+history.
+
+Then there came other men. First was a Professor Harold White from the
+State Board of Education who came to study both Holden and Holden's
+machinery and what it did. Next came a Dr. Persons who said very little
+but made diagrams and histograms and graphs which he studied. The third
+was a rather cheerful fellow called Jack Cowling who was more interested
+in James Holden's personal feelings than he was in the machine. He
+studied many subjects superficially and watched the behavior of young
+Holden as Holden himself studied subjects recommended by Professor White.
+
+White had a huge blackboard installed on the cellar wall opposite the
+machine, and he proceeded to fill the board with block outlines filled
+with crabbed writing and odd-looking symbols. The whole was meaningless
+to James Holden; it looked like the organization chart of a large
+corporation but it contained no names or titles. The arrival of each new
+visitor caused changes in the block diagram.
+
+These arrivals went at their project with stop watches and slide rules.
+They calibrated themselves and James with the cold-blooded attitude of
+racetrack touts clocking their favorite horses. Where James had simply
+taken what he wanted or what he could at any single sitting, then let
+it settle in his mind before taking another dose of unpremeditated
+magnitude, these fellows ascertained the best effectiveness of each
+application to each of them. They tried taking long terms under the
+machine and then they measured the time it took for the installed
+information to sink in and settle into usable shape. Then they tried
+shorter and shorter sittings and measured the correspondingly shorter
+settling times. They found out that no two men were alike, nor were any
+two subjects. They discovered that a man with an extensive education
+already could take a larger sitting and have the new information
+available for mental use in a shorter settling time than a man whose
+education had been sketchy or incomplete.
+
+They brought in men who had either little or no mathematics and gave them
+courses in advanced subjects. Afterwards they provided the foundation
+mathematics and they calibrated and measured the time it took for the
+higher subject to be understood as it aligned its information to the
+whole. Men came with crude English and bluntly read the dictionary and
+the proper rules of grammar and they were checked to see if their early
+bad-speech habits were corrected, and to what degree the Holden machine
+could be made to help repair the damage of a lifelong ingrained set of
+errors. They sent some of these boys through comparison dictionaries in
+foreign tongues and then had their language checked by specialists who
+were truly polylingual. There were some who spoke fluent English but no
+other tongue; these progressed into German with a German-to-English
+comparison dictionary, and then into French via a German-to-French
+comparison and were finally checked out in French by French-speaking
+examiners.
+
+And Professor White's block diagram grew complex, and Dr. Persons's
+histograms filled pages and pages of his broad notebooks.
+
+It was the first time that James Holden had ever seen a team of
+researchers plow into a problem, running a cold and icy scientific
+investigation to ascertain precisely how much cause produced how much
+effect. Holden, who had taken what he wanted or needed as the time came,
+began to understand the desirability of full and careful programming. The
+whole affair intrigued him and interested him. He plunged in with a will
+and gave them all the help he could.
+
+He had no time to be bored, and he did not mark the passage of time until
+he arrived at his thirteenth birthday.
+
+Then one night shortly after his birthday, James Holden discovered women
+indirectly. He had his first erotic dream.
+
+We shall not go into the details of this midnight introduction to the
+arrival of manhood, for the simple reason that if we dwell on the
+subject, someone is certain to attempt a dream-analysis and come up with
+some flanged-up character-study or personality-quirk that really has
+nothing to do with the mind or body of James Holden. The truth is that
+his erotic dream was pleasantly stirring, but not entirely satisfactory.
+It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last very long. It awakened him
+to the realization that knowledge is not the end-all of life, and that a
+full understanding of the words, the medical terms, and the biology
+involved did not tell him a thing about this primary drive of all life.
+
+His total grasp of even the sideline issues was still dim. He came to a
+partial understanding of why Jake Caslow had entertained late visitors of
+the opposite sex, but he still could not quite see the reason why Jake
+kept the collection of calendar photographs and paintings hung up around
+the place. Crude jokes and rude talk heard long years before and dimly
+remembered did not have much connection with the subject. To James
+Holden, a "tomato" was still a vegetable, although he knew that some
+botanists were willing to argue that the tomato was really a fruit.
+
+For many days he watched Judge Carter and his wife with a critical
+curiosity that their childless life had never known before. James found
+that they did not act as if something new and strangely thrilling had
+just hit the known universe. He felt that they should know about it.
+Despite the fact that he knew everything that his textbooks could tell
+him about sex and copulation he still had the quaint notion that the
+reason why Judge Carter and his wife were childless was because they had
+not yet gotten around to Doing It. He made no attempt to correlate this
+oddity with its opposite in Jake Caslow's ladies of the night who seemed
+to go on their merry way without conceiving.
+
+He remembered the joking parry-and-thrust of that midnight talk between
+Tim Fisher and Janet Bagley but it made no sense to him still. But as he
+pondered the multitude of puzzlements, some of the answers fell partly
+into place just as some of the matching pieces of a jigsaw puzzle may lie
+close to one another when they are dumped out of the box. Very dimly
+James began to realize that this sort of thing was not New, but to the
+contrary it had been going on for a long, long time. So long in fact that
+neither Tim Fisher nor Janet Bagley had found it necessary to state
+desire and raise objection respectively in simple clear sentences
+containing subject, verb, and object. This much came to him and it
+bothered him even more, now that he understood that they were bandying
+their meanings lightly over a subject so vital, so important, so--so
+completely personal.
+
+Then, in that oddly irrational corner of his brain that neither knowledge
+nor information had been adequate to rationalize nor had experience
+arrived to supply the explanation, James Holden's limited but growing
+comprehension arrived at a conclusion that was reasonable within its
+limited framework. Judge Carter and his wife occupied separate bedrooms
+and had therefore never Done It. Conversely, Tim and Janet Fisher from
+their midnight discussion obviously Knew What It Was All About. James
+wondered whether they had Done It yet, and he also wondered whether he
+could tell by listening to their discussions and conversations now that
+they'd been married at least long enough to have Tried It.
+
+With a brand new and very interesting subject to study, James lost
+interest in the program of concentrated research. James Holden found that
+all he had to do to arrange a trip to Shipmont was to state his desire to
+go and the length of his visit. The judge deemed both reasonable, Mrs.
+Carter packed James a bag, and off he went.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The house on Martin's Hill was about the same, with some improvement such
+as a coat of paint and some needed repair work. The grounds had been
+worked over, but it was going to take a number of years of concentrated
+gardening to de-weed the tangled lawn and to cut the undergrowth in the
+thin woodsy back area where James had played in concealment.
+
+But the air inside was changed. Janet, as Mrs. Bagley, had been as close
+to James Holden as any substitute mother could have been. Now she seemed
+preoccupied and too busy with her own life to act more than pleasantly
+polite. He could have been visiting the home of a friend instead of
+returning to the domicile he had created, in which he had provided her
+with a home--for herself and a frightened little girl. She asked him how
+he had been and what he was doing, but he felt that this was more a
+matter of taking up time than real interest. He had the feeling that
+somewhere deep inside, her soul was biting its fingernails. She spoke of
+Martha with pride and hope, she asked how Judge Carter was making out and
+whether Martha would be able to finish her schooling via Holden's
+machine.
+
+James believed this was her problem. Martha had been educated far beyond
+her years. She could no more enter school now than he could; unwittingly
+he'd made Martha a misfit, too. So James tried to explain that part of
+the study undertaken in Judge Carter's program had been the question of
+what to do about Martha.
+
+The professionals studying the case did not know yet whether Martha would
+remain ahead of her age group, or whether to let her loaf it out until
+her age group caught up with her, or whether to give Martha everything
+she could take as fast as she could take it. This would make a female
+counterpart of James Holden to study.
+
+But knowing that there were a number of very brilliant scientists,
+educators, and psychologists working on Martha's problem did not cheer up
+Mrs. Janet Fisher as much as James thought it should. Yet as he watched
+her, he could not say that Tim Fisher's wife was _unhappy_.
+
+Tim, on the other hand, looked fine. James watched them together as
+critically curious as he'd been in watching the Judge and Mrs. Carter.
+Tim was gentle with his wife, tender, polite, and more than willing to
+wait on her. From their talk and chit-chat, James could detect nothing.
+There were still elisions, questions answered with a half-phrase,
+comments added with a disconnected word and replied in another word
+that--in cold print--would appear to have no bearing on the original
+subject. This sort of thing told James nothing. Judge Carter and his wife
+did the same; if there were any difference to be noted it was only in the
+basic subject materials. The judge and his wife were inclined more toward
+discussions of political questions and judicial problems, whereas Tim and
+Janet Fisher were more interested in music, movies, and the general trend
+of the automobile repair business; or more to the point, whether to
+expand the present facility in Shipmont, to open another branch
+elsewhere, or to sell out to buy a really big operation in some sizable
+city.
+
+James saw a change in Martha, too. It had been months since he came back
+home to supervise the removal of his belongings. Now Martha had filled
+out. She was dressed in a shirt-and-skirt instead of the little jumper
+dresses James remembered. Martha's hair was lightly wavy instead of
+trimmed short, and she was wearing a very faint touch of color on her
+lips. She wore tiny slippers with heels just a trifle higher than the
+altitude recommended for a girl close to thirteen.
+
+Ultimately they fell into animated chatter of their own, just as they
+always had. There was a barrier between the pair of them and Martha's
+mother and stepfather--slightly higher than the usual barrier erected
+between children and their adults because of their educational adventures
+together. They had covered reams and volumes together. Martha's mother
+was interested in Holden's machine only when something specific came to
+her attention that she did not wish to forget such as a recipe or a
+pattern, and one very extensive course that enabled her to add a column
+of three-digit numbers by the whole lines instead of taking each column
+digit by digit. Tim Fisher himself had deeper interests, but nearly all
+of them directed at making Tim Fisher a better manager of the automobile
+repair business. There had been some discussion of the possibility that
+Tim Fisher might memorize some subject such as the names of all baseball
+players and their yearly and lifetime scoring, fielding, and playing
+averages, training for him to go as a contestant on one of the big money
+giveaway shows. This never came to pass; Tim Fisher did not have any
+spectacular qualities about him that would land him an invitation. So
+Tim's work with Holden's machine had been straightforward studies in
+mechanics and bookkeeping and business management--plus a fine repertoire
+of bawdy songs he had rung in on the sly and subsequently used at
+parties.
+
+James and Martha had taken all they wanted of education and available
+information, sometimes with plan and the guidance of schoolbooks and
+sometimes simply because they found the subject of interest. In the past
+they'd had discussions of problems in understanding; they'd talked of
+things that parents and elders would have considered utterly impossible
+to discuss with young minds. With this communion of interests, they fell
+back into their former pattern of first joining the general conversation
+politely and then gradually confining their remarks to one another until
+there were two conversations going on at the same time, one between
+James and Martha and another between Janet and Tim. Again, the vocal
+interference and cross-talk became too high, and it was Tim and Janet who
+left the living room to mix a couple of highballs and start dinner.
+
+The chatter continued, but now with a growing strain on the part of young
+James Holden.
+
+He wanted to switch to a more personal topic of conversation but he did
+not know how to accomplish this feat. There was plenty of interest but it
+was more clinical than passionate; he was not stirred to yearning, he
+felt no overwhelming desire to hold Martha's hand nor to feel the
+softness of her face, yet there was a stirring urge to make some form of
+contact. But he had no idea of how to steer the conversation towards
+personal lines that might lead into something that would justify a
+gesture towards her. It began to work on him. The original clinical urge
+to touch her just to see what reaction would obtain changed into a
+personal urge that grew higher as he found that he could not kick the
+conversational ball in that direction. The idea of putting an arm about
+her waist as he had seen men embrace their girls on television was a
+pleasing thought; he wanted to find out if kissing was as much fun as it
+was made up to be.
+
+But instead of offering him any encouragement, or even giving him a
+chance to start shifting the conversation, Martha went prattling on and
+on and on about a book she'd read recently.
+
+It did not occur to James Holden that Martha Bagley might entertain the
+idea of physical contact of some mild sort on an experimental basis. He
+did not even consider the possibility that he might _start_ her thinking
+about it. So instead of closing the distance between them like a gentle
+wolf, watching with sly calculation to ascertain whether her response was
+positive, negative, or completely neutral, he sat like a post and fretted
+inwardly because he couldn't control the direction of their conversation.
+
+Ultimately, of course, Martha ran out of comment on her book and then
+there fell a deadly silence because James couldn't dredge up another
+lively subject. Desperately, he searched through his mind for an opening.
+There was none. The bright patter between male and female characters in
+books he'd smuggled started off on too high a level on both sides. Books
+that were written adequately for his understanding of this problem signed
+off with the trite explanation that they lived happily ever afterwards
+but did not say a darned thing about how they went about it. The slightly
+lurid books that he'd bought, delivered in plain wrappers, gave some very
+illuminating descriptions of the art or act, but the affair opened with
+the scene all set and the principal characters both ready, willing, and
+able. There was no conversational road map that showed the way that led
+two people from a calm and unemotional discussion into an area that might
+lead to something entirely else.
+
+In silence, James Holden sat there sinking deeper and deeper into his own
+misery.
+
+The more he thought about it, the farther he found himself from his
+desire. Later in the process, he knew, came a big barrier called
+"stealing a kiss," and James with his literal mind provided this game
+with an aggressor, a defender, and the final extraction by coercion or
+violence of the first osculatory contact. If the objective could be
+carried off without the defense repulsing the advance, the rest was
+supposed to come with less trouble. But here he was floundering before he
+began, let alone approaching the barrier that must be an even bigger
+problem.
+
+Briefly he wished that it were Christmas, because at Christmas people
+hung up mistletoe. Mistletoe would not only provide an opening by
+custom and tradition, it also cut through this verbal morass of trying
+to lead up to the subject by the quick process of supplying the subject
+itself. But it was a long time before Christmas. James abandoned that
+ill-conceived idea and went on sinking deep and feeling miserable.
+
+Then Martha's mother took James out of his misery by coming in to
+announce dinner. Regretfully, James sighed for his lost moments and
+helplessness, then got to his feet and held out a hand for Martha.
+
+She put her hand in his and allowed him to lift her to her feet by
+pulling. The first contact did not stir him at all, though it was warm
+and pleasant. Once the pulling pressure was off, he continued to hold
+Martha's hand, tentatively and experimentally.
+
+Then Janet Fisher showered shards of ice with a light laugh. "You two can
+stand there holding hands," she said. "But I'm going to eat it while it's
+on the table."
+
+James Holden's hand opened with the swiftness of a reflex action, almost
+as fast as the wink of an eye at the flash of light or the body's jump at
+the crack of sound. Martha's hand did not drop because she, too, was
+holding his and did not let go abruptly. She giggled, gave his hand a
+little squeeze and said, "Let's go. I'm hungry too."
+
+None of which solved James Holden's problem. But during dinner his
+personal problem slipped aside because he discovered another slight
+change in Janet Fisher's attitude. He puzzled over it quietly, but
+managed to eat without any apparent preoccupation. Dinner took about a
+half hour, after which they spent another fifteen minutes over coffee,
+with Janet refusing her second cup. She disappeared at the first shuffle
+of a foot under the table, while James and Martha resumed their years-old
+chore of clearing the table and tackling the dishwashing problem.
+
+Alone in the kitchen, James asked Martha, "What's with your mother?"
+
+"What do you mean, what's with her?"
+
+"She's changed, somehow."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"She seems sort of inner-thoughtful. Cheerful enough but as if
+something's bothering her that she can't stop."
+
+"That all?"
+
+"No," he went on. "She hiked upstairs like a shot right after dinner was
+over. Tim raced after her. And she said no to coffee."
+
+"Oh, that. She's just a little upset in the middle."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"She's pregnant."
+
+"Pregnant?"
+
+"Sure. Can't you see?"
+
+"Never occurred to me to look."
+
+"Well, it's so," said Martha, scouring a coffee cup with an exaggerated
+flourish. "And I'm going to have a half-sibling."
+
+"But look--"
+
+"Don't _you_ go getting upset," said Martha. "It's a natural process
+that's been going on for hundreds of thousands of years, you know."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Not for months," said Martha. "It just happened."
+
+"Too bad she's unhappy."
+
+"She's very happy. Both of them wanted it."
+
+James considered this. He had never come across Voltaire's observation
+that marriage is responsible for the population because it provides the
+maximum opportunity with the maximum temptation. But it was beginning to
+filter slowly into his brain that the ways and means were always
+available and there was neither custom, tradition, nor biology that
+dictated a waiting period or a time limit. It was a matter of choice, and
+when two people want their baby, and have no reason for not having their
+baby, it is silly to wait.
+
+"Why did they wait so long if they both want it?"
+
+"Oh," replied Martha in a matter-of-fact voice, "they've been working at
+it right along."
+
+James thought some more. He'd come to see if he could detect any
+difference between the behavior of Judge and Mrs. Carter, and the
+behavior of Tim and Janet Fisher. He saw little, other than the standard
+differences that could be accounted for by age and temperament. Tim and
+Janet did not really act as if they'd Discovered Something New. Tim, he
+knew, was a bit more sweet and tender to Janet than he'd been before, but
+there was nothing startling in his behavior. If there were any difference
+as compared to their original antics, James knew that it was undoubtedly
+due to the fact that they didn't have to stand lollygagging in the
+hallway for two hours while Janet half-heartedly insisted that Tim go
+home. He went on to consider his original theory that the Carters were
+childless because they occupied separate bedrooms; by some sort of
+deduction he came to the conclusion that he was right, because Tim and
+Janet Fisher were making a baby and they slept in the same bedroom.
+
+He went on in a whirl; maybe the Carters didn't want children, but it was
+more likely that they too had tried but it hadn't happened.
+
+And then it came to him suddenly that here he was in the kitchen alone
+with Martha Bagley, discussing the very delicate subject. But he was
+actually no closer to his problem of becoming a participant than he'd
+been an hour ago in the living room. It was one thing to daydream the
+suggestion when you can also daydream the affirmative response, but it
+was another matter when the response was completely out of your control.
+James was not old enough in the ways of the world to even consider
+outright asking; even if he had considered it, he did not know how to
+ask.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The evening went slowly. Janet and Tim returned about the time the
+dishwashing process was complete. Janet proposed a hand of bridge; Tim
+suggested poker, James voted for pinochle, and Martha wanted to toss a
+coin between canasta or gin rummy. They settled it by dealing a shuffled
+deck face upward until the ace of hearts landed in front of Janet,
+whereupon they played bridge until about eleven o'clock. It was
+interesting bridge; James and Martha had studied bridge columns and books
+for recreation; against them were aligned Tim and Janet, who played with
+the card sense developed over years of practice. The youngsters knew the
+theories, their bidding was as precise as bridge bidding could be made
+with value-numbering, honor-counting, response-value addition, and all
+of the other systems. They understood all of the coups and end plays
+complete with classic examples. But having all of the theory engraved on
+their brains did not temporarily imprint the location of every card
+already played, whereas Tim and Janet counted their played cards
+automatically and made up in play what they missed in stratagem.
+
+At eleven, Janet announced that she was tired, Tim joined her; James
+turned on the television set and he and Martha watched a ten-year-old
+movie for an hour. Finally Martha yawned.
+
+And James, still floundering, mentally meandered back to his wish that it
+were Christmas so that mistletoe would provide a traditional gesture of
+affection, and came up with a new and novel idea that he expressed in a
+voice that almost trembled:
+
+"Tired, Martha?"
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+"Well, why don't I kiss you good night and send you off to bed."
+
+"All right, if you want to."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Oh--just--well, everybody does it."
+
+She sat near him on the low divan, looking him full in the face but
+making no move, no gesture, no change in her expression. He looked at her
+and realized that he was not sure of how to take hold of her, how to
+reach for her, how to proceed.
+
+She said, "Well, go ahead."
+
+"I'm going to."
+
+"When?"
+
+"As soon as I get good and ready."
+
+"Are we going to sit here all night?"
+
+In its own way, it reminded James of the equally un-brilliant
+conversation between Janet and Tim on the homecoming after their first
+date. He chuckled.
+
+"What's so funny?"
+
+"Nothing," he said in a slightly strained voice. "I'm thinking that here
+we sit like a couple of kids that don't know what it's all about."
+
+"Well," said Martha, "aren't we?"
+
+"Yes," he said reluctantly, "I guess we are. But darn it, Martha, how
+does a guy grow up? How does a guy learn these things?" His voice was
+plaintive, it galled him to admit that for all of his knowledge and his
+competence, he was still just a bit more than a child emotionally.
+
+"I don't know," she said in a voice as plaintive as his. "I wouldn't know
+where to look to find it. I've tried. All I know," she said with a
+quickening voice, "is that somewhere between now and then I'll learn how
+to toss talk back and forth the way they do."
+
+"Yes," he said glumly.
+
+"James," said Martha brightly, "we should be somewhat better than a pair
+of kids who don't know what it's all about, shouldn't we?"
+
+"That's what bothers me," he admitted. "We're neither of us stupid. Lord
+knows we've plenty of education between us, but--"
+
+"James, how did we get that education?"
+
+"Through my father's machine."
+
+"No, you don't understand. What I mean is that no matter how we got our
+education, we had to learn, didn't we?"
+
+"Why, yes. In a--"
+
+"Now, let's not get involved in another philosophical argument. Let's run
+this one right on through to the end. Why are we sitting here fumbling?
+Because we haven't yet learned how to behave like adults."
+
+"I suppose so. But it strikes me that anything should be--"
+
+"James, for goodness' sake. Here we are, the two people in the whole
+world who have studied everything we know together, and when we hit
+something we can't study--you want to go home and kiss your old machine,"
+she finished with a remarkable lack of serial logic. She laughed
+nervously.
+
+"What's so darned funny?" he demanded sourly.
+
+"Oh," she said, "you're afraid to kiss me because you don't know how, and
+I'm afraid to let you because I don't know how, and so we're talking away
+a golden opportunity to find out. James," she said seriously, "if you
+fumble a bit, I won't know the difference because I'm no smarter than you
+are."
+
+She leaned forward holding her face up, her lips puckered forward in
+a tight little rosebud. She closed her eyes and waited. Gingerly and
+hesitantly he leaned forward and met her lips with a pucker of his own.
+It was a light contact, warm, and ended quickly with a characteristic
+smack that seemed to echo through the silent house. It had all of the
+emotional charge of a mother-in-law's peck, but it served its purpose
+admirably. They both opened their eyes and looked at one another from
+four inches of distance. Then they tried it again and their second was a
+little longer and a little warmer and a little closer, and it ended with
+less of the noise of opening a fruit jar.
+
+Martha moved over close beside him and put her head on his shoulder;
+James responded by putting an arm around her, and together they tried to
+assemble themselves in the comfortably affectionate position seen in
+movies and on television. It didn't quite work that way. There seemed to
+be too many arms and legs and sharp corners for comfort, or when they
+found a contortion that did not create interferences with limb or corner,
+it was a strain on the spine or a twist in the neck. After a few minutes
+of this coeducational wrestling they decided almost without effort to
+return to the original routine of kissing. By more luck than good
+management they succeeded in an embrace that placed no strain and which
+met them almost face to face. They puckered again and made contact, then
+pressure came and spread out the pair of tightly pursed rosebuds. Martha
+moved once to get her nose free of his cheek for a breath of air.
+
+At the rate they were going, they might have hit paydirt this time, but
+just at the point where James should have relaxed to enjoy the long kiss
+he began to worry: There is something planned and final about the quick
+smacking kiss, but how does one gracefully terminate the long-term,
+high-pressure jobs? So instead of enjoying himself, James planned and
+discarded plans until he decided that the way he'd do it would be to
+exert a short, heavy pressure and then cease with the same action as in
+the quick-smack variety.
+
+It worked fine, but as he opened his eyes to look at her, she was there
+with her eyes still closed and her lips still ready. He took a deep
+breath and plunged in again. Having determined how to start, James was
+now going to experiment with endings.
+
+They came up for air successfully again, and then spent some time
+wriggling around into another position. The figure-fitting went easier
+this time, after threshing around through three or four near-comforts
+they came to rest in a pleasantly natural position and James Holden
+became nervously aware of the fact that his right hand was cupped over
+a soft roundness that filled his palm almost perfectly. He wondered
+whether to remove it quickly to let her know that this intimacy wasn't
+intentional; slowly so that (maybe, he hoped) she wouldn't realize that
+it had been there; or to leave it there because it felt pleasant. While
+he was wondering, Martha moved around because she could not twist her
+neck all the way around like an owl, and she wanted to see him. The move
+solved his problem but presented the equally great problem of how he
+would try it again.
+
+James allowed a small portion of his brain to think about this, and put
+the rest of his mind at ease by kissing her again. Halfway through, he
+felt warm moistness as her lips parted slightly, then the tip of her
+tongue darted forward between his lips to quest against his tongue in a
+caress so fleeting that it was withdrawn before he could react--and James
+reacted by jerking his head back faster than if he had been clubbed in
+the face. He was still tingling with the shock, a pleasant shock but none
+the less a shock, when Martha giggled lightly.
+
+He bubbled and blurted, "Wha--whu--?"
+
+She told him nervously, "I've been wanting to try that ever since I read
+it in a book."
+
+He shivered. "What book?" he demanded in almost a quaver.
+
+"A paperback of Tim's. Mother calls them, Tim's sex and slay stories."
+Martha giggled again. "You jumped."
+
+"Sure did. I was surprised. Do it again."
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Didn't you like it?"
+
+"Did you?"
+
+"I don't know. I didn't have time to find out."
+
+"Oh."
+
+He kissed her again and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally he moved
+back an inch and said, "What's the matter?"
+
+"I don't think we should. Maybe we ought to wait until we're older."
+
+"Not fair," he complained. "You had all the warning."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Didn't you like it?" he asked.
+
+"Well, it gave me the most tickly tingle."
+
+"And all I got was a sort of mild electric shock. Come on."
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, then, I'll do it to you."
+
+"All right. Just once."
+
+Leaping to the end of this midnight research, there are three primary
+ways of concluding, namely: 1, physical satisfaction; 2, physical
+exhaustion; and 3, interruption. We need not go into sub-classifications
+or argue the point. James and Martha were not emotionally ready to
+conclude with mutual defloration. Ultimately they fell asleep on the
+divan with their arms around each other. They weren't interrupted;
+they awoke as the first flush of daylight brightened the sky, and with
+one more rather chaste kiss, they parted to fall into the deep slumber of
+complete physical and emotional exhaustion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+
+James Holden's ride home on the train gave him a chance to think, alone
+and isolated from all but superficial interruptions. He felt that he was
+quite the bright young man.
+
+He noticed with surreptitious pride that folks no longer eyed him with
+sly, amused, knowing smiles whenever he opened a newspaper. Perhaps some
+of their amusement had been the sight of a youngster struggling with a
+full-spread page, employing arms that did not quite make the span. But
+most of all he hated the condescending tolerance; their everlasting
+attitude that everything he did was "cute" like the little girl who
+decked herself out in mother's clothing from high heels and brassiere
+to evening gown, costume jewelry, and a fumbled smear of makeup.
+
+That was over. He'd made it to a couple of months over fourteen, he'd
+finally reached a stature large enough so that he did not have to prove
+his right to buy a railroad ticket, nor climb on the suitcase bar so that
+he could peer over the counter. Newsdealers let him alone to pick his own
+fare instead of trying to "save his money" by shoving Mickey Mouse at him
+and putting his own choice back on its pile.
+
+He had not succeeded in gaining his legal freedom, but as Ward of the
+State under Judge Carter he had other interesting expectations that he
+might not have stumbled upon. Carter had connections; there was talk of
+James' entering a comprehensive examination at some university, where the
+examining board, forearmed with the truth about his education, would test
+James to ascertain his true level of comprehension. He could of course
+collect his bachelor's degree once he complied with the required work
+of term papers written to demonstrate that his information could be
+interwoven into the formation of an opinion, or reflection, or view
+of some topic. Master's degrees and doctor's degrees required the
+presentation of some original area of study, competence in his chosen
+field, and the development of some facet of the field that had not been
+touched before. These would require more work, but could be handled in
+time.
+
+In fact, he felt that he was in pretty good shape. There were a couple
+of sticky problems, still. He wanted Paul Brennan to get his comeuppance,
+but he knew that there was no evidence available to support his story
+about the slaughter of his parents. It galled him to realize that
+cold-blooded, premeditated murder for personal profit and avarice could
+go undetected. But until there could be proffered some material evidence,
+Brennan's word was as good as his in any court. So Brennan was getting
+away with it.
+
+The other little item was his own independence. He wanted it. That he
+might continue living with Judge Carter had no bearing. No matter how
+benevolent the tyranny, James wanted no part of it. In fighting for his
+freedom, James Holden's foot had slipped. He'd used his father's machine
+on Martha, and that was a legal error.
+
+Martha? James was not really sorry he'd slipped. Error or not, he'd made
+of her the only person in the world who understood his problem wholly and
+sympathetically. Otherwise he would be completely alone.
+
+Oh yes, he felt that he was quite the bright young man. He was coming
+along fine and getting somewhere. His very pleasant experiences in the
+house on Martin's Hill had raised him from a boy to a young man; he was
+now able to grasp the appreciation of the Big Drive, to understand some
+of the reasons why adults acted in the way that they did. He hadn't
+managed another late session of sofa with Martha, but there had been
+little incidental meetings in the hallway or in the kitchen with the
+exchange of kisses, and they'd boldly kissed goodbye at the railroad
+station under her mother's smile.
+
+He could not know Janet Fisher's mind, of course. Janet, mother to a girl
+entering young womanhood, worried about all of the things that such a
+mother worries about and added a couple of things that no other mother
+ever had. She could hardly slip her daughter a smooth version of the
+birds and the bees and people when she knew full well that Martha had
+gone through a yard or so of books on the subject that covered everything
+from the advanced medical to the lurid exposé and from the salacious to
+the ribald. Janet could only hope that her daughter valued her chastity
+according to convention despite the natural human curiosity which in
+Martha would be multiplied by the girl's advanced education. Janet knew
+that young people were marrying younger and younger as the years went on;
+she saw young James Holden no longer as a rather odd youngster with
+abilities beyond his age. She saw him now as the potential mate for
+Martha. And when they embraced and kissed at the station, Janet did not
+realize that she was accepting this salute as the natural act of two
+sub-adults, rather than a pair of precocious kids.
+
+At any rate, James Holden felt very good. Now he had a girl. He had
+acquired one more of the many attitudes of the Age of Maturity.
+
+So James settled down to read his newspaper, and on page three he saw a
+photograph and an article that attracted his attention. The photograph
+was of a girl no more than seven years old holding a baby at least a year
+old. Beside them was a boy of about nine. In the background was a
+miserable hovel made of crude lumber and patched windows. This couple and
+their baby had been discovered by a geological survey outfit living in
+the backwoods hills. Relief, aid, and help were being rushed, and the
+legislature was considering ways and means of their schooling. Neither
+of them could read or write.
+
+James read the article, and his first thought was to proffer his help.
+Aid and enlightenment they needed, and they needed it quickly. And then
+he stopped immediately because he could do nothing to educate them unless
+they already possessed the ability to read.
+
+His second thought was one of dismay. His exultation came down with a
+dull thud. Within seconds he realized that the acquisition of a girl was
+no evidence of his competent maturity. The couple photographed were human
+beings, but intellectually they were no more than animals with a slight
+edge in vocabulary. It made James Holden sick at heart to read the
+article and to realize that such filth and ignorance could still go on.
+But it took a shock of such violence to make James realize that clams,
+guppies, worms, fleas, cats, dogs, and the great whales reproduced their
+kind; intellect, education and mature competence under law had nothing to
+do with the process whatsoever.
+
+And while his heart was still unhappy, he turned to page four and read an
+open editorial that discussed the chances of The Educational Party in the
+coming Election Year.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James blinked.
+
+"Splinter" parties, the editorial said, seldom succeeded in gaining a
+primary objective. They only succeeded in drawing votes from the other
+major parties, in splitting the total ballot, and dividing public
+opinion. On the other hand, they did provide a useful political
+weathervane for the major parties to watch most carefully. If the
+splinter party succeeded in capturing a large vote, it was an indication
+that the People found their program favorable and upon such evidence it
+behooved the major parties to mend their political fences--or to relocate
+them.
+
+Education, said the editorial, was a primary issue and had been one
+for years. There had been experimenting with education ever since
+the Industrial Revolution uncovered the fact, in about 1900, that
+backbreaking physical toil was going to be replaced by educated workers
+operating machinery.
+
+Then the editorial quoted Judge Norman L. Carter:
+
+"'For many years,' said Judge Carter, 'we have deplored the situation
+whereby a doctor or a physicist is not considered fully educated until he
+has reached his middle or even late twenties. Yet instead of speeding up
+the curriculum in the early school years, we have introduced such
+important studies as social graces, baton twirling, interpretive painting
+and dancing, and a lot of other fiddle-faddle which graduates students
+who cannot spell, nor read a book, nor count above ten without taking off
+their shoes. Perhaps such studies are necessary to make sound citizens
+and graceful companions. I shall not contest the point. However, I
+contend that a sound and basic schooling should be included--and when I
+so contend I am told by our great educators that the day is not long
+enough nor the years great enough to accomplish this very necessary end.
+
+"'Gentlemen, we leaders of The Education Party propose to accomplish
+precisely that which they said cannot be done!'"
+
+The editorial closed with the terse suggestion: Educator--Educate
+thyself!
+
+James Holden sat stunned.
+
+_What was Judge Carter doing?_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden arrived to find the home of Judge Norman L. Carter an upset
+madhouse. He was stopped at the front door by a secretary at a small desk
+whose purpose was to screen the visitors and to log them in and out in
+addition to being decorative. Above her left breast was a large enamelled
+button, red on top, white in the middle as a broad stripe from left to
+right, and blue below. Across the white stripe was printed CARTER in
+bold, black letters. From in back of the pin depended two broad silk
+ribbons that cascaded forward over the stuffing in her brassiere and hung
+free until they disappeared behind the edge of the desk. She eyed James
+with curiosity. "Young man, if you're looking for throwaways for your
+civics class, you'll have to wait until we're better organized--"
+
+James eyed her with cold distaste. "I am James Quincy Holden," he told
+her, "and you have neither the authority nor the agility necessary to
+prevent my entrance."
+
+"You are--I what?"
+
+"I live here," he told her flatly. "Or didn't they provide you with this
+tidbit of vital statistic?"
+
+Wheels rotated behind the girl's eyes somewhere, and memory cells linked
+into comprehension. "Oh!--You're James."
+
+"I said that first," he replied. "Where's Judge Carter?"
+
+"He's in conference and cannot be disturbed."
+
+"Your objection is overruled. I shall disturb him as soon as I find out
+precisely what has been going on."
+
+He went on in through the short hallway and found audible confusion. Men
+in groups of two to four stood in corners talking in bedlam. There was a
+layer of blue smoke above their heads that broke into skirls as various
+individuals left one group to join another. Through this vocal mob scene
+James went veering from left to right to avoid the groupings. He stood
+with polite insolence directly in front of two men sitting on the stairs
+until they made room for his passage--still talking as he went between
+them. In his room, three were sitting on the bed and the chair holding
+glasses and, of course, smoking like the rest. James dropped his
+overnight bag on a low stand and headed for his bathroom. One of the men
+caught sight of him and said, "Hey kid, scram!"
+
+James looked at the man coldly. "You happen to be using my bedroom. You
+should be asking my permission to do so, or perhaps apologizing for not
+having asked me before you moved in. I have no intention of leaving."
+
+"Get the likes of him!"
+
+"Wait a moment, Pete. This is the Holden kid."
+
+"The little genius, huh?"
+
+James said, "I am no genius. I do happen to have an education that
+provides me with the right to criticize your social behavior. I will
+neither be insulted nor patronized."
+
+"Listen to him, will you!"
+
+James turned and with the supreme gesture of contempt, he left the door
+open.
+
+He wound his way through the place to Judge Carter's study and home
+office, strode towards it with purpose and reached for the doorknob. A
+voice halted him: "Hey kid, you can't go in there!"
+
+Turning to face the new voice, James said calmly,
+
+"You mean 'may not' which implies that I have asked your permission. Your
+statement is incorrect as phrased and erroneous when corrected."
+
+He turned the knob and entered. Judge Carter sat at his desk with two
+men; their discussion ceased with the sound of the doorknob. The judge
+looked up in annoyance. "Hello, James. You shouldn't have come in here.
+We're busy. I'll let you know when I'm free."
+
+"You'd better make time for me right now," said James angrily. "I'd like
+to know what's going on here."
+
+"This much I'll tell you quickly. We're planning a political campaign.
+Now, please--"
+
+"I know you're planning a political campaign," replied James. "But if
+you're proposing to campaign on the platform of a reform in education,
+I suggest that you educate your henchmen in the rudimentary elements of
+polite speech and gentle behavior. I dislike being ordered out of my room
+by usurpers who have the temerity to address me as 'hey kid'."
+
+"Relax, James. I'll send them out later."
+
+"I'd suggest that you tell them off," snapped James. He turned on his
+heel and left, heading for the cellar. In the workshop he found Professor
+White and Jack Cowling presiding over the machine. In the chair with the
+headset on sat the crowning insult of all:
+
+Paul Brennan leafing through a heavy sheaf of papers, reading and
+intoning the words of political oratory.
+
+Unable to lick them, Brennan had joined them--or, wondered young Holden,
+was Judge Norman L. Carter paying for Brennan's silence with some plum of
+political patronage?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As he stood there, the years of persecution rose strong in the mind of
+James Holden. Brennan, the man who'd got away with murder and would
+continue to get away with it because there was no shred of evidence, no
+witness, nothing but James Holden's knowledge of Brennan's actions when
+he'd thought himself unseen in his calloused treatment of James Holden's
+dying mother; Brennan's critical inspection of the smashed body of his
+father, coldly checking the dead flesh to be sure beyond doubt; the cruel
+search about the scene of the 'accident' for James himself--interrupted
+only by the arrival of a Samaritan, whose name was never known to James
+Holden. In James rose the violent resentment of the years, the certain
+knowledge that any act of revenge upon Paul Brennan would be viewed as
+cold-blooded premeditated murder without cause or motive.
+
+And then came the angry knowledge that simple slaughter was too good for
+Paul Brennan. He was not a dog to be quickly released from misery by a
+merciful death. Paul Brennan should suffer until he cried for death as a
+blessed release from daily living.
+
+James Holden, angry, silently, unseen by the preoccupied workers,
+stole across the room to the main switch-panel, flipped up a small
+half-concealed cover, and flipped a small button.
+
+There came a sharp _Crack_! that shattered the silence and
+re-echoed again and again through the room. The panel that held the
+repeater-circuit of the Holden Educator bulged outward; jets of smoke
+lanced out of broken metal, bulged corners, holes and skirled into little
+clouds that drifted upward--trailing a flowing billow of thick, black,
+pungent smoke that reached the low ceiling and spread outward, fanwise,
+obscuring the ceiling like a low-lying nimbus.
+
+At the sound of the report, the man in the chair jumped as if he'd been
+stabbed where he sat.
+
+"Ouyeowwww!" yowled Brennan in a pitiful ululation. He fell forward from
+the chair, asprawl on wobbly hands and knees, on elbows and knees as he
+tried to press away the torrent of agony that hammered back and forth
+from temple to temple. James watched Brennan with cold detachment,
+Professor White and Jack Cowling looked on in paralyzed horror. Slowly,
+oh, so slowly, Paul Brennan managed to squirm around until he was sitting
+on the floor still cradling his head between his hands.
+
+James said, "I'm afraid that you're going to have a rough time whenever
+you hear the word 'entrenched'." And then, as Brennan made no response,
+James Holden went on, "Or were you by chance reading the word
+'pedagogue'?"
+
+At the word, Brennan howled again; the pain was too much for him and he
+toppled sidewise to writhe in kicking agony.
+
+James smiled coldly, "I'm sorry that you weren't reading the word 'the'.
+The English language uses more of them than the word 'pedagogue'."
+
+With remarkable effort, Brennan struggled to his feet; he lurched toward
+James. "I'll teach you, you little--"
+
+"Pedagogue?" asked James.
+
+The shock rocked Brennan right to the floor again.
+
+"Better sit there and think," said James coldly. "You come within a dozen
+yards of me and I'll say--"
+
+"No! Don't!" screamed Paul Brennan. "Not again!"
+
+"Now," asked James, "what's going on here?"
+
+"He was memorizing a political speech," said Jack Cowling. "What did you
+do?"
+
+"I merely fixed my machine so that it will not be used again."
+
+"But you shouldn't have done that!"
+
+"You shouldn't have been using it for this purpose," replied James. "It
+wasn't intended to further political ambitions."
+
+"But Judge Carter--"
+
+"Judge Carter doesn't own it," said James. "I do."
+
+"I'm sure that Judge Carter can explain everything."
+
+"Tell him so. Then add that if he'd bothered to give me the time of day,
+I'd be less angry. He's not to be interrupted, is he? I'm ordered out of
+my room, am I? Well, go tell the judge that his political campaign has
+been stopped by a fourteen-year-old boy who knows which button to push!
+I'll wait here."
+
+Professor White took off; Jack Cowling smiled crookedly and shook his
+head at James. "You're a rash young man," he said. "What did you do to
+Brennan, here?"
+
+James pointed at the smoke curling up out of the panel. "I put in a
+destructive charge to addle the circuit as a preventive measure against
+capture or use by unauthorized persons," he replied. "So I pushed the
+button just as Brennan was trying to memorize the word--"
+
+"Don't!" cried Brennan in a pleading scream.
+
+"You mean he's going to throw a fit every time he hears the word--"
+
+"No! No! Can't anybody talk without saying--Ouwwouooo!"
+
+"Interesting," commented James. "It seems to start as soon as the
+fore-reading part of his mind predicts that the word may be next, or
+when he thinks about it."
+
+"Do you mean that Brennan is going to be like the guy who could win the
+world if he sat on the top of a hill for one hour and did not think of
+the word 'Swordfish'? Except that he'll be out of pain so long as he
+doesn't think of the word--"
+
+"Thing I'm interested in is that maybe our orator here doesn't know the
+definition thoroughly. Tell me, dear 'Uncle' Paul, does the word
+'teacher' give--Sorry. I was just experimenting. Wasn't as bad as--"
+
+Gritting his teeth and wincing with pain, Brennan said, "Stop it!
+Even the word 'sch-(wince)-ool' hurts like--" He thought for a
+moment and then went on with his voice rising to a pitiful
+howl of agony at the end: "Even the name 'Miss Adams' gives
+me a fleeting headache all over my body, and Miss Adams was
+on--ly--my--third--growww--school--Owuuuuoooo--teach--earrrrrrr--Owwww!"
+
+Brennan collapsed in his chair just as Judge Carter came in with his
+white mane flying and hot fire in his attitude. "What goes on here?" he
+stormed at James.
+
+"I stopped your campaign."
+
+"Now see here, you young--"
+
+Judge Carter stopped abruptly, took a deep breath and calmed himself with
+a visible effort to control his rage. "James," he said in a quieter
+voice, "Can you repair the damage quickly?"
+
+"Yes--but I won't."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because one of the things my father taught me was the danger of allowing
+this machine to fall into the hands of ruthless men with political
+ambition."
+
+"And I am a ruthless man with political ambition?"
+
+James nodded. "Under the guise of studying me and my machine," he said,
+"you've been using it to train speakers, and to educate ward-heelers.
+You've been building a political machine by buying delegates. Not with
+money, of course, because that is illegal. With knowledge, and because
+knowledge, education, and information are intangibles and no legality
+has been established, and this is all very legal."
+
+Judge Carter smiled distantly. "It is bad to elevate the mind of the
+average ward-heeler? To provide the smalltime politician with a fine
+grasp of the National Problem and how his little local problems fit into
+the big picture? Is this making a better world, or isn't it?"
+
+"It's making a political machine that can't be defeated."
+
+"Think not? What makes you think it can't?"
+
+"Pedagogue!" said James.
+
+"Yeowwww!"
+
+The judge whirled to look at Brennan. "What was--that?" asked the judge.
+
+James explained what had happened, then: "I've mentioned hazards. This is
+what would happen if a fuse blew in the middle of a course. Maybe he can
+be trained out of it, and maybe not. You'll have to try, of course. But
+think of what would happen if you and your political machine put these
+things into schools and fixed them to make a voltage twitch or something
+while the student was reading the word 'republican'. You'd end up with a
+single-party system."
+
+"And get myself assassinated by a group of righteously irate citizens,"
+said Judge Carter. "Which I would very warmly deserve. On the other hand,
+suppose we 'treated' people to feel anguish at thoughts of murder or
+killing, theft, treason, and other forms of human deviltry?"
+
+"Now that might be a fine idea."
+
+"It would not," said Judge Carter flatly. James Holden's eyes widened,
+and he started to say something but the judge held up his hand, fingers
+outspread, and began to tick off his points finger by finger as he went
+on: "Where would we be in the case of enemy attack? Could our policemen
+aim their guns at a vicious criminal if they were conditioned against
+killing? Could our butchers operate; must our housewives live among a
+horde of flies? Theft? Well, it's harder to justify, James, but it would
+change the game of baseball as in 'stealing a base' or it would ruin the
+game of love as in 'stealing a kiss'. It would ruin the mystery-story
+field for millions of people who really haven't any inclination to go out
+and rob, steal, or kill. Treason? Our very revered Declaration of
+Independence is an article of Treason in the eyes of King George Third;
+it wouldn't be very hard to draw a charge of treason against a man who
+complained about the way the Government is being run. Now, one more
+angle, James. The threat or fear of punishment hasn't deterred any
+potential felon so far as anybody knows. And I hold the odd belief that
+if we removed the quart of mixed felony, chicanery, falsehood, and
+underhandedness from the human makeup, on that day the human race could
+step down to take its place alongside of the cow, just one step ahead of
+the worm.
+
+"Now you accuse me of holding political ambition. I plead guilty of the
+charge and demand to be shown by my accuser just what is undesirable
+about ambition, be it political or otherwise. Have you no ambition? Of
+course you have. Ambition drove your folks to create this machine and
+ambition drove you to the fight for your freedom. Ambition is the
+catalyst that lifts a man above his fellows and then lifts them also.
+There is a sort of tradition in this country that a man must not openly
+seek the office of the Presidency. I consider this downright silly. I
+have announced my candidacy, and I intend to campaign for it as hard as
+I can. I propose to make the problem of _education_ the most important
+argument that has ever come up in a presidential campaign. I believe that
+I shall win because I shall promise to provide this accelerated education
+for everybody who wants it."
+
+"And to do this you've used my machine," objected James.
+
+"Did you intend to keep it for yourself?" snapped Judge Carter.
+
+"No, but--"
+
+"And when did you intend to release it?"
+
+"As soon as I could handle it myself."
+
+"Oh, fine!" jeered the judge sourly. "Now, let me orate on that subject
+for a moment and then we'll get to the real meat of this argument. James,
+there is no way of delivering this machine to the public without
+delivering it to them through the hands of a capable Government agency.
+If you try to release it as an individual you'll be swamped with cries of
+anger and pleas for special consideration. The reactionaries will shout
+that we're moving too fast and the progressives will complain that we
+aren't moving fast enough. Teachers' organizations will say that we're
+throwing teachers out of jobs, and little petty politicians will try to
+slip their political plug into the daily course in Civics. Start your
+company and within a week some Madison Avenue advertising agency will be
+offering you several million dollars to let them convince people that
+Hickory-Chickory Coffee is the only stuff they can pour down their gullet
+without causing stomach pains, acid system, jittery nerves, sleepless
+nights, flat feet, upset glands, and so on and on and on. Announce it;
+the next day you'll have so many foreign spies in your bailiwick that
+you'll have to hire a stadium to hold them. You'll be ducking
+intercontinental ballistic missiles because there are people who would
+kill the dog in order to get rid of the fleas. You'll start the biggest
+war this planet has ever seen and it will go on long after you are killed
+and your father's secret is lost--and after the fallout has died off,
+we'll have another scientific race to recreate it. And don't think that
+it can't be rediscovered by determined scientists who know that such a
+thing as the Holden Electromechanical Educator is a reality."
+
+"And how do you propose to prevent this war?"
+
+"By broadcasting the secret as soon as we can; let the British and the
+French and the Russians and the Germans and all the rest build it and
+use it as wisely as they can program it. Which, by the way, James,
+brings us right back to James Quincy Holden, Martha Bagley, and the
+immediate future."
+
+"Oh?"
+
+"Yes. James, tell me after deliberation, at what point in your life did
+you first believe that you had the competence to enter the adult world in
+freedom to do as you believed right?"
+
+"Um, about five or six, as I recall."
+
+"What do you think now about those days?"
+
+James shrugged. "I got along."
+
+"Wasn't very well, was it?"
+
+"No, but I was under a handicap, you know. I had to hide out."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"Well, if I had legal ruling, I wouldn't have to hide."
+
+"Think you know everything you need to know to enter this adult world?"
+
+"No man stops learning," parried James. "I think I know enough to start."
+
+"James, no matter what you say, there is a very important but intangible
+thing called 'judgment'. You have part of it, but not by far enough.
+You've been studying the laws about ages and rights, James, but you've
+missed a couple of them because you've been looking for evidence
+favorable to your own argument. First, to become a duly elected member of
+the House of Representatives, a man must be at least twenty-five years of
+age. To be a Senator, he must be at least thirty. To be President, one
+must be at least thirty-five. Have you any idea why the framers of the
+Constitution of the United States placed such restrictions?"
+
+"Well, I suppose it had to do with judgment?" replied James reluctantly.
+
+"That--and _experience_. Experience in knowing people, in understanding
+that there might be another side to any question, in realizing that you
+must not approach every problem from your own purely personal point of
+view nor expect it to be solved to your own private satisfaction or to
+your benefit. Now, let's step off a distance and take a good look at
+James Quincy Holden and see where he lacks the necessary ingredients."
+
+"Yes, tell me," said James, sourly.
+
+"Oh, I intend to. Let's take the statistics first. You're four-feet
+eleven-inches tall, you weigh one-hundred and three pounds, and you're a
+few weeks over fourteen. I suppose you know that you've still got one
+more spurt of growth, sometimes known as the post-puberty-growth. You'll
+probably put on another foot in the next couple of years, spread out a
+bit across the shoulders, and that fuzz on your face will become a
+collection of bristles. I suppose you think that any man in this room can
+handle you simply because we're all larger than you are? Possibly true,
+and one of the reasons why we can't give you a ticket and let you
+proclaim yourself an adult. You can't carry the weight. But this isn't
+all. Your muscles and your bones aren't yet in equilibrium. I could find
+a man of age thirty who weighed one-oh-three and stood four-eleven. He
+could pick you up and spin you like a top on his forefinger just because
+his bones match his muscles nicely, and his nervous system and brain have
+had experience in driving the body he's living in."
+
+"Could be, but what has all this to do with me? It does not affect the
+fact that I've been getting along in life."
+
+"You get along. It isn't enough to 'get along.' You've got to have
+judgment. You claim judgment, but still you realize that you can't handle
+your own machine. You can't even come to an equitable choice in selecting
+some agency to handle your machine. You can't decide upon a good outlet.
+You believe that proclaiming your legal competence will provide you with
+some mysterious protection against the wolves and thieves and ruthless
+men with political ambition--that this ruling will permit you to keep it
+to yourself until you decide that it is time to release it. You still
+want to hide. You want to use it until you are so far above and beyond
+the rest of the world that they can't catch up, once you give it to
+everybody. You now object to my plans and programs, still not knowing
+whether I intend to use it for good or for evil--and juvenile that you
+are, it must be good or evil and cannot be an in-between shade of gray.
+Men are heroes or villains to _you_; but _I_ must say with some
+reluctance that the biggest crooks that ever held public office still
+passed laws that were beneficial to their people. There is the area in
+which you lack judgment, James. There and in your blindness."
+
+"Blindness?"
+
+"Blindness," repeated Judge Carter. "As Mark Twain once said, 'When I was
+seventeen, I was ashamed at the ignorance of my father, but by the time I
+was twenty-one I was amazed to discover how much the old man had learned
+in four short years!' Confound it, James, you don't yet realize that
+there are a lot of things in life that you can't even know about until
+you've lived through them. You're blind here, even though your life has
+been a solid case of encounter with unexpected experiences, one after the
+other as you grew. Oh, you're smart enough to know that you've got to top
+the next hill as soon as you've climbed this one, but you're not smart
+enough to realize that the next hill merely hides the one beyond, and
+that there are still higher hills beyond that stretching to the end of
+the road for you--and that when you've finally reached the end of your
+own road there will be more distant hills to climb for the folks that
+follow you.
+
+"You've a fine education, and it's helped you tremendously. But you've
+loused up your own life and the life of Martha Bagley. You two are a pair
+of outcasts, and you'll be outcasts until about ten years from now when
+your body will have caught up with your mind so that you can join your
+contemporaries without being regarded as a pair of intellectual freaks."
+
+"And what should I have done?" demanded James Holden angrily.
+
+"That's just it, again. You do not now realize that there isn't anything
+you could have done, nor is there anything you can do now. That's why I'm
+taking over and I'm going to do it for you."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Yes!" snapped Judge Carter. "We'll let them have their courses in baton
+twirling and social grace and civic improvement and etiquette--and at the
+same time we'll give them history and mathematics and spelling and
+graduate them from 'high' school at the age of twelve or fourteen,
+introduce an intermediary school for languages and customs of other
+countries and in universal law and international affairs and economics,
+where our bookkeepers will learn science and scientists will understand
+commercial law; our lawyers will know business and our businessmen will
+be taught politics. After that we'll start them in college and run them
+as high as they can go, and our doctors will no longer go sour from the
+moment they leave school at thirty-five to hang out their shingle.
+
+"As for you, James Holden, you and Martha Bagley will attend this
+preparatory school as soon as we can set it up. There will be no more of
+this argument about being as competent as an adult, because we oldsters
+will still be the chiefs and you kids will be the Indians. Have I made
+myself clear?"
+
+"Yes sir. But how about Brennan?"
+
+Judge Carter looked at the unhappy man. "You still want revenge? Won't he
+be punished enough just hearing the word 'pedagogue'?"
+
+"For the love of--"
+
+"Don't blaspheme," snapped the judge. "You'd hang if James could bring
+a shred of evidence, and I'd help him if I could." He turned to James
+Holden. "Now," he asked, "will you repair your machine?"
+
+"And if I say No?"
+
+"Can you stand the pressure of a whole world angered because you've
+denied them their right to an education?"
+
+"I suppose not." He looked at Brennan, at Professor White and at Jack
+Cowling. "If I've got to trust somebody," he said reluctantly, "I suppose
+it might as well be you."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK FOUR:
+
+THE NEW MATURITY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+
+It is the campus of Holden Preparatory Academy.
+
+It is spring, but many another spring must pass before the ambitious ivy
+climbs to smother the gray granite walls, before the stripling trees grow
+stately, before the lawn is sturdy enough to withstand the crab grass and
+the students. Anecdote and apocrypha have yet to evolve into hallowed
+tradition. The walks ways are bare of bronze plaques because there are no
+illustrious alumni to honor; Holden Preparatory has yet to graduate its
+first class.
+
+It is youth, a lusty infant whose latent power is already great enough
+to move the world. As it rises, the world rises with it for the whole
+consists of all its parts; no man moves alone.
+
+The movement has its supporters and its enemies, and between them lies a
+vast apathy of folks who simply don't give a damn. Its supporters deplore
+the dolts and the sluggards who either cannot or will not be educated.
+Its enemies see it as a danger to their comfortable position of eminence
+and claim bitterly that the honored degree of doctor is being degraded.
+They refuse to see that it is not the degradation of the standard but
+rather the exaltation of the norm. Comfortable, they lazily object to the
+necessity of rising with the norm to keep their position. Nor do they
+realize that the ones who will be assaulting their fortress will
+themselves be fighting still stronger youth one day when the mistakes are
+corrected and the program streamlined through experience.
+
+On the virgin lawn, in a spot that will someday lie in the shade of a
+great oak, a group of students sit, sprawl, lie. The oldest of them is
+sixteen, and it is true that not one of them has any reverence for
+college degrees, because the entrance requirements demand the scholastic
+level of bachelor in the arts, the sciences, in language and literature.
+The mark of their progress is not stated in grades, but rather in the
+number of supplementary degrees for which they qualify. The honors of
+their graduation are noted by the number of doctorates they acquire.
+Their goal is the title of Scholar, without which they may not attend
+college for their ultimate education.
+
+But they do not have the "look of eagles" nor do they act as if they felt
+some divine purpose fill their lives. They do not lead the pack in an
+easy lope, for who holds rank when admirals meet? They are not dedicated
+nor single-minded; if their jokes and pranks start on a higher or lower
+plane, it is just because they have better minds than their forebears at
+the same time.
+
+On the fringe of this group, an olive-skinned Brazilian co-ed asks:
+"Where's Martha?"
+
+John Philips looks up from a diagram of fieldmatrics he's been using to
+lay out a football play. "She's lending moral support to Holden. He's
+sweating out his scholar's impromptu this afternoon."
+
+"Why should he be stewing?"
+
+John Philips smiles knowingly. "Tony Dirk put the triple-whammy on him.
+Gimmicked up the random-choice selector in the Regent's office. Herr von
+James is discoursing on the subjects of Medicine, Astronomy, and
+Psychology--that is if Dirk knows his stuff."
+
+Tony Dirk looks down from his study of a fluffy cloud. "Anybody care to
+hazard some loose change on my ability?"
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Oh," replies Philips, "we figure that the first graduating class could
+use a professional _Astrologer_! We'll be the first in history to have
+one--if M'sieu Holden can tie Medicine, Astronomy, and Psychology into
+something cogent in his impromptu."
+
+It is a strange tongue they are using, probably the first birth-pains of
+a truly universal language. By some tacit agreement, personal questions
+are voiced in French, the reply in Spanish. Impersonal questions are
+Italian and the response in Portuguese. Anything of a scientific nature
+must be in German; law, language, or literature in English; art in
+Japanese; music in Greek; medicine in Latin; agriculture in Czech.
+Anything laudatory in Mandarin, derogatory in Sanskrit--and _ad libitum_
+at any point for any subject.
+
+Anita Lowes has been trying to attract the attention of John Philips from
+his diagram long enough to invite her to the Spring Festival by reciting
+a low-voiced string of nuclear equations carefully compounded to make
+them sound naughty unless they're properly identified with full
+attention. She looks up and says, "What if he doesn't make the
+connection?"
+
+Philips replies, "Well, if he can prove to that tough bunch that there
+is no possible advance in learning through a combination of Astronomy,
+Medicine, and Psychology, he'll make it on that basis. It's just as
+important to close a door as it is to open one, you know. But it's one
+rough deal to prove negation. Maybe we'll have James the Holden on our
+hands for another semester. Martha will like that."
+
+"Talking about me?"
+
+There is a rolling motion, sort of like a bushel of fish trying to leap
+back into the sea. The newcomer is Martha Fisher. At fifteen, her eyes
+are bright, and her features are beginning to soften into the beginning
+of a beauty that will deepen with maturity.
+
+"James," says Tony Dirk. "We figured you'd like to have him around
+another four months. So we gimmicked him."
+
+"You mean that test-trio?" chuckles Martha.
+
+"How's he doing?"
+
+"When I left, he was wriggling his way through probability math, showing
+the relationship between his three subjects and the solution for random
+choice figures which may or may not be shaded by known or not-known
+agency. He's covered Mason's History of Superstition and--"
+
+"Superstition?" asks a Japanese.
+
+Martha nods. "He claimed superstition is based upon fear and faith, and
+he feared that someone had tampered with his random choice of subjects,
+and he had faith that it was one of his buddies. So--"
+
+Martha is interrupted by a shout. The years have done well by James
+Holden, too. He is a lithe sixteen. It is a long time since he formed his
+little theory of human pair-production and it is almost as long since
+he thought of it last. If he reconsiders it now, he does not recognize
+his part in it because everything looks different from within the circle.
+His world, like the organization of the Universe, is made up of schools
+containing classes of groups of clusters of sets of associations created
+by combinations and permutations of individuals.
+
+"I made it!" he says.
+
+James has his problems. Big ones. Shall he go to Harvard alone, or shall
+he go to coeducational California with the hope that Martha will follow
+him? Then there was the fun awaiting him at Heidelberg, the historic
+background of Pisa, the vigorous routine at Tokyo. As a Scholar, he has
+contributed original research in four or five fields to attain
+doctorates, now he is to pick a few allied fields, combine certain phases
+of them, and work for his Specific. It is James Holden's determination to
+prove that the son is worthy of the parents for which his school is
+named.
+
+But there is high competition. At Carter tech-prep, a girl is struggling
+to arrange a Periodic Chart of the Nucleons. At Maxwell, one of his
+contemporaries will contend that the human spleen acts as an ion-exchange
+organ to rid the human body of radioactive minerals, and he will someday
+die trying to prove it. His own classmate Tony Dirk will organize a
+weather-control program, and John Philips will write six lines of odd
+symbols that will be called the Inertiogravitic Equations.
+
+Their children will reach the distant stars, and their children's
+children will, humanlike, cross the vast chasm that lies between one
+swirl of matter and the other before they have barely touched their home
+galaxy.
+
+No man is an island, near or far on Earth as it is across the glowing
+clusters of galaxies--nay, as it may be in Heaven itself.
+
+The motto is cut deep in the granite over the doorway to Holden Hall:
+
+YOU YOURSELF
+MUST LIGHT THE FAGGOTS
+THAT YOU HAVE BROUGHT
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 18602 ***
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 18602 ***</div>
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1>THE FOURTH "R"</h1>
+
+<h2>By George O. Smith</h2>
+
+
+
+<h4>Published by<br />
+DELL PUBLISHING CO., INC.<br />
+1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza<br />
+New York, New York 10017</h4>
+
+
+<h4>Copyright 1959, by George O. Smith<br />
+All rights reserved. For information contact:<br />
+Dell Publishing Co., Inc.</h4>
+
+<h4>Printed in the United States of America.</h4>
+
+<h4>First Dell printing&mdash;April 1979</h4>
+
+<p>[Transcribers note: This is a rule 6 clearance. A copyright renewal has not been found.]</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3>Contents</h3>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#BOOK_ONE">BOOK ONE: FUTURE IMPROMPTU</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_ONE">CHAPTER ONE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TWO">CHAPTER TWO</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_THREE">CHAPTER THREE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FOUR">CHAPTER FOUR</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FIVE">CHAPTER FIVE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SIX">CHAPTER SIX</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#BOOK_TWO">BOOK TWO: THE HERMIT</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SEVEN">CHAPTER SEVEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_EIGHT">CHAPTER EIGHT</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_NINE">CHAPTER NINE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TEN">CHAPTER TEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_ELEVEN">CHAPTER ELEVEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TWELVE">CHAPTER TWELVE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_THIRTEEN">CHAPTER THIRTEEN</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#BOOK_THREE">BOOK THREE: THE REBEL</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FOURTEEN">CHAPTER FOURTEEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTEEN">CHAPTER FIFTEEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SIXTEEN">CHAPTER SIXTEEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN">CHAPTER SEVENTEEN</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#BOOK_FOUR">BOOK FOUR: THE NEW MATURITY</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN">CHAPTER EIGHTEEN</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="BOOK_ONE" id="BOOK_ONE"></a>BOOK ONE:</h2>
+
+<h3>FUTURE IMPROMPTU</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ONE" id="CHAPTER_ONE"></a>CHAPTER ONE</h2>
+
+
+<p>James Quincy Holden was five years old.</p>
+
+<p>His fifth birthday was not celebrated by the usual horde of noisy, hungry
+kids running wild in the afternoon. It started at seven, with cocktails.
+They were served by his host, Paul Brennan, to the celebrants, the boy's
+father and mother. The guest of honor sipped ginger ale and nibbled at
+canap&eacute;s while he was presented with his gifts: A volume of Kipling's
+<i>Jungle Tales</i>, a Spitz Junior Planetarium, and a build-it-yourself kit
+containing parts for a geiger counter and an assortment of radioactive
+minerals to identify. Dinner was served at eight, the menu selected by
+Jimmy Holden&mdash;with the exception of the birthday cake and its five proud
+little candles which came as an anticipated surprise from his "Uncle"
+Paul Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner, they listened to some music chosen by the boy, and the
+evening wound up with three rubbers of bridge. The boy won.</p>
+
+<p>They left Paul Brennan's apartment just after eleven o'clock. Jimmy
+Holden was tired and pleasantly stuffed with good food. But he was
+stimulated by the party. So, instead of dropping off to sleep, he sat
+comfortably wedged between his father and mother, quietly lost in his own
+thoughts until the car was well out of town.</p>
+
+<p>Then he said, "Dad, why did you make that sacrifice bid on the last
+hand?" Father and son had been partners.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not concerned about losing the rubber, are you?" It had been the
+only rubber Jimmy lost.</p>
+
+<p>"No. It's only a game," said Jimmy. "I'm just trying to understand."</p>
+
+<p>His father gave an amused groan. "It has to do with the laws of
+probability and the theory of games," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The boy shook his head. "Bridge," he said thoughtfully, "consists of
+creating a logical process of play out of a random distribution of
+values, doesn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you admit that your definition is a gross oversimplification. It
+would hardly be a game if everything could be calculated beforehand."</p>
+
+<p>"But what's missing?"</p>
+
+<p>"In any game there is the element of a calculated risk."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden was silent for a half-mile thinking that one over. "How," he
+asked slowly, "can a risk be calculated?"</p>
+
+<p>His father laughed. "In fine, it can't. Too much depends upon the
+personality of the individual."</p>
+
+<p>"Seems to me," said Jimmy, "that there's not much point in making a bid
+against a distribution of values known to be superior. You couldn't hope
+to make it; Mother and Uncle Paul had the cards."</p>
+
+<p>His father laughed again. "After a few more courses in higher
+mathematics, James, you'll begin to realize that some of the highest
+mathematics is aimed at predicting the unpredictable, or trying to lower
+the entropy of random behavior&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden's mother chuckled. "Now explain entropy," she said. "James,
+what your father has been failing to explain is really not subject to
+simple analysis. Who knows why any man will hazard his hard-earned money
+on the orientation of a pair of dice? No amount of education nor academic
+study will explain what drives a man. Deep inside, I suppose it is the
+same force that drives everybody. One man with four spades will take a
+chance to see if he can make five, and another man with directorships in
+three corporations will strive to make it four."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's father chuckled. "Some families with one infant will try to make
+it two&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not on your life!"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;And some others are satisfied with what they've got," finished Jimmy
+Holden's father. "James, some men will avoid seeing what has to be done;
+some men will see it and do it and do no more; and a few men will see
+what has to be done, do it, and then look to the next inevitable problem
+created by their own act&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A blinding flash of light cut a swath across the road, dazzling them.
+Around the curve ahead, a car careened wide over the white line. His
+mother reached for him, his father fought the wheel to avoid the crash.
+Jimmy Holden both heard and felt the sharp <i>Bang!</i> as the right front
+tire went. The steering wheel snapped through his father's hands by half
+a turn. There was a splintering crash as the car shattered its way
+through the retaining fence, then came a fleeting moment of breathless
+silence as if the entire universe had stopped still for a heartbeat.</p>
+
+<p>Chaos! His mother's automatic scream, his father's oath, and the rending
+crash split the silence at once. The car bucked and flipped, the doors
+were slammed open and ripped off against a tree that went down. The car
+leaped in a skew turn and began to roll and roll, shedding metal and
+humans as it racketed down the ravine.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy felt himself thrown free in a tumbleturn that ended in a heavy
+thud.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>When breath and awareness returned, he was lying in a depression filled
+with soft rotting leaves.</p>
+
+<p>He was dazed beyond hurt. The initial shock and bewilderment oozed out of
+him, leaving him with a feeling of outrage, and a most peculiar sensation
+of being a spectator rather than an important part of the violent drama.
+It held an air of unreality, like a dream that the near-conscious sleeper
+recognizes as a dream and lives through it because he lacks the conscious
+will to direct it.</p>
+
+<p>Strangely, it was as if there were three or more of him all thinking
+different things at the same time. He wanted his mother badly enough to
+cry. Another part of him said that she would certainly be at his side if
+she were able. Then a third section of his confused mind pointed out that
+if she did not come to him, it was because she herself was hurt deeply
+and couldn't.</p>
+
+<p>A more coldly logical portion of his mind was urging him to get up and
+<i>do</i> something about it. They had passed a telephone booth on the
+highway; lying there whimpering wasn't doing anybody any good. This
+logical part of his confused mind did not supply the dime for the
+telephone slot nor the means of scaling the heights needed to insert
+the dime in the adult-altitude machine.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the dazzle of mental activity was serial or simultaneous isn't
+important. The fact is that it was completely disorganized as to plan
+or program, it leaped from one subject to another until he heard the
+scrabble and scratch of someone climbing down the side of the ravine.</p>
+
+<p>Any noise meant help. With relief, Jimmy tried to call out.</p>
+
+<p>But with this arrival of help, afterfright claimed him. His mouth
+worked silently before a dead-dry throat and his muscles twitched in
+uncontrolled nervousness; he made neither sound nor motion. Again he
+watched with the unreal feeling of being a remote spectator. A cone of
+light from a flashlight darted about and it gradually seeped into Jimmy's
+shocked senses that this was a new arrival, picking his way through the
+tangle of brush, following the trail of ruin from the broken guard rail
+to the smashed car below.</p>
+
+<p>The newcomer paused. The light darted forward to fall upon a crumpled
+mass of cloth.</p>
+
+<p>With a toe, the stranger probed at crushed ribs. A pitifully feeble
+moan came from the broken rag doll that lay on the ground. The searcher
+knelt with his light close to peer into the bloody face, and,
+unbelieving, Jimmy Holden heard the voice of his mother straining
+to speak, "Paul&mdash;I&mdash;we&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The voice died in a gurgle.</p>
+
+<p>The man with the flashlight tested the flaccid neck by bending the head
+to one side and back sharply. He ended this inspection by letting the
+head fall back to the moist earth. It landed with a thud of finality.</p>
+
+<p>The cold brutality of this stranger's treatment of his mother shocked
+Jimmy Holden into frantic outrage. The frozen cry for help changed into
+protesting anger; no one should be treated that&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"One!" muttered the stranger flatly.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's burst of protest died in his throat and he watched, fascinated,
+as the stranger's light moved in a sweep forward to stop a second time.
+"And there's number two!" The callous horror was repeated. Hypnotically,
+Jimmy Holden watched the stranger test the temples and wrists and try a
+hand under his father's heart. He watched the stranger make a detailed
+inspection of the long slash that laid open the entire left abdomen and
+he saw the red that seeped but did not flow.</p>
+
+<p>"That's that!" said the stranger with an air of finality. "Now&mdash;" and he
+stood up to swing his flashlight in widening circles, searching the area
+carefully.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden did not sicken. He went cold. He froze as the dancing
+flashlight passed over his head, and relaxed partially when it moved
+away in a series of little jumps pausing to give a steady light for
+close inspection. The light swung around and centered on the smashed
+automobile. It was upside down, a ruin with one wheel still turning idly.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger went to it, and knelt to peer inside. He pried ripped metal
+away to get a clear sight into the crushed interior. He went flat on his
+stomach and tried to penetrate the area between the crumpled car-top and
+the bruised ground, and he wormed his way in a circle all around the car,
+examining the wreck minutely.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of a distant automobile engine became audible, and the
+searching man mumbled a curse. With haste he scrambled to his feet and
+made a quick inspection of the one wabbly-turning wheel. He stripped a
+few shards of rubber away, picked at something in the bent metal rim, and
+put whatever he found in his pocket. When his hand came from the pocket
+it held a packet of paper matches. With an ear cocked at the road above
+and the sound of the approaching car growing louder, the stranger struck
+one match and touched it to the deck of matches. Then with a callous
+gesture he tossed the flaring pack into a pool of spilled gasoline. The
+fuel went up in a blunt <i>whoosh</i>!</p>
+
+<p>The dancing flames revealed the face of Jimmy Holden's "Uncle" Paul
+Brennan, his features in a mask that Jimmy Holden had never seen before.</p>
+
+<p>With the determined air of one who knows that still another piece lies
+hidden, Paul Brennan started to beat back and forth across the trail of
+ruin. His light swept the ground like the brush of a painter, missing no
+spot. Slowly and deliberately he went, paying no attention to the
+creeping tongues of flame that crept along damp trails of spilled
+gasoline.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden felt helplessly alone.</p>
+
+<p>For "Uncle" Paul Brennan was the laughing uncle, the golden uncle; his
+godfather; the bringer of delightful gifts and the teller of fabulous
+stories. Classmate of his father and admirer of his mother, a friend to
+be trusted as he trusted his father and mother, as they trusted Paul
+Brennan. Jimmy Holden did not and could not understand, but he could feel
+the presence of menace. And so with the instinct of any trapped animal,
+he curled inward upon himself and cringed.</p>
+
+<p>Education and information failed. Jimmy Holden had been told and told and
+instructed, and the words had been graven deep in his mind by the same
+fabulous machine that his father used to teach him his grammar and his
+vocabulary and his arithmetic and the horde of other things that made
+Jimmy Holden what he was: "If anything happens to us, you must turn to
+Paul Brennan!"</p>
+
+<p>But nothing in his wealth of extraordinary knowledge covered the way to
+safety when the trusted friend turned fiend.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Shaken by the awful knowledge that all of his props had been kicked out
+from under him, now at last Jimmy Holden whimpered in helpless fright.
+Brennan turned towards the sound and began to beat his way through the
+underbrush.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden saw him coming. It was like one of those dreams he'd had
+where he was unable to move, his muscles frozen, as some unknown horror
+stalked him. It could only end in a terrifying fall through cold space
+towards a tremendous lurch against the bedsprings that brought little
+comfort until his pounding heart came back to normal. But this was no
+dream; it was a known horror that stalked him, and it could not end as
+a dream ends. It was reality.</p>
+
+<p>The horror was a close friend turned animal, and the end was more
+horrible because Jimmy Holden, like all other five-year-olds, had
+absolutely no understanding nor accurate grasp of the concept called
+<i>death</i>. He continued to whimper even though he realized that his fright
+was pointing him out to his enemy. And yet he had no real grasp of the
+concept <i>enemy</i>. He knew about pain; he had been hurt. But only by falls,
+simple misadventures, the needles of inoculation administered by his
+surgeon mother, a paddling for mischief by his engineer father.</p>
+
+<p>But whatever unknown fate was coming was going to be worse than "hurt."
+It was frightful.</p>
+
+<p>Then fate, assisted by Brennan's own act of trying to obliterate any
+possible evidence by fire, attracted a savior. The approaching car
+stopped on the road above and a voice called out, "Hello, down there!"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan could not refuse to answer; his own car was in plain sight by the
+shattered retaining fence. He growled under his breath, but he called
+back, "Hello, the road! Go get the police!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can we help?"</p>
+
+<p>"Beyond help!" cried Brennan. "I'm all right. Get the cops!"</p>
+
+<p>The car door slammed before it took off. Then came the unmistakable
+sounds of another man climbing down the ravine. A second flashlight swung
+here and there until the newcomer faced Brennan in the little circle of
+light.</p>
+
+<p>"What happened?" asked the uninvited volunteer.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan, whatever his thoughts, said in a voice filled with standard
+concern: "Blowout. Then everything went blooey."</p>
+
+<p>"Anyone&mdash;I mean how many&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two dead," said Brennan, and then added because he had to, "and a little
+boy lost."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger eyed the flames and shuddered. "In there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Parents were tossed out. Boy's missing."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad," said the stranger. "God, what a mess. Know 'em?"</p>
+
+<p>"Holdens. Folks that live in the big old house on the hill. My best
+friend and his wife. I was following them home," lied Brennan glibly.
+"C'mon let's see if we can find the kid. What about the police?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sent my wife. Telephone down the road."</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan's reply carried no sound of disappointment over being
+interrupted. "Okay. Let's take a look. You take it that way, and I'll
+cover this side."</p>
+
+<p>The little-boy mind did not need its extensive education to understand
+that Paul Brennan needed no more than a few seconds of unobserved
+activity, after which he could announce the discovery of the third death
+in a voice cracked with false grief.</p>
+
+<p>Animal instinct took over where intelligence failed. The same force that
+caused Jimmy Holden to curl within himself now caused him to relax; help
+that could be trusted was now at hand. The muscles of his throat relaxed.
+He whimpered. The icy paralysis left his arms and legs; he kicked and
+flailed. And finally his nervous system succeeded in making their contact
+with his brain; the nerves carried the pain of his bumps and scratches,
+and Jimmy Holden began to hurt. His stifled whimper broke into a
+shuddering cry, which swiftly turned into sobbing hysteria.</p>
+
+<p>He went out of control. Nothing, not even violence, would shake him back
+until his accumulation of shock upon shock had been washed away in tears.</p>
+
+<p>The sound attracted both men. Side by side they beat through the
+underbrush. They reached for him and Jimmy turned toward the stranger.
+The man picked the lad out of the bed of soft rotting leaves, cradled him
+and stroked his head. Jimmy wrapped his small arms around the stranger's
+neck and held on for life.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take him," said Brennan, reaching out.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's clutch on the stranger tightened.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't pry him loose easily," chuckled the man. "I know. I've got a
+couple of these myself."</p>
+
+<p>Brennan shrugged. "I thought perhaps&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Forget it," said the stranger. "Kid's had trouble. I'll carry him to the
+road, you take him from there."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay."</p>
+
+<p>Getting up the ravine was a job of work for the man who carried Jimmy
+Holden. Brennan gave a hand, aided with a lift, broke down brush, and
+offered to take Jimmy now and again. Jimmy only clung tighter, and the
+stranger waved Brennan away with a quick shake of his head.</p>
+
+<p>By the time they reached the road, sirens were wailing on the road up
+the hill. Police, firemen, and an ambulance swarmed over the scene. The
+firemen went to work on the flaming car with practiced efficiency; the
+police clustered around Paul Brennan and extracted from him a story that
+had enough truth in it to sound completely convincing. The doctors from
+the ambulance took charge of Jimmy Holden. Lacking any other accident
+victim, they went to work on him with everything they could do.</p>
+
+<p>They gave him mild sedation, wrapped him in a warm blanket, and put him
+to bed on the cot in the ambulance with two of them watching over him. In
+the presence of so many solicitous strangers, Jimmy's shock and fright
+diminished. The sedation took hold. He dropped off in a light doze that
+grew less fitful as time went on. By the time the official accident
+report program was over, Jimmy Holden was fast asleep and resting
+comfortably.</p>
+
+<p>He did not hear Paul Brennan's suggestion that Jimmy go home with him,
+to Paul Brennan's personal physician, nor did Jimmy hear the ambulance
+attendants turn away Brennan's suggestion with hard-headed medical
+opinion. Brennan could hardly argue with the fact that an accident victim
+would be better off in a hospital under close observation. Shock demanded
+it, and there was the hidden possibility of internal injury or concussion
+to consider.</p>
+
+<p>So Jimmy Holden awoke with his accident ten hours behind him, and the
+good sleep had completed the standard recuperative powers of the healthy
+child. He looked around, collecting himself, and then remembered the
+accident. He cringed a bit and took another look and identified his
+surroundings as some sort of a children's ward or dormitory.</p>
+
+<p>He was in a crib.</p>
+
+<p>He sat up angrily and rattled the gate of the crib. Putting James Quincy
+Holden in a baby's crib was an insult.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, because the noise echoed through the room and one of the
+younger patients stirred in sleep and moaned. Jimmy Holden sat back and
+remembered. The vacuum that was to follow the loss of his parents was not
+yet in evidence. They were gone and the knowledge made him unhappy, but
+he was not cognizant of the real meaning or emotion of grief. With almost
+the same feeling of loss he thought of the <i>Jungle Book</i> he would never
+read and the Spitz Planetarium he would never see casting its little star
+images on his bedroom ceiling. Burned and ruined, with the atomic energy
+kit&mdash;and he had hoped that he could use the kit to tease his father into
+giving him some education in radioactivity. He was old enough to learn&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Learn&mdash;?</p>
+
+<p><i>No more, now that his father and mother were dead.</i></p>
+
+<p>Some of the real meaning of his loss came to him then, and the growing
+knowledge that this first shocking loss meant the ultimate loss of
+everything was beginning to sink in.</p>
+
+<p>He broke down and cried in the misery of his loss and his helplessness;
+ultimately his emotion began to cry itself out, and he began to feel
+resentment against his position. The animal desire to bite back at
+anything that moved did not last long, it focused properly upon the
+person of his tormentor. Then for a time, Jimmy Holden's imagination
+indulged in a series of little vignettes in which he scored his victory
+over Paul Brennan. These little playlets went through their own
+evolution, starting with physical victory reminiscent of his
+Jack-and-the-Beanstalk days to a more advanced triumph of watching Paul
+Brennan led away in handcuffs whilst the District Attorney scanned the
+sheaf of indisputable evidence provided by James Quincy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere along about this point in his fantasy, a breath of the
+practical entered, and Jimmy began to consider the more sensible problem
+of what sort of information this sheaf of evidence would contain.</p>
+
+<p>Still identifying himself with the books he knew, Jimmy Holden had
+progressed from the fairy story&mdash;where the villain was evil for no more
+motive than to provide menace to the hero&mdash;to his more advanced books,
+where the villain did his evil deeds for the logical motive of personal
+gain.</p>
+
+<p>Well, what had Paul Brennan to gain?</p>
+
+<p>Money, for one thing&mdash;he would be executor of the Holden Estate. But
+there wasn't enough to justify killing. Revenge? For what? Jealousy? For
+whom? Hate? Envy? Jimmy Holden glossed the words quickly, for they were
+no more than words that carried definitions that did not really explain
+them. He could read with the facility of an adult, but a book written for
+a sophisticated audience went over his head.</p>
+
+<p>No, there was only one possible thing of appreciable value; the one thing
+that Paul Brennan hoped to gain was the device over which they had worked
+through all the long years to perfect: The Holden Electromechanical
+Educator! Brennan wanted it badly enough to murder for its possession!</p>
+
+<p>And with a mind and ingenuity far beyond his years, Jimmy Holden knew
+that he alone was the most active operator in this vicious drama. It was
+not without shock that he realized that he himself could still be killed
+to gain possession of his fabulous machine. For only with all <i>three</i>
+Holdens dead could Paul Brennan take full and unquestioned possession.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>With daylight clarity he knew what he had to do. In a single act of
+destruction he could simultaneously foil Paul Brennan's plan and ensure
+his own life.</p>
+
+<p>Permanently installed in Jimmy Holden's brain by the machine itself were
+the full details of how to recreate it. Indelibly he knew each wire and
+link, lever and coil, section by section and piece by piece. It was
+incomprehensible information, about in the same way that the printing
+press "knows" the context of its metal plate. Step by step he could
+rebuild it once he had the means of procuring the parts, and it would
+work even though he had not the foggiest notion (now) of what the various
+parts did.</p>
+
+<p>So if the delicate heart of his father's machine were utterly destroyed,
+Paul Brennan would be extremely careful about preserving the life of
+James Quincy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>He considered his position and what he knew:</p>
+
+<p>Physically, he was a five-year-old. He stood forty-one inches tall and
+weighed thirty-nine pounds. A machinist's hammer was a two-handed tool
+and a five-pound sack of sugar was a burden. Doorknobs and latches were a
+problem in manipulation. The negotiation of a swinging door was a feat of
+muscular engineering. Electric light switches were placed at a tiptoe
+reach because, naturally, everything in the adult world is designed by
+the adults for the convenience of adults. This makes it difficult for the
+child who has no adult to do his bidding.</p>
+
+<p>Intellectually, Jimmy Holden was something else.</p>
+
+<p>Reverting to a curriculum considered sound prior to Mr. Dewey's
+often-questionable and more often misused programs of schooling, Jimmy's
+parents had trained and educated their young man quite well in the
+primary informations of fact. He read with facility and spoke with a fine
+vocabulary&mdash;although no amount of intellectual training could make his
+voice change until his glands did. His knowledge of history, geography
+and literature were good, because he'd used them to study reading. He was
+well into plane geometry and had a smattering of algebra, and there had
+been a pause due to a parental argument as to the advisability of his
+memorizing a table of six-place logarithms via the Holden machine.</p>
+
+<p>Extra-curricularly, Jimmy Holden had acquired snippets, bits, and
+wholesale chunks of a number of the arts and sciences and other
+aggregations of information both pertinent and trivial for one reason
+or another. As an instance, he had absorbed an entire bridge book by
+Charles Goren just to provide a fourth to sit in with his parents and
+Paul Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently, James Holden had in data the education of a boy of about
+sixteen, and in other respects, much more.</p>
+
+<p>He escaped from the hospital simply because no one ever thought that a
+five-year-old boy would have enough get-up-and-go to climb out of his
+crib, rummage a nearby closet, dress himself, and then calmly walk out.
+The clothing of a cocky teen-ager would have been impounded and his
+behavior watched.</p>
+
+<p>They did not miss him for hours. He went, taking the little
+identification card from its frame at the foot of his bed&mdash;and that
+ruined the correlation between tag and patient.</p>
+
+<p>By the time an overworked nurse stopped to think and finally asked,
+"Kitty, are you taking care of the little boy in Bed 6 over in 219?" and
+received the answer, "No, aren't you?" Jimmy Holden was trudging up the
+hill towards his home. Another hour went by with the two worried nurses
+surreptitiously searching the rest of the hospital in the simple hope
+that he had wandered away and could be restored before it came to the
+attention of the officials. By the time they gave up and called in other
+nurses (who helped them in their anxiety to conceal) Jimmy was entering
+his home.</p>
+
+<p>Each succeeding level of authority was loath to report the truth to the
+next higher up.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the general manager of the hospital forced himself to call
+Paul Brennan, Jimmy Holden was demolishing the last broken bits of
+disassembled subassemblies he had smashed from the heart-circuit of the
+Holden Electromechanical Educator. He was most thorough. Broken glass
+went into the refuse buckets, bent metal was buried in the garden,
+inflammables were incinerated, and meltables and fusibles slagged down in
+ashes that held glass, bottle, and empty tin-can in an unrecognizable
+mass. He left a gaping hole in the machine that Brennan could not
+fill&mdash;nor could any living man fill it now but James Quincy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>And only when this destruction was complete did Jimmy Holden first begin
+to understand his father's statement about the few men who see what has
+to be done, do it, <i>and then</i> look to the next inevitable problem created
+by their own act.</p>
+
+<p>It was late afternoon by the time Jimmy had his next moves figured out.
+He left the home he'd grown up in, the home of his parents, of his own
+babyhood. He'd wandered through it for the last time, touching this and
+saying goodbye to that. He was certain that he would never see his things
+again, nor the house itself, but the real vacuum of his loss hadn't yet
+started to form. The concepts of "never" and "forever" were merely words
+that had no real impact.</p>
+
+<p>So was the word "Farewell."</p>
+
+<p>But once his words were said, Jimmy Holden made his small but confident
+way to the window of a railroad ticket agent.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWO" id="CHAPTER_TWO"></a>CHAPTER TWO</h2>
+
+
+<p>You are a ticket agent, settled in the routine of your job. From nine to
+five-thirty, five days a week, you see one face after another. There are
+cheerful faces, sullen faces, faces that breathe garlic, whiskey, chewing
+gum, toothpaste and tobacco fumes. Old faces, young faces, dull faces,
+scarred faces, clear faces, plain faces and faces so plastered with
+makeup that their nature can't be seen at all. They bark place-names at
+you, or ask pleasantly about the cost of round-trip versus one-way
+tickets to Chicago or East Burlap. You deal with them and then you wait
+for the next.</p>
+
+<p>Then one afternoon, about four o'clock, a face barely visible over the
+edge of the marble counter looks up at you with a boy's cheerful freckled
+smile. You have to stand up in order to see him. You smile, and he grins
+at you. Among his belongings is a little leather suitcase, kid's size,
+but not a toy. He is standing on it. Under his arm is a collection of
+comic books, in one small fist is the remains of a candy bar and in the
+other the string of a floating balloon.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, young man, where to? Paris? London? Maybe Mars?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," comes the piping voice, "Roun-tree."</p>
+
+<p>"Roundtree? Yes, I've heard of that metropolis," you reply. You look over
+his head, there aren't any other customers in line behind him so you
+don't mind passing the time of day. "Round-trip or one-way?"</p>
+
+<p>"One-way," comes the quick reply.</p>
+
+<p>This brings you to a slow stop. He does not giggle nor prattle, nor
+launch into a long and involved explanation with halting, dependent
+clauses. This one knows what he wants and how to ask for it. Quite a
+little man!</p>
+
+<p>"How old are you, young fellow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was five years old yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"What's your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm James Holden."</p>
+
+<p>The name does not ring any bells&mdash;because the morning newspaper is
+purchased for its comic strips, the bridge column, the crossword puzzle,
+and the latest dope on love-nest slayings, peccadilloes of the famous,
+the cheesecake photo of the inevitable actress-leaving-for-somewhere, and
+the full page photograph of the latest death-on-the-highway debacle. You
+look at the picture but you don't read the names in the caption, so you
+don't recognize the name, and you haven't been out of your little cage
+since lunchtime and Jimmy Holden was not missing then. So you go on:</p>
+
+<p>"So you're going to go to Roundtree."</p>
+
+<p>"Yessir."</p>
+
+<p>"That costs a lot of money, young Mister Holden."</p>
+
+<p>"Yessir." Then this young man hands you an envelope; the cover says,
+typewritten: <i>Ticket Clerk, Midland Railroad</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A bit puzzled, you open the envelope and find a five-dollar bill folded
+in a sheet of manuscript paper. The note says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>/P
+Ticket Clerk
+Midland Railroad
+Dear Sir:
+P/</p>
+
+<p>This will introduce my son, James Holden. As a birthday present, I am
+sending him for a visit to his grandparents in Roundtree, and to make
+the adventure complete, he will travel alone. Pass the word along to
+keep an eye on him but don't step in unless he gets into trouble. Ask
+the dining car steward to see that he eats dinner on something better
+than candy bars.</p>
+
+<p>Otherwise, he is to believe that he is making this trip completely on
+his own.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sincerely, Louis Holden.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">PS: Divide the change from this five dollars among you as tips. L.H.<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>And so you look down at young Mister Holden and get a feeling of
+vicarious pleasure. You stamp his ticket and hand it to him with a
+gesture. You point out the train-gate he is to go through, and you tell
+him that he is to sit in the third railroad car. As he leaves, you pick
+up the telephone and call the station-master, the conductor, and since
+you can't get the dining-car steward directly, you charge the conductor
+with passing the word along.</p>
+
+<p>Then you divide the change. Of the two-fifty, you extract a dollar,
+feeling that the Senior Holden is a cheapskate. You slip the other buck
+and a half into an envelope, ready for the conductor's hand. He'll think
+Holden Senior is more of a cheapskate, and by the time he extracts his
+cut, the dining car steward will <i>know</i> that Holden Senior is a
+cheapskate. But&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Then a face appears at your window and barks, "Holyoke, Mass.," and your
+normal day falls back into shape.</p>
+
+<p>The response of the people you tell about it varies all the way from
+outrage that anybody would let a kid of five go alone on such a dangerous
+mission to loud bragging that he, too, once went on such a journey, at
+four and a half, and didn't need a note.</p>
+
+<p>But Jimmy Holden is gone from your window, and you won't know for at
+least another day that you've been suckered by a note painstakingly
+typewritten, letter by letter, by a five-year-old boy who has a most
+remarkable vocabulary.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's trip to Roundtree was without incident. Actually, it was easy
+once he had hurdled the ticket-seller with his forged note and the
+five-dollar bill from the cashbox in his father's desk. His error in not
+making it a ten was minor; a larger tip would not have provided him with
+better service, because the train crew were happy to keep an eye on the
+adventurous youngster for his own small sake. Their mild resentment
+against the small tip was directed against the boy's father, not the
+young passenger himself.</p>
+
+<p>He had one problem. The train was hardly out of the station before
+everybody on it knew that there was a five-year-old making a trip all
+by himself. Of course, he was not to be bothered, but everybody wanted
+to talk to him, to ask him how he was, to chatter endlessly at him.
+Jimmy did not want to talk. His experience in addressing adults was
+exasperating. That he spoke lucid English instead of babygab did not
+compel a rational response. Those who heard him speak made over him
+with the same effusive superiority that they used in applauding a
+golden-haired tot in high heels and a strapless evening gown sitting
+on a piano and singing, <i>Why Was I Born?</i> in a piping, uncertain-toned
+voice. It infuriated him.</p>
+
+<p>So he immersed himself in his comic books. He gave his name politely
+every five minutes for the first fifty miles. He turned down offers of
+candy with, "Mommy says I mustn't before supper." And when dinnertime
+came he allowed himself to be escorted through the train by the
+conductor, because Jimmy knew that he couldn't handle the doors without
+help.</p>
+
+<p>The steward placed a menu in front of him, and then asked carefully, "How
+much money do you want to spend, young man?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy had the contents of his father's cashbox pinned to the inside of
+his shirt, and a five-dollar bill folded in a snap-top purse with some
+change in his shirt pocket. He could add with the best of them, but he
+did not want any more attention than he was absolutely forced to attract.
+So he fished out the snap-top purse and opened it to show the steward his
+five-dollar bill. The steward relaxed; he'd had a moment of apprehension
+that Holden Senior might have slipped the kid a half-dollar for dinner.
+(The steward had received a quarter for his share of the original
+two-fifty.)</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy looked at the "Child's Dinner" menu and pointed out a plate: lamb
+chop and mashed potatoes. After that, dinner progressed without incident.
+Jimmy topped it off with a dish of ice cream.</p>
+
+<p>The steward made change. Jimmy watched him carefully, and then said,
+"Daddy says I'm supposed to give you a tip. How much?"</p>
+
+<p>The steward looked down, wondering how he could explain the standard
+dining car tip of fifteen or twenty percent of the bill. He took a
+swallow of air and picked out a quarter. "This will do nicely," he said
+and went off thankful that all people do not ask waiters how much they
+think they deserve for the service rendered.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Jimmy Holden arrived in Roundtree and was observed and convoyed&mdash;but
+not bothered&mdash;off the train.</p>
+
+<p>It is deplorable that adults are not as friendly and helpful to one
+another as they are to children; it might make for a more pleasant world.
+As Jimmy walked along the station platform at Roundtree, one of his
+former fellow-passengers walked beside him. "Where are you going, young
+man? Someone going to meet you, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I'm supposed to take a cab&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going your way, why not ride along with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure it's all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing. Come along." Jimmy never knew that this man felt good for a
+week after he'd done his good turn for the year.</p>
+
+<p>His grandfather opened the door and looked down at him in complete
+surprise. "Why, Jimmy! What are you doing here? Who brought&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His grandmother interrupted, "Come in! Come in! Don't just stand there
+with the door open!"</p>
+
+<p>Grandfather closed the door firmly, grandmother knelt and folded Jimmy
+in her arms and crooned over him, "You poor darling. You brave little
+fellow. Donald," she said firmly to her husband, "go get a glass of warm
+milk and some cookies." She led Jimmy to the old-fashioned parlor and
+seated him on the sofa. "Now, Jimmy, you relax a moment and then you can
+tell me what happened."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy sighed and looked around. The house was old, and comfortably
+sturdy. It gave him a sense of refuge, of having reached a safe haven at
+last. The house was over-warm, and there was a musty smell of over-aged
+furniture, old leather, and the pungence of mothballs. It seemed to
+generate a feeling of firm stability. Even the slightly stale air&mdash;there
+probably hadn't been a wide open window since the storm sashes were
+installed last autumn&mdash;provided a locked-in feeling that conversely meant
+that the world was locked out.</p>
+
+<p>Grandfather brought in the glass of warmed milk and a plate of cookies.
+He sat down and asked, "What happened, Jimmy?"</p>
+
+<p>"My mother and father are&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You eat your cookies and drink your milk," ordered his grandmother. "We
+know. That Mr. Brennan sent us a telegram."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It was slightly more than twenty-four hours since Jimmy Holden had blown
+out the five proud candles on his birthday cake and begun to open his
+fine presents. Now it all came back with a rush, and when it came back,
+nothing could stop it.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy never knew how very like a little boy of five he sounded that
+night. His speech was clear enough, but his troubled mind was too full
+to take the time to form his headlong thoughts into proper sentences.
+He could not pause to collect his thoughts into any chronology, so it
+came out going back and forth all in a single line, punctuated only by
+necessary pauses for the intake of breath. He was close to tears before
+he was halfway through, and by the time he came to the end he stopped in
+a sob and broke out crying.</p>
+
+<p>His grandfather said, "Jimmy, aren't you exaggerating? Mr. Brennan isn't
+that sort of a man."</p>
+
+<p>"He is too!" exploded Jimmy through his tears. "I saw him!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Donald, this is no time to start cross-examining a child." She crossed
+the room and lifted him onto her lap; she stroked his head and held his
+cheek against her shoulder. His open crying subsided into deep sobs; from
+somewhere she found a handkerchief and made him blow his nose&mdash;once,
+twice, and then a deep thrice. "Get me a warm washcloth," she told her
+husband, and with it she wiped away his tears. The warmth soothed Jimmy
+more.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," she said firmly, "before we go into this any more we'll have a
+good night's sleep."</p>
+
+<p>The featherbed was soft and cozy. Like protecting mother-wings, it folded
+Jimmy into its bosom, and the warm softness drew out of Jimmy whatever
+remained of his stamina. Tonight he slept of weariness and exhaustion,
+not of the sedation given last night. Here he felt at home, and it was
+good.</p>
+
+<p>And as tomorrows always had, tomorrow would take care of itself.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden's father and mother first met over an operating table,
+dressed in the white sterility that leaves only the eyes visible. She
+wielded the trephine that laid the patient's brain bare, he kept track of
+the patient's life by observing the squiggles on the roll of graph paper
+that emerged from his encephalograph. She knew nothing of the craft of
+the delicate instrument-creator, and he knew even less of the craft of
+surgery. There had been a near-argument during the cleaning-up session
+after the operation; the near-argument ended when they both realized that
+neither of them understood a word of what the other was saying. So the
+near-argument became an animated discussion, the general meaning of
+which became clear: Brain surgeons should know more about the intricacies
+of electromechanics, and the designers of delicate, precision
+instrumentation should know more about the mass of human gray matter they
+were trying to measure.</p>
+
+<p>They pooled their intellects and plunged into the problem of creating an
+encephalograph that would record the infinitesimal irregularities that
+were superimposed upon the great waves. Their operation became large;
+they bought the old structure on top of the hill and moved in, bag and
+baggage. They cohabited but did not live together for almost a year;
+Paul Brennan finally pointed out that Organized Society might permit a
+couple of geniuses to become research hermits, but Organized Society
+still took a dim view of cohabitation without a license. Besides, such
+messy arrangements always cluttered up the legal clarity of chattels,
+titles, and estates.</p>
+
+<p>They married in a quiet ceremony about two years prior to the date that
+Louis Holden first identified the fine-line wave-shapes that went with
+determined ideas. When he recorded them and played them back, his brain
+re-traced its original line of thought, and he could not even make a
+mental revision of the way his thoughts were arranged. For two years
+Louis and Laura Holden picked their way slowly through this field;
+stumped at one point for several months because the machine was strictly
+a personal proposition. Recorded by one of them, the playback was clear
+to that one, but to the other it was wild gibberish&mdash;an inexplicable
+tangle of noise and colored shapes, odors and tastes both pleasant and
+nasty, and mingled sensations. It was five years after their marriage
+before they found success by engraving information in the brain by
+sitting, connected to the machine, and reading aloud, word for word, the
+information that they wanted.</p>
+
+<p>It went by rote, as they had learned in childhood. It was the tiresome
+repetition of going over and over and over the lines of a poem or the
+numbers of the multiplication table until the pathway was a deeply
+trodden furrow in the brain. Forever imprinted, it was retained until
+death. Knowledge is stored by rote.</p>
+
+<p>To accomplish this end, Louis Holden succeeded in violating all of the
+theories of instrumentation by developing a circuit that acted as a sort
+of reverberation chamber which returned the wave-shape played into it
+back to the same terminals without interference, and this single circuit
+became the very heart of the Holden Electromechanical Educator.</p>
+
+<p>With success under way, the Holdens needed an intellectual guinea pig, a
+virgin mind, an empty store-house to fill with knowledge. They planned a
+twenty-year program of research, to end by handing their machine to the
+world complete with its product and instructions for its use and a list
+of pitfalls to avoid.</p>
+
+<p>The conception of James Quincy Holden was a most carefully-planned
+parenthood. It was not accomplished without love or passion. Love had
+come quietly, locking them together physically as they had been bonded
+intellectually. The passion had been deliberately provoked during the
+proper moment of Laura Holden's cycle of ovulation. This scientific
+approach to procreation was no experiment, it was the foregone-conclusive
+act to produce a component absolutely necessary for the completion of
+their long program of research. They happily left to Nature's Choice the
+one factor they could not control, and planned to accept an infant of
+either sex with equal welcome. They loved their little boy as they loved
+one another, rejoiced with him, despaired with him, and made their own
+way with success and mistake, and succeeded in bringing Jimmy to five
+years of age quite normal except for his education.</p>
+
+<p>Now, proficiency in brain surgery does not come at an early age, nor does
+world-wide fame in the field of delicate instrumentation. Jimmy's parents
+were over forty-five on the date of his birth.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's grandparents were, then, understandably aged seventy-eight and
+eighty-one.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The old couple had seen their life, and they knew it for what it was.
+They arose each morning and faced the day knowing that there would be no
+new problem, only recurrence of some problem long solved. Theirs was a
+comfortable routine, long gone was their spirit of adventure, the
+pleasant notions of trying something a new and different way. At their
+age, they were content to take the easiest and the simplest way of doing
+what they thought to be Right. Furthermore, they had lived long enough to
+know that no equitable decision can be made by listening to only one side
+of any argument.</p>
+
+<p>While young Jimmy was polishing off a platter of scrambled eggs the
+following morning, Paul Brennan arrived. Jimmy's fork stopped in midair
+at the sound of Brennan's voice in the parlor.</p>
+
+<p>"You called him," he said accusingly.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother Holden said, "He's your legal guardian, James."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;I don't&mdash;can't&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, James, your father and mother knew best."</p>
+
+<p>"But they didn't know about Paul Brennan. I won't go!"</p>
+
+<p>"You must."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't!"</p>
+
+<p>"James," said Grandmother Holden quietly, "you can't stay here."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"We're not prepared to keep you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother Holden despaired. How could she make this youngster
+understand that eighty is not an age at which to embark upon the process
+of raising a five-year-old to maturity?</p>
+
+<p>From the other room, Paul Brennan was explaining his side as he'd given
+it to the police. "&mdash;Forgot the land option that had to be signed. So I
+took off after them and drove fast enough to catch up. I was only a
+couple of hundred yards behind when it happened."</p>
+
+<p>"He's a liar!" cried Jimmy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>"That's not a nice thing to say."</p>
+
+<p>"It's true!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy!" came the reproachful tone.</p>
+
+<p>"It's true!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>His grandfather and Paul Brennan came into the kitchen. "Ah, Jimmy,"
+said Paul in a soothing voice, "why did you run off? You had everybody
+worried."</p>
+
+<p>"You did! You lie! You&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"James!" snapped his grandfather. "Stop that talk at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be easy with him, Mr. Holden. He's upset. Jimmy, let's get this settled
+right now. What did I do and how do I lie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please Mr. Brennan," said his grandmother. "This isn't necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but it is. It is very important. As the legal guardian of young
+James, I can't have him harboring some suspicion as deep as this. Come
+on, Jimmy. Let's talk it out right now. What did I do and how am I
+lying?"</p>
+
+<p>"You weren't behind. You forced us off the road."</p>
+
+<p>"How could he, young man?" demanded Grandfather Holden.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, but he did."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, sir," said Brennan quietly. "It isn't going to be enough
+to force him into agreement. He's got to see the truth for itself, of his
+own construction from the facts. Now, Jimmy, where was I when you left my
+apartment?"</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you were there."</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't I say&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"One moment," said Grandfather Holden. "Don't lead the witness."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry. James, what did I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;" then a long pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Jimmy."</p>
+
+<p>"You shook hands with my father."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you&mdash;kissed my mother on the cheek."</p>
+
+<p>"And then, again?"</p>
+
+<p>"And then you carried my birthday presents down and put them in the car."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Jimmy, how does your father drive? Fast or slow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fast."</p>
+
+<p>"So now, young man, you tell me how I could go back up to my apartment,
+get my coat and hat, get my car out of the garage, and race to the top of
+that hill so that I could turn around and come at you around that curve?
+Just tell me that, young man."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;don't know&mdash;how you did it."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't make sense, does it?"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;No&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy, I'm trying to help you. Your father and I were fraternity
+brothers in college. I was best man at your parents' wedding. I am your
+godfather. Your folks were taken away from both of us&mdash;and I'm hoping to
+take care of you as if you were mine." He turned to Jimmy's grandparents.
+"I wish to God that I could find the driver of that other car. He didn't
+hit anybody, but he's as guilty of a hit-and-run offence as the man who
+does. If I ever find him, I'll have him in jail until he rots!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy," pleaded his grandmother, "can't you see? Mr. Brennan is only
+trying to help. Why would he do the evil thing you say he did?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;" and Jimmy started to cry. The utter futility of trying to
+make people believe was too much to bear.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy, please stop it and be a man," said Brennan. He put a hand on
+Jimmy's shoulder. Jimmy flung it aside with a quick twist and a turn.
+"Please, Jimmy," pleaded Brennan. Jimmy left his chair and buried his
+face in a corner of the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy, believe me," pleaded Brennan. "I'm going to take you to live in
+your old house, among your own things. I can't replace your folks, but I
+can try to be as close to your father as I know how. I'll see you through
+everything, just as your mother and father want me to."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" exploded Jimmy through a burst of tears.</p>
+
+<p>Grandfather Holden grunted. "This is getting close to the tantrum stage,"
+he said. "And the only way to deal with a tantrum is to apply the flat of
+the hand to the round of the bottom."</p>
+
+<p>"Please," smiled Brennan. "He's a pretty shaken youngster. He's
+emotionally hurt and frightened, and he wants to strike out and hurt
+something back."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he's done enough of that," said Grandfather Holden. "When Louis
+tossed one of these fits of temper where he wouldn't listen to any
+reason, we did as we saw fit anyway and let him kick and scream until
+he got tired of the noise he made."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's not be rough," pleaded Jimmy's grandmother. "He's just a little
+boy, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"If he weren't so little he'd have better sense," snapped Grandfather.</p>
+
+<p>"James," said Paul Brennan quietly, "do you see you're making trouble for
+your grandparents? Haven't we enough trouble as it is? Now, young man,
+for the last time, will you walk or will you be carried? Whichever,
+Jimmy, we're going back home!"</p>
+
+<p>James Holden gave up. "I'll go," he said bitterly, "but I hate you."</p>
+
+<p>"He'll be all right," promised Brennan. "I swear it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Jimmy, be good for Mr. Brennan," pleaded his grandmother. "After
+all, it's for your own good." Jimmy turned away, bewildered, hurt and
+silent. He stubbornly refused to say goodbye to his grandparents.</p>
+
+<p>He was trapped in the world of grown-ups that believed a lying adult
+before they would even consider the truth of a child.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THREE" id="CHAPTER_THREE"></a>CHAPTER THREE</h2>
+
+
+<p>The drive home was a bitter experience. Jimmy was sullen, and very quiet.
+He refused to answer any question and he made no reply to any statement.
+Paul Brennan kept up a running chatter of pleasantries, of promises and
+plans for their future, and just enough grief to make it sound honest.
+Had Paul Brennan actually been as honest as his honeyed tones said he
+was, no one could have continued to accuse him. But no one is more
+difficult to fool than a child&mdash;even a normal child. Paul Brennan's
+protestations simply made Jimmy Holden bitter.</p>
+
+<p>He sat silent and unhappy in the far corner of the front seat all the way
+home. In his mind was a nameless threat, a dread of what would come once
+they were inside&mdash;either inside of Paul Brennan's apartment or inside of
+his own home&mdash;with the door locked against the outside world.</p>
+
+<p>But when they arrived, Paul Brennan continued his sympathetic attitude.
+To Jimmy it was sheer hypocrisy; he was not experienced enough to know
+that a person can commit an act and then convince himself that he hadn't.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy," said Brennan softly, "I have not the faintest notion of
+punishment. None whatsoever. You ruined your father's great invention.
+You did that because you thought it was right. Someday when you change
+your mind and come to believe in me, I'll ask you to replace it because I
+know you can. But understand me, young man, I shall not ask you until you
+make the first suggestion yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"One more thing," said Brennan firmly. "Don't try that stunt with the
+letter to the station agent again. It won't work twice. Not in this town
+nor any other for a long, long time. I've made a sort of family-news item
+out of it which hit a lot of daily papers. It'll also be in the company
+papers of all the railroads and buslines, how Mr. What's-his-name at the
+Midland Railroad got suckered by a five-year-old running away from home.
+Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy understood but made no sign.</p>
+
+<p>"Then in September we'll start you in school," said Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>This statement made no impression upon young James Holden whatsoever. He
+had no intention of enduring this smothering by overkindness any longer
+than it took him to figure out how to run away, and where to run to. It
+was going to be a difficult thing. Cruel treatment, torture, physical
+harm were one thing; this act of being a deeply-concerned guardian was
+something else. A twisted arm he could complain about, a bruise he could
+show, the scars of lashing would give credence to his tale. But who would
+listen to any complaint about too much kindness?</p>
+
+<p>Six months of this sort of treatment and Jimmy Holden himself would begin
+to believe that his parents were monsters, coldly stuffing information in
+the head of an infant instead of letting him grow through a normal
+childhood. A year, and Jimmy Holden would be re-creating his father's
+reverberation circuit out of sheer gratitude. He'd be cajoled into
+signing his own death-warrant.</p>
+
+<p>But where can a five-year-old hide? There was no appeal to the forces of
+law and order. They would merely pop him into a squad car and deliver him
+to his guardian.</p>
+
+<p>Law and order were out. His only chance was to lose himself in some gray
+hinterland where there were so many of his own age that no one could keep
+track of them all. Whether he would succeed was questionable. But until
+he tried, he wouldn't know, and Jimmy was desperate enough to try
+anything.</p>
+
+<p>He attended the funeral services with Paul Brennan. But while the pastor
+was invoking Our Heavenly Father to accept the loving parents of orphaned
+James, James the son left the side of his "Uncle" Paul Brennan, who knelt
+in false piety with his eyes closed.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden had with him only his clothing and what was left of the wad
+of paper money from his father's cashbox still pinned to the inside of
+his shirt.</p>
+
+<p>This time Jimmy did not ride in style. Burlap sacks covered him when
+night fell; they dirtied his clothing and the bottom of the freight car
+scuffed his shoes. For eighteen hours he hid in the jolting darkness, not
+knowing and caring less where he was going, so long as it was away!</p>
+
+<p>He was hungry and thirsty by the time the train first began to slow down.
+It was morning&mdash;somewhere. Jimmy looked furtively out of the slit at the
+edge of the door to see that the train was passing through a region of
+cottages dusted black by smoke, through areas of warehouse and factory,
+through squalor and filth and slum; and vacant lots where the spread of
+the blight area had been so fast that the outward improvement had not
+time to build. Eventually the scene changed to solid areas of railroad
+track, and the trains parked there thickened until he could no longer
+see the city through them.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately the train stopped long enough for Jimmy to squeeze out through
+the slit at the edge of the door.</p>
+
+<p>The train went on and Jimmy was alone in the middle of some huge city.
+He walked the noisome sidewalk trying to decide what he should do next.
+Food was of high importance, but how could he get it without attracting
+attention to himself? He did not know. But finally he reasoned that a
+hot dog wagon would probably take cash from a youngster without asking
+embarrassing questions, so long as the cash wasn't anything larger than
+a five-dollar bill.</p>
+
+<p>He entered the next one he came to. It was dirty; the windows held
+several years' accumulation of cooking grease, but the aroma was terrific
+to a young animal who'd been without food since yesterday afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>The counterman did not like kids, but he put away his dislike at the
+sight of Jimmy's money. He grunted when Jimmy requested a dog, tossed one
+on the grill and went back to reading his newspaper until some inner
+sense told him it was cooked. Jimmy finished it still hungry and asked
+for another. He finished a third and washed down the whole mass with a
+tall glass of highly watered orange juice. The counterman took his money
+and was very careful about making the right change; if this dirty kid had
+swiped the five-spot, it could be the counterman's problem of explaining
+to someone why he had overcharged. Jimmy's intelligence told him that
+countermen in a joint like this didn't expect tips, so he saved himself
+that hurdle. He left the place with a stomach full of food that only the
+indestructible stomach of a five-year-old could handle and now, fed and
+reasonably content, Jimmy began to seek his next point of contact.</p>
+
+<p>He had never been in a big city before. The sheer number of human beings
+that crowded the streets surpassed his expectations. The traffic was not
+personally terrifying, but it was so thick that Jimmy Holden wondered how
+people drove without colliding. He knew about traffic lights and walked
+with the green, staying out of trouble. He saw groups of small children
+playing in the streets and in the empty lots. Those not much older than
+himself were attending school.</p>
+
+<p>He paused to watch a group of children his own age trying to play
+baseball with a ragged tennis ball and the handle from a broom. It was a
+helter-skelter game that made no pattern but provided a lot of fun and
+screaming. He was quite bothered by a quarrel that came up; two of his
+own age went at one another with tiny fists flying, using words that
+Jimmy hadn't learned from his father's machine.</p>
+
+<p>He wondered how he might join them in their game. But they paid him no
+attention, so he didn't try.</p>
+
+<p>At lunchtime Jimmy consumed another collection of hot dogs. He continued
+to meander aimlessly through the city until schooltime ended, then he saw
+the streets and vacant lots fill with older children playing games with
+more pattern to them. It was a new world he watched, a world that had not
+been a part of his education. The information he owned was that of the
+school curriculum; it held nothing of the daily business of growing up.
+He knew the general rules of big-league baseball, but the kid-business of
+stickball did not register.</p>
+
+<p>He was at a complete loss. It was sheer chance and his own tremendous
+curiosity that led him to the edge of a small group that were busily
+engaged in the odd process of trying to jack up the front of a car.</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't a very good jack; it should have had the weight of a full adult
+against the handle. The kids strained and put their weight on the jack,
+but the handle wouldn't budge though their feet were off the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Here was the place where academic information would be useful&mdash;and the
+chance for an "in." Jimmy shoved himself into the small group and said,
+"Get a longer handle."</p>
+
+<p>They turned on him suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatcha know about it?" demanded one, shoving his chin out.</p>
+
+<p>"Get a longer handle," repeated Jimmy. "Go ahead, get one."</p>
+
+<p>"G'wan&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, Moe. Maybe&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Who's he?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm Jimmy."</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy who?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy&mdash;James." Academic information came up again. "Jimmy. Like the
+jimmy you use on a window."</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy James. Any relation to Jesse James?"</p>
+
+<p>James Quincy Holden now told his first whopper. "I," he said, "am his
+grandson."</p>
+
+<p>The one called Moe turned to one of the younger ones. "Get a longer
+handle," he said.</p>
+
+<p>While the younger one went for something to use as a longer handle, Moe
+invited Jimmy to sit on the curb. "Cigarette?" invited Moe.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't smoke," said Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Sissy?"</p>
+
+<p>Adolescent-age information looking out through five-year-old eyes assayed
+Moe. Moe was about eight, maybe even nine; taller than Jimmy but no
+heavier. He had a longer reach, which was an advantage that Jimmy did not
+care to hazard. There was no sure way to establish physical superiority;
+Jimmy was uncertain whether any show of intellect would be welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said. "I'm no sissy. I don't like 'em."</p>
+
+<p>Moe lit a cigarette and smoked with much gesturing and flickings of ashes
+and spitting at a spot on the pavement. He was finished when the younger
+one came back with a length of water pipe that would fit over the handle
+of the jack.</p>
+
+<p>The car went up with ease. Then came the business of removing the hubcap
+and the struggle to loose the lugbolts. Jimmy again suggested the
+application of the length of pipe. The wheel came off.</p>
+
+<p>"C'mon, Jimmy," said Moe. "We'll cut you in."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," nodded Jimmy Holden, willing to see what came next so long as it
+did not have anything to do with Paul Brennan. Moe trundled the car wheel
+down the street, steering it with practiced hands. A block down and a
+block around that corner, a man with a three-day growth of whiskers
+stopped a truck with a very dirty license plate. Moe stopped and the
+man jumped out of the truck long enough to heave the tire and wheel into
+the back.</p>
+
+<p>The man gave Moe a handful of change which Moe distributed among the
+little gang. Then he got in the truck beside the driver and waved for
+Jimmy to come along.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that for?" demanded the driver.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a smarty pants," said Moe. "A real good one."</p>
+
+<p>"Who're you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy&mdash;James."</p>
+
+<p>"What'cha do, kid?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Moe, what did this kid sell you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You and your rusty jacks," grunted Moe. "Jimmy James here told us how to
+put a long hunk of pipe on the handle."</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy James, who taught you about leverage?" demanded the driver
+suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden believed that he was in the presence of an educated man.
+"Archimedes," he said solemnly, giving it the proper pronunciation.</p>
+
+<p>The driver said to Moe, "Think he's all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's smart enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Who're your parents, kid?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden realized that this was a fine time to tell the truth, but
+properly diluted to taste. "My folks are dead," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Who you staying with?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one."</p>
+
+<p>The driver of the truck eyed him cautiously for a moment. "You escaped
+from an orphan asylum?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh," lied Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't saying."</p>
+
+<p>"Wise, huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't want to get sent back," said Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Got a flop?"</p>
+
+<p>"Flop?"</p>
+
+<p>"Place to sleep for the night."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Where'd you sleep last night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Boxcar."</p>
+
+<p>"Bindlestiff, huh?" roared the man with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I've no bindle."</p>
+
+<p>The man's roar of laughter stopped abruptly. "You're a pretty wise kid,"
+he said thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I told y' so," said Moe.</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up," snapped the man. "Kid, do you want a flop for the night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay. You're in."</p>
+
+<p>"What's your name?" asked Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"You call me Jake. Short for Jacob. Er&mdash;here's the place."</p>
+
+<p>The "Place" had no other name. It was a junkyard. In it were car parts,
+wrecks with parts undamaged, whole motors rusting in the air, axles,
+wheels, differential assemblies and transmissions from a thousand cars of
+a thousand different parentages. Hubcaps abounded in piles sorted to size
+and shape. Jake drove the little pickup truck into an open shed. The tire
+and wheel came from the back and went immediately into place on a
+complicated gadget. In a couple of minutes, the tire was off the wheel
+and the inner tube was out of the casing. Wheel, casing, and inner tube
+all went into three separate storage piles.</p>
+
+<p>Not only a junkyard, but a stripper's paradise. Bring a hot car in here
+and in a few hours no one could find it. Its separated parts would be
+sold piece by piece and week by week as second-hand replacements.</p>
+
+<p>Jake said, "Dollar-fifty."</p>
+
+<p>"Two," said Moe.</p>
+
+<p>"One seventy-five."</p>
+
+<p>"Two."</p>
+
+<p>"Go find it and put it back."</p>
+
+<p>"Gimme the buck-six," grunted Moe. "Pretty cheap for a good shoe, a
+wheel, and a sausage."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring it in alone next time, and I'll slip you two-fifty. That gang you
+use costs, too. Now scram, Jimmy James and I got business to talk over."</p>
+
+<p>"He taking over?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk stupid. I need a spotter. You're too old, Moe. And if he's
+any good, you gotta promotion coming."</p>
+
+<p>"And if he ain't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't come back!"</p>
+
+<p>Moe eyed Jimmy Holden. "Make it good&mdash;Jimmy." There was malice in Moe's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>Jake looked down at Jimmy Holden. With precisely the same experienced
+technique he used to estimate the value of a car loaded with road dirt,
+rust, and collision-smashed fenders, Jake stripped the child of the
+dirty clothing, the scuffed shoes, the mussed hair, and saw through to
+the value beneath. Its price was one thousand dollars, offered with no
+questions asked for information that would lead to the return of one
+James Quincy Holden to his legal guardian.</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't magic on Jake's part. Paul Brennan had instantly offered a
+reward. And Jake made it his business to keep aware of such matters.</p>
+
+<p>How soon, wondered Jake, might the ante be raised to two Gee? Five? And
+in the meantime, if things panned, Jimmy could be useful as a spotter.</p>
+
+<p>"You afraid of that Moe punk, Jimmy?"</p>
+
+<p>"No sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good, but keep an eye on him. He'd sell his mother for fifty cents clear
+profit&mdash;seventy-five if he had to split the deal. Now, kid, do you know
+anything about spotting?"</p>
+
+<p>"No sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Hungry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Come on in and we'll eat. Do you like Mulligan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. You and me are going to get along."</p>
+
+<p>Inside of the squalid shack, Jake had a cozy set-up. The filth that he
+encouraged out in the junkyard was not tolerated inside his shack. The
+dividing line was halfway across the edge of the door; the inside was as
+clean, neat, and shining as the outside was squalid.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll sleep here," said Jake, waving towards a small bedroom with a
+single twin bunk. "You'll make yer own bed and take a shower every
+night&mdash;or out! Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. Now, let's have chow, and I'll tell you about this spotting
+business. You help me, and I'll help you. One blab and back you go to
+where you came from. Get it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>And so, while the police of a dozen cities were scouring their beats for
+a homeless, frightened five-year-old, Jimmy Holden slept in a comfortable
+bed in a clean room, absolutely disguised by an exterior that looked like
+an abandoned manure shed.</p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOUR" id="CHAPTER_FOUR"></a>CHAPTER FOUR</h2>
+
+<p>Jimmy discovered that he was admirably suited
+to the business of spotting. The "job turnover" was high because the
+spotter must be young enough to be allowed the freedom of the preschool
+age, yet be mature enough to follow orders.</p>
+
+<p>The job consisted of meandering through the streets of the city, in
+the aimless patterns of youth, while keeping an eye open for parked
+automobiles with the ignition keys still in their locks.</p>
+
+<p>Only a very young child can go whooping through the streets bumping
+pedestrians, running wildly, or walking from car to car twiggling each
+door handle and peering inside as if he were imitating a door-to-door
+salesman, occasionally making a minor excursion in one shop door and out
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>He takes little risk. He merely spots the target. He reports that there
+is such-and-such a car parked so-and-so, after which he goes on to spot
+the next target. The rest of the business is up to the men who do the
+actual stealing.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's job-training program took only one morning. That same afternoon
+he went to work for Jake's crew.</p>
+
+<p>Jake's experience with kids had been no more than so-so promising. He
+used them because they were better than nothing. He did not expect them
+to stay long; they were gobbled up by the rules of compulsory education
+just about the age when they could be counted upon to follow orders.</p>
+
+<p>He felt about the same with Jimmy Holden; the "missing person" report
+stated that one of the most prominent factors in the lad's positive
+identification was his high quality of speech and his superior
+intelligence. (This far Paul Brennan had to go, and he had divulged
+the information with great reluctance.)</p>
+
+<p>But though Jake needed a preschool child with intelligence, he did not
+realize the height of Jimmy Holden's.</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious to Jimmy on the second day that Jake's crew was not taking
+advantage of every car spotted. One of them had been a "natural" to
+Jimmy's way of thinking. He asked Jake about it: "Why didn't you take the
+sea-green Ford in front of the corner store?"</p>
+
+<p>"Too risky."</p>
+
+<p>"Risky?"</p>
+
+<p>Jake nodded. "Spotting isn't risky, Jimmy. But picking the car up is.
+There is a very dangerous time when the driver is a sitting duck. From
+the moment he opens the car door he is in danger. Sitting in the chance
+of getting caught, he must start the car, move it out of the parking
+space into traffic, and get under way and gone before he is safe."</p>
+
+<p>"But the sea-green Ford was sitting there with its engine running!"</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning," nodded Jake, "that the driver pulled in and made a fast dash
+into the store for a newspaper or a pack of cigarettes."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand. Your man could get caught. Or," added Jimmy thoughtfully,
+"the owner might even take his car away before we got there."</p>
+
+<p>Jake nodded. This one was going to make it easy for him.</p>
+
+<p>As the days wore on, Jimmy became more selective. He saw no point in
+reporting a car that wasn't going to be used. An easy mark wedged between
+two other cars couldn't be removed with ease. A car parked in front of a
+parking meter with a red flag was dangerous, it meant that the time was
+up and the driver should be getting nervous about it. A man who came
+shopping along the street to find a meter with some time left by the
+former driver was obviously looking for a quick-stop place&mdash;whereas the
+man who fed the meter to its limit was a much better bet.</p>
+
+<p>Jake, thankful for what Fate had brought him, now added refinements of
+education. Cars parked in front of supermarkets weren't safe; the owner
+might be standing just inside the big plate glass window. The car parked
+hurriedly just before the opening of business was likely to be a good bet
+because people are careless about details when they are hurrying to punch
+the old time clock.</p>
+
+<p>Jake even closed down his operations during the calculated danger
+periods, but he made sure to tell Jimmy Holden why.</p>
+
+<p>From school-closing to dinnertime Jimmy was allowed to do as he pleased.
+He found it hard to enjoy playing with his contemporaries, and Jake's
+explanation about dangerous times warned Jimmy against joining Moe and
+his little crew of thieves. Jimmy would have enjoyed helping in the
+stripping yard, but he had not the heft for it. They gave him little
+messy jobs to do that grimed his hands and made Jake's stern rule of
+cleanliness hard to achieve. Jimmy found it easier to avoid such jobs
+than to scrub his skin raw.</p>
+
+<p>One activity he found to his ability was the cooking business.</p>
+
+<p>Jake was a stew-man, a soup-man, a slum-gullion man. The fellows who
+roamed in and out of Jake's Place dipped their plate of slum from the
+pot and their chunk of bread from the loaf and talked all through this
+never-started and never-ended lunch. With the delicacy of his "inside"
+life, Jake knew the value of herbs and spices and he was a hard
+taskmaster. But inevitably, Jimmy learned the routine of brewing a bucket
+of slum that suited Jake's taste, after which Jimmy was now and then
+permitted to take on the more demanding job of cooking the steaks and
+chops that made their final evening meal.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy applied himself well, for the knowledge was going to be handy. More
+important, it kept him from the jobs that grimed his hands.</p>
+
+<p>He sought other pursuits, but Jake had never had a resident spotter
+before and the play-facilities provided were few. Jimmy took to
+reading&mdash;necessarily, the books that Jake read, that is, approximately
+equal parts of science fiction and girlie-girlie books. The science
+fiction he enjoyed; but he was not able to understand why he wasn't
+interested in the girlie books. So Jimmy read. Jake even went out of his
+way to find more science fiction for the lad.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately, Jimmy located a potential source of pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>He spotted a car with a portable typewriter on the back seat. The car was
+locked and therefore no target, but it stirred his fancy. Thereafter he
+added a contingent requirement to his spotting. A car with a typewriter
+was more desirable than one without.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy went on to further astound Jake by making a list of what the
+customers were buying. After that he concentrated on spotting those cars
+that would provide the fastest sale for their parts.</p>
+
+<p>It was only a matter of time; Jimmy spotted a car with a portable
+typewriter. It was not as safe a take as his others, but he reported it.
+Jake's driver picked it up and got it out in a squeak; the car itself
+turned up to be no great find.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy claimed the typewriter at once.</p>
+
+<p>Jake objected: "No dice, Jimmy."</p>
+
+<p>"I want it, Jake."</p>
+
+<p>"Look, kid, I can sell it for twenty."</p>
+
+<p>"But I want it."</p>
+
+<p>Jake eyed Jimmy thoughtfully, and he saw two things. One was a
+thousand-dollar reward standing before him. The other was a row of prison
+bars.</p>
+
+<p>Jake could only collect one and avoid the other by being very sure that
+Jimmy Holden remained grateful to Jake for Jake's shelter and protection.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed roughly. "All right, Jimmy," he said. "You lift it and you can
+have it."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy struggled with the typewriter, and succeeded only because it was a
+new one made of the titanium-magnesium-aluminum alloys. It hung between
+his little knees, almost&mdash;but not quite&mdash;touching the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You have it," said Jake. He lifted it lightly and carried it into the
+boy's little bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy started after dinner. He picked out the letters with the same
+painful search he'd used in typing his getaway letter. He made the
+same mistakes he'd made before. It had taken him almost an hour and
+nearly fifty sheets of paper to compose that first note without an
+error; that was no way to run a railroad; now Jimmy was determined
+to learn the proper operation of this machine. But finally the jagged
+tack-tack&mdash;pause&mdash;tack-tack got on Jake's nerves.</p>
+
+<p>Jake came in angrily. "You're wasting paper," he snapped. He eyed Jimmy
+thoughtfully. "How come with your education you don't know how to type?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father wouldn't let me."</p>
+
+<p>"Seems your father wouldn't let you do anything."</p>
+
+<p>"He said that I couldn't learn until I was old enough to learn properly.
+He said I must not get into the habit of using the hunt-and-peck system,
+or I'd never get out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"So what are you doing now?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"And anything he said before doesn't count any more?"</p>
+
+<p>"He promised me that he'd start teaching me as soon as my hands were big
+enough," said Jimmy soberly. "But he isn't here any more. So I've got to
+learn my own way."</p>
+
+<p>Jake reflected. Jimmy was a superior spotter. He was also a potential
+danger; the other kids played it as a game and didn't really realize what
+they were doing. This one knew precisely what he was doing, knew that it
+was wrong, and had the lucidity of speech to explain in full detail. It
+was a good idea to keep him content.</p>
+
+<p>"If you'll stop that tap-tapping for tonight," promised Jake, "I'll get
+you a book tomorrow. Is it a deal?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will if you'll follow it."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing."</p>
+
+<p>"And," said Jake, pushing his advantage, "you'll do it with the door
+closed so's I can hear this TV set."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>Jake kept his word.</p>
+
+<p>On the following afternoon, not only was Jimmy presented with one of the
+standard learn-it-yourself books on touch-typing, but Jake also contrived
+a sturdy desk out of one old packing case and a miniature chair out of
+another. Both articles of home-brewed furniture Jake insisted upon having
+painted before he permitted them inside his odd dwelling, and that
+delayed Jimmy one more day.</p>
+
+<p>But it was only one more day; and then a new era of experience began for
+Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>It would be nice to report that he went at it with determination,
+self-discipline, and system, following instructions to the letter and
+emerging a first-rate typist.</p>
+
+<p>Sorry. Jimmy hated every minute of it. He galled at the pages and pages
+of <i>juj juj juj frf frf frf</i>. He cried with frustration because he could
+not perform the simple exercise to perfection. He skipped through the
+book so close to complete failure that he hurled it across the room, and
+cried in anger because he had not the strength to throw the typewriter
+after it. Throw the machine? He had not the strength in his pinky to
+press the carriage-shift key!</p>
+
+<p>Part of his difficulty was the size of his hands, of course. But most of
+his trouble lay deep-seated in his recollection of his parents' fabulous
+machine. It would have made a typist of him in a single half-hour
+session, or so he thought.</p>
+
+<p>He had yet to learn about the vast gulf that lies between theory and
+practice.</p>
+
+<p>It took Jimmy several weeks of aimless fiddling before he realized that
+there was no easy short-cut. Then he went back to the <i>juj juj juj frf
+frf frf</i> routine and hated it just as much, but went on.</p>
+
+<p>He invented a kind of home-study "hooky" to break the monotony. He would
+run off a couple of pages of regular exercise, and then turn back to the
+hunt-and-peck system of typing to work on a story. He took a furtive glee
+in this; he felt that he was getting away with something. In mid-July,
+Jake caught him at it.</p>
+
+<p>"What's going on?" demanded Jake, waving the pages of manuscript copy.</p>
+
+<p>"Typing," said Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>Jake picked up the typing guidebook and waved it under Jimmy's nose.
+"Show me where it says you gotta type anything like, 'Captain Brandon
+struggled against his chains when he heard Lady Hamilton scream. The
+pirate's evil laugh rang through the ship. "Curse you&mdash;"'"</p>
+
+<p>Jake snorted.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;" said Jimmy faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"But nothing!" snapped Jake. "Stop the drivel and learn that thing! You
+think I let you keep the machine just to play games? We gotta find a way
+to make it pay off. Learn it good!"</p>
+
+<p>He stamped out, taking the manuscript with him. From that moment on,
+Jimmy's furtive career as an author went on only when Jake was either out
+for the evening or entertaining. In any case, he did not bother Jimmy
+further, evidently content to wait until Jimmy had "learned it good"
+before putting this new accomplishment to use. Nor did Jimmy bother him.
+It was a satisfactory arrangement for the time being. Jimmy hid his
+"work" under a pile of raw paper and completed it in late August. Then,
+with the brash assurance of youth, he packed and mailed his first
+finished manuscript to the editor of <i>Boy's Magazine</i>.</p>
+
+<p>His typing progressed more satisfactorily than he realized, even though
+he was still running off page after page of repetitious exercise,
+leavened now and then by a page of idiotic sentences the letters of
+which were restricted to the center of the typewriter keyboard. The
+practice, even the hunt-and-peck relaxation from discipline, exercised
+the small muscles. Increased strength brought increased accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>September rolled in, the streets emptied of school-aged children and the
+out-of-state car licenses diminished to a trickle. With the end of the
+carefree vacation days went the careless motorist.</p>
+
+<p>Jake, whose motives were no more altruistic than his intentions were
+legal, began to look for a means of disposing of Jimmy Holden at the
+greatest profit to himself. Jake stalled only because he hoped that the
+reward might be stepped up.</p>
+
+<p>But it was Jimmy's own operations that closed this chapter of his life.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIVE" id="CHAPTER_FIVE"></a>CHAPTER FIVE</h2>
+
+
+<p>Jimmy had less scout work to do and no school to attend; he was too small
+to help in the sorting of car parts and too valuable to be tossed out. He
+was in the way.</p>
+
+<p>So he was in Jake's office when the mail came. He brought the bundle to
+Jake's desk and sat on a box, sorting the circulars and catalogs from the
+first class. Halfway down the pile was a long envelope addressed to
+<i>Jimmy James</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped the rest with a little yelp. Jake eyed him quickly and
+snatched the letter out of Jimmy's hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey! That's mine!" said Jimmy. Jake shoved him away.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's writing you?" demanded Jake.</p>
+
+<p>"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up!" snapped Jake, unfolding the letter. "I read <i>all</i> the mail
+that comes here first."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut your mouth and your teeth'll stay in," said Jake flatly. He
+separated a green slip from the letter and held the two covered while he
+read. "Well, well," he said. "Our little Shakespeare!" With a disdainful
+grunt Jake tossed the letter to Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>Eagerly, Jimmy took the letter and read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Mr. James:</p>
+
+<p>We regret the unconscionable length of time between your submission and
+this reply. However, the fact that this reply is favorable may be its
+own apology. We are enclosing a check for $20.00 with the following
+explanation:</p>
+
+<p>Our policy is to reject all work written in dialect. At the best we
+request the author to rewrite the piece in proper English and frame
+his effect by other means. Your little story is not dialect, nor is it
+bad literarily, the framework's being (as it is) a fairly good example
+of a small boy's relating in the first person one of his adventures,
+using for the first time his father's typewriter. But you went too far.
+I doubt that even a five-year-old would actually make as many
+typographical errors.</p>
+
+<p>However, we found the idea amusing, therefore our payment. One of our
+editors will work your manuscript into less-erratic typescript for
+eventual publication.</p>
+
+<p>Please continue to think of us in the future, but don't corn up your
+script with so many studied blunders.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sincerely,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Joseph Brandon, editor,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Boy's Magazine.<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Gee," breathed Jimmy, "a check!"</p>
+
+<p>Jake laughed roughly. "Shakespeare," he roared. "Don't corn up your
+stuff! You put too many errors in! Wow!"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's eyes began to burn. He had no defense against this sarcasm. He
+wanted praise for having accomplished something, instead of raucous
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote it," he said lamely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go away!" roared Jake.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy reached for the check.</p>
+
+<p>"Scram," said Jake, shutting his laughter off instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>Jake paused, then laughed again. "Okay, smart kid. Take it and spend it!"
+He handed the check to Jimmy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy took it quickly and left.</p>
+
+<p>He wanted to eye it happily, to gloat over it, to turn it over and over
+and to read it again and again; but he wanted to do it in private.</p>
+
+<p>He took it with him to the nearest bank, feeling its folded bulk and
+running a fingernail along the serrated edge.</p>
+
+<p>He re-read it in the bank, then went to a teller's window. "Can you cash
+this, please?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The teller turned it over. "It isn't endorsed."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't reach the desk to sign it," complained Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you an account here?" asked the teller politely.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Any identification?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no sir," said Jimmy thoughtfully. Not a shred of anything did he
+have to show who he was under either name.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this Jimmy James?" asked the teller.</p>
+
+<p>"Me. I am."</p>
+
+<p>The teller smiled. "And you wrote a short story that sold to <i>Boy's
+Magazine</i>?" he asked with a lifted eyebrow. "That's pretty good for a
+little guy like you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>The teller looked over Jimmy's head; Jimmy turned to look up at one of
+the bank's policemen. "Tom, what do you make of this?"</p>
+
+<p>The policeman shrugged. He stooped down to Jimmy's level. "Where did you
+get this check, young fellow?" he asked gently.</p>
+
+<p>"It came in the mail this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"You're Jimmy James?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir." Jimmy Holden had been called that for more than half a year;
+his assent was automatic.</p>
+
+<p>"How old are you, young man?" asked the policeman kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"Five and a half."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that a bit young to be writing stories?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy bit his lip. "I wrote it, though."</p>
+
+<p>The policeman looked up at the teller with a wink. "He can tell a good
+yarn," chuckled the policeman. "Shouldn't wonder if he could write one."</p>
+
+<p>The teller laughed and Jimmy's eyes burned again. "It's mine," he
+insisted.</p>
+
+<p>"If it's yours," said the policeman quietly, "we can settle it fast
+enough. Do your folks have an account here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmmm. That makes it tough."</p>
+
+<p>Brightly, Jimmy asked, "Can I open an account here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sure you can," said the policeman. "All you have to do is to bring
+your parents in."</p>
+
+<p>"But I want the money," wailed Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy James," explained the policeman with a slight frown to the teller,
+"we can't cash a check without positive identification. Do you know what
+positive identification means?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir. It means that you've got to be sure that this is me."</p>
+
+<p>"Right! Now, those are the rules. Now, of course, you don't look like
+the sort of young man who would tell a lie. I'll even bet your real
+name is Jimmy James, Jr. But you see, we have no proof, and our boss
+will be awful mad at us if we break the rules and cash this check without
+following the rules. The rules, Jimmy James, aren't to delay nice, honest
+people, but to stop people from making mistakes. Mistakes such as taking
+a little letter out of their father's mailbox. If we cashed that check,
+then it couldn't be put back in father's mailbox without anybody knowing
+about it. And that would be real bad."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's mine!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sonny, if that's yours, all you have to do is to have your folks come in
+and say so. Then we'll open an account for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir," said Jimmy in a voice that was thick with tears of frustration
+close to the surface. He turned away and left.</p>
+
+<p>Jake was still in the outside office of the Yard when Jimmy returned. The
+boy was crestfallen, frustrated, unhappy, and would not have returned at
+all if there had been another place where he was welcome. He expected
+ridicule from Jake, but Jake smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"No luck, kid?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy just shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Checks are tough, Jimmy. Give up, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"No? What then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can write a letter and sign it," said Jimmy, explaining how he had
+outfoxed the ticket seller.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't work with checks, Jimmy. For me now, if I was to be polite and
+dressed right they might cash a twenty if I showed up with my social
+security card, driver's license, identification card with photograph
+sealed in, and all that junk. But a kid hasn't got a chance. Look, Jimmy,
+I'm sorry for this morning. To-morrow morning we'll go over to my bank
+and I'll have them cash it for you. It's yours. You earned it and you
+keep it. Okay? Are we friends again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>Gravely they shook hands. "Watch the place, kid," said Jake. "I got to
+make a phone call."</p>
+
+<p>In the morning, Jake dressed for business and insisted that Jimmy put on
+his best to make a good impression. After breakfast, they set out. Jake
+parked in front of a granite building.</p>
+
+<p>"This isn't any bank," objected Jimmy. "This is a police station."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," responded Jake. "Here's where we get you an identification card.
+Don't you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Okay," said Jimmy dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>Inside the station there were a number of men in uniform and in plain
+clothing. Jake strode forward, holding Jimmy by one small hand. They
+approached the sergeant's desk and Jake lifted Jimmy up and seated him on
+one edge of the desk with his feet dangling.</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant looked at them with interest but without surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Sergeant," said Jake, "this is Jimmy James&mdash;as he calls himself when
+he's writing stories. Otherwise he is James Quincy Holden."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy went cold all over.</p>
+
+<p>Jake backed through the circle that was closing in; the hole he made was
+filled by Paul Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>It was not the first betrayal in Jimmy James's young life, but it was
+totally unexpected. He didn't know that the policeman from the bank had
+worried Jake; he didn't know that Jake had known all along who he was; he
+didn't know how fast Brennan had moved after the phone call from Jake.
+But his young mind leaped past the unknown facts to reach a certain, and
+correct, conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>He had been sold out.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy, Jimmy," came the old, pleading voice. "Why did you run away?
+Where have you been?"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan stepped forward and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Without
+a shadow of doubt," he said formally, "this is James Quincy Holden. I so
+identify him. And with no more ado, I hand you the reward." He reached
+into his inside pocket and drew out an envelope, handing it to Jake. "I
+have never parted with one thousand dollars so happily in my life."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy watched, unable to move. Brennan was busy and cheerful, the model
+of the man whose long-lost ward has been returned to him.</p>
+
+<p>"So, James, shall we go quietly or shall we have a scene?"</p>
+
+<p>Trapped and sullen, Jimmy Holden said nothing. The officers helped him
+down from the desk. He did not move. Brennan took him by a hand that was
+as limp as wet cloth. Brennan started for the door. The arm lifted until
+the link was taut; then, with slow, dragging steps, James Quincy Holden
+started toward home.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan said, "You understand me, don't you, Jimmy?"</p>
+
+<p>"You want my father's machine."</p>
+
+<p>"Only to help you, Jimmy. Can't you believe that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>Brennan drove his car with ease. A soft smile lurked around his lips. He
+went on, "You know what your father's machine will do for you, don't you,
+Jimmy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But have you ever attended school?"</p>
+
+<p>"No." But Jimmy remembered the long hours and hours of study and practice
+before he became proficient with his typewriter. For a moment he felt
+close to tears. It had been the only possession he truly owned, now it
+was gone. And with it was gone the author's first check. The thrill of
+that first check is far greater than Graduation or the First Job. It is
+approximately equal to the flush of pride that comes when the author's
+story hits print with his <span class="smcap">NAME</span> appended.</p>
+
+<p>But Jimmy's typewriter was gone, and his check was gone. Without a doubt
+the check would turn up cashed&mdash;through the operations of Jake Caslow.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan's voice cut into his thoughts. "You will attend school, Jimmy.
+You'll have to."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, now look, Jimmy. There are laws that say you must attend school.
+The only way those laws can be avoided is to make an appeal to the law
+itself, and have your legal guardian&mdash;myself&mdash;ask for the privilege of
+tutoring you at home. Well, I won't do it."</p>
+
+<p>He drove for a moment, thinking. "So you're going to attend school," he
+said, "and while you're there you're going to be careful not to disclose
+by any act or inference that you already know everything they can teach
+you. Otherwise they will ask some embarrassing questions. And the first
+thing that happens to you is that you will be put in a much harder place
+to escape from than our home, Jimmy. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir," the boy said sickly.</p>
+
+<p>"But," purred Uncle Paul Brennan, "you may find school very boring. If
+so, you have only to say the word&mdash;rebuild your father's machine&mdash;and go
+on with your career."</p>
+
+<p>"I w&mdash;" Jimmy began automatically, but his uncle stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't, no," he agreed. "Not now. In the meantime, then, you will
+live the life proper to your station&mdash;and your age. I won't deny you a
+single thing, Jimmy. Not a single thing that a five-year-old can want."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIX" id="CHAPTER_SIX"></a>CHAPTER SIX</h2>
+
+
+<p>Paul Brennan moved into the Holden house with Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy had the run of the house&mdash;almost. Uncle Paul closed off the upper
+sitting room, which the late parents had converted into their laboratory.
+<i>That</i> was locked. But the rest of the house was free, and Jimmy was once
+more among the things he had never hoped to see again.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan's next step was to hire a middle-aged couple to take care of
+house and boy. Their name was Mitchell; they were childless and regretted
+it; they lavished on Jimmy the special love and care that comes only from
+childless child-lovers.</p>
+
+<p>Though Jimmy was wary to the point of paranoia, he discovered that he
+wanted for nothing. He was kept clean and his home kept tidy. He was fed
+well&mdash;not only in terms of nourishment, but in terms of what he liked.</p>
+
+<p>Then ... Jimmy began to notice changes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Huckleberry Finn</i> turned up missing. In its place on the shelf was a
+collection of Little Golden Books.</p>
+
+<p>His advanced Mecanno set was "broken"&mdash;so Mrs. Mitchell told him. Uncle
+Paul had accidentally crushed it. "But you'll like this better," she
+beamed, handing him a fresh new box from the toy store. It contained
+bright-colored modular blocks.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's parents had given him canvasboard and oil paints; now they were
+gone. Jimmy would have admitted he was no artist; but he didn't enjoy
+retrogressing to his uncle's selection&mdash;finger paints.</p>
+
+<p>His supply of drawing paper was not tampered with. But it was not
+replaced. When it was gone, Jimmy was presented with a blackboard and
+boxes of colored chalk.</p>
+
+<p>By Christmas every possession was gone&mdash;replaced&mdash;the new toys tailored
+to Jimmy's physical age. There was a Christmas tree, and under it a pile
+of gay bright boxes. Jimmy had hardly the heart to open them, for he knew
+what they would contain.</p>
+
+<p>He was right.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy had everything that would keep a five-year-old boy
+contented ... and not one iota more. He objected; his objections got him
+nowhere. Mrs. Mitchell was reproachful: Ingratitude, Jimmy! Mr. Mitchell
+was scornful: Maybe James would like to vote and smoke a pipe?</p>
+
+<p>And Paul Brennan was very clear. There was a way out of this, yes. Jimmy
+could have whatever he liked. There was just this one step that must be
+taken first; the machine must be put back together again.</p>
+
+<p>When it came time for Jimmy to start school he was absolutely delighted;
+nothing, nothing could be worse than this.</p>
+
+<p>At first it was a novel experience.</p>
+
+<p>He sat at a desk along with forty-seven other children of his size,
+neatly stacked in six aisles with eight desks to the tier. He did his
+best to copy their manners and to reproduce their halting speech and
+imperfect grammar. For the first couple of weeks he was not noticed.</p>
+
+<p>The teacher, with forty-eight young new minds to study, gave him his
+2.08% of her total time and attention. Jimmy Holden was not a deportment
+problem; his answers to the few questions she directed at him were
+correct. Therefore he needed less attention and got less; she spent her
+time on the loud, the unruly and those who lagged behind in education.</p>
+
+<p>Because his total acquaintance with children of his own age had been
+among the slum kids that hung around Jake Caslow's Place, Jimmy found his
+new companions an interesting bunch.</p>
+
+<p>He watched them, and he listened to them. He copied them and in two weeks
+Jimmy found them pitifully lacking and hopelessly misinformed. They could
+not remember at noon what they had been told at ten o'clock. They had
+difficulty in reading the simple pages of the First Reader.</p>
+
+<p>But he swallowed his pride and stumbled on and on, mimicking his friends
+and remaining generally unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>If written examinations were the rule in the First Grade, Jimmy would
+have been discovered on the first one. But with less than that 2% of the
+teacher's time directed at him, Jimmy's run of correct answers did not
+attract notice. His boredom and his lack of attention during daydreams
+made him seem quite normal.</p>
+
+<p>He began to keep score on his classmates on the fly-leaf of one of his
+books. Jimmy was a far harsher judge than the teacher. He marked them
+either wrong or right; he gave no credit for trying, or for their
+stumbling efforts to express their muddled ideas and incomplete grasp. He
+found their games fun at first, but quickly grew bored. When he tried to
+introduce a note of strategy they ignored him because they did not
+understand. They made rules as they went along and changed them as they
+saw fit. Then, instead of complying with their own rules, they pouted-up
+and sulked when they couldn't do as they wanted.</p>
+
+<p>But in the end it was Jimmy's lack of experience in acting that tripped
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Having kept score on his playmates' answers, Jimmy knew that some fairly
+high percentage of answers must inevitably be wrong. So he embarked upon
+a program of supplying a certain proportion of errors. He discovered that
+supplying a wrong answer that was consistent with the age of his
+contemporaries took too much of his intellect to keep his actions
+straight. He forgot to employ halting speech and childlike grammar. His
+errors were delivered in faultless grammar and excellent self-expression;
+his correct answers came out in the English of his companions;
+mispronounced, ill-composed, and badly delivered.</p>
+
+<p>The contrast was enough to attract even 2.08% of a teacher.</p>
+
+<p>During the third week of school, Jimmy was day-dreaming during class.
+Abruptly his teacher snapped, "James Holden, how much is seven times
+nine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sixty-three," replied Jimmy, completely automatic.</p>
+
+<p>"James," she said softly, "do you know the rest of your numbers?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy looked around like a trapped animal. His teacher waited him out
+until Jimmy, finding no escape, said, "Yes'm."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said with a bright smile. "It's nice to know that you do. Can
+you do the multiplication table?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's hear you."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy looked around. "No, Jimmy," said his teacher. "I want you to say
+it. Go ahead." And then as Jimmy hesitated still, she addressed the
+class. "This is important," she said. "Someday you will have to learn it,
+too. You will use it all through life and the earlier you learn it the
+better off you all will be. <i>Knowledge</i>," she quoted proudly, "<i>is
+power</i>! Now, Jimmy!"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy began with two-times-two and worked his way through the long table
+to the twelves. When he finished, his teacher appointed one of the
+better-behaved children to watch the class. "Jimmy," she said, "I'm going
+to see if we can't put you up in the next grade. You don't belong here.
+Come along."</p>
+
+<p>They went to the principal's office. "Mr. Whitworth," said Jimmy's
+teacher, "I have a young genius in my class."</p>
+
+<p>"A young genius, Miss Tilden?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. He already knows the multiplication table."</p>
+
+<p>"You do, James? Where did you learn it?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father taught me."</p>
+
+<p>Principal and teacher looked at each another. They said nothing but they
+were both recalling stories and rumors about the brilliance of his
+parents. The accident and death had not escaped notice.</p>
+
+<p>"What else did they teach you, James?" asked Mr. Whitworth. "To read and
+write, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"History?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy squirmed inwardly. He did not know how much to admit. "Some," he
+said noncommittally.</p>
+
+<p>"When did Columbus discover America?"</p>
+
+<p>"In Fourteen Ninety-Two."</p>
+
+<p>"Fine," said Mr. Whitworth with a broad smile. He looked at Miss Tilden.
+"You're right. Young James should be advanced." He looked down at Jimmy
+Holden. "James," he said, "we're going to place you in the Second Grade
+for a tryout. Unless we're wrong, you'll stay and go up with them."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's entry into Second Grade brought a different attitude. He had
+entered school quietly just for the sake of getting away from Paul
+Brennan. Now he was beginning to form a plan. If he could go from First
+to Second in a matter of three weeks, then, by carefully disclosing his
+store of knowledge bit-by-bit at the proper moment, he might be able to
+go through school in a short time. Moreover, he had tasted the first
+fruits of recognition. He craved more.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere was born the quaint notion that getting through school would
+automatically make him an adult, with all attendant privileges.</p>
+
+<p>So Jimmy Holden dropped all pretense. His answers were as right as he
+could make them. He dropped the covering mimickry of childish speech
+and took personal pride in using grammar as good as that of his teacher.</p>
+
+<p>This got him nothing. The Second Grade teacher was of the "progressive"
+school; she firmly believed that everybody, having been created equal,
+had to stay that way. She pointedly avoided giving Jimmy any opportunity
+to show his capability.</p>
+
+<p>He bided his time with little grace.</p>
+
+<p>He found his opportunity during the visit of a school superintendent.
+During this session Jimmy hooted when one of his fellows said that
+Columbus proved the world was round.</p>
+
+<p>Angrily she demanded that Jimmy tell her who did prove it, and Jimmy
+Holden replied that he didn't know whether it was Pythagoras or one of
+his followers, but he did know that it was one of the few things that
+Aristotle ever got right. This touched her on a sore spot. She admired
+Aristotle and couldn't bear to hear the great man accused of error.</p>
+
+<p>She started baiting Jimmy with loaded questions and stopped when
+Jimmy stated that Napoleon Bonaparte was responsible for the invention
+of canned food, the adoption of the metric system, and the development
+of the semaphore telegraph. This stopped all proceedings until Jimmy
+himself found the references in the Britannica. That little feat of
+research-reference impressed the visiting superintendent. Jimmy Holden
+was jumped into Third Grade.</p>
+
+<p>Convinced that he was on the right trolley, Jimmy proceeded to plunge in
+with both feet. Third Grade Teacher helped. Within a week he was being
+called upon to aid the laggards. He stood out like a lighthouse; he was
+the one who could supply the right answers when the class was stumped.
+His teacher soon began to take a delight in belaboring the class for a
+minute before turning to Jimmy for the answer. Heaven forgive him, Jimmy
+enjoyed it. He began to hold back slyly, like a comedian building up the
+tension before a punch-line.</p>
+
+<p>His classmates began to call him "old know-it-all." Jimmy did not realize
+that it was their resentment speaking. He accepted it as deference to his
+superior knowledge. The fact that he was not a part of their playtime
+life did not bother him one iota. He knew very well that his size alone
+would cut him out of the rough and heavy games of his classmates; he did
+not know that he was cut out of their games because they disliked him.</p>
+
+<p>As time wore on, some of the rougher ones changed his nickname from
+"know-it-all" to "teacher's pet"; one of them used rougher language
+still. To this Jimmy replied in terms he'd learned from Jake Caslow's
+gutters. All that saved him from a beating was his size; even the ones
+who disliked him would not stand for the bully's beating up a smaller
+child.</p>
+
+<p>But in other ways they picked on him. Jimmy reasoned out his own
+relationship between intelligence and violence. He had yet to learn the
+psychology of vandalism&mdash;but he was experiencing it.</p>
+
+<p>Finding no enjoyment out of play periods, Jimmy took to staying in. The
+permissive school encouraged it; if Jimmy Holden preferred to tinker with
+a typewriter instead of playing noisy games, his teacher saw no wrong in
+it&mdash;for his Third Grade teacher was something of an intellectual herself.</p>
+
+<p>In April, one week after his sixth birthday, Jimmy Holden was jumped
+again.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy entered Fourth Grade to find that his fame had gone before him; he
+was received with sullen glances and turned backs.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not care. For his birthday, he received a typewriter from Paul
+Brennan. Brennan never found out that the note suggesting it from Jimmy's
+Third Grade teacher had been written after Jimmy's prompting.</p>
+
+<p>So while other children played, Jimmy wrote.</p>
+
+<p>He was not immediately successful. His first several stories were
+returned; but eventually he drew a winner and a check. Armed with
+superior knowledge, Jimmy mailed it to a bank that was strong in
+advertising "mail-order" banking. With his first check he opened a
+pay-by-the-item, no-minimum-balance checking account.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually his batting average went up, but there were enough returned
+rejections to make Paul Brennan view Jimmy's literary effort with quiet
+amusement. Still, slowly and in secret, Jimmy built up his bank balance
+by twenties, fifties, an occasional hundred.</p>
+
+<p>For above everything, by now Jimmy knew that he could not go on through
+school as he'd planned.</p>
+
+<p>If his entry into Fourth Grade had been against scowls and resentment
+from his classmates, Fifth and Sixth would be more so. Eventually the day
+would come when he would be held back. He was already mingling with
+children far beyond his size. The same permissive school that graduated
+dolts so that their stupid personalities wouldn't be warped would keep
+him back by virtue of the same idiotic reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>He laid his plans well. He covered his absence from school one morning
+and thereby gained six free hours to start going about his own business
+before his absence could be noticed.</p>
+
+<p>This was his third escape. He prayed that it would be permanent.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="BOOK_TWO" id="BOOK_TWO"></a>BOOK TWO:</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HERMIT</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVEN" id="CHAPTER_SEVEN"></a>CHAPTER SEVEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>Seventy-five miles south of Chicago there is a whistle-stop called
+Shipmont. (No ship has ever been anywhere near it; neither has a
+mountain.) It lives because of a small college; the college, in turn,
+owes its maintenance to an installation of great interest to the Atomic
+Energy Commission.</p>
+
+<p>Shipmont is served by two trains a day&mdash;which stop only when there
+is a passenger to get on or off, which isn't often. These passengers,
+generally speaking, are oddballs carrying attach&eacute; cases or eager young
+men carrying miniature slide rules.</p>
+
+<p>But on this day came a woman and a little girl.</p>
+
+<p>Their total visible possessions were two battered suitcases and one
+battered trunk. The little girl was neatly dressed, in often-washed and
+mended clothing; she carried a small covered basket, and there were
+breadcrumbs visible on the lid. She looked bewildered, shy and
+frightened. She was.</p>
+
+<p>The mother was thirty, though there were lines of worry on her forehead
+and around her eyes that made her look older. She wore little makeup and
+her clothing had been bought for wear instead of for looks. She looked
+around, leaned absently down to pat the little girl and straightened as
+the station-master came slowly out.</p>
+
+<p>"Need anything, ma'am?" He was pleasant enough. Janet Bagley appreciated
+that; life had not been entirely pleasant for her for some years.</p>
+
+<p>"I need a taxicab, if there is one."</p>
+
+<p>"There is. I run it after the train gets in for them as ain't met. You're
+not goin' to the college?" He pronounced it "collitch."</p>
+
+<p>Janet Bagley shook her head and took a piece of paper from her bag. "Mr.
+Charles Maxwell, Rural Route Fifty-three, Martin's Hill Road," she read.
+Her daughter began to whimper.</p>
+
+<p>The station-master frowned. "Hum," he said, "that's the Herm&mdash;er, d'you
+know him?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley said: "I've never met him. What kind of a man is he?"</p>
+
+<p>That was the sort of question the station-master appreciated. His job was
+neither demanding nor exciting; an opportunity to talk was worth having.
+He said cheerfully, "Why, I don't rightly know, ma'am. Nobody's ever seen
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope. Nobody. Does everything by mail."</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness, what's the matter with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't rightly know, ma'am. Story is he was once a professor and got in
+some kind of big explosion. Burned the hide off'n his face and scarred up
+his hands something turrible, so he don't want to show himself. Rented
+the house by mail, pays his rent by mail. Orders stuff by mail. Mostly
+not real U-nited States Mail, y'know, because we don't mind dropping off
+a note to someone in town. I'm the local mailman, too. So when I find a
+note to Herby Wharton, the fellow that owns the general store, I drop it
+off. Margie Clark over at the bank says he writes. Gets checks from New
+York from publishing companies." The station-master looked around as if
+he were looking for Soviet spies. "He's a scientist, all right. He's
+doin' something important and hush-hush up there. Lots and lots of boxes
+and packin' cases I've delivered up there from places like Central
+Scientific and Labotory Supply Company. Must be a smart feller. You
+visitin' him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he hired me for housekeeper. By mail." Mrs. Bagley looked puzzled
+and concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Little Martha began to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"It'll be all right," said the station-master soothingly. "You keep your
+eye open," he said to Mrs. Bagley. "Iff'n you see anything out of line,
+you come right back and me and the missus will give you a lift. But he's
+all right. Nothin' goin' on up there that I know of. Fred Riordan&mdash;he's
+the sheriff&mdash;has watched the place for days and days and it's always
+quiet. No visitors. No nothin'. Know what I think? I think he's
+experimenting with something to take away the burn scars. That's whut
+I think. Well, hop in and I'll drive you out there."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it going to cost much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothin' this trip. We'll charge it to the U-nited States Mail. Got a
+package goin' out. Was waitin' for something else to go along with it,
+but you're here and we can count that. This way to the only taxicab
+service in Shipmont."</p>
+
+<p>The place looked deserted. It was a shabby old clapboard house; the
+architecture of the prosperous farmer of seventy-five years ago. The
+grounds were spacious but the space was filled with scrub weeds. A
+picket fence surrounded the weeds with uncertain security. The
+windows&mdash;those that could be seen, that is&mdash;were dirty enough to prevent
+seeing inside with clarity, and what transparency there was left was
+covered by curtains. The walk up the "lawn" was flagstone with crabgrass
+between the stones.</p>
+
+<p>The station-master unshipped the small trunk and stood it just inside the
+fence. He parked the suitcases beside it. "Never go any farther than
+this," he explained. "So far's I know, you're the first person to ever
+head up thet walk to the front door."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley rapped on the door. It opened almost instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm&mdash;" then Mrs. Bagley dropped her eyes to the proper level. To the lad
+who was standing there she said, "I'm Mrs. Bagley. Your father&mdash;a Mr.
+Charles Maxwell is expecting me."</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," said Jimmy Holden. "Mr. Maxwell&mdash;well, he isn't my father. He
+sent me to let you in."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley entered and dropped her suitcases in the front hall. Martha
+held back behind her mother's skirt. Jimmy closed the door and locked it
+carefully, but left the key in the keyhole with a gesture that Mrs.
+Bagley could not mistake. "Please come in here and sit down," said James
+Holden. "Relax a moment." He turned to look at the girl. He smiled at
+her, but she cowered behind her mother's skirt as if she wanted to bury
+her face but was afraid to lose sight of what was going on around her.</p>
+
+<p>"What's your name?" asked James.</p>
+
+<p>She retreated, hiding most of her face. Mrs. Bagley stroked her hair and
+said, "Now, Martha, come on. Tell the little boy your name."</p>
+
+<p>Purely as a matter of personal pride, James Holden objected to the
+"little boy" but he kept his peace because he knew that at eight years
+old he was still a little boy. In a soothing way, James said, "Come on
+out, Martha. I'll show you some girl-type toys we've got."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's head emerged slowly, "I'm Martha Bagley," she announced.</p>
+
+<p>"How old are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm seven."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm eight," stated James. "Come on."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked around. She saw that the dirt on the windows was all
+on the outside. The inside was clean. So was the room. So were the
+curtains. The room needed a dusting&mdash;a most thorough dusting. It had been
+given a haphazard lick-and-a-promise cleanup not too long ago, but the
+cleanup before that had been as desultory as the last, and without a
+doubt the one before and the one before that had been of the same sort of
+half-hearted cleaning. As a woman and a housekeeper, Mrs. Bagley found
+the room a bit strange.</p>
+
+<p>The furniture caught her eye first. A standard open bookcase, a low sofa,
+a very low cocktail-type table. The chair she stood beside was standard
+looking, so was the big easy chair opposite. Yet she felt large in the
+room despite its old-fashioned high ceiling. There were several low
+footstools in the room; ungraceful things that were obviously wooden
+boxes covered with padding and leatherette. The straight chair beside her
+had been lowered; the bottom rung between the legs was almost on the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>She realized why she felt big. The furniture in the room had all been cut
+down.</p>
+
+<p>She continued to look. The strangeness continued to bother her and she
+realized that there were no ash trays; there was none of the usual
+clutter of things that a family drops in their tracks. It was a room
+fashioned for a small person to live in but it wasn't lived-in.</p>
+
+<p>The lack of hard cleanliness did not bother her very much. There had been
+an effort here, and the fact that this Charles Maxwell was hiring a
+housekeeper was in itself a statement that the gentleman knew that he
+needed one. It was odd, but it wasn't ominous.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her daughter gently and said, "Come on, Martha. Let's take a
+look at these girl-type toys."</p>
+
+<p>James led them through a short hallway, turned left at the first door,
+and then stood aside to give them a full view of the room. It was a
+playroom for a girl. It was cleaner than the living room, and as&mdash;well,
+untouched. It had been furnished with girl-toys that some catalog
+"recommended as suitable for a girl of seven."</p>
+
+<p>The profusion of toys overwhelmed little Martha. She stood just inside of
+the door with her eyes wide, glancing back and forth. She took one slow
+step forward, then another. Then she quickened. She moved through the
+room looking, then putting out a slow, hesitant hand to touch very
+gently. Tense, as if she were waiting for the warning not to touch,
+Martha finally caressed the hair of a baby doll.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley smiled. "I'll have a time prying her loose from here," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>James nodded his head. "Let her amuse herself for a bit," he said. "With
+Martha occupied, you can give your attention to a more delicate matter."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley forgot that she was addressing an eight-year-old boy. His
+manner and his speech bemused her. "Yes," she said. "I do want to get
+this settled with your mysterious Charles Maxwell. Do you expect him
+down, or shall I go upstairs&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"This may come as a shock, Mrs. Bagley, but Charles Maxwell isn't here."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't here?" she echoed, in a tone of voice that clearly indicated that
+she had heard the words but hadn't really grasped their full meaning. "He
+won't be gone long, will he?"</p>
+
+<p>James watched her covertly, then said in a matter-of-fact voice, "He left
+you a letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was called away on some urgent business."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please read the letter. It explains everything."</p>
+
+<p>He handed her an envelope addressed to "Mrs. Janet Bagley." She looked
+at it from both sides, in the womanlike process of trying to divine its
+contents instead of opening it. She looked at James, but James sat
+stolidly waiting. Mrs. Bagley was going to get no more information from
+him until she read that letter, and James was prepared to sit it out
+until she did. It placed Mrs. Bagley in the awkward position of having
+to decide what to do next. Then the muffled sound of little-girl crooning
+came from the distant room. That brought the realization that as odd as
+this household was, it was a <i>home</i>. Mrs. Bagley delayed no further. She
+opened the letter and read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>My Dear Mrs. Bagley:</p>
+
+<p>I deeply regret that I am not there to greet you, but it was not
+possible. However, please understand that insofar as I am concerned,
+you were hired and have been drawing your salary from the date that I
+forwarded railroad fare and traveling expenses. Any face-to-face
+meeting is no more than a pleasantry, a formal introduction. It must
+not be considered in any way connected with the thought of a "Final
+Interview" or the process of "Closing the Deal."</p>
+
+<p>Please carry on as if you had been in charge long before I departed,
+or&mdash;considering my hermitlike habits&mdash;the way you would have carried
+on if I had not departed, but instead was still upstairs and hard at
+work with most definite orders that I was not to be disturbed for
+anything less important than total, personal disaster.</p>
+
+<p>I can offer you a word of explanation about young James. You will find
+him extraordinarily competent for a youngster of eight years. Were he
+less competent, I might have delayed my departure long enough to pass
+him literally from my supervision to yours. However, James is quite
+capable of taking care of himself; this fact you will appreciate fully
+long before you and I meet face-to-face.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, remember that our letters and the other references
+acquaint us with one another far better than a few short hours of
+personal contact.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sincerely,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Charles Maxwell<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Well!" said Mrs. Bagley. "I don't know what to say."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy smiled. "You don't have to say anything," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked at the youngster. "I don't think I like your Mr.
+Maxwell," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's practically shanghaied me here. He knows very well that I couldn't
+possibly leave you here all alone, no matter how I disliked the
+situation. He's practically forced me to stay."</p>
+
+<p>James suppressed a smile. He said, "Mrs. Bagley, the way the trains run
+in and out of Shipmont, you're stuck for an overnight stay in any case."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't seem to be perturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked at James carefully. His size; his physique was
+precisely that of the eight-year-old boy. There was nothing malformed nor
+out-of-proportion; yet he spoke with an adult air of confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"I am," she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Perturbed? You needn't be," he said. "You've got to remember that
+writers are an odd lot. They don't conform. They don't punch time-clocks.
+They boast of having written a novel in three weeks but they don't
+mention the fact that they sat around drinking beer for six months
+plotting it."</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning that Maxwell sees nothing wrong in attending to his own affairs
+and expecting you to attend to yours."</p>
+
+<p>"But what shall I do?"</p>
+
+<p>James smiled. "First, take a look around the house and satisfy yourself.
+You'll find the third floor shut off; the rooms up there are Maxwell's,
+and no one goes in but him. My bedroom is the big one in the front of the
+second floor. Pick yourself a room or a suite of rooms or move in all
+over the rest of the house. Build yourself a cup of tea and relax. Do as
+he says: Act as if you'd arrived before he took off, that you'd met and
+agreed verbally to do what you've already agreed to do by letter. Look at
+it from his point of view."</p>
+
+<p>"What is his point of view?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's a writer. He rented this house by mail. He banks by mail and shops
+by mail and makes his living by writing. Don't be surprised when he hires
+a housekeeper by mail and hands her the responsibility in writing. He
+lives by the written word."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley said, "In other words, the fact that he offered me a job in
+writing and I took it in writing&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Writing," said James Holden soberly, "was invented for the express
+purpose of recording an agreement between two men in a permanent form
+that could be read by other men. The whole world runs on the theory that
+no one turns a hand until names are signed to written contracts&mdash;and here
+you sit, not happy because you weren't contracted-for by a personal
+chit-chat and a handshake."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley was taken aback slightly by this rather pointed criticism.
+What hurt was the fact that, generally speaking, it was true and
+especially the way he put it. The young man was too blunt, too
+out-spokenly direct. Obviously he needed someone around the place who
+wasn't the self-centered writer-type. And, Mrs. Bagley admitted to
+herself, there certainly was no evidence of evil-doing here.</p>
+
+<p>No matter what, Charles Maxwell had neatly trapped her into staying by
+turning her own maternal responsibility against her.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get my bags," she said.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden took a deep breath. He'd won this hurdle, so far so good.
+Now for the next!</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley found life rather unhurried in the days that followed. She
+relaxed and tried to evaluate James Holden. To her unwarned mind, the boy
+was quite a puzzle.</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubt about his eight years, except that he did not whoop
+and holler with the aimlessness of the standard eight-year-old boy. His
+vocabulary was far ahead of the eight-year-old and his speech was in
+adult grammar rather than halting. It was, she supposed, due to his
+constant adult company; children denied their contemporaries for
+playmates often take on attitudes beyond their years. Still, it was a bit
+on the too-superior side to please her. It was as if he were the result
+of over-indulgent parents who'd committed the mistake of letting the
+child know that their whole universe revolved about him.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Maxwell's letters said that he was motherless, that he was not
+Maxwell's son. This indicated a probable history of broken homes and
+remarriages. Mrs. Bagley thought the problem over and gave it up. It
+was a home.</p>
+
+<p>Things went on. They started warily but smoothly at first with Mrs.
+Bagley asking almost incessantly whether Mr. Maxwell would approve of
+this or that and should she do this or the other and, phrased cleverly,
+indicated that she would take the word of young James for the time being
+but there would be evil sputterings in the fireplace if the programs
+approved by young James Holden were not wholly endorsed by Mr. Charles
+Maxwell.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the first week, supplies were beginning to run short and
+still there was no sign of any return of the missing Mr. Maxwell. With
+some misgiving, Mrs. Bagley broached the subject of shopping to James.
+The youngster favored Mrs. Bagley with another smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said calmly. "Just a minute." And he disappeared upstairs to
+fetch another envelope. Inside was a second letter which read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>My Dear Mrs. Bagley:</p>
+
+<p>Attached you will find letters addressed to several of the local
+merchants in Shipmont, explaining your status as my housekeeper and
+directing them to honor your purchases against my accounts. Believe me,
+they recognize my signature despite the fact that they might not
+recognize me! There should be no difficulty. I'd suggest, however, that
+you start a savings account at the local bank with the enclosed salary
+check. You have no idea how much weight the local banker carries in his
+character-reference of folks with a savings account.</p>
+
+<p>Otherwise, I trust things are pleasant.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sincerely,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Charles Maxwell.<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Things," she mused aloud, "are pleasant enough."</p>
+
+<p>James nodded. "Good," he said. "You're satisfied, then?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley smiled at him wistfully. "As they go," she said, "I'm
+satisfied. Lord knows, you're no great bother, James, and I'll be most
+happy to tell Mr. Maxwell so when he returns."</p>
+
+<p>James nodded. "You're not concerned over Maxwell, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>She sobered. "Yes," she said in a whisper. "Yes, I am. I'm afraid that
+he'll change things, that he'll not approve of Martha, or the way dinner
+is made, or my habits in dishwashing or bedmaking or marketing or
+something that will&mdash;well, put me right in the role of a paid
+chambermaid, a servant, a menial with no more to say about the running
+of the house, once he returns."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden hesitated, thought, then smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley," he said apologetically, "I've thrown you a lot of curves.
+I hope you won't mind one more."</p>
+
+<p>The woman frowned. James said hurriedly, "Oh, it's nothing bad, believe
+me. I mean&mdash;Well, you'll have to judge for yourself.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Mrs. Bagley," he said earnestly, "there isn't any Charles
+Maxwell."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Janet Bagley, with the look of a stricken animal, sat down heavily. There
+were two thoughts suddenly in her mind: <i>Now I've got to leave</i>, and,
+<i>But I can't leave</i>.</p>
+
+<p>She sat looking at the boy, trying to make sense of what he had said.
+Mrs. Bagley was a young woman, but she had lived a demanding and
+unrelenting life; her husband dead, her finances calamitous, a baby to
+feed and raise ... there had been enough trouble in her life and she
+sought no more.</p>
+
+<p>But she was also a woman of some strength of character.</p>
+
+<p>Janet Bagley had not been able to afford much joy, but when things were
+at their worst she had not wept. She had been calm. She had taken what
+inexpensive pleasures she could secure&mdash;the health of her daughter, the
+strength of her arms to earn a living, the cunning of her mind to make a
+dollar do the work of five. She had learned that there was no bargain
+that was not worth investigating; the shoddiest goods were worth owning
+at a price; the least attractive prospect had to be faced and understood,
+for any commodity becomes a bargain when the price is right. There was
+no room for laziness or indulgence in her life. There was also no room
+for panic.</p>
+
+<p>So Janet Bagley thought for a moment, and then said: "Tell me what you're
+talking about, James."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden said immediately: "I am Charles Maxwell. That is, 'Charles
+Maxwell' is a pen name. He has no other existence."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But it's true, Mrs. Bagley," the boy said earnestly. "I'm only eight
+years old, but I happen to be earning my own living&mdash;as a writer, under
+the name of, among others, Charles Maxwell. Perhaps you've looked up some
+of the 'Charles Maxwell' books? If so, you may have seen some of the book
+reviews that were quoted on the jackets&mdash;I remember one that said that
+Charles Maxwell writes as though he himself were a boy, with the
+education of an adult. Well, that's the fact of the case."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley said slowly, "But I did look Mr. Max&mdash;I mean, I did look you
+up. There was a complete biographical sketch in <i>Woman's Life</i>.
+Thirty-one years old, I remember."</p>
+
+<p>"I know. I wrote it. It too was fiction."</p>
+
+<p>"You wrote&mdash;but why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I was asked to write it," said James.</p>
+
+<p>"But, well&mdash;what I mean, is&mdash;Just who is Mr. Maxwell? The man at the
+station said something about a hermit, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The Hermit of Martin's Hill is a convenient character carefully prepared
+to explain what might have looked like a very odd household," said James
+Holden. "Charles Maxwell, the Hermit, does not exist except in the minds
+of the neighbors and the editors of several magazines, and of course, the
+readers of those pages."</p>
+
+<p>"But he wrote me himself." The bewildered woman paused.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Mrs. Bagley. There's absolutely nothing illegal about a
+writer's using a pen name. Absolutely nothing. Some writers become so
+well-known by their pseudonym that they answer when someone calls them.
+So long as the writer isn't wanted by the F.B.I. for some heinous crime,
+and so long as he can unscramble the gobbledygook on Form 1040, stay out
+of trouble, pay his rent, and make his regular contributions to Social
+Security, nobody cares what name he uses."</p>
+
+<p>"But where are your parents? Have you no friends? No legal guardian? Who
+handles your business affairs?"</p>
+
+<p>James said in a flat tone of recital, "My parents are dead. What friends
+and family I have, want to turn me over to my legal guardian. My legal
+guardian is the murderer of my parents and the would-have-been murderer
+of me if I hadn't been lucky. Someday I shall prove it. And I handle my
+affairs myself, by mail, as you well know. I placed the advertisement,
+wrote the letters of reply, wrote those letters that answered specific
+questions and asked others, and I wrote the check that you cashed in
+order to buy your railroad ticket, Mrs. Bagley. No, don't worry. It's
+good."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley tried to digest all that and failed. She returned to the
+central point. "But you're a minor&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am," admitted James Holden. "But you accepted my checks, your bank
+accepted my checks, and they've been honored by the clearing houses. My
+own bank has been accepting them for a couple of years now. It will
+continue to be that way until something goes wrong and I'm found out. I'm
+taking every precaution that nothing goes wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Still&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley, look at me. I am precisely what I seem to be. I am a young
+male human being, eight years old, possessed of a good command of the
+English language and an education superior to the schooling of any
+high-school graduate. It is true that I am an infant in the eyes of the
+law, so I have not the right to hold the ear of the law long enough to
+explain my competence."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Listen a moment," insisted James. "You can't hope to hear it all in one
+short afternoon. It may take weeks before you fully understand."</p>
+
+<p>"You assume that I'll stay, then?"</p>
+
+<p>James smiled. Not the wide open, simple smile of youth but the knowing
+smile of someone pleased with the success of his own plans. "Mrs. Bagley,
+of the many replies to my advertisement, yours was selected because you
+are in a near-desperate position. My advertisement must have sounded
+tailor-made to fit your case; a young widow to work as resident
+housekeeper, child of preschool or early school age welcome. Well, Mrs.
+Bagley, your qualifications are tailor-made for me, too. You are in need,
+and I can give you what you need&mdash;a living salary, a home for you and
+your daughter, and for your daughter an education that will far transcend
+any that you could ever provide for her."</p>
+
+<p>"And how do you intend to make that come to pass?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley, at the present time there are only two people alive who
+know the answer to that question. I am one of them. The other is my
+so-called legal 'guardian' who would be most happy to guard me right out
+of my real secret. You will be the third person alive to know that my
+mother and father built a machine that produces the same deeply-inlaid
+memory-track of information as many months of learning-by-repetition.
+With that machine, I absorbed the information available to a high-school
+student before I was five. I am rebuilding that machine now from plans
+and specifications drilled into my brain by my father. When it is
+complete, I intend to become the best informed person in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"That isn't right," breathed Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it?" asked James seriously. "Isn't it right? Is it wrong, when at
+the present time it takes a man until he is almost thirty years old
+before he can say that his education is complete?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose you're right."</p>
+
+<p>James eyed Mrs. Bagley carefully. He said softly, "Mrs. Bagley, tell me,
+would you give Martha a college education if you had&mdash;or will you if you
+have at the time&mdash;the wherewithal to provide it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>"You have it here," said James. "So long as you stay to protect it."</p>
+
+<p>"But won't it make&mdash;?" her voice trailed away uncertainly.</p>
+
+<p>"A little intellectual monster out of her?" laughed the boy. "Maybe.
+Maybe I am, too. On the other hand it might make a brilliant woman out of
+her. She might be a doctor if she has the capacity of a brilliant doctor.
+My father's machine is no monster-maker, Mrs. Bagley. With it a person
+could memorize the Britannica. And from the Britannica that person would
+learn that there is much good in the world and also that there is rich
+reward for being a part of that capacity for good."</p>
+
+<p>"I seem to have been outmaneuvered," said Mrs. Bagley with a worried
+frown.</p>
+
+<p>James smiled. "Not at all," he said. "It was just a matter of finding
+someone who wanted desperately to have what I wanted to give, and of
+course overcoming the natural adult reluctance to admit that anybody
+my size and age can operate on grown-up terms."</p>
+
+<p>"You sound so sure of yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure of myself. And one of the more important things in life is to
+understand one's limitations."</p>
+
+<p>"But couldn't you convince them&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"One&mdash;you&mdash;I can convince. Maybe another, later. But if I tackle the
+great American public, I'm licked by statistics. My guess is that there
+is one brand-new United States citizen born every ten seconds. It takes
+me longer than ten seconds to convince someone, that I know what I'm
+talking about. But so long as I have an accepted adult out front, running
+the store, I don't have to do anything but sit backstage, run the hidden
+strings, and wait until my period of growth provides me with a stature
+that won't demand any explanation."</p>
+
+<p>From the playroom, Martha came running. "Mummy! Mummy!" she cried in a
+shrill voice filled with the strident tones of alarm, "Dolly's sick and
+I can't leave her!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley folded her daughter in her arms. "We won't leave," she said.
+"We're staying."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden nodded with satisfaction, but one thing he realized then and
+there: He simply had to rush the completion of his father's machine.</p>
+
+<p>He could not stand the simpering prattle of Martha Bagley's playgames.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHT" id="CHAPTER_EIGHT"></a>CHAPTER EIGHT</h2>
+
+
+<p>The arrival of Mrs. Bagley changed James Holden's way of life far more
+than he'd expected. His basic idea had been to free himself from the
+hours of dishwashing, bedmaking, dusting, cleaning and straightening
+and from the irking chore of planning his meals far enough ahead to
+obtain sustenance either through mail or carried note. He gave up his
+haphazard chores readily. Mrs. Bagley's menus often served him dishes
+that he wouldn't have given house-room; but he also enjoyed many meals
+that he could not or would not have taken the time to prepare.</p>
+
+<p>He did have some faint notion that being freed from the household toil
+would allow him sixteen or eighteen hours at the typewriter, but he was
+not greatly dismayed to find that this did not work.</p>
+
+<p>When he wrote himself out, he relaxed by reading, or sitting quietly
+planning his next piece. Even that did not fill his entire day. To take
+some advantage of his time, James began to indulge in talk-fests with
+Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>These were informative. He was learning from her how the outside world
+was run, from one who had no close association with his own former life.
+Mrs. Bagley was by no means well-informed on all sides of life, but she
+did have her opinions and her experiences and a fair idea of how things
+went on in her own level. And, of course, James had made this choice
+because of the girl. He wanted a companion of his own age. Regardless of
+what Mrs. Bagley really thought of this matter of rapid education, James
+proposed to use it on Martha. That would give him a companion of his own
+like, they would come closer to understanding one another than he could
+ever hope to find understanding elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>So he talked and played with Martha in his moments of relaxation. And he
+found her grasp of life completely unreal.</p>
+
+<p>James could not get through to her. He could not make her stop
+play-acting in everything that she did not ignore completely. It worried
+him.</p>
+
+<p>With the arrival of summer, James and Martha played outside in the fresh
+air. They made a few shopping excursions into town, walking the mile and
+more by taking their time, and returning with their shopping load in the
+station-master's taxicab mail car. But on these expeditions, James hung
+close to Martha lest her babbling prattle start an unwelcome line of
+thought. She never did it, but James was forever on edge.</p>
+
+<p>This source of possible danger drove him hard. The machine that was
+growing in a mare's-nest on the second floor began to evolve faster.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden's work was a strangely crude efficiency. The prototype had
+been built by his father bit by bit and step by step as its design
+demanded. Sections were added as needed, and other sections believed
+needed were abandoned as the research showed them unnecessary. Louis
+Holden had been a fine instrumentation engineer, but his first models
+were hay-wired in the breadboard form. James copied his father's
+work&mdash;including his father's casual breadboard style. And he added some
+inefficiencies of his own.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, James was not strong enough to lift the heavier assemblies
+into place. James parked the parts wherever they would sit.</p>
+
+<p>To Mrs. Bagley, the whole thing was bizarre and unreasonable. Given her
+opinion, with no other evidence, she would have rejected the idea at
+once. She simply did not understand anything of a technical nature.</p>
+
+<p>One day she bluntly asked him how he knew what he was doing.</p>
+
+<p>James grinned. "I really <i>don't</i> know what I'm doing," he admitted. "I'm
+only following some very explicit directions. If I knew the pure theory
+of my father's machine I could not design the instrumentation that would
+make it work. But I can build a reproduction of my father's machine from
+the directions."</p>
+
+<p>"How can that be?"</p>
+
+<p>James stopped working and sat on a packing case. "If you bought a
+lawn-mower," he said, "it might come neatly packed in a little box with
+all the parts nested in cardboard formers and all the little nuts and
+bolts packed in a bag. There would be a set of assembly directions,
+written in such a way as to explain to anybody who can read that Part A
+is fastened to Bracket B using Bolt C, Lockwasher D, and Nut E. My
+father's one and only recognition of the dangers of the unforeseeable
+future was to drill deep in my brain these directions. For instance," and
+he pointed to a boxed device, "that thing is an infra-low frequency
+amplifier. Now, I haven't much more than a faint glimmer of what the
+thing is and how it differs from a standard amplifier, but I know that it
+must be built precisely thus-and-so, and finally it must be fitted into
+the machine per instructions. Look, Mrs. Bagley." James picked up a
+recently-received package, swept a place clear on the packing case and
+dumped it out. It disgorged several paper bags of parts, some large
+plates and a box. He handed her a booklet. "Try it yourself," he said.
+"That's a piece of test equipment made in kit form by a commercial outfit
+in Michigan. Follow those directions and build it for me."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't know anything about this sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>"You can read," said James with a complete lack of respect. He turned
+back to his own work, leaving Mrs. Bagley leafing her way through the
+assembly manual.</p>
+
+<p>To the woman it was meaningless. But as she read, a secondary thought
+rose in her mind. James was building this devilish-looking nightmare, and
+he had every intention of using it on her daughter! She accepted without
+understanding the fact that James Holden's superior education had come of
+such a machine&mdash;but it had been a machine built by a competent mechanic.
+She stole a look at James. The anomaly puzzled her.</p>
+
+<p>When the lad talked, his size and even the thin boyish voice were negated
+by the intelligence of his words, the size of his vocabulary, the clarity
+of his statements. Now that he was silent, he became no more than an
+eight-year-old lad who could not possibly be doing anything constructive
+with this mad array of equipment. The messiness of the place merely made
+the madness of the whole program seem worse.</p>
+
+<p>But she turned back to her booklet. Maybe James was right. If she could
+assemble this doodad without knowing the first principle of its
+operation, without even knowing from the name what the thing did, then
+she might be willing to admit that&mdash;messy as it looked&mdash;the machine could
+be reconstructed.</p>
+
+<p>Trapped by her own interest, Mrs. Bagley pitched in.</p>
+
+<p>They took a week off to rearrange the place. They built wooden shelves to
+hold the parts in better order. These were by no means the work of a
+carpenter, for Mrs. Bagley's aim with a saw was haphazard, and her
+batting average with a hammer was about .470; but James lacked the
+strength, so the construction job was hers. Crude as it was, the place
+looked less like a junkshop when they were done. Work resumed on the
+assembly of the educator.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the writing suffered.</p>
+
+<p>The budget ran low. James was forced to abandon the project for his
+typewriter. He drove himself hard, fretting and worrying himself into a
+stew time after time. And then as August approached, Nature stepped in to
+add more disorder.</p>
+
+<p>James entered a "period of growth." In three weeks he gained two inches.</p>
+
+<p>His muscles, his bones and his nervous system ceased to coordinate. He
+became clumsy. His handwriting underwent a change, so severe that James
+had to practically forge his own signature of Charles Maxwell. To avoid
+trouble he stopped the practice of writing individual checks for the
+bills and transferred a block sum of money to an operating account in
+Mrs. Bagley's name.</p>
+
+<p>His fine regimen went to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>He embarked on a haphazard program of sleeping, eating and working at odd
+hours, and his appetite became positively voracious. He wanted what he
+wanted when he wanted it, even if it were the middle of the night. He
+pouted and groused when he didn't get it. In calmer moments he hated
+himself for these tantrums, but no amount of self-rationalization stopped
+them.</p>
+
+<p>During this period, James was by no means an efficient youngster. His
+writing suffered the ills of both his period of growth and his upset
+state of mind. His fingers failed to coordinate on his typewriter and his
+manuscript copy turned out rough, with strikeovers, xxx-outs, and gross
+mistakes. The pile of discarded paper massed higher than his finished
+copy until Mrs. Bagley took over and began to retype his rough script
+for him.</p>
+
+<p>His state of mind remained chaotic.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley began to treat him with special care. She served him warm
+milk and insisted that he rest. Finally she asked him why he drove
+himself so hard.</p>
+
+<p>"We are approaching the end of summer," he said, "and we are not
+prepared."</p>
+
+<p>"Prepared for what?"</p>
+
+<p>They were relaxing in the living room, James fretting and Mrs. Bagley
+seated, Martha Bagley asprawl on the floor turning the pages of a
+crayon-coloring book. "Look at us," he said. "I am a boy of eight, your
+daughter is a girl of seven. By careful dress and action I could pass for
+a child one year younger, but that would still make me seven. Last summer
+when I was seven, I passed for six."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley, there are laws about compulsory education. Sooner or later
+someone is going to get very curious about us."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you intend to do about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the problem," he said. "I don't really know. With a lot of
+concentrated effort I can probably enter school if I have to, and keep my
+education covered up. But Martha is another story."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see&mdash;?" Mrs. Bagley bit her lip.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't permit her to attend school," said James.</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't have advertised for a woman with a girl child!" said Mrs.
+Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not. But I wanted someone of my own age and size around so that
+we can grow together. I'm a bit of a misfit until I'm granted the right
+to use my education as I see fit."</p>
+
+<p>"And you hope to make Martha another misfit?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you care to put it that way," admitted James. "Someone has to start.
+Someday all kids will be educated with my machine and then there'll be no
+misfits."</p>
+
+<p>"But until then&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley, I am not worried about what is going to happen next year. I
+am worried about what is going to happen next month."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley sat and watched him for a moment. This boy was worried, she
+could see that. But assuming that any part of his story was true&mdash;and it
+was impossible to doubt it&mdash;he had ample cause.</p>
+
+<p>The past years had given Mrs. Bagley a hard shell because it was useful
+for survival; to keep herself and her child alive she had had to be
+permanently alert for every threat. Clearly this was a threat. Martha was
+involved. Martha's future was, at the least, bound to be affected by what
+James did.</p>
+
+<p>And the ties of blood and habit made Martha's future the first
+consideration in Janet Bagley's thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>But not the only consideration; for there is an in-born trait in the
+human race which demands that any helpless child should be helped. James
+was hardly helpless; but he certainly was a child. It was easy to forget
+it, talking to him&mdash;until something came up that the child could not
+handle.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley sighed. In a different tone she asked, "What did you do last
+year?"</p>
+
+<p>"Played with Rags on the lawn," James said promptly. "A boy and his dog
+is a perfectly normal sight&mdash;in the summer. Then, when school opened, I
+stayed in the house as much as I could. When I had to go out I tried to
+make myself look younger. Short pants, dirty face. I don't think I could
+get away with it this year."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you're right," Mrs. Bagley admitted. "Well, suppose you could do
+what you wish this year? What would that be?"</p>
+
+<p>James said: "I want to get my machine working. Then I want to use it on
+Martha."</p>
+
+<p>"On Martha! But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>James said patiently: "It won't hurt her, Mrs. Bagley. There isn't any
+other way. The first thing she needs is a good command of English."</p>
+
+<p>"English?" Mrs. Bagley hesitated, and was lost. After all, what was wrong
+with the girl's learning proper speech?</p>
+
+<p>"Martha is a child both physically and intellectually. She has been
+talked to about 'right' and 'wrong' and she knows that 'telling the
+truth' is right, but she doesn't recognize that talking about fairies is
+a misstatement of the truth. Question her carefully about how we live,
+and you'll get a fair approximation of the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"So?"</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose someone asks Martha about the Hermit of Martin's Hill?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you fear?"</p>
+
+<p>"We might play upon her make-believe stronger than we have. She play-acts
+his existence very well. But suppose someone asks her what he eats, or
+where he gets his exercise, or some other personal question. She hasn't
+the command of logic to improvise a convincing background."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should anybody ask such personal questions?" asked Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>James said patiently: "To ask personal questions of an adult is 'prying'
+and is therefore considered improper and antisocial. To ask the same
+questions of a child is proper and social. It indicates a polite interest
+in the world of the child. You and I, Mrs. Bagley, have a complete
+picture of the Hermit all prepared, and with our education we can
+improvise plausible answers. I've hoped to finish my machine early enough
+to provide Martha with the ability to do the same."</p>
+
+<p>"So what can we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"About the only thing we can do is to hide," said James. "Luckily,
+most of the business is conducted out of this place by mail. Write
+letters to some boarding school situated a good many miles from here.
+Ask the usual routine questions about entering a seven-year-old girl
+and an eight-year-old boy for one semester. Robert Holmes, our
+postmaster-taxicab driver-station-master, reads everything that isn't
+sealed. He will read the addresses, and he will see replies and read
+their return address."</p>
+
+<p>"And then we'll pretend to send you and Martha to boarding school?"</p>
+
+<p>James nodded. "Confinement is going to be difficult, but in this climate
+the weather gets nasty early and that keeps people out of one another's
+hair."</p>
+
+<p>"But this station-master business&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"We've got to pull some wool over Robert's eyes," said James. "Somehow,
+we've got to make it entirely plausible. You've got to take Martha and me
+away and come back alone just as if we were in school."</p>
+
+<p>"We should have a car," said Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"A car is one piece of hardware that I could never justify," said James.
+"Nor," he chuckled, "buy from a mail-order house because I couldn't
+accept delivery. I bought furniture from Sears and had it delivered
+according to mailed instructions. But I figured it better to have the
+folks in Shipmont wondering why Charles Maxwell didn't own a car than to
+have them puzzling why he owned one that never was used, nor even moved.
+Besides, a car&mdash;costs&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley smiled with real satisfaction. "There," she said, "I think I
+can help. I can buy the car."</p>
+
+<p>James was startled. "But can you afford it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley nodded seriously. "James," she said, "I've been scratching
+out an existence on hard terms and I've had to make sure of tomorrow.
+Even when things were worst, I tried to put something away&mdash;some weeks it
+was only a few pennies, sometimes nothing at all. But&mdash;well, I'm not
+afraid of tomorrow any more."</p>
+
+<p>James was oddly pleased. While he was trying to find a way to say it,
+Mrs. Bagley relieved him of the necessity. "It won't be a brand-new
+convertible," she warned. "But they tell me you can get something that
+runs for two or three hundred dollars. Tim Fisher has some that look
+about right in his garage&mdash;and besides," she said, clinching it, "it
+gives me a chance to give out a little more Maxwell and boarding-school
+propaganda."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_NINE" id="CHAPTER_NINE"></a>CHAPTER NINE</h2>
+
+
+<p>The letter was a masterpiece of dissembling. It suggested, without
+promising, that Charles Maxwell intended to send his young charge to
+boarding school along with his housekeeper's daughter. It asked the
+school's advice and explained the deformity that made Charles Maxwell a
+recluse. The reply could hardly have been better if they'd penned it
+themselves for the signature of the faculty advisor. It discussed the
+pros and cons of away-from-home schooling and went on at great length to
+discuss the attitude of children and their upbringing amid strange
+surroundings. It invited a long and inconclusive correspondence&mdash;just
+what James wanted.</p>
+
+<p>The supposed departure for school went off neatly, no one in the town of
+Shipmont was surprised when Mrs. Bagley turned up buying an automobile of
+several years' vintage because this was a community where everybody had
+one.</p>
+
+<p>The letters continued at the rate of one every two or three weeks. They
+were picked up by Mrs. Bagley who let it be known that these were
+progress reports. In reality, they were little tracts on the theory of
+child education. They kept up the correspondence for the information it
+contained, and also because Mrs. Bagley enjoyed this contact with an
+outer world that contained adults.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, James ended his spurt of growth and settled down. Work on his
+machine continued when he could afford to buy the parts, and his writing
+settled down into a comfortable channel once more. In his spare time
+James began to work on Martha's diction.</p>
+
+<p>Martha could not have been called a retarded child. Her trouble was lack
+of constant parental attention during her early years. With father gone
+and mother struggling to live, Martha had never overcome some of the
+babytalk-diction faults. There was still a trace of the omitted 'B' here
+and there. 'Y' was a difficult sound; the color of a lemon was "Lellow."
+Martha's English construction still bore marks of the baby. "Do you have
+to&mdash;" came out as "Does you has to&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>James Holden's father had struggled in just this way through his early
+experimental days, when he despaired of ever getting the infant James out
+of the baby-prattle stage. He could not force, he could not even coerce.
+All that his father could do was to watch quietly as baby James acquired
+the awareness of things. Then he could step in and supply the correct
+word-sound to name the object. In those early days the progress of James
+Holden was no greater than the progress of any other infant. Holden
+Senior followed the theory of ciphers; no cryptologist can start
+unravelling a secret message until he is aware of the fact that some
+hidden message exists. No infant can be taught a language until some
+awareness tells the tiny brain that there is some definite connection
+between sound and sight.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>For the next few weeks James worked with Martha on her speech, and hated
+it. So slow, so dreary! But it was necessary, he thought, to keep her
+from establishing any more permanent errors, so that when the machine was
+ready there would be at least a blank slate to write on, not one all
+scribbled over with mistakes.</p>
+
+<p>Time passed; the weather grew colder; the machine spread its scattered
+parts over his workroom.</p>
+
+<p>Janet Bagley knew that the machine was growing, but it had not occurred
+to her that it would be finished. She had grown accustomed to her life on
+Martin's Hill. By her standards, it was easy. She made three meals each
+day, cleaned the rooms, hung curtains, sewed clothing for Martha and
+herself, did the shopping and had time enough left over to take
+excursions in her little car and keep her daughter out of mischief. It
+was pleasant. It was more than pleasant, it was safe.</p>
+
+<p>And then the machine was finished.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley took a sandwich and a glass of milk to James and found him
+sitting on a chair, a heavy headset covering most of his skull, reading
+aloud from a textbook on electronic theory.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley stopped at the door, unaccountably startled.</p>
+
+<p>James looked up and shut off his work. "It's finished," he said with
+grave pride.</p>
+
+<p>"All of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, pondering, "the basic part. It works."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked at the scramble of equipment in the room as though it
+were an enemy. It didn't look finished. It didn't even look safe. But she
+trusted James, although she felt at that moment that she would grow old
+and die before she understood why and how any collection of apparatus
+could be functional and still be so untidy. "It&mdash;could teach me?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you had something you want to memorize."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to memorize some of the pet recipes from my cookbook."</p>
+
+<p>"Get it," directed James.</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated. "How does it work?" she wanted to know first.</p>
+
+<p>He countered with another question. "How do we memorize anything?"</p>
+
+<p>She thought. "Why, by repeating and repeating and rehearsing and
+rehearsing."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said James. "So this device does the repetition for you.
+Electromechanically."</p>
+
+<p>"But how?"</p>
+
+<p>James smiled wistfully. "I can give you only a thumbnail sketch," he
+said, "until I have had time to study the subjects that lead up to the
+final theory."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness," exclaimed Mrs. Bagley, "all I want is a brief idea. I
+wouldn't understand the principles at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, my mother, as a cerebral surgeon, knew the anatomy of the
+human brain. My father, as an instrument-maker, designed and built
+encephalographs. Together, they discovered that if the great waves of the
+brain were filtered down and the extremely minute waves that ride on top
+of them were amplified, the pattern of these superfine waves went through
+convolutions peculiar to certain thoughts. Continued research refined
+their discovery.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, the general theory is that the cells of the brain act sort of like
+a binary digital computer, with certain banks of cells operating to store
+sufficient bits of information to furnish a complete memory. In the
+process of memorization, individual cells become activated and linked by
+the constant repetition.</p>
+
+<p>"Second, the brain within the skull is a prisoner, connected to the
+'outside' by the five standard sensory channels of sight, sound, touch,
+taste, and smell. Stimulate a channel, and the result is a certain
+wave-shape of electrical impulse that enters the brain and&mdash;sort of like
+the key to a Yale lock&mdash;fits only one combination of cells. Or if no
+previous memory is there, it starts its own new collection of cells to
+linking and combining. When we repeat and repeat, we are deepening the
+groove, so to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Finally comes the Holden Machine. The helmet makes contact with the
+skull in those spots where the probes of the encephalograph are placed.
+When the brain is stimulated into thought, the brain waves are monitored
+and recorded, amplified, and then fed back to the same brain-spots. Not
+once, but multifold, like the vibration of a reed or violin string. The
+circuit that accepts signals, amplifies them, returns them to the same
+set of terminals, and causes them to be repeated several hundred times
+per millisecond without actually ringing or oscillating is the real
+research secret of the machine. My father's secret and now mine."</p>
+
+<p>"And how do we use it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You want to memorize a list of ingredients," said James. "So you will
+put this helmet on your head with the cookbook in your hands. You will
+turn on the machine when you have read the part you want to memorize just
+to be sure of your material. Then, with the machine running, you
+carefully read aloud the passage from your book. The vibrating amplifier
+in the machine monitors and records each electrical impulse, then
+furnishes it back to your brain as a successive series of repetitious
+vibrations, each identical in shape and magnitude, just as if you had
+actually read and re-read that list of stuff time and again."</p>
+
+<p>"And then I'll know it cold?"</p>
+
+<p>James shook his head. "Then you'll be about as confused as you've ever
+been. For several hours, none of it will make sense. You'll be thinking
+things like a 'cup of salt and a pinch of water,' or maybe, 'sugar three
+of mustard and two spoonthree teas.' And then in a few hours all of this
+mish-mash will settle itself down into the proper serial arrangement; it
+will fit the rest of your brain-memory-pattern comfortably."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. It has something to do with the same effect one gets out
+of studying. On Tuesday one can read a page of textbook and not grasp a
+word of it. Successive readings help only a little. Then in about a week
+it all becomes quite clear, just as if the brain had sorted it and filed
+it logically among the other bits of information. Well, what about that
+cookbook?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Bagley, with the air of someone agreeing to have a tooth
+pulled when it hasn't really started to hurt, "I'll get it."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James Holden allowed himself a few pleasant daydreams. The most
+satisfactory of all was one of himself pleading his own case before the
+black-robed Justices of the Supreme Court, demolishing his detractors
+with a flow of his brilliance and convincing them beyond any doubt that
+he did indeed have the right to walk alone. That there be no question of
+his intellect, James proposed to use his machine to educate himself to
+completion. He would be the supreme student of the arts and the sciences,
+of law, language, and literature. He would know history and the
+humanities, and the dreams and aims of the great philosophers and
+statesmen, and he would even be able to quote in their own terms the
+drives of the great dictators and some of the evil men so that he could
+draw and compare to show that he knew the difference between good and
+bad.</p>
+
+<p>But James Holden had no intention of sharing this limelight.</p>
+
+<p>His superb brilliance was to be compared to the average man's, not to
+another one like him. He had the head start. He intended to keep it until
+he had succeeded in compelling the whole world to accept him with the
+full status of a free adult.</p>
+
+<p>Then, under his guidance, he would permit the world-wide use of his
+machine.</p>
+
+<p>His loneliness had forced him to revise that dream by the addition of
+Martha Bagley; he needed a companion, contemporary, and foil. His mental
+playlet no longer closed with James Holden standing alone before the
+Bench. Now it ended with Martha saying proudly, "James, I knew you could
+do it."</p>
+
+<p>Martha Bagley's brilliance would not conflict with his. He could
+stay ahead of her forever. But he had no intention of allowing some
+experienced adult to partake of this program of enforced education. He
+was, therefore, going to find himself some manner or means of preventing
+Mrs. Bagley from running the gamut of all available information.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden evaluated all people in his own terms, he believed that
+everybody was just as eager for knowledge as he was.</p>
+
+<p>So he was surprised to find that Mrs. Bagley's desire for extended
+education only included such information as would make her own immediate
+personal problems easier. Mrs. Bagley was the first one of the mass of
+people James was destined to meet who not only did not know how or why
+things worked, but further had no intention whatsoever of finding out.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of trying to monopolize James Holden's machine, Mrs. Bagley was
+satisfied to learn a number of her pet recipes. After a day of thought
+she added her social security number, blood type, some birthdays, dates,
+a few telephone numbers and her multiplication tables. She announced that
+she was satisfied. It solved James Holden's problem&mdash;and stunned him
+completely.</p>
+
+<p>But James had very little time to worry about Mrs. Bagley's attitude. He
+found his hands full with Martha.</p>
+
+<p>Martha played fey. Her actions and attitude baffled James, and even
+confused her mother. There was no way of really determining whether the
+girl was scared to death of the machine itself, or whether she simply
+decided to be difficult. And she uttered the proper replies with all of
+the promptness&mdash;and intelligence&mdash;of a ventriloquist's dummy:</p>
+
+<p>"You don't want to be ignorant, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You want to be smart, like James, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You know the machine won't hurt, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let's try it just once, please?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>Back to the beginning again. Martha would agree to absolutely anything
+except the educator.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the argument to Mrs. Bagley, James sat down angrily with a book.
+He was so completely frustrated that he couldn't read, but he sat there
+leafing the pages slowly and making a determined show of not lifting his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley went on for another hour before she reached the end of her
+own patience. She stood up almost rigid with anger. James never knew how
+close Mrs. Bagley was to making use of a hairbrush on her daughter's
+bottom. But Mrs. Bagley also realized that Martha had to go into this
+process willing to cooperate. So, instead of physical punishment, she
+issued a dictum:</p>
+
+<p>"You'll go to your room and stay there until you're willing!"</p>
+
+<p>And at that point Martha ceased being stubborn and began playing games.</p>
+
+<p>She permitted herself to be led to the chair, and then went through a
+routine of skittishness, turning her head and squirming incessantly,
+which made it impossible for James to place the headset properly. This
+went on until he stalked away and sat down again. Immediately Martha sat
+like a statue. But as soon as James reached for the little screws that
+adjusted the electrodes, Martha started to giggle and squirm. He stalked
+away and sat through another session between Martha and her mother.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon James succeeded in getting her to the machine;
+Martha uttered a sentence without punctuating it with little giggles, but
+it came as elided babytalk.</p>
+
+<p>"Again," he commanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wan' to."</p>
+
+<p>"Again!" he snapped.</p>
+
+<p>Martha began to cry.</p>
+
+<p>That, to James, was the end. But Mrs. Bagley stepped forward with a
+commanding wave for James to vacate the premises and took over. James
+could not analyze her expression, but it did look as if it held relief.
+He left the room to them; a half hour later Mrs. Bagley called him back.</p>
+
+<p>"She's had it," said Mrs. Bagley. "Now you can start, I think."</p>
+
+<p>James looked dubious; but said, "Read this."</p>
+
+<p>"Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>Martha took a deep breath and said, nicely, "'<span class="smcap">A</span>' is the first
+letter of the English Alphabet."</p>
+
+<p>"Good." He pressed the button. "Again? Please?"</p>
+
+<p>Martha recited it nicely.</p>
+
+<p>"Fine," he said. "Now we'll look up 'Is' and go on from there."</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness," said Mrs. Bagley, "this is going to take months."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said James. "It just goes slowly at the start. Most of the
+definitions use the same words over and over again. Martha really knows
+most of these simple words, we've just got to be dead certain that her
+own definition of them agrees wholly and completely with ours. After a
+couple of hours of this minute detail, we'll be skipping over everything
+but new words. After all, she only has to work them over once, and as we
+find them, we'll mark them out of the book. Ready, Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't read it."</p>
+
+<p>James took the little dictionary. "Um," he said. "Hadn't occurred to me."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" asked Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"This thing says, Three-rd pers period sing periodic indic period of Be,'
+the last in heavy bold type. Can't have Martha talking in abbreviations,"
+he chuckled. He went to the typewriter and wrote it out fully. "Now read
+that," he directed.</p>
+
+<p>She did and again the process went through without a hitch. Slowly, but
+surely, they progressed for almost two hours before Martha rebelled.
+James stopped, satisfied with the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>But as time wore on into the late autumn, Martha slowly&mdash;oh, so
+slowly!&mdash;began to realize that there was importance to getting things
+right. She continued to tease. But she did her teasing before James
+closed the "Run" button.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TEN" id="CHAPTER_TEN"></a>CHAPTER TEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>Once James progressed Martha through the little dictionary, he began with
+a book of grammar. Again it started slowly; he had to spend quite a bit
+of time explaining to Martha that she did indeed know all of the terms
+used in the book of grammar because they'd all been defined by the
+dictionary, now she was going to learn how the terms and their
+definitions were used.</p>
+
+<p>James was on more familiar ground now. James, like Martha, had learned
+his first halting sentence structure by mimicking his parents, but he
+remembered the process of learning why and how sentences are constructed
+according to the rules, and how the rules are used rather than intuition
+in forming sentences.</p>
+
+<p>Grammar was a topic that could not be taken in snippets and bits. Whole
+paragraphs had to be read until Martha could read them without a halt or
+a mispronunciation, and then committed to memory with the "Run" button
+held down. At the best it was a boring process, even though it took only
+minutes instead of days. It was not conflicting, but it was confusing.
+It installed permanently certain solid blocks of information that were
+isolated; they stood alone until later blocks came in to connect them
+into a whole area.</p>
+
+<p>Each session was numbing. Martha could take no more than a couple of
+hours, after which her reading became foggy. She wanted a nap after each
+session and even after the nap she went around in a bemused state of
+mental dizziness.</p>
+
+<p>Life settled down once more in the House on Martin's Hill. James worked
+with the machine himself and laid out lessons to guide Martha. Then,
+finished for the day with education, James took to his typewriter while
+Martha had her nap. It filled the days of the boy and girl completely.</p>
+
+<p>This made an unexpected and pleasant change in Mrs. Bagley's routine. It
+had been a job to keep Martha occupied. Now that Martha was busy, Mrs.
+Bagley found time on her own hands; without interruption, her housework
+routine was completed quite early in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley had never made any great point of getting dressed for dinner.
+She accumulated a collection of house-frocks; printed cotton washables
+differing somewhat in color and cut but functionally identical. She wore
+them serially as they came from the row of hangers in her closet.</p>
+
+<p>Now she began to acquire some dressier things, wearing them even during
+her shopping trips.</p>
+
+<p>James paid little attention to this change in his housekeeper's routine,
+but he approved. Mrs. Bagley was also taking more pains with the 'do' of
+her hair, but the boy's notice was not detailed enough to take a
+part-by-section inventory of the whole. In fact, James gave the whole
+matter very little thought until Mrs. Bagley made a second change after
+her return from town, appearing for dinner in what James could only
+classify as a party dress.</p>
+
+<p>She asked, "James, do you mind if I go out this evening?"</p>
+
+<p>James, startled, shrugged and said, "No, I guess not."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll keep an ear out for Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>The need for watching a sleeping girl of seven and a half did not
+penetrate. "What's up?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It's been months since I saw a movie."</p>
+
+<p>James shrugged again, puzzled. "You saw the 'Bride of Frankenstein' last
+night on TV," he pointed out.</p>
+
+<p>"I first saw that old horror when I was about your age," she told him
+with a trace of disdain.</p>
+
+<p>"I liked it."</p>
+
+<p>"So did I at eight and a half. But tonight I'm going to see a <i>new</i>
+picture."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay," said James, wondering why anybody in their right mind would go
+out on a chilly night late in November just to see a moving picture when
+they could stay at home and watch one in comfort. "Have a good time."</p>
+
+<p>He expected Mrs. Bagley to take off in her car, but she did not. She
+waited until a brief <i>toot</i>! came from the road. Then, with a swirl of
+motion, she left.</p>
+
+<p>It took James Holden's limited experience some little time to identify
+the event with some similar scenes from books he'd read; even with him,
+reading about it was one world and seeing it happen was another thing
+entirely.</p>
+
+<p>For James Holden it opened a new area for contemplation. He would have to
+know something about this matter if he hoped to achieve his dreamed-of
+status as an adult.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Information about the relation between man and woman had not been
+included in the course of education devised by his father and mother.
+Therefore his physical age and his information on the delicate subject
+were approximately parallel.</p>
+
+<p>His personal evaluation of the subject was uncomplicated. At some age not
+much greater than his own, boys and girls conglomerated in a mass that
+milled around in a constant state of flux and motion, like individual
+atoms of gas compressed in a container. Meetings and encounters took
+place both singly and in groups until nearly everybody had been in touch
+with almost everybody else. Slowly the amorphous mass changed. Groups
+became attracted by mutual interests. Changes and exchanges took place,
+and then a pair-formation began to take place. The pair-formation went
+through its interchanges both with and without friction as the
+settling-down process proceeded. At times predictable by comparing it
+to the statistics of radioactivity, the pair-production resulted in
+permanent combination, which effectively removed this couple from free
+circulation.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden had no grasp or feeling for the great catalyst that causes
+this pair-production; he saw it only for its sheer mechanics. To him, the
+sensible way to go about this matter was to get there early and move
+fast, because one stands to make a better choice when there is a greater
+number of unattached specimens from which to choose. Those left over are
+likely to have flaws.</p>
+
+<p>And so he pondered, long after Martha had gone to bed.</p>
+
+<p>He was still up and waiting when he heard the car stop at the gate.
+He watched them come up the walk arm in arm, their stride slow and
+lingering. They paused for several moments on the doorstep, once there
+was a short, muted laugh. The snick of the key came next and they came
+into the hallway.</p>
+
+<p>"No, please don't come in," said Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;" replied the man.</p>
+
+<p>"But me no buts. It's late, Tim."</p>
+
+<p>Tim? Tim? That would probably be Timothy Fisher. He ran the local garage
+where Mrs. Bagley bought her car. James went on listening shamelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Late? Phooey. When is eleven-thirty late?"</p>
+
+<p>"When it's right now," she replied with a light laugh. "Now, Tim. It's
+been very&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There came a long silence.</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was throaty when the silence broke. "Now, will you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that way, silly," she said. "The door's behind you."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't the door I want," he chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"We're making enough noise to wake the dead," she complained.</p>
+
+<p>"Then let's stop talking," he told her.</p>
+
+<p>There was another long silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Now please go."</p>
+
+<p>"Can I come back tomorrow night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not tomorrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Friday?"</p>
+
+<p>"Saturday."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a date, then."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Now get along with you."</p>
+
+<p>"You're cruel and heartless, Janet," he complained. "Sending a man out in
+that cold and storm."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't storming, and you've a fine heater in that car of yours."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather have you."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you tell that to all the girls?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. Even Maggie the Washerwoman is better than an old car heater."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley chuckled throatily. "How is Maggie?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's fine."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean as a date."</p>
+
+<p>"Better than the car heater."</p>
+
+<p>"Tim, you're a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"When I was a kid," said Tim reflectively, "there used to be a female
+siren in the movies. Her pet line used to be 'Kiss me, my fool!' Theda
+Bara, I think. Before talkies. Now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Tim&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Another long silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Tim, you've simply <i>got</i> to go!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah, I know. You've convinced me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why aren't you going?"</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled. "Look, you've convinced me. I can't stay so I'll go,
+obviously. But now that we've covered this problem, let's drop the
+subject for a while, huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't spoil a fine evening, Tim."</p>
+
+<p>"Janet, what's with you, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, 'what's with me?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Just this. Somewhere up in the house is this oddball Maxwell who hides
+out all the time. He's either asleep or busy. Anyway, he isn't here. Do
+you have to report in, punch a time clock, tuck him in&mdash;or do you turn
+into a pumpkin at the stroke of twelve?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell is paying me wages to keep house for him. That's all. Part
+of my wages is my keep. But it doesn't entitle me to have full run of the
+house or to bring guests in at midnight for a two-hour good-night
+session."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to tell this bird a thing or two," said Tim Fisher sharply. "He
+can't keep you cooped up like&mdash;like&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody is keeping me cooped up," she said. "Like what?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"You said 'like&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"Skip it. What I meant is that you can't moulder, Janet. You've got to
+get out and meet people."</p>
+
+<p>"I've been out and I've met people. I've met you."</p>
+
+<p>"All to the good."</p>
+
+<p>"Fine. So you invited me out, and I went. It was fun. I liked it. You've
+asked me, and I've said that I'd like to do it again on Saturday. I've
+enjoyed being kissed, and I'll probably enjoy it again on Saturday. So&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd think you'd enjoy a lot of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Because my husband has been gone for five years?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, now Janet&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what you meant, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. You've got me wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Tim, stop it. You're spoiling a fine evening. You should have gone
+before it started to spoil. Now please put your smile on again and leave
+cheerfully. There's always Saturday&mdash;if you still want it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll call you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened once more and then closed. James took a deep breath, and
+then stole away quietly to his own room.</p>
+
+<p>By some instinct he knew that this was no time to intercept Mrs. Bagley
+with a lot of fool questions.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>To the surprise and puzzlement of young James Quincy Holden, Mr. Timothy
+Fisher telephoned early upon the following evening. He was greeted quite
+cordially by Mrs. Bagley. Their conversation was rambling and inane,
+especially when heard from one end only, and it took them almost ten
+minutes to confirm their Saturday night date. That came as another shock.</p>
+
+<p>Well, not quite. The explanation bothered him even more than the fact
+itself. As a further extension of his little mechanical mating process,
+James had to find a place for the like of Jake Caslow and the women Jake
+knew. None of them were classed in the desirable group, all of them were
+among the leftovers. But of course, since none of them were good enough
+for the 'good' people, they were good enough for one another, and that
+made it all right&mdash;for them.</p>
+
+<p>But Mrs. Bagley was not of their ilk. It was not right that she should be
+forced to take a leftover.</p>
+
+<p>And then it occurred to him that perhaps Mrs. Bagley was not really
+taking the leftover, Tim Fisher, but instead was using Tim Fisher's
+company as a means toward meeting a larger group, from which there might
+be a better specimen. So he bided his time, thinking deeply around the
+subject, about which he knew nothing whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>Saturday night was a repeat of Wednesday. They stayed out later, and upon
+their return they took possession of the living room for at least an hour
+before they started their routine about the going-home process. With
+minor variations in the dialog, and with longer and more frequent
+silences, it almost followed the Wednesday night script. The variation
+puzzled James even more. This session went according to program for a
+while until Tim Fisher admitted with regret that it was, indeed, time for
+him to depart. At which juncture Mrs. Bagley did not leap to her feet to
+accept his offer to do that which she had been asking him to do for a
+half hour. Mrs. Bagley compounded the affair by sighing deeply and
+agreeing with him that it was a shame that it was so late and that she,
+too, wished that he could stay a little longer. This, of course, put them
+precisely where they were a half hour earlier and they had to start the
+silly business all over again.</p>
+
+<p>They parted after a final fifteen-minute discussion at the front door.
+This discussion covered Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and finally came to
+agreement on Wednesday.</p>
+
+<p>And so James Holden went to bed that night fully convinced that in a town
+of approximately two thousand people&mdash;he did not count the two or three
+hundred A.E.C.-College group as part of the problem&mdash;there were entirely
+too few attractive leftovers from which Mrs. Bagley could choose.</p>
+
+<p>But as this association grew, it puzzled him even more. For in his
+understanding, any person forced to accept a second-rate choice does so
+with an air of resignation, but not with a cheerful smile, a sparkle in
+the eyes, and two hours of primping.</p>
+
+<p>James sought the answer in his books but they were the wrong volumes for
+reference of this subject. He considered the local Public Library only
+long enough to remember that it carried a few hundred books suitable for
+the A.E.C.-College crew and a thousand or so of second-hand culls donated
+by local citizens during cleanup campaigns. He resorted to buying books
+by mail through advertisements in newspapers and magazines and received a
+number of volumes of medical treatises, psychological texts, and a book
+on obstetrics that convinced him that baby-having was both rare and
+hazardous. He read <i>By Love Possessed</i> but he did not recognize the many
+forms of love portrayed by the author because the volume was not
+annotated with signs or provided with a road map, and he did not know
+it when he read about it.</p>
+
+<p>He went through the Kinsey books and absorbed a lot of data and graphs
+and figures on human behavior that meant nothing to him. James was not
+even interested in the incidence of homosexuality among college students
+as compared to religious groups, or in the comparison between premarital
+experience and level of education. He knew the words and what the words
+meant as defined in other words. But they were only words and did not
+touch him where he lived.</p>
+
+<p>So, because none of the texts bothered to explain why a woman says Yes,
+when she means No, nor why a woman will cling to a man's lapels and press
+herself against him and at the same time tell him he has to go home,
+James remained ignorant. He could have learned more from Lord Byron,
+Shelley, Keats, or Browning than from Kinsey, deLee, or the "Instructive
+book on Sex, forwarded under plain wrapper for $2.69 postpaid."</p>
+
+<p>Luckily for James, he did not study any of his material via the medium of
+his father's machine or it would have made him sick. For he was not yet
+capable of understanding the single subject upon which more words have
+been expended in saying less than any other subject since the dawn of
+history.</p>
+
+<p>His approach was academic, he could have been reading the definitive
+material on the life-cycle of the beetle insofar as any stir of his own
+blood was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>From his study he did identify a couple of items. Tim Fisher obviously
+desired extramarital relations with Mrs. Bagley&mdash;or was it premarital
+relations? Probably both. Logic said that Mrs. Bagley, having already
+been married to Martha's father, could hardly enter into <i>pre</i>marital
+relations, although Tim could, since he was a bachelor. But they wouldn't
+be <i>pre</i>marital with Tim unless he followed through and married Mrs.
+Bagley. And so they must be <i>extra</i>marital. But whatever they were
+called, the Book said that there was about as much on one side as on the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>With a mind mildly aware of the facts of life, distorted through the eyes
+of near-nine James Holden, he watched them and listened in.</p>
+
+<p>As for Mrs. Bagley, she did not know that she was providing part of James
+Holden's extraliterary education. She enjoyed the company of Tim Fisher.
+Hesitantly, she asked James if she could have Tim for dinner one evening,
+and was a bit surprised at his immediate assent. They planned the
+evening, cleaned the lower part of the house of every trace of its
+current occupancy, and James and Martha hied themselves upstairs. Dinner
+went with candlelight and charcoal-broiled steak&mdash;and a tray taken aloft
+for "Mr. Maxwell" was consumed by James and Martha. The evening went
+smoothly. They listened to music and danced, they sat and talked. And
+James listened.</p>
+
+<p>Tim was not the same man. He sat calm and comfortably on the low sofa
+with Mrs. Bagley's head on his shoulder, both of them pleasantly bemused
+by the dancing fireplace and with each other's company. He said, "Well,
+I'm glad this finally happened."</p>
+
+<p>"What happened?" she replied in a murmur.</p>
+
+<p>"Getting the invite for dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Might have been sooner, I suppose. Sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"What took you so long?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just being cautious, I guess."</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled. "Cautious?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh."</p>
+
+<p>Tim laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"What's so darned funny?"</p>
+
+<p>"Women."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we such a bunch of clowns?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not clowns, Janet. Just funny."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, genius. Explain that."</p>
+
+<p>"A woman is a lovely creature who sends a man away so that he can't do
+what she wants him to do most of all."</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh."</p>
+
+<p>"She feeds him full of rare steak until he wants to crawl off in a corner
+like the family mutt and go to sleep. Once she gets him in a somnolent
+state, she drapes herself tastefully on his shoulder and gets soft and
+warm and willing."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley laughed throatily. "Just start getting active," she warned,
+"and you'll see how fast I can beat a hasty retreat."</p>
+
+<p>"Janet, what <i>is</i> with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you hiding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hiding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, confound it, hiding!" he said, his voice turning hard. "Just who is
+this Charles Maxwell character, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tim, please&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His voice lowered again. "Janet," he said softly, "you're asking me to
+trust you, and at the same time you're not trusting me."</p>
+
+<p>"But I've nothing to hide."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, stop it. I'm no schoolboy, Janet. If you have nothing to hide, why
+are you acting as if you were sitting on the lid?"</p>
+
+<p>"I still don't know what you're talking about."</p>
+
+<p>"Your words say so, but your tone is the icy haughtiness that dares me,
+mere male that I am, to call your lie. I've a half-notion to stomp
+upstairs and confront your mysterious Maxwell&mdash;if he indeed exists."</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't. He'd&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He'd what? I've been in this house for hours day and night and now all
+evening. I've never heard a sound, not the creak of a floorboard, the
+slam of a door, the opening of a window, nor the distant gurgle of cool,
+clear water, gushing into plumbing. So you've been married. This I know.
+You have a daughter. This I accept. Your husband is dead. This happens to
+people every day; nice people, bad people, bright people, dull people.
+There was a young boy here last summer. Him I do not know, but you and
+your daughter I do know about. I've checked&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"How dare you check&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"I damn well dare check anything and anybody I happen to be personally
+interested in," he stormed. "As a potential bed partner I wouldn't give a
+hoot who you were or what you were. But before I go to the point of
+dividing the rest of my life on an exclusive contract, I have the right
+to know what I'm splitting it with."</p>
+
+<p>"You have no right&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Balderdash! I have as much right as anybody to look at the record. I
+grant you the same right to look up my family and my friends and the
+status of my bank account and my credit rating and my service record.
+Grant it? Hell, I couldn't stop you. Now, what's going on? Where is your
+daughter and where is that little boy? And where&mdash;if he exists&mdash;is this
+Charles Maxwell?"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James had heard enough. No matter which way this was going, it would end
+up wrong. He was proud of Mrs. Bagley's loyalty, but he knew that it was
+an increasing strain and could very well lead to complications that could
+not be explained away without the whole truth. He decided that the only
+thing to do was to put in his own oar and relieve Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>He walked in, yawning. He stood between them, facing Tim Fisher. Behind
+him, Mrs. Bagley cried, "Now see&mdash;you've awakened him!"</p>
+
+<p>In a dry-throated voice, Tim said, "I thought he was away at school. Now,
+what's the story?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't her story to tell," said James. "It's mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Now see here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Fisher, you can't learn anything by talking incessantly."</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher took a step forward, his face dark, his intention to shake the
+truth out of somebody. James held up a hand. "Sit down a moment and
+listen," he ordered.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of James and the words that this child was uttering stopped Tim
+Fisher. Puzzled, he nodded dumbly, found a chair, and sat on the front
+edge of it, poised.</p>
+
+<p>"The whereabouts of Mr. Maxwell is his own business and none of yours.
+Your criticism is unfounded and your suspicions unworthy. But since you
+take the attitude that this is some of your business, we don't mind
+telling you that Mr. Maxwell is in New York on business."</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher eyed the youngster. "I thought you were away at school," he
+repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard you the first time," said James. "Obviously, I am not. Why I am
+not is Mr. Maxwell's business, not yours. And by insisting that something
+is wrong here and demanding the truth, you have placed Mrs. Bagley in the
+awkward position of having to make a decision that divides her loyalties.
+She has had the complete trust of Mr. Maxwell for almost a year and a
+half. Now, tell me, Mr. Fisher, to whom shall she remain loyal?"</p>
+
+<p>"That isn't the point&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is the point, Mr. Fisher. It is exactly the point. You're asking
+Mrs. Bagley to tell you the details of her employer's business, which is
+unethical."</p>
+
+<p>"How much have you heard?" demanded Fisher crossly.</p>
+
+<p>"Enough, at least to know what you've been hammering at."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you know that I've as much as said that there was some suspicion
+attached."</p>
+
+<p>"Suspicion of what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why aren't you in school?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's Mr. Maxwell's business."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me tell you, youngster, it is more than your Mr. Maxwell's business.
+There are laws about education and he's breaking them."</p>
+
+<p>James said patiently: "The law states that every child shall receive an
+adequate education. The precise wording I do not know, but it does
+provide for schooling outside of the state school system if the parent or
+guardian so prefers, and providing that such extraschool education is
+deemed adequate by the state. Can you say that I am not properly
+educated, Mr. Fisher?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you'd hardly expect me to be an expert on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'd hardly expect you to pass judgment, either," said James
+pointedly.</p>
+
+<p>"You're pretty&mdash;" Tim Fisher caught his tongue at the right moment. He
+felt his neck getting hot. It is hard enough to be told that you are
+off-base and that your behavior has been bad when an adult says the
+damning words. To hear the same words from a ten-year-old is unbearable.
+Right or wrong, the adult's position is to turn aside or shut the child
+up either by pulling rank or cuffing the young offender with an open
+hand. To have this upstart defend Mrs. Bagley, in whose presence he could
+hardly lash back, put Mr. Fisher in a very unhappy state of mind. He
+swallowed and then asked, lamely, "Why does he have to be so furtive?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is your definition of 'furtive'?" asked James calmly. "Do you
+employ the same term to describe the operations of that combination
+College-A.E.C. installation on the other side of town?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's secret&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Implying that atomic energy is secretly above-board, legal, and
+honorable, whereas Mr. Maxwell's&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But we know about atomic energy."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure we do," jeered James, and the sound of his immature near-treble
+voice made the jeer very close to an insult. "We know <i>all</i> about atomic
+energy. Was the Manhattan Project called 'furtive' until Hiroshima gave
+the story away?"</p>
+
+<p>"You're trying to put words in my mouth," objected Tim.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not. I'm merely trying to make you understand something
+important to everybody. You come in here and claim by the right of
+personal interest that we should be most willing to tell you our
+business. Then in the next breath you defend the installation over on the
+other side of town for their attitude in giving the bum's rush to people
+who try to ask questions about their business. Go read your Constitution,
+Mr. Fisher. It says there that I have as much right to defend my home
+against intruders as the A.E.C. has to defend their home against spies."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm not intruding."</p>
+
+<p>James nodded his head gently. "Not," he said, "until you make the grave
+error of equating personal privacy with culpable guilt."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean that."</p>
+
+<p>"You should learn to say what you mean," said James, "instead of trying
+to pry information out of someone who happens to be fond of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Now see here," said Tim Fisher, "I happen to be fond of her too, you
+know. Doesn't that give me some rights?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you expect to know all of her business if she were your wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose she were working in the A.E.C.-College?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that&mdash;er&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Would be different?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I talked this right around in its circle for a purpose," said James.
+"Stop and think for a moment. Let's discuss me. Mr. Fisher, where would
+you place me in school?"</p>
+
+<p>"Er&mdash;how old are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nine," said James. "In April."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm not sure&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. Do you suppose that I could sit in a classroom among my
+nine-year-old contemporaries very long without being found out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Er&mdash;no&mdash;I suppose not."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Fisher, how long do you think I could remain a secret if I attended
+high school, sitting at a specially installed desk in a class among
+teenagers twice my size?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not very long."</p>
+
+<p>"Then remember that some secrets are so big that you have to have armed
+guards to keep them secret, and others are so easy to conceal that all
+you need is a rambling old house and a plausible fa&ccedil;ade."</p>
+
+<p>"Why have you told me all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you have penetrated this far by your own effort, justified by
+your own personal emotions, and driven by an urge that is all-powerful if
+I am to believe the books I've read on the subject. You are told this
+much of the truth so that you won't go off half-cocked with a fine
+collection of rather dangerous untruths. Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm beginning to."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, whether Mrs. Bagley accepts your offer of marriage or not,
+remember one thing: If she were working for the A.E.C. you'd be proud of
+her, and you'd also be quite careful not to ask questions that would
+cause her embarrassment."</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher looked at Mrs. Bagley. "Well?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked bleak. "Please don't ask me until I've had a chance to
+discuss all of the angles with Mr. Maxwell, Tim."</p>
+
+<p>"Maxwell, again."</p>
+
+<p>"Tim," she said in a quiet voice, "remember&mdash;he's an employer, not an
+emotional involvement."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden looked at Tim Fisher. "And if you'll promise to keep this
+thing as close a secret as you would some information about atomic
+energy, I'll go to bed and let you settle your personal problems in
+private. Good night!"</p>
+
+<p>He left, reasonably satisfied that Tim Fisher would probably keep their
+secret for a time, at least. The hinted suggestion that this was as
+important a government project as the Atomic Energy Commission's works
+would prevent casual talk. There was also the slim likelihood that Tim
+Fisher might enjoy the position of being on the inside of a big secret,
+although this sort of inner superiority lacks true satisfaction. There
+was a more solid chance that Tim Fisher, being the ambitious man that he
+was, would keep their secret in the hope of acquiring for himself some
+of the superior knowledge and the advanced ability that went with it.</p>
+
+<p>But James was certain that the program that had worked so well with Mrs.
+Bagley would fail with Tim Fisher. James had nothing material to offer
+Tim. Tim was the kind of man who would insist upon his wife being a
+full-time wife, physically, emotionally, and intellectually.</p>
+
+<p>And James suddenly realized that Tim Fisher's own ambition and character
+would insist that Mrs. Bagley, with Martha, leave James Holden to take up
+residence in a home furnished by Tim Fisher upon the date and at time she
+became Mrs. Timothy Fisher.</p>
+
+<p>He was still thinking about the complications this would cause when he
+heard Tim leave. His clock said three-thirty.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James Holden's mechanical educator was a wonderful machine, but there
+were some aspects of knowledge that it was not equipped to impart. The
+glandular comprehension of love was one such; there were others. In all
+of his hours under the machine James had not learned how personalities
+change and grow.</p>
+
+<p>And yet there was a textbook case right before his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>In a few months, Janet Bagley had changed from a frightened and
+belligerent mother-animal to a cheerful young prospective wife. The
+importance of the change lay in the fact that it was not polar, nothing
+reversed; it was only that the emphasis passed gradually from the
+protection of the young to the development of Janet Bagley herself.</p>
+
+<p>James could not very well understand, though he tried, but he couldn't
+miss seeing it happen. It was worrisome. It threatened complications.</p>
+
+<p>There was quite a change that came with Tim Fisher's elevation in status
+from steady date to affianced husband, heightened by Tim Fisher's partial
+understanding of the situation at Martin's Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Then, having assumed the right to drop in as he pleased, he went on to
+assume more "rights" as Mrs. Bagley's fianc&eacute;. He brought in his friends
+from time to time. Not without warning, of course, for he understood the
+need for secrecy. When he brought friends it was after warning, and very
+frequently after he had helped them to remove the traces of juvenile
+occupancy from the lower part of the house.</p>
+
+<p>In one way, this took some of the pressure off. The opening of the
+"hermit's" house to the friends of the "hermit's" housekeeper's fianc&eacute;
+and friends was a pleasant evidence of good will; people stopped
+wondering, a little.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, James did not wholly approve. He contrasted this with
+what he remembered of his own home life. The guests who came to visit his
+mother and father were quiet and earnest. They indulged in animated
+discussions, argued points of deep reasoning, and in moments of
+relaxation they indulged in games that demanded skill and intellect.</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher's friends were noisy and boisterous. They mixed highballs.
+They danced to music played so loud that it made the house throb. They
+watched the fights on television and argued with more volume than logic.</p>
+
+<p>They were, to young James, a far cry from his parents' friends.</p>
+
+<p>But, as he couldn't do anything about it, he refused to worry about it.
+James Holden turned his thoughts forward and began to plan how he was
+going to face the culmination of this romance next September Fifteenth.
+He even suspected that there would probably be a number of knotty little
+problems that he now knew nothing about; he resolved to allow some
+thinking-time to cope with them when, as, and if.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the summer was coming closer.</p>
+
+<p>He prepared to make a visible show of having Mr. Charles Maxwell leave
+for a protracted summer travel. This would ease the growing problem of
+providing solid evidence of Maxwell's presence during the increasing
+frequency of Tim Fisher's visits and the widening circle of Mrs. Bagley's
+acquaintances in Shipmont. At the same time he and Martha would make a
+return from the Bolton School for Youth. This would allow them their
+freedom for the summer; for the first time James looked forward to it.
+Martha Bagley was progressing rapidly. This summer would see her over and
+done with the scatter-brain prattle that gave equal weight to fact or
+fancy. Her store of information was growing; she could be relied upon to
+maintain a fairly secure cover. Her logic was not to James Holden's
+complete satisfaction but she accepted most of his direction as necessary
+information to be acted upon now and reasoned later.</p>
+
+<p>In the solving of his immediate problems, James can be forgiven for
+putting Paul Brennan out of his mind.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ELEVEN" id="CHAPTER_ELEVEN"></a>CHAPTER ELEVEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>But Paul Brennan was still alive, and he had not forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>While James was, with astonishing success, building a life for himself in
+hiding, Brennan did everything he could to find him. That is to say, he
+did everything that&mdash;under the circumstances&mdash;he could afford to do.</p>
+
+<p>The thing was, the boy had got clean away, without a trace.</p>
+
+<p>When James escaped for the third, and very successful, time, Brennan was
+helpless. James had planned well. He had learned from his first two
+efforts. The first escape was a blind run toward a predictable objective;
+all right, that was a danger to be avoided. His second was entirely
+successful&mdash;until James created his own area of danger. Another lesson
+learned.</p>
+
+<p>The third was planned with as much care as Napoleon's deliverance from
+the island.</p>
+
+<p>James had started by choosing his time. He'd waited until Easter Week.
+He'd had a solid ten days during which he would be only one of countless
+thousands of children on the streets; there would be no slight suspicion
+because he was out when others were in.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James didn't go to school that day. That was common; children in the
+lower grades are often absent, and no one asks a question until they
+return, with the proper note from the parent. He was not missed anywhere
+until the school bus that should have dropped him off did not. This was
+an area of weakness that Brennan could not plug; he could hardly justify
+the effort of delivering and fetching the lad to and from school when the
+public school bus passed the Holden home. Brennan relied upon the
+Mitchells to see James upon the bus and to check him off when he
+returned. Whether James would have been missed earlier even with a
+personal delivery is problematical; certainly James would have had to
+concoct some other scheme to gain him his hours of free time.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, the first call to the school connected the Mitchells with a
+grumpy-voiced janitor who growled that teachers and principals had headed
+for their hills of freedom and wouldn't be back until Monday Week. It
+took some calling to locate a couple of James Holden's classmates who
+asserted that he hadn't been in school that day.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan knew at once what had happened, but he could not raise an
+immediate hue-and-cry. He fretted because of the Easter Week vacation; in
+any other time the sight of a school-aged boy free during school hours
+would have caused suspicion. During Easter Week vacation, every schoolboy
+would be free. James would also be protected by his size. A youngster
+walking alone is not suspect; his folks <i>must</i> be close by. The fact that
+it was "again" placed Paul Brennan in an undesirable position. This was
+not the youthful adventure that usually ends about three blocks from
+home. This was a repeat of the first absence during which James had been
+missing for months. People smile at the parents of the child who packs
+his little bag with a handkerchief and a candy bar to sally forth into
+the great big world, but it becomes another matter when the lad of six
+leaves home with every appearance of making it stick. So Brennan had to
+play it cozy, inviting newspaper reporters to the Holden home to display
+what he had to offer young James and giving them free rein to question
+Brennan's housekeeper and general factotum, the Mitchells. With
+honest-looking zeal, Paul Brennan succeeded in building up a picture that
+depicted James as ungrateful, hard to understand, wilful, and something
+of an intellectual brat.</p>
+
+<p>Then the authorities proceeded to throw out a fine-mesh dragnet. They
+questioned and cross-questioned bus drivers and railroad men. They made
+contact with the local airport even though its facilities were only used
+for a daisy-cutting feeder line. Posters were printed and sent to all
+truck lines for display to the truck drivers. The roadside diners were
+covered thoroughly. And knowing the boy's ability to talk convincingly,
+the authorities even went so far as to try the awesome project of making
+contact with passengers bound out-of-town with young male children in
+tow.</p>
+
+<p>Had James given them no previous experience to think about, he would have
+been merely considered a missing child and not a deliberate runaway.
+Then, instead of dragging down all of the known avenues of standard
+escape, the townspeople would have organized a tree-by-tree search of the
+fields and woods with hundreds of men walking hand in hand to inspect
+every square foot of the ground for either tracks or the child himself.
+But the <i>modus operandi</i> of young James Holden had been to apply sly
+touches such as writing letters and forging signatures of adults to
+cause the unquestioned sale of railroad tickets, or the unauthorized ride
+in the side-door Pullman.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, while the authorities were extending their circle of search
+based upon the velocity of modern transportation, James Holden was making
+his slow way across field and stream, guided by a Boy Scout compass and a
+U.S. Geodetic Survey map to keep him well out of the reach of roadway or
+town. With difficulty, but with dogged determination, he carried a light
+cot-blanket into which he had rolled four cans of pork and beans. He had
+a Boy Scout knife and a small pair of pliers to open it with. He had
+matches. He had the Boy Scout Handbook which was doubly useful; the pages
+devoted to woodsman's lore he kept for reference, the pages wasted on the
+qualifications for merit badges he used to start fires. He enjoyed
+sleeping in the open because it was spring and pleasantly warm, and
+because the Boy Scout Manual said that camping out was fun.</p>
+
+<p>A grown man with an objective can cover thirty or forty miles per day
+without tiring. James made it ten to fifteen. Thus, by the time the
+organized search petered out for lack of evidence and manpower&mdash;try
+asking one question of everybody within a hundred-mile radius&mdash;James was
+quietly making his way, free of care, like a hardy pioneer looking for a
+homestead site.</p>
+
+<p>The hint of kidnap went out early. The Federal Bureau of Investigation,
+of course, could not move until the waiting period was ended, but they
+did collect information and set up their organization ready to move
+into high speed at the instant of legal time. But then no ransom letter
+came; no evidence of the crime of kidnapping. This did not close the
+case; there were other cases on record where a child was stolen by adults
+for purposes other than ransom. It was not very likely that a child of
+six would be stolen by a neurotic adult to replace a lost infant, and
+Paul Brennan was personally convinced that James Holden had enough
+self-reliance to make such a kidnap attempt fail rather early in the
+game. He could hardly say so, nor could he suggest that James had indeed
+run away deliberately and skilfully, and with planned steps worthy of a
+much older person. He could only hint and urge the F.B.I. into any action
+that he could coerce them into taking; he did not care how or who brought
+James back just so long as the child was returned to his custody.</p>
+
+<p>Then as the days wore into weeks with no sign, the files were placed
+in the inactive drawer. Paul Brennan made contact with a few private
+agencies.</p>
+
+<p>He was stopped here, again, by another angle. The Holdens were by no
+means wealthy. Brennan could not justify the offer of some reward so
+large that people simply could not turn down the slim chance of
+collecting. If the missing one is heir to a couple of million dollars,
+the trustees can justify a reward of a good many thousand dollars for his
+return. The amount that Brennan was prepared to offer could not compel
+the services of a private agency on a full-time basis. The best and the
+most interested of the agencies took the case on a contingent basis; if
+something turned their way in the due course of their work they'd
+immediately take steps. Solving the case of a complete disappearance on
+the part of a child who virtually vanished into thin air would be good
+advertising, but their advertising budget would not allow them to put one
+man on the case without the first shred of evidence to point the way.</p>
+
+<p>If Paul Brennan had been above-board, he could have evoked a lot of
+interest. The search for a six-year-old boy with the educational
+development of a youth of about eighteen, informed through the services
+of an electromechanical device, would have fired public interest,
+Government intervention, and would also have justified Paul Brennan's
+depth of interest. But Paul Brennan could say nothing about the excellent
+training, he could only hint at James Holden's mental proficiency which
+was backed up by the boy's school record. As it was, Paul Brennan's
+most frightful nightmare was one where young James was spotted by some
+eagle-eyed detective and then in desperation&mdash;anything being better than
+an enforced return to Paul Brennan&mdash;James Holden pulled out all the stops
+and showed everybody precisely how well educated he really was.</p>
+
+<p>In his own affairs, Paul still had to make a living, which took up his
+time. As guardian and trustee of the Holden Estate, he was responsible to
+the State for his handling of James Holden's inheritance. The State takes
+a sensible view of the disbursements of the inheritance of a minor.
+Reasonable sums may be spent on items hardly deemed necessities to the
+average person, but the ceiling called "reasonable" is a flexible term
+and subject to close scrutiny by the State.</p>
+
+<p>In the long run it was Paul Brennan's own indefensible position that made
+it impossible to prosecute a proper search for the missing James Holden.
+Brennan suspected James of building up a bank account under some false
+name, but he could not saunter into banks and ask to examine their
+records without a Court order. Brennan knew that James had not taken off
+without preparation, but the examination of the stuff that James left
+behind was not very informative. There was a small blanket missing and
+Mrs. Mitchell said that it looked as though some cans had been removed
+from the stock but she could not be sure. And in a large collection of
+boy's stuff, one would not observe the absence of a Boy Scout knife and
+other trivia. Had a 100% inventory been available, the list of missing
+items would have pointed out James Holden's avenue of escape.</p>
+
+<p>The search for an adult would have included questioning of banks. No one
+knows whether such a questioning would have uncovered the bank-by-mail
+routine conducted under the name of Charles Maxwell. It is not a regular
+thing, but the receipt of a check drawn on a New York bank, issued by a
+publishing company, and endorsed to be paid to the account of so-and-so,
+accompanied by a request to open an account in that name might never be
+connected with the manipulations of a six-year-old genius, who was
+overtly just plain bright.</p>
+
+<p>And so Paul Brennan worried himself out of several pounds for fear
+that James would give himself away to the right people. He cursed the
+necessity of keeping up his daily work routine. The hue-and-cry he could
+not keep alive, but he knew that somewhere there was a young boy entirely
+capable of reconstructing the whole machine that Paul Brennan wanted so
+desperately that he had killed for it.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan was blocked cold. With the F.B.I. maintaining a hands-off
+attitude because there was no trace of any Federal crime involved, the
+case of James Holden was relegated to the missing-persons files. It
+became the official opinion that the lad had suffered some mishap and
+that it would only be a matter of time before his body was discovered.
+Paul Brennan could hardly prove them wrong without explaining the whole
+secret of James Holden's intelligence, competence, and the certainty that
+the young man would improve upon both as soon as he succeeded in
+rebuilding the Holden Electromechanical Educator.</p>
+
+<p>With the F.B.I. out of the picture, the local authorities waiting for the
+discovery of a small body, and the state authorities shelving the case
+except for the routine punch-card checks, official action died. Brennan's
+available reward money was not enough to buy a private agency's interest
+full-time.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan could not afford to tell anybody of his suspicion of James
+Holden's source of income, for the idea of a child's making a living by
+writing would be indefensible without full explanation. However, Paul
+Brennan resorted to reading of magazines edited for boys. Month after
+month he bought them and read them, comparing the styles of the many
+writers against the style of the manuscript copy left behind by James.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan naturally assumed that James would use a pen name. Writers often
+used pen names to conceal their own identity for any one of several
+reasons. A writer might use three or more pen names, each one identified
+with a known style of writing, or a certain subject or established
+character. But Paul Brennan did not know all there was to know about the
+pen-name business, such as an editor assigning a pen name to prevent the
+too-often appearance of some prolific writer, or conversely to make one
+writer's name seem exclusive with his magazine; nor could Brennan know
+that a writer's literary standing can be kept high by assigning a pen
+name to any second-rate material he may be so unfortunate as to turn out.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan read many stories written by James Holden under several
+names, including the name of Charles Maxwell, but Brennan's
+identification according to literary style was no better than if he had
+tossed a coin.</p>
+
+<p>And so, blocked by his own guilt and avarice from making use of the legal
+avenues of approach, Paul Brennan fumed and fretted away four long years
+while James Holden grew from six to ten years old, hiding under the guise
+of the Hermit of Martin's Hill and behind the pleasant adult fa&ccedil;ade of
+Mrs. Janet Bagley.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWELVE" id="CHAPTER_TWELVE"></a>CHAPTER TWELVE</h2>
+
+
+<p>If Paul Brennan found himself blocked in his efforts to find James Holden
+and the re-created Holden Educator, James himself was annoyed by one
+evident fact: Everything he did resulted in spreading the news of the
+machine itself.</p>
+
+<p>Had he been eighteen or so, he might have made out to his own taste. In
+the days of late teen-age, a youth can hold a job and rent a room, buy
+his own clothing and conduct himself to the limit of his ability. At ten
+he is suspect, because no one will permit him to paddle his own canoe. At
+a later age James could have rented a small apartment and built his
+machine alone. But starting as young as he did, he was forced to hide
+behind the cover of some adult, and he had picked Mrs. Bagley because he
+could control her both through her desire for security and the promise of
+a fine education for the daughter Martha Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>The daughter was a two-way necessity; she provided him with a
+contemporary companion and also gave him a lever to wield against the
+adult. A lone woman could have made her way without trouble. A lone woman
+with a girl-child is up against a rather horrifying problem of providing
+both support and parental care. He felt that he had done what he had to
+do, up to the point where Mrs. Bagley became involved with Tim Fisher or
+anybody else. This part of adulthood was not yet within his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>But there it was and here it is, and now there was Martha to complicate
+the picture. Had Mrs. Bagley been alone, she and Tim could go off and
+marry and then settle down in Timbuctoo if they wanted to. But not with
+Martha. She was in the same intellectual kettle of sardines as James. Her
+taste in education was by no means the same. She took to the mathematical
+subjects indifferently, absorbing them well enough&mdash;once she could be
+talked into spending the couple of hours that each day demanded&mdash;but
+without interest. Martha could rattle off quotations from literary
+masters, she could follow the score of most operas (her voice was a bit
+off-key but she knew what was going on) and she enjoyed all of the
+available information on keeping a house in order. Her eye and her mind
+were, as James Holden's, faster than her hand. She went through the same
+frustrations as he did, with different tools and in a different medium.
+The first offside snick of the scissors she knew to be bad before she
+tried the pattern for size, and the only way she could correct such
+defective work was to practice and practice until her muscles were
+trained enough to respond to the direction of her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Remove her now and place her in a school&mdash;even the most advanced
+school&mdash;and she would undergo the unhappy treatment that James had
+undergone these several years ago.</p>
+
+<p>And yet she could not be cut loose. Martha was as much a part of this
+very strange life as James was. So this meant that any revision in
+overall policy must necessarily include the addition of Tim Fisher and
+not the subtraction of Mrs. Bagley and Martha.</p>
+
+<p>"Charles Maxwell" had to go.</p>
+
+<p>James's problem had not changed. His machine must be kept a secret as
+long as he could. The machine was his, James Quincy Holden's property by
+every known and unwritten legal right of direct, single, uncluttered
+inheritance. The work of his parents had been stopped by their death, but
+it was by no means finished with the construction of the machine. To the
+contrary, the real work had only begun with the completion of the first
+working model. And whether he turned out to be a machine-made genius, an
+over-powered dolt, or an introverted monster it was still his own
+personal reason for being alive.</p>
+
+<p>He alone should reap the benefit or the sorrow, and had his parents lived
+they would have had their right to reap good or bad with him. Good or
+bad, had they lived, he would have received their protection.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, he had no protection whatsoever. Until he could have and hold
+the right to control his own property as he himself saw fit, he had to
+hide just as deep from the enemy who would steal it as he must hide from
+the friend who would administrate it as a property in escrow for his own
+good, since he as a minor was legally unable to walk a path both fitting
+and proper for his feet.</p>
+
+<p>So, the facts had to be concealed. Yet all he was buying was time.</p>
+
+<p>By careful juggling, he had already bought some. Months with Jake Caslow,
+a few months stolidly fighting the school, and two with the help of Mrs.
+Bagley and Martha. Then in these later months there had been more
+purchased time; time gained by the post-dated engagement and the
+procrastinated marriage, which was now running out.</p>
+
+<p>No matter what he did, it seemed that the result was a wider spread of
+knowledge about the Holden Electromechanical Educator.</p>
+
+<p>So with misgiving and yet unaware of any way or means to circumvent the
+necessity without doing more overall harm, James decided that Tim Fisher
+must be handed another piece of the secret. A plausible piece, with as
+much truth as he would accept for the time being. Maybe&mdash;hand Tim Fisher
+a bit with great gesture and he would not go prying for the whole?</p>
+
+<p>His chance came in mid-August. It was after dinner on an evening
+uncluttered with party or shower or the horde of just-dropped-in-friends
+of whom Tim Fisher had legion.</p>
+
+<p>Janet Bagley and Tim Fisher sat on the low divan in the living room
+half-facing each other. Apart, but just so far apart that they could
+touch with half a gesture, they were discussing the problem of domicile.
+They were also still quibbling mildly about the honeymoon. Tim Fisher
+wanted a short, noisy one. A ten-day stay in Hawaii, flying both ways,
+with a ten-hour stopover in Los Angeles on the way back. Janet Bagley
+wanted a long and lazy stay somewhere no closer than fifteen hundred
+miles to the nearest telephone, newspaper, mailbox, airline, bus stop, or
+highway. She'd take the 762-day rocket trip to Venus if they had one
+available. Tim was duly sympathetic to her desire to get away from her
+daily grind for as long a time as possible, but he also had a garage to
+run, and he was by no means incapable of pointing out the practical side
+of crass commercialism.</p>
+
+<p>But unlike the problem of the honeymoon, which Janet Bagley was willing
+to discuss on any terms for the pleasure of discussing it, the problem of
+domicile had been avoided&mdash;to the degree of being pointed.</p>
+
+<p>For Janet Bagley was still torn between two loyalties. Hers was not
+a lone loyalty to James Holden, there had been almost a complete
+association with the future of her daughter in the loyalty. She realized
+as well as James did, that Martha must not be wrested from this life and
+forced to live, forever an outcast, raised mentally above the level of
+her age and below the physical size of her mental development. Mrs.
+Bagley thought only of Martha's future; she gave little or no thought on
+the secondary part of the problem. But James knew that once Martha was
+separated from the establishment, she could not long conceal her advanced
+information, and revealing that would reveal its source.</p>
+
+<p>And so, as they talked together with soft voices, James Holden decided
+that he could best buy time by employing logic, finance, and good common
+sense. He walked into the living room and sat across the coffee table
+from them. He said, "You'll have to live here, you know."</p>
+
+<p>The abrupt statement stunned them both. Tim sat bolt upright and
+objected, "I'll see to it that we're properly housed, young fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"This isn't charity," replied James. "Nor the goodness of my little
+heart. It's a necessity."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?" demanded Tim crossly. "It's my life&mdash;and Janet's."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;Martha's life," added James.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't think I'm including her out, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but you're forgetting that she isn't to be popped here and there as
+the fancy hits you, either. She's much to be considered."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll consider her," snapped Tim. "She shall be my daughter. If she will,
+I'll have her use my name as well as my care and affection."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you will," agreed James. The quick gesture of Mrs. Bagley's
+hand towards Tim, and his equally swift caress in reply were noticed but
+not understood by James. "But you're not thinking deeply enough about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. You tell me all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Martha must stay here," said James. "Neither of you&mdash;nor Martha&mdash;have
+any idea of how stultifying it can be to be forced into school under the
+supervision of teachers who cannot understand, and among classmates
+whose grasp of any subject is no stronger than a feeble grope in the
+mental dawn."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe so. But that's no reason why we must run our life your way."</p>
+
+<p>"You're wrong, Mr. Fisher. Think a moment. Without hesitation, you will
+include the education of Martha Bagley along with the 'care and
+affection' you mentioned a moment ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>"This means, Mr. Fisher, that Martha, approaching ten years old,
+represents a responsibility of about seven more years prior to her
+graduation from high school and another four years of college&mdash;granting
+that Martha is a standard, normal, healthy young lady. Am I right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, since you are happy and willing to take on the responsibility of
+eleven years of care and affection and the expense of schooling the girl,
+you might as well take advantage of the possibilities here and figure on
+five years&mdash;or less. If we cannot give her the equal of a master's degree
+in three, I'm shooting in the dark. Make it five, and she'll have her
+doctor's degree&mdash;or at least it's equivalent. Does that make sense?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it does. But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No buts until we're finished. You'll recall the tales we told you about
+the necessity of hiding out. It must continue. During the school year we
+must not be visible to the general public."</p>
+
+<p>"But dammit, I don't want to set up my family in someone else's house,"
+objected Tim Fisher.</p>
+
+<p>"Buy this one," suggested James. "Then it will be yours. I'll stay on and
+pay rent on my section."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll&mdash;now wait a minute! What are you talking about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said, <i>'I'll pay rent on my section,'</i>" said James.</p>
+
+<p>"But this guy upstairs&mdash;" Tim took a long breath. "Let's get this
+straight," he said, "now that we're on the subject, what about Mr.
+Charles Maxwell?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can best quote," said James with a smile, "'Oh, what a tangled web we
+weave, when first we practice to deceive!'"</p>
+
+<p>"That's Shakespeare."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry. That's Sir Walter Scott. <i>The Lay of the Last Minstrel</i>. Canto
+Six, Stanza Seventeen. The fact of the matter is that we could go on
+compounding this lie, but it's time to stop it. Mr. Charles Maxwell
+does not exist."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hasn't it puzzled you that this hermit-type character that never puts a
+foot out of the house has been out and gone on some unstated vacation or
+business trip for most of the spring and summer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't given it a thought," said Fisher with a fatuous look at Mrs.
+Bagley. She mooned back at him. For a moment they were lost in one
+another, giving proof to the idea that blinder than he who will not
+see is the fellow who has his eye on a woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Charles Maxwell does not exist except in the minds of his happy
+readers," said James. "He is a famous writer of boys' stories and known
+to a lot of people for that talent. Yet he is no more a real person
+than Lewis Carroll."</p>
+
+<p>"But Lewis Carroll did exist&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"As Charles L. Dodgson, a mathematician famous for his work in symbolic
+logic."</p>
+
+<p>"All right! Then who writes these stories? Who supports you&mdash;and this
+house?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do!"</p>
+
+<p>Tim blinked, looked around the room a bit wildly and then settled on
+Martha, looking at her helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's true, Tim," she said quietly. "It's crazy but it works. I've been
+living with it for years."</p>
+
+<p>Tim considered that for a full minute. "All right," he said shortly. "So
+it works. But why does any kid have to live for himself?" He eyed James.
+"Who's responsible for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Got an hour?" asked James with a smile. "Then listen&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At the end of James Holden's long explanation, Tim Fisher said, "Me&mdash;?
+Now, I need a drink!"</p>
+
+<p>James chuckled, "Alcoholic, of course&mdash;which is Pi to seven decimal
+places if you ever need it. Just count the letters."</p>
+
+<p>Over his glass, Tim eyed James thoughtfully. "So if this is true, James,
+just who owns that fabulous machine of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is mine, or ours."</p>
+
+<p>"You gave me to believe that it was a high-priority Government project,"
+he said accusingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry. But I would lie as glibly to God Himself if it became necessary
+to protect myself by falsehood. I'm sorry it isn't a Government project,
+but it's just as important a secret."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything as big as this <i>should</i> be the business of the Government."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps so. But it's mine to keep or to give, and it's mine to study."
+James was thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose that you can argue that
+anything as important as this should be handed over to the authorities
+immediately; that a large group of men dedicated to such a study can
+locate its difficulties and its pitfalls and failures far swifter than
+a single youth of eleven. Yet by the right of invention, a process
+protected by the Constitution of the United States and circumvented by
+some very odd rulings on the part of the Supreme Court, it is mine by
+inheritance, to reap the exclusive rewards for my family's work. Until
+I'm of an age when I am deemed capable of managing my own life, I'd be
+'protected' out of my rights if I handed this to anybody&mdash;including the
+Government. They'd start a commission full of bureaucrats who'd first
+use the machine to study how to best expand their own little empire,
+perpetuate themselves in office, and then they'd rule me out on the
+quaint theory that education is so important that it mustn't be wasted
+on the young."</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher smiled wryly. He turned to Janet Bagley. "How do you want it?"
+he asked her.</p>
+
+<p>"For Martha's sake, I want it his way," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Then that's the way we'll have it," said Tim Fisher. He eyed
+James somewhat ruefully. "You know, it's a funny thing. I've always
+thought this was a screwy set-up, and to be honest, I've always thought
+you were a pretty bumptious kid. I guess you had a good reason. Anyway, I
+should have known Janet wouldn't have played along with it unless she had
+a reason that was really helping somebody."</p>
+
+<p>James saw with relief that Tim had allied himself with the cause; he was,
+in fact, very glad to have someone knowledgeable and levelheaded in on
+the problem. Anyway he really liked Tim, and was happy to have the
+deception out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," he said awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>Tim laughed. "Hey, will this contraption of yours teach me how to adjust
+a set of tappets?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said James quickly. "It will teach you the theory of how to chop
+down a tree but it can't show you how to swing an axe. Or," he went on
+with a smile, "it will teach you how to be an efficient accountant&mdash;but
+you have to use your own money!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the house on Martin's Hill, everybody won. Tim Fisher objected at
+first to the idea of gallivanting off on a protracted honeymoon, leaving
+a nine-year-old daughter in the care of a ten-year-old boy. But
+Janet&mdash;now Mrs. Fisher&mdash;pointed out that James and Martha were both quite
+competent, and furthermore there was little to be said for a honeymoon
+encumbered with a little pitcher that had such big ears, to say nothing
+of a pair of extremely curious eyes and a rather loud voice. And
+furthermore, if we allow the woman's privilege of adding one furthermore
+on top of another, it had been a long, long time since Janet had enjoyed
+a child-free vacation. So she won. It was not Hawaii by air for a ten-day
+stay. It was Hawaii by ship with a sixty-day sojourn in a hotel that
+offered both seclusion and company to the guests' immediate preference.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden won more time. He felt that every hour was a victory. At
+times he despaired because time passed so crawlingly slow. All the wealth
+of his education could not diminish that odd sense of the time-factor
+that convinces all people that the length of the years diminish as age
+increases. Far from being a simple, amusing remark, the problem has been
+studied because it is universal. It is psychological, of course, and it
+is not hard to explain simply in terms of human experience plus the known
+fact that the human senses respond to the logarithm of the stimulus.</p>
+
+<p>With most people, time is reasonably important. We live by the clock, and
+we die by the clock, and before there were clocks there were candles
+marked in lengths and sand flowing through narrow orifices, water
+dripping into jars, and posts stuck in the ground with marks for the
+shadow to divide the day. The ancient ones related womanhood to the moon
+and understood that time was vital in the course of Life.</p>
+
+<p>With James, time was more important, perhaps, than to any other human
+being alive. He was fighting for time, always. His was not the immature
+desire of uneducated youth to become adult overnight for vague reasons.</p>
+
+<p>With James it was an honest evaluation of his precarious position. He
+had to hide until he was deemed capable of handling his own affairs,
+after which he could fight his own battles in his own way without the
+interference of the laws that are set up to protect the immature.</p>
+
+<p>With Tim Fisher and his brand-new bride out of the way, James took a deep
+breath at having leaped one more hurdle. Then he sat down to think.</p>
+
+<p>Obviously there is no great sea-change that takes place at the Stroke Of
+Midnight on the date of the person's 21st birthday; no magic wand is
+waved over his scalp to convert him in a moment of time from a puling
+infant to a mature adult. The growth of child to adult is as gradual as
+the increase of his stature, which varies from one child to the next.</p>
+
+<p>The fact remained that few people are confronted by the necessity of
+making a decision based upon the precise age of the subject. We usually
+cross this barrier with no trouble, taking on our rights and
+responsibilities as we find them necessary to our life. Only in probating
+an estate left by the demise of both parents in the presence of minor
+children does this legal matter of precise age become noticeable. Even
+then, the control exerted over the minor by the legal guardian diminishes
+by some obscure mathematical proportion that approaches zero as the minor
+approaches the legal age of maturity. Rare is the case of the reluctant
+guardian who jealously relinquishes the iron rule only after the proper
+litigation directs him to let go, render the accounting for audit, and
+turn over the keys to the treasury to the rightful heir.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden was the seldom case. James Holden needed a very adroit
+lawyer to tell him how and when his rights and privileges as a citizen
+could be granted, and under what circumstances. From the evidence already
+at hand, James saw loopholes available in the matter of the legal age of
+twenty-one. But he also knew that he could not approach a lawyer with
+questions without giving full explanation of every why and wherefore.</p>
+
+<p>So James Holden, already quite competent in the do-it-himself method of
+cutting his own ice, decided to study law. Without any forewarning of the
+monumental proportions of the task he faced, James started to acquire
+books on legal procedure and the law.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>With the return of Tim and Janet Fisher matters progressed well. Mrs.
+Fisher took over the running of the household; Tim continued his running
+of the garage and started to dicker for the purchase of the house on
+Martin's Hill. The "Hermit" who had returned before the wedding remained
+temporarily. With a long-drawn plan, Charles Maxwell would slowly fade
+out of sight. Already his absence during the summer was hinting as being
+a medical study; during the winter he would return to the distant
+hospital. Later he would leave completely cured to take up residence
+elsewhere. Beyond this they planned to play it by ear.</p>
+
+<p>James and Martha, freed from the housework routine, went deep into study.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas passed and spring came and in April, James marked his eleventh
+birthday.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN" id="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN"></a>CHAPTER THIRTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>One important item continued to elude James Holden. The Educator could
+not be made to work in "tandem." In less technical terms, the Educator
+was strictly an individual device, a one-man-dog. The wave forms that
+could be recorded were as individual as fingerprints and pore-patterns
+and iris markings. James could record a series of ideas or a few pages of
+information and play them back to himself. During the playback he could
+think in no other terms; he could not even correct, edit or improve the
+phrasing. It came back word for word with the faithful reproduction of
+absolute fidelity. Similarly, Martha could record a phase of information
+and she, too, underwent the same repetition when her recording was played
+back to her.</p>
+
+<p>But if Martha's recording were played through to James, utter confusion
+came. It was a whirling maze of colors and odors, sound, taste and touch.</p>
+
+<p>It spoiled some of James Holden's hopes; he sought the way to mass-use,
+his plan was to employ a teacher to digest the information and then via
+the Educator, impress the information upon many other brains each coupled
+to the machine. This would not work.</p>
+
+<p>He made an extra headset late in June and they tried it, sitting
+side-by-side and still it did not work. With Martha doing the reading,
+she got the full benefit of the machine and James emerged with a whirling
+head full of riotous colors and other sensations. At one point he hoped
+that they might learn some subject by sitting side-by-side and reading
+the text in unison, but from this they received the information horribly
+mingled with equal intensity of sensory noise.</p>
+
+<p>He did not abandon this hope completely. He merely put it aside as a
+problem that he was not ready to study yet. He would re-open the question
+when he knew more about the whole process. To know the whole process
+meant studying many fields of knowledge and combining them into a
+research of his own.</p>
+
+<p>And so James entered the summer months as he'd entered them before; Tim
+and Janet Fisher took off one day and returned the next afternoon with a
+great gay show of "bringing the children home for the summer."</p>
+
+<p>Even in this day of multi-billion-dollar budgets and farm surpluses that
+cost forty thousand dollars per hour for warehouse rental, twenty-five
+hundred dollars is still a tidy sum to dangle before the eyes of any
+individual. This was the reward offered by Paul Brennan for any
+information as to the whereabouts of James Quincy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>If Paul Brennan could have been honest, the information he could have
+supplied would have provided any of the better agencies with enough
+lead-material to track James Holden down in a time short enough to make
+the reward money worth the effort. Similarly, if James Holden's
+competence had been no greater than Brennan's scaled-down description,
+he could not have made his own way without being discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Bound by his own guilt, Brennan could only fret. Everything including
+time, was running against him.</p>
+
+<p>And as the years of James Holden's independence looked toward the sixth,
+Paul Brennan was willing to make a mental bet that the young man's
+education was deeper than ever.</p>
+
+<p>He would have won. James was close to his dream of making his play for an
+appearance in court and pleading for the law to recognize his competence
+to act as an adult. He abandoned all pretense; he no longer hid through
+the winter months, and he did not keep Martha under cover either. They
+went shopping with Mrs. Fisher now and then, and if any of the folks in
+Shipmont wondered about them, the fact that the children were in the care
+and keeping of responsible adults and were oh-so-quick on the uptake
+stopped anybody who might have made a fast call to the truant officer.</p>
+
+<p>Then in the spring of James Holden's twelfth year and the sixth of
+his freedom, he said to Tim Fisher. "How would you like to collect
+twenty-five hundred dollars?"</p>
+
+<p>Fisher grinned. "Who do you want killed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Seriously."</p>
+
+<p>"Who wouldn't?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right, drop the word to Paul Brennan and collect the reward."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you protect yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can quote Gladstone from one end to the other. I can cite every civil
+suit regarding the majority or minority problem that has any importance.
+If I fail, I'll skin out of there in a hurry on the next train. But I
+can't wait forever."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the gimmick, James?"</p>
+
+<p>"First, I am sick and tired of running and hiding, and I think I've got
+enough to prove my point and establish my rights. Second, there is a bit
+of cupidity here; the reward money is being offered out of my own
+inheritance so I feel that I should have some say in where it should go.
+Third, the fact that I steer it into the hands of someone I'd prefer to
+get it tickles my sense of humor. The trapper trapped; the bopper bopped;
+the sapper hoist by his own petard."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't fair to Martha, either. So the sooner we get this whole affair
+settled, the sooner we can start to move towards a reasonable way of
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay, but how are we going to work it? I can't very well turn up by
+myself, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"People would think I'm a heel."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them think so. They'll change their opinion once the whole truth is
+known." James smiled. "It'll also let you know who your true friends
+are."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay. Twenty-five hundred bucks and a chance at the last laugh sounds
+good. I'll talk it over with Janet."</p>
+
+<p>That night they buried Charles Maxwell, the Hermit of Martin's Hill.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="BOOK_THREE" id="BOOK_THREE"></a>BOOK THREE:</h2>
+
+<h3>THE REBEL</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN"></a>CHAPTER FOURTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>In his years of searching, Paul Brennan had followed eleven fruitless
+leads. It had cost him over thirteen hundred dollars and he was prepared
+to go on and on until he located James Holden, no matter how much it
+took. He fretted under two fears, one that James had indeed suffered a
+mishap, and the other that James might reveal his secret in a dramatic
+announcement, or be discovered by some force or agency that would place
+the whole process in hands that Paul Brennan could not reach.</p>
+
+<p>The registered letter from Tim Fisher culminated this six years of
+frantic search. Unlike the previous leads, this spoke with authority,
+named names, gave dates, and outlined sketchily but adequately the
+operations of the young man in very plausible prose. Then the letter went
+on in the manner of a man with his foot in a cleft stick; the writer did
+not approve of James Holden's operations since they involved his wife and
+newly-adopted daughter, but since wife and daughter were fond of James
+Holden, the writer could not make any overt move to rid his household of
+the interfering young man. Paul Brennan was asked to move with caution
+and in utter secrecy, even to sending the reward in cash to a special
+post-office box.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan's reaction was a disappointment to himself. He neither felt
+great relief nor the desire to exult. He found himself assaying his own
+calmness and wondering why he lacked emotion over this culmination of so
+many years of futile effort. He re-read the letter carefully to see if
+there were something hidden in the words that his subconscious had
+caught, but he found nothing that gave him any reason to believe that
+this letter was a false lead. It rang true; Brennan could understand Tim
+Fisher's stated reaction and the man's desire to collect. Brennan even
+suspected that Fisher might use the reward money for his own private
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until he read the letter for the third time that he saw the
+suggestion to move with caution and secrecy not as its stated request to
+protect the writer, but as an excellent advice for his own guidance.</p>
+
+<p>And then Paul Brennan realized that for six years he had been
+concentrating upon the single problem of having James Holden returned to
+his custody, and in that concentration he had lost sight of the more
+important problem of achieving his true purpose of gaining control of the
+Holden Educator. The letter had not been the end of a long quest, but
+just the signal to start.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan of course did not give a fig for the Holden Estate nor the
+welfare of James. His only interest was in the machine, and the secret of
+that machine was locked in the young man's mind and would stay that way
+unless James could be coerced into revealing it. The secret indubitably
+existed as hardware in the machine rebuilt in the house on Martin's Hill,
+but Brennan guessed that any sight of him would cause James to repeat his
+job of destruction. Brennan also envisioned a self-destructive device
+that would addle the heart of the machine at the touch of a button,
+perhaps booby-traps fitted like burglar alarms that would ruin the
+machine at the first touch of an untrained hand.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan's mind began to work. He must plan his moves carefully to acquire
+the machine by stealth. He toyed with the idea of murder and rejected it
+as too dangerous to chance a repeat, especially in view of the existence
+of the rebuilt machine.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan read the letter again. It gave him to think. James had obviously
+succeeded in keeping his secret by imparting it to a few people that he
+could either trust or bind to him, perhaps with the offer of education
+via the machine, which James and only James maintained in hiding could
+provide. Brennan could not estimate the extent of James Holden's
+knowledge but it was obvious that he was capable of some extremely
+intelligent planning. He was willing to grant the boy the likelihood of
+being the equal of a long and experienced campaigner, and the fact that
+James was in the favor of Tim Fisher's wife and daughter meant that the
+lad would be able to call upon them for additional advice. Brennan
+counted the daughter Martha in this planning program, most certainly
+James would have given the girl an extensive education, too. Everything
+added up, even to Tim Fisher's resentment.</p>
+
+<p>But there was not time to ponder over the efficiency of James Holden's
+operations. It was time for Paul Brennan to cope, and it seemed sensible
+to face the fact that Paul Brennan alone could not plot the illegal
+grab of the Holden Educator and at the same time masquerade as the
+deeply-concerned loving guardian. He could label James Holden's little
+group as an organization, and if he was to combat this organization he
+needed one himself.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan began to form a mental outline of his requirements. First he
+had to figure out the angle at which to make his attack. Once he knew the
+legal angle, then he could find ruthless men in the proper position of
+authority whose ambitions he could control. He regretted that the elder
+Holden had not allowed him to study civil and criminal law along with his
+courses in real estate and corporate law. As it was, Brennan was unsure
+of his legal rights, and he could not plan until he had researched the
+problem most thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>To his complete surprise, Paul Brennan discovered that there was no law
+that would stay an infant from picking up his marbles and leaving home.
+So long as the minor did not become a ward of responsibility of the
+State, his freedom was as inviolable as the freedom of any adult. The
+universal interest in missing-persons cases is overdrawn because of their
+dramatic appeal. In every case that comes to important notice, the
+missing person has left some important responsibilities that had to be
+satisfied. A person with no moral, legal, or ethical anchor has every
+right to pack his suitcase and catch the next conveyance for parts
+unknown. If he is found by the authorities after an appeal by friends or
+relatives, the missing party can tell the police that, Yes he did leave
+home and, No he isn't returning and, furthermore he does not wish his
+whereabouts made known; and all the authorities can report is that the
+missing one is hale, happy, and hearty and wants to stay missing.</p>
+
+<p>Under the law, a minor is a minor and there is no proposition that
+divides one degree of minority from another. Major decisions, such as
+voting, the signing of binding contracts of importance, the determination
+of a course of drastic medical treatment, are deemed to be matters that
+require mature judgment. The age for such decisions is arbitrarily set at
+age twenty-one. Acts such as driving a car, sawing a plank, or buying
+food and clothing are considered to be "skills" that do not require
+judgment and therefore the age of demarcation varies with the state and
+the state legislature's attitude.</p>
+
+<p>James was a minor; presumably he could repudiate contracts signed while a
+minor, at the time he reached the age of twenty-one. From a practical
+standpoint, however, anything that James contracted for was expendable
+and of vital necessity. He could not stop payment on a check for his
+rent, nor claim that he had not received proper payment for his stories
+and demand damages. Paul Brennan might possibly interfere with the smooth
+operation by squawking to the bank that Charles Maxwell was a phantom
+front for the minor child James Holden. And bankers, being bankers, might
+very well clog up the operation with a lot of questions. But there was
+the possibility that James Holden, operating through the agency of an
+adult, would switch his method. He could even go so far as to bring
+Brennan to lawsuit to have Brennan stopped from his interference. Child
+or not, James Holden had been running a checking account by mail for a
+number of years which could be used as evidence of his good faith and
+ability.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the position of James Holden was so solid that Brennan could only
+plead personal interest and personal responsibility in the case for
+securing a writ of habeas corpus to have the person of James Holden
+returned to his custody and protection. And this of itself was a bit on
+the dangerous side. A writ of habeas corpus will, by law, cause the
+delivery of the person to the right hands, but there is no part of the
+writ that can be used to guarantee that the person will remain
+thereafter. If Brennan tried to repeat this program, James Holden was
+very apt to suggest either the rather rare case of Barratry or
+Maintenance against Brennan. Barratry consists of the constant harassment
+of a citizen by the serial entry of lawsuit after lawsuit against him,
+each of which he must defend to the loss of time and money&mdash;and the tying
+up of courts and their officials. Maintenance is the re-opening of the
+same suit and its charges time after time in court after court. One need
+only be sure of the attitude of the plaintiff to strike back; if he is
+interested in heckling the defendant and this can be demonstrated in
+evidence, the heckler is a dead duck. Such a response would surely damage
+Paul Brennan's overt position as a responsible, interested, affectionate
+guardian of his best friends' orphaned child.</p>
+
+<p>Then to put the top on the bottle, James Holden had crossed state lines
+in his flight from home. This meant that the case was not the simple
+proposition of appearing before a local magistrate and filing an
+emotional appeal. It was interstate. It smacked of extradition, and James
+Holden had committed no crime in either state.</p>
+
+<p>To Paul Brennan's qualifications for his henchmen, he now added the need
+for flouting the law if the law could not be warped to fit his need.</p>
+
+<p>Finding a man with ambition, with a casual disregard for ethics, is not
+hard in political circles. Paul Brennan found his man in Frank Manison,
+a rising figure in the office of the District Attorney. Manison had
+gubernatorial ambitions, and he was politically sharp. He personally
+conducted only those cases that would give him ironclad publicity; he
+preferred to lower the boom on a lighter charge than chance an acquittal.
+Manison also had a fine feeling for anticipating public trends, a sense
+of the drama, and an understanding of public opinion.</p>
+
+<p>He granted Brennan a conference of ten minutes, and knowing from long
+experience that incoming information flows faster when it is not
+interrupted, he listened attentively, oiling and urging the flow by
+facial expressions of interest and by leaning forward attentively
+whenever a serious point was about to come forth. Brennan explained about
+James Holden, his superior education, and what it had enabled the lad to
+do. He explained the education not as a machine but as a "system of
+study" devised by James Holden's parents, feeling that it was better to
+leave a few stones lying flat and unturned for his own protection.
+Manison nodded at the end of the ten-minute time-limit, used his desk
+interphone to inform his secretary that he was not to be disturbed until
+further notice (which also told Paul Brennan that he was indeed
+interested) and then said:</p>
+
+<p>"You know you haven't a legal leg to stand on, Brennan."</p>
+
+<p>"So I find out. It seems incredible that there isn't any law set up to
+control the activity of a child."</p>
+
+<p>"Incredible? No, Brennan, not so. To now it hasn't been necessary. People
+just do not see the necessity of laws passed to prevent something that
+isn't being done anyway. The number of outmoded laws, ridiculous laws,
+and laws passed in the heat of public emotion are always a subject for
+public ridicule. If the state legislature were to pass a law stating that
+any child under fourteen may not leave home without the consent of his
+parents, every opposition newspaper in the state would howl about the
+waste of time and money spent on ridiculous legislation passed to govern
+activities that are already under excellent control. They would poll the
+state and point out that for so many million children under age fourteen,
+precisely zero of them have left home to set up their own housekeeping.
+One might just as well waste the taxpayer's money by passing a law that
+confirms the Universal Law of Gravity.</p>
+
+<p>"But that's neither here nor there," he said. "Your problem is to figure
+out some means of exerting the proper control over this intelligent
+infant."</p>
+
+<p>"My problem rises higher than that," said Brennan ruefully. "He dislikes
+me to the point of blind, unreasonable hatred. He believes that I am the
+party responsible for the death of his parents and furthermore that the
+act was deliberate. Tantamount to a charge of first-degree murder."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he made that statement recently?" asked Manison.</p>
+
+<p>"I would hardly know."</p>
+
+<p>"When last did you hear him say words to that effect?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the time, following the accidental death of his parents, James Holden
+ran off to the home of his grandparents. Puzzled and concerned, they
+called me as the child's guardian. I went there to bring him back to his
+home. I arrived the following morning and it was during that session that
+James Holden made the accusation."</p>
+
+<p>"And he has not made it since, to the best of your knowledge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I know of."</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly make anything out of that. Seven years ago. Not a formal charge,
+only a cry of rage, frustration, hysterical grief. The complaint of a
+five-year-old made under strain could hardly be considered slanderous.
+It is too bad that the child hasn't broken any laws. Your success in
+collecting him the first time was entirely due to the associations he'd
+made with this automobile thief&mdash;Caslow, you said his name was. We can't
+go back to that. The responsibility has been fixed, I presume, upon Jake
+Caslow in another state. Brennan, you've a real problem: How can you be
+sure that this James Holden will disclose his secret system of study even
+if we do succeed in cooking up some legal means of placing him and keep
+him in your custody?"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan considered, and came to the conclusion that now was the time to
+let another snibbet of information go. "The system of study consists of
+an electronic device, the exact nature of which I do not understand. The
+entire machine is large and cumbersome. In it, as a sort of 'heart,' is a
+special circuit. Without this special circuit the thing is no more than
+an expensive aggregation of delicate devices that could be used elsewhere
+in electronics. One such machine stands unused in the Holden Home because
+the central circuit was destroyed beyond repair or replacement by young
+James Holden. He destroyed it because he felt that this secret should
+remain his own, the intellectual inheritance from his parents. There is
+one other machine&mdash;undoubtedly in full function and employed daily&mdash;in
+the house on Martin's Hill under James Holden's personal supervision."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? How, may I ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was rebuilt by James Holden from plans, specifications, and
+information engraved on his brain by his parents through the use of their
+first machine. Unfortunately, I have every reason to believe that this
+new machine is so booby-trapped and tamper-protected that the first
+interference by someone other than James Holden will cause its
+destruction."</p>
+
+<p>"Um. It might be possible to impound this machine as a device of high
+interest to the State," mused Manison. "But if we start any proceeding
+as delicate as that, it will hit every newspaper in the country and our
+advantage will be lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Technically," said Paul Brennan, "you don't know that such a machine
+exists. But as soon as young Holden realizes that you know about his
+machine, he'll also know that you got the information from me." Brennan
+sat quietly and thought for a moment. "There's another distressing angle,
+too," he said at last. "I don't think that there is a soul on earth who
+knows how to run this machine but James Holden. Steal it or impound it or
+take it away legally, you've got to know how it runs. I doubt that we'd
+find a half-dozen people on the earth who'd willingly sit in a chair with
+a heavy headset on, connected to a devilish aggregation of electrical
+machinery purported to educate the victim, while a number of fumblers
+experimented with the dials and the knobs and the switches. No sir, some
+sort of pressure must be brought to bear upon the youngster."</p>
+
+<p>"Um. Perhaps civic pride? Might work. Point out to him that he is in
+control of a device that is essential to the security of the United
+States. That he is denying the children of this country the right to
+their extensive education. Et cetera?"</p>
+
+<p>"Could be. But how are you going to swing it, technically in ignorance of
+the existence of such a machine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Were I a member of the Congressional Committee on Education, I could
+investigate the matter of James Holden's apparent superiority of
+intellect."</p>
+
+<p>"And hit Page One of every newspaper in the country," sneered Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm not," snapped Manison angrily. "However, there is a way,
+perhaps several ways, once we find the first entering wedge. After all,
+Brennan, the existence of a method of accelerating the course of
+educational training is of the utmost importance to the future of not
+only the United States of America, but the entire human race. Once I can
+locate some plausible reason for asking James Holden the first question
+about anything, the remainder of any session can be so slanted as to
+bring into the open any secret knowledge he may have. We, to make the
+disclosure easier, shall hold any sessions in the strictest of secrecy.
+We can quite readily agree with James Holden's concern over the
+long-range effectiveness of his machine and state that secrecy is
+necessary lest headstrong factions take the plunge into something that
+could be very detrimental to the human race instead of beneficial.
+Frankly, Mr. Brennan," said Manison with a wry smile, "I should like to
+borrow that device for about a week myself. It might help me locate some
+of the little legal points that would help me." He sighed. "Yes," he said
+sadly, "I know the law, but no one man knows all of the finer points.
+Lord knows," he went on, "if the law were a simple matter of behaving as
+it states, we'd not have this tremendous burden. But the law is subject
+to interpretation and change and argument and precedent&mdash;Precedent? Um,
+here we may have an interesting angle, Brennan. I must look into it."</p>
+
+<p>"Precedent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. Any ruling that we were to make covering the right of a
+seven, eight, or nine year old to run his own life as he sees fit will be
+a ruling that establishes precedent."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, up to now there's no ruling about such a case; no child of ten has
+ever left home to live as he prefers. But this James Holden is apparently
+capable of doing just that&mdash;and any impartial judge deliberating such a
+case would find it difficult to justify a decision that placed the
+competent infant under the guardianship and protection of an adult who is
+less competent than the infant."</p>
+
+<p>Brennan's face turned dark. "You're saying that this Holden kid is
+smarter than I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down and stop sputtering," snapped Manison. "What were you doing at
+six years old, Brennan? Did you have the brains to leave home and protect
+yourself by cooking up the plausible front of a very interesting
+character such as the mythical Hermit of Martin's Hill? Were you writing
+boys' stories for a nationwide magazine of high circulation and
+accredited quality? Could you have planned your own dinner and prepared
+it, or would you have dined on chocolate bars washed down with strawberry
+pop? Stop acting indignant. Start thinking. If for no other reason than
+that we don't want to end up selling pencils on Halstead Street because
+we're not quite bright, we've got to lay our hands on that machine. We've
+got to lead, not follow. Yet at the present time I'll wager that your
+James Holden is going to give everybody concerned a very rough time. Now,
+let me figure out the angles and pull the wires. One thing that nobody
+can learn from any electronic machine is how to manipulate the component
+people that comprise a political machine. I'll be in touch with you,
+Brennan."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The ring at the door was Chief of Police Joseph Colling and another
+gentleman. Janet Fisher answered the door, "Good evening, Mr. Colling.
+Come in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Colling politely. "This is Mr. Frank Manison, from the
+office of the State Department of Justice."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh? Is something wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that we know of," replied Manison. "We're simply after some
+information. I apologize for calling at eight o'clock in the evening, but
+I wanted to catch you all under one roof. Is Mr. Fisher home? And the
+children?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes. We're all here." Janet stepped aside to let them enter the
+living room, and then called upstairs. Mr. Manison was introduced around
+and Tim Fisher said, cautiously, "What's the trouble here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No trouble that we know of," said Manison affably. "We're just after
+some information about the education of James Holden, a legal minor, who
+seems never to have been enrolled in any school."</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't mind," replied Tim Fisher, "I'll not answer anything
+without the advice of my attorney."</p>
+
+<p>Janet Fisher gasped.</p>
+
+<p>Tim turned with a smile. "Don't you like lawyers, honey?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't that. But isn't crying for a lawyer an admission of some sort?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure is," replied Tim Fisher. "It's an admission that I don't know all
+of my legal rights. If lawyers come to me because they don't know all
+there is to know about the guts of an automobile, I have every right to
+the same sort of consultation in reverse. Agree, James?"</p>
+
+<p>James Holden nodded. "The man who represents himself in court has a fool
+for a client," he said. "I think that's Daniel Webster, but I'm not
+certain. No matter; it's right. Call Mr. Waterman, and until he arrives
+we'll discuss the weather, the latest dope in high-altitude research, or
+nuclear physics."</p>
+
+<p>Frank Manison eyed the lad. "You're James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>Tim interrupted. "We're not answering <i>anything</i>," he warned.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't mind admitting my identity," said James. "I've committed no
+crime, I've broken no law. No one can point to a single act of mine that
+shows a shred of evidence to the effect that my intentions are not
+honorable. Sooner or later this whole affair had to come to a showdown,
+and I'm prepared to face it squarely."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Manison. "Now, without inviting comment, let me explain
+one important fact. The state reserves the right to record marriages,
+births, and deaths as a simple matter of vital statistics. We feel that
+we have every right to the compiling of the census, and we can justify
+our feeling. I am here because of some apparent irregularities, records
+of which we do not have. If these apparent irregularities can be
+explained to our satisfaction for the record, this meeting will be ended.
+Now, let's relax until your attorney arrives."</p>
+
+<p>"May I get you some coffee or a highball?" asked Janet Fisher.</p>
+
+<p>"Coffee, please," agreed Frank Manison. Chief Colling nodded quietly.
+They relaxed over coffee and small talk for a half hour. The arrival of
+Waterman, Tim Fisher's attorney, signalled the opening of the discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"First," said Manison, his pencil poised over a notebook, "Who lives here
+in permanent residence, and for how long?" He wrote rapidly as they told
+him. "The house is your property?" he asked Tim, and wrote again. "And
+you are paying a rental on certain rooms of this house?" he asked James,
+who nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you attend school?" he asked James.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get your education?"</p>
+
+<p>"By a special course in home study."</p>
+
+<p>"You understand that under the state laws that provide for the education
+of minor children, the curriculum must be approved by the state?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do."</p>
+
+<p>"And has it?"</p>
+
+<p>Waterman interrupted. "Just a moment, Mr. Manison. In what way must the
+curriculum be approved? Does the State study all textbooks and the manner
+in which each and every school presents them? Or does the State merely
+insist that the school child be taught certain subjects?"</p>
+
+<p>"The State merely insists that certain standards of education be
+observed."</p>
+
+<p>"In fact," added James, "the State does not even insist that the child
+<i>learn</i> the subjects, realizing that some children lack the intellect to
+be taught certain subjects completely and fully. Let's rather say that
+the State demands that school children be exposed to certain subjects in
+the hope that they 'take.' Am I not correct?"</p>
+
+<p>"I presume you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall answer your question. In my home study, I have indeed
+followed the approved curriculum by making use of the approved textbooks
+in their proper order. I am aware of the fact that this is not the same
+State, but if you will consult the record of my earlier years in
+attendance at a school selected by my legal guardian, you'll find that I
+passed from preschool grade to Fourth Grade in a matter of less than half
+a year, at the age of five-approaching-six. If this matter is subject to
+question, I'll submit to any course of extensive examination your
+educators care to prepare. The law regarding compulsory education in this
+state says that the minor child must attend school until either the age
+of eighteen, or until he has completed the standard eight years of
+grammar school and four years of high school. I shall then stipulate that
+the suggested examination be limited to the schooling of a high school
+graduate."</p>
+
+<p>"For the moment we'll pass this over. We may ask that you do prove your
+contention," said Manison.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't doubt that I can, do you?" asked James.</p>
+
+<p>Manison shook his head. "No, at this moment I have no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why do you bother asking?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am here for a rather odd reason," said Manison. "I've told you the
+reservations that the State holds, which justify my presence. Now, it is
+patently obvious that you are a very competent young man, James Holden.
+The matter of making your own way is difficult, as many adults can
+testify. To have contrived a means of covering up your youth, in addition
+to living a full and competent life, demonstrates an ability above and
+beyond the average. Now, the State is naturally interested in anything
+that smacks of acceleration of the educational period. Can you understand
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally. None but a dolt would avoid education."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you agree with our interest?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just a moment, James," said Waterman. "Let's put it that you understand
+their interest, but that you do not necessarily agree."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," said James.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must also understand that this 'course of study' by which you
+claim the equal of a high-school education at the age of ten or eleven
+(perhaps earlier) must be of high importance."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand that it might," agreed James.</p>
+
+<p>"Then will you explain why you have kept this a secret?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just a moment," said Waterman again. "James, would you say that your
+method of educating yourself is completely perfected?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not completely."</p>
+
+<p>"Not perfected?" asked Manison. "Yet you claim to have the education of a
+high-school graduate?"</p>
+
+<p>"I so claim," said James. "But I must also point out that I have acquired
+a lot of mish-mash in the course of this education. For instance, it is
+one thing to study English, its composition, spelling, vocabulary,
+construction, rules and regulations. One must learn these things if he is
+to be considered literate. In the course of such study, one also becomes
+acquainted with English literature. With literature it is enough to
+merely be acquainted with the subject. One need not know the works of
+Chaucer or Spenser intimately&mdash;unless one is preparing to specialize in
+the English literature of the writers of that era. Frankly, sir, I should
+hate to have my speech colored by the flowery phrases of that time, and
+the spelling of that day would flunk me out of First Grade if I made use
+of it. In simple words, I am still perfecting the method."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, James," went on Waterman, "have you ever entertained the idea of
+not releasing the details of your method?"</p>
+
+<p>"Occasionally," admitted James.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Until we know everything about it, we can not be certain that its
+ultimate effect will be wholly beneficial."</p>
+
+<p>"So, you see," said Waterman to Manison, "the intention is reasonable.
+Furthermore, we must point out that this system is indeed the invention
+created by the labor and study of the parents of James Holden, and as
+such it is a valuable property retained by James Holden as his own by the
+right of inheritance. The patent laws of the United States are clear, it
+is the many conflicting rulings that have weakened the system. The law
+itself is contained in the Constitution of the United States, which
+provides for the establishment of a Patent Office as a means to encourage
+inventors by granting them the exclusive right to the benefits of their
+labor for a reasonable period of time&mdash;namely seventeen years with
+provision for a second period under renewal."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why doesn't he make use of it?" demanded Manison.</p>
+
+<p>"Because the process, like so many another process, can be copied and
+used by individuals without payment, and because there hasn't been a
+patent suit upheld for about forty years, with the possible exception
+of Major Armstrong's suit against the Radio Corporation of America,
+settled in Armstrong's favor after about twenty-five years of expensive
+litigation. A secret is no longer a secret these days, once it has been
+written on a piece of paper and called to the attention of a few million
+people across the country."</p>
+
+<p>"You realize that anything that will give an extensive education at an
+early age is vital to the security of the country."</p>
+
+<p>"We recognize that responsibility, sir," said Waterman quietly. "We also
+recognize that in the hands of unscrupulous men, the system could be
+misused. We also realize its dangers, and we are trying to avoid them
+before we make the announcement. We are very much aware of the important,
+although unfortunate, fact that James Holden, as a minor, can have his
+rights abridged. Normally honest men, interested in the protection of
+youth, could easily prevent him from using his own methods, thus
+depriving him of the benefits that are legally his. This could be
+done under the guise of protection, and the result would be the
+super-education of the protectors&mdash;whose improving intellectual
+competence would only teach them more and better reasons for depriving
+the young man of his rights. James Holden has a secret, and he has a
+right to keep that secret, and his only protection is for him to continue
+to keep that secret inviolate. It was his parents' determination not to
+release this process upon the world until they were certain of the
+results. James is a living example of their effort; they conceived him
+for the express purpose of providing a virgin mind to educate by their
+methods, so that no outside interference would becloud their results. If
+this can be construed as the illegal experimentation on animals under the
+anti-vivisection laws, or cruelty to children, it was their act, not his.
+Is that clear?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is clear," replied Manison. "We may be back for more discussion on
+this point. I'm really after information, not conducting a case, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you have your information."</p>
+
+<p>"Not entirely. We've another point to consider, Mr. Waterman. It is
+admittedly a delicate point. It is the matter of legal precedent.
+Granting everything you say is true&mdash;and I'll grant that hypothetically
+for the purpose of this argument&mdash;let's assume that James Holden
+ultimately finds his process suitable for public use. Now, happily to
+this date James had not broken any laws. He is an honorable individual.
+Let's now suppose that in the near future, someone becomes educated by
+his process and at the age of twelve or so decided to make use of his
+advanced intelligence in nefarious work?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Let's suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you tell me who is responsible for the person of James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is responsible unto himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Not under the existing laws," said Manison. "Let's consider James just
+as we know him now. Who says, 'go ahead,' if he has an attack of acute
+appendicitis?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the absence of someone to take the personal responsibility," said
+James quietly, "the attending doctor would toss his coin to see whether
+his Oath of Hippocrates was stronger than his fear of legal reprisals.
+It's been done before. But let's get to the point, Mr. Manison. What do
+you have in mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"You've rather pointedly demonstrated your preference to live here rather
+than with your legally-appointed guardian."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, young man, I suggest that we get this matter settled legally. You
+are not living under the supervision of your guardian, but you are indeed
+living under the auspices of people who are not recognized by law as
+holding the responsibility for you."</p>
+
+<p>"So far there's been no cause for complaint."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's keep it that way," smiled Manison. "I'll ask you to accept a writ
+of habeas corpus, directing you to show just cause why you should not be
+returned to the custody of your guardian."</p>
+
+<p>"And what good will that do?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you can show just cause," said Manison, "the Court will follow
+established precedent and appoint Mr. and Mrs. Fisher as your responsible
+legal guardians&mdash;if that is your desire."</p>
+
+<p>"Can this be done?" asked Mrs. Fisher.</p>
+
+<p>"It's been done before, time and again. The State is concerned primarily
+with the welfare of the child; children have been legally removed from
+natural but unsuitable parents, you know." He looked distressed for a
+moment and then went on, "The will of the deceased is respected, but the
+law recognizes that it is the living with which it must be primarily
+concerned, that mistakes can be made, and that such errors in judgment
+must be rectified in the name of the public weal."</p>
+
+<p>"I've been&mdash;" started James but Attorney Waterman interrupted him:</p>
+
+<p>"We'll accept the service of your writ, Mr. Manison." And to James after
+the man had departed: "Never give the opposition an inkling of what you
+have in mind&mdash;and always treat anybody who is not in your retainer as
+opposition."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN"></a>CHAPTER FIFTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>The case of Brennan vs. Holden opened in the emptied court room of Judge
+Norman L. Carter, with a couple of bored members of the press wishing
+they were elsewhere. For the first two hours, it was no more than
+formalized outlining of the whole situation.</p>
+
+<p>The plaintiff identified himself, testified that he was indeed the legal
+guardian of the minor James Quincy Holden, entered a transcript of the
+will in evidence, and then went on to make his case. He had provided
+a home atmosphere that was, to the best of his knowledge, the type of
+home atmosphere that would have been highly pleasing to the deceased
+parents&mdash;especially in view of the fact that this home was one and the
+same house as theirs and that little had been changed. He was supported
+by the Mitchells. It all went off in the slow, cumbersome dry phraseology
+of the legal profession and the sum and substance of two hours of
+back-and-forth question-and-answer was to establish the fact that Paul
+Brennan had provided a suitable home for the minor, James Quincy Holden,
+and that the minor James Quincy Holden had refused to live in it and had
+indeed demonstrated his objections by repeatedly absenting himself
+wilfully and with premeditation.</p>
+
+<p>The next half hour covered a blow-by-blow account of Paul Brennan's
+efforts to have the minor restored to him. The attorneys for both sides
+were alert. Brennan's counsel did not even object when Waterman paved the
+way to show why James Holden wanted his freedom by asking Brennan:</p>
+
+<p>"Were you aware that James Holden was a child of exceptional intellect?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And you've testified that when you moved into the Holden home, you found
+things as the Holdens had provided them for their child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"In your opinion, were these surroundings suitable for James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were far too advanced for a child of five."</p>
+
+<p>"I asked specifically about James Holden."</p>
+
+<p>"James Holden was five years old."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman eyed Brennan with some surprise, then cast a glance at Frank
+Manison, who sat at ease, calmly watching and listening with no sign of
+objection. Waterman turned back to Brennan and said, "Let's take one more
+turn around Robin Hood's Barn, Mr. Brennan. First, James Holden was an
+exceptional child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And the nature of his toys and furnishings?"</p>
+
+<p>"In my opinion, too advanced for a child of five."</p>
+
+<p>"But were they suitable for James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"James Holden was a child of five."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman faced Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "I submit that the
+witness is evasive. Will you direct him to respond to my direct question
+with a direct answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"The witness will answer the question properly," said Judge Carter with
+a slight frown of puzzlement, "unless counsel for the witness has some
+plausible objection?"'</p>
+
+<p>"No objection," said Manison.</p>
+
+<p>"Please repeat or rephrase your question," suggested Judge Carter.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Brennan," said Waterman, "you've testified that James was an
+exceptional child, advanced beyond his years. You've testified that the
+home and surroundings provided by James Holden's parents reflected this
+fact. Now tell me, were the toys, surroundings, and the home suitable for
+James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"In my opinion, no."</p>
+
+<p>"And subsequently you replaced them with stuff you believed more suitable
+for a child of five, is that it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I did, and you are correct."</p>
+
+<p>"To which he objected?"</p>
+
+<p>"To which James Holden objected."</p>
+
+<p>"And what was your response to his objection?"</p>
+
+<p>"I overruled his objection."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon what grounds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the grounds that the education and the experience of an adult
+carries more wisdom than the desires of a child."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Brennan, please listen carefully. During the months following
+your guardianship, you successively removed the books that James Holden
+was fond of reading, replaced his advanced Meccano set with a set of
+modular blocks, exchanged his oil-painting equipment for a child's
+coloring books and standard crayolas, and in general you removed
+everything interesting to a child with known superiority of intellect?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"And your purpose in opening this hearing was to convince this Court that
+James Holden should be returned by legal procedure to such surroundings?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is."</p>
+
+<p>"No more questions," said Waterman. He sat down and rubbed his forehead
+with the palm of his right hand, trying to think.</p>
+
+<p>Manison said, "I have one question to ask of Janet Fisher, known formerly
+as Mrs. Bagley."</p>
+
+<p>Janet Fisher was sworn and properly identified.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mrs. Fisher, prior to your marriage to Mr. Fisher and during your
+sojourn with James Holden in the House on Martin's Hill, did you
+supervise the activities of James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Manison. He turned to Waterman and waved him to any
+cross-questioning.</p>
+
+<p>Still puzzled, Waterman asked, "Mrs. Fisher, who did supervise the House
+on Martin's Hill?"</p>
+
+<p>"James Holden."</p>
+
+<p>"During those years, Mrs. Fisher, did James Holden at any time conduct
+himself in any other manner but the actions of an honest citizen? I mean,
+did he perform or suggest the performance of any illegal act to your
+knowledge?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, he did not."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman turned to Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "it seems quite
+apparent to me that the plaintiff in this case has given more testimony
+to support the contentions of my client than they have to support their
+own case. Will the Court honor a petition that the case be dismissed?"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Norman L. Carter smiled slightly. "This is irregular," he said.
+"You should wait for that petition until the plaintiff's counsel has
+closed his case, you know." He looked at Frank Manison. "Any objection?"</p>
+
+<p>Manison said, "Your Honor, I have permitted my client to be shown in this
+questionable light for no other purpose than to bring out the fact that
+any man can make a mistake in the eyes of other men when in reality he
+was doing precisely what he thought to be the best thing to do for
+himself and for the people within his responsibility. The man who raises
+his child to be a roustabout is wrong in the eyes of his neighbor who is
+raising his child to be a scientist, and vice versa. We'll accept the
+fact that James Holden's mind is superior. We'll point out that there
+have been many cases of precocious children or child geniuses who make a
+strong mark in their early years and drop into oblivion by the time
+they're twenty. Now, consider James Holden, sitting there discussing
+something with his attorney&mdash;I have no doubt in the world that he could
+conjugate Latin verbs, discuss the effect of the Fall of Rome on Western
+Civilization, and probably compute the orbit of an artificial satellite.
+But can James Holden fly a kite or shoot a marble? Has he ever had the
+fun of sliding into third base, or whittling on a peg, or any of the
+other enjoyable trivia of boyhood? Has he&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"One moment," said Judge Carter. "Let's not have an impassioned oration,
+counsel. What is your point?"</p>
+
+<p>"James Holden has a legal guardian, appointed by law at the express will
+of his parents. Headstrong, he has seen fit to leave that protection. He
+is fighting now to remain away from that protection. I can presume that
+James Holden would prefer to remain in the company of the Fishers where,
+according to Mrs. Fisher, he was not responsible to her whatsoever, but
+rather ran the show himself. I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't make that presumption," said Judge Carter. "Strike it from the
+record."</p>
+
+<p>"I apologize," said Manison. "But I object to dismissing this case until
+we find out just what James Holden has in mind for his future."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll hold Counsel Waterman's petition in abeyance until the point you
+mention is in the record," said Judge Carter. "Counsel, are you
+finished?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Manison. "I'll rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Waterman?"</p>
+
+<p>Waterman said, "Your Honor, we've been directed to show just cause why
+James Holden should not be returned to the protection of his legal
+guardian. Counsel has implied that James Holden desires to be placed in
+the legal custody of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher. This is a pardonable error
+whether it stands in the record or not. The fact is that James Holden
+does not need protection, nor does he want protection. To the contrary,
+James Holden petitions this Court to declare him legally competent so
+that he may conduct his own affairs with the rights, privileges, and
+indeed, even the <i>risks</i> taken by the status of adult.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll point out that the rules and laws that govern the control and
+protection of minor children were passed by benevolent legislators to
+prevent exploitation, cruelty, and deprivation of the child's life by
+men who would take advantage of his immaturity. However we have here a
+young man of twelve who has shown his competence to deal with the adult
+world by actual practice. Therefore it is our contention that protective
+laws are not only unnecessary, but undesirable because they restrict the
+individual from his desire to live a full and fruitful life.</p>
+
+<p>"To prove our contention beyond any doubt, I'll ask that James Holden be
+sworn in as my first witness."</p>
+
+<p>Frank Manison said, "I object, Your Honor. James Holden is a minor and
+not qualified under law to give creditable testimony as a witness."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman turned upon Manison angrily. "You really mean that you object to
+my case <i>per se</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"That, too," replied Manison easily.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor, I take exception! It is my purpose to place James Holden on
+the witness stand, and there to show this Court and all the world that he
+is of honorable mind, properly prepared to assume the rights of an adult.
+We not only propose to show that he acted honorably, we shall show that
+James Holden consulted the law to be sure that whatever he did was not
+illegal."</p>
+
+<p>"Or," added Manison, "was it so that he would know how close to the limit
+he could go without stepping over the line?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor," asked Waterman, "can't we have your indulgence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I object! The child is a minor."</p>
+
+<p>"I accept the statement!" stormed Waterman. "And I say that we intend to
+prove that this minor is qualified to act as an adult."</p>
+
+<p>"And," sneered Manison, "I'll guess that one of your later arguments will
+be that Judge Carter, having accepted this minor as qualified to deliver
+sworn testimony, has already granted the first premise of your argument."</p>
+
+<p>"I say that James Holden has indeed shown his competence already by
+actually doing it!"</p>
+
+<p>"While hiding under a false fa&ccedil;ade!"</p>
+
+<p>"A fa&ccedil;ade forced upon him by the restrictive laws that he is petitioning
+the Court to set aside in his case so that he need hide no longer."</p>
+
+<p>Frank Manison said, "Your Honor, how shall the case of James Holden be
+determined for the next eight or ten years if we do grant James Holden
+this legal right to conduct his own affairs as an adult? That we must
+abridge the laws regarding compulsory education is evident. James Holden
+is twelve years and five months old. Shall he be granted the right to
+enter a tavern to buy a drink? Will his request for a license to marry be
+honored? May he enter the polling place and cast his vote? The contention
+of counsel that the creation of Charles Maxwell was a physical necessity
+is acceptable. But what happens without 'Maxwell'? Must we prepare a card
+of identity for James Holden, stating his legal status, and renew it
+every year like an automobile license because the youth will grow in
+stature, add to his weight, and ultimately grow a beard? Must we enter on
+this identification card the fact that he is legally competent to sign
+contracts, rent a house, write checks, and make his own decision about
+the course of dangerous medical treatment&mdash;or shall we list those items
+that he is not permitted to do such as drinking in a public place, cast
+his vote, or marry? This State permits a youth to drive an automobile at
+the age of sixteen, this act being considered a skill rather than an act
+that requires judgment. Shall James Holden be permitted to drive an
+automobile even though he can not reach the foot pedals from any position
+where he can see through the windshield?"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter sat quietly. He said calmly, "Let the record show that I
+recognize the irregularity of this procedure and that I permit it only
+because of the unique aspects of this case. Were there a Jury, I would
+dismiss them until this verbal exchange of views and personalities has
+subsided.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he went on, "I will not allow James Holden to take the witness
+stand as a qualified witness to prove that he is a qualified witness.
+I am sure that he can display his own competence with a flow of academic
+brilliance, or his attorney would not have tried to place him upon the
+stand where such a display could have been demonstrated. Of more
+importance to the Court and to the State is an equitable disposition
+of the responsibility to and over James Quincy Holden."</p>
+
+<p>Judge Norman L. Carter leaned forward and looked from Frank Manison to
+James Holden, and then to Attorney Waterman.</p>
+
+<p>"We must face some awkward facts," he said. "If I rule that he be
+returned to Mr. Brennan, he will probably remain no longer than he finds
+it convenient, at which point he will behave just as if this Court had
+never convened. Am I not correct, Mr. Manison?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor, you are correct. However, as a member of the Department of
+Justice of this State, I suggest that you place the responsibility in my
+hands. As an Officer of the Court, my interest would be to the best
+interest of the State rather than based upon experience, choice, or
+opinion as to what is better for a five-year-old or a child prodigy. In
+other words, I would exert the control that the young man needed. At the
+same time I would not make the mistakes that were made by Mr. Brennan's
+personal opinion of how a child should be reared."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman shouted, "I object, Your Honor. I object&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan leaped to his feet and cried, "Manison, you can't freeze me
+out&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>James Holden shrilled, "I won't! I won't!"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter eyed them one by one, staring them into silence. Finally he
+looked at Janet Fisher and said, "May I also presume that you would be
+happy to resume your association with James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded and said, "I'd be glad to," in a sincere voice. Tim Fisher
+nodded his agreement.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan whirled upon them and snarled. "My reward money&mdash;" but he was
+shoved down in his seat with a heavy hand by Frank Manison who snapped,
+"Your money bought what it was offered for. So now shut up, you utter
+imbecile!"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Norman L. Carter cleared his throat and said, "This great concern
+over the welfare of James Holden is touching. We have Mr. Brennan already
+twice a loser and yet willing to try it for three times. We have Mr. and
+Mrs. Fisher who are not dismayed at the possibility of having their home
+occupied by a headstrong youth whose actions they cannot control. We find
+one of the ambitious members of the District Attorney's Office offering
+to take on an additional responsibility&mdash;all, of course, in the name of
+the State and the welfare of James Holden. Finally we have James Holden
+who wants no part of the word 'protection' and claims the ability to run
+his own life.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it strikes me that assigning the responsibility for this young
+man's welfare is by no means the reason why you all are present, and it
+similarly occurs to me that the young man's welfare is of considerably
+less importance than the very interesting question of how and why this
+young man has achieved so much."</p>
+
+<p>With a thoughtful expression, Judge Carter said, "James Holden, how did
+you acquire this magnificent education at the tender age of twelve-plus?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I object!" cried Frank Manison. "The minor is not qualified to give
+testimony."</p>
+
+<p>"Objection overruled. This is not testimony. I have every right in the
+world to seek out as much information from whatever source I may select;
+and I have the additional right to inspect the information I receive to
+pass upon its competence and relevance. Sit down, counsel!"</p>
+
+<p>Manison sat grumpily and Judge Carter eyed James again, and James took a
+full breath. This was the moment he had been waiting for.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, James. Answer my question. Where did you come by your knowledge?"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James Holden stood up. This was the question that had to arise; he was
+only surprised it had taken so long.</p>
+
+<p>He said calmly: "Your Honor, you may not ask that question."</p>
+
+<p>"I may not?" asked Judge Carter with a lift of his eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"No sir. You may not."</p>
+
+<p>"And just why may I not?"</p>
+
+<p>"If this were a criminal case, and if you could establish that some of my
+knowledge were guilty knowledge, you could then demand that I reveal the
+source of my guilty knowledge and under what circumstance it was
+obtained. If I refused to disclose my source, I could then be held in
+contempt of court or charged with being an accessory to the corpus of the
+crime. However, this is a court hearing to establish whether or not I am
+competent under law to manage my own affairs. How I achieve my mental
+competence is not under question. Let us say that it is a process that is
+my secret by the right of inheritance from my parents and as such it is
+valuable to me so long as I can demand payment for its use."</p>
+
+<p>"This information may have a bearing on my ruling."</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor, the acquisition of knowledge or information <i>per se</i> is
+concomitant with growing up. I can and will demonstrate that I have the
+equivalent of the schooling necessary to satisfy both this Court and the
+State Board of Education. I will state that my education has been
+acquired by concentration and application in home study, and that I admit
+to attendance at no school. I will provide you or anybody else with a
+list of the books from which I have gleaned my education. But whether I
+practice Yoga, Dianetics, or write the lines on a sugarcoated pill and
+swallow it is my trade secret. It can not be extracted from me by any
+process of the law because no illegality exists."</p>
+
+<p>"And what if I rule that you are not competent under the law, or withhold
+judgment until I have had an opportunity to investigate these ways and
+means of acquiring an accelerated education?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll then go on record as asking you to disbar yourself from this
+hearing on the grounds that you are not an impartial judge of the justice
+in my case."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon what grounds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the grounds that you are personally interested in being provided
+with a process whereby you may acquire an advanced education yourself."</p>
+
+<p>The judge looked at James thoughtfully for a moment. "And if I point out
+that any such process is of extreme interest to the State and to the
+Union itself, and as such must be disclosed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall point out that your ruling is based upon a personal opinion
+because you don't know anything about the process. If I am ruled a legal
+minor you cannot punish me for not telling you my secrets, and if I am
+ruled legally competent, I am entitled to my own decision."</p>
+
+<p>"You are within your rights," admitted Judge Carter with some interest.
+"I shall not make such a demand. But I now ask you if this process of
+yours is both safe and simple."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is properly used with some good judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"Now listen to me carefully," said Judge Carter. "Is it not true that
+your difficulties in school, your inability to get along with your
+classmates, and your having to hide while you toiled for your livelihood
+in secret&mdash;these are due to this extensive education brought about
+through your secret process?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must agree, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You must agree," interrupted Judge Carter. "Yet knowing these unpleasant
+things did not deter you from placing, or trying to place, the daughter
+of your housekeeper in the same unhappy state. In other words, you hoped
+to make an intellectual misfit out of her, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;now see here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You see here! Did you or did you not aid in the education of Martha
+Bagley, now Martha Fisher?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I did, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Was that good judgment, James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's wrong with higher education?" demanded James angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, if it's acquired properly."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now listen again. If I were to rule in your favor, would Martha Fisher
+be the next bratling in a long and everlasting line of infant supermen
+applying to this and that and the other Court to have their legal
+majority ruled, each of them pointing to your case as having established
+precedence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no way of predicting the future, sir. What may happen in the
+future really has no bearing in evidence here."</p>
+
+<p>"Granted that it does not. But I am not going to establish a dangerous
+precedent that will end with doctors qualified to practice surgery before
+they are big enough to swing a stethoscope or attorneys that plead a case
+before they are out of short pants. I am going to recess this case
+indefinitely with a partial ruling. First, until this process of yours
+comes under official study, I am declaring you, James Holden, to be a
+Ward of this State, under the jurisdiction of this Court. You will have
+the legal competence to act in matters of skill, including the signing of
+documents and instruments necessary to your continued good health. In all
+matters that require mature judgment, you will report to this Court and
+all such questions shall be rendered after proper deliberation either in
+open session or in chambers, depending upon the Court's opinion of their
+importance. The court stenographer will now strike all of the testimony
+given by James Holden from the record."</p>
+
+<p>"I object!" exploded Brennan's attorney, rising swiftly and with one hand
+pressing Brennan down to prevent him from rising also.</p>
+
+<p>"All objections are overruled. The new Ward of the State will meet with
+me in my chambers at once. Court is adjourned."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The session was stormy but brief. Holden objected to everything, but the
+voice of Judge Carter was loud and his stature was large; they overrode
+James Holden and compelled his attention.</p>
+
+<p>"We're out of the court," snapped Judge Carter. "We no longer need
+observe the niceties of court etiquette, so now shut up and listen!
+Holden, you are involved in a thing that is explosively dangerous. You
+claim it to be a secret, but your secret is slowly leaking out of your
+control. You asked for your legal competence to be ruled. Fine, but if I
+allowed that, every statement made by you about your education would be
+in court record and your so-called secret that much more widespread. How
+long do you think it would have been before millions of people howled at
+your door? Some of them yelping for help and some of them bitterly
+objecting to tampering with the immature brain? You'd be accused of
+brainwashing, of making monsters, of depriving children of their heritage
+of happiness&mdash;and in the same ungodly howl there would be voices as
+loudly damning you for not tossing your process into their laps. And
+there would be a number trying to get to you on the sly so that they
+could get a head start over the rest.</p>
+
+<p>"You want your competence affirmed legally? James, you have not the
+stature nor the voice to fight them off. Even now, your little secret is
+in danger and you'll probably have to bribe a few wiseacres with a touch
+of accelerated knowledge to keep them from spilling the whole story, even
+though I've ruled your testimony incompetent and immaterial and stricken
+from the record. Now, we'll study this system of yours under controlled
+conditions as your parents wanted, and we'll have professional help and
+educated advice, and both you and your process shall be under the
+protection of my Court, and when the time comes you shall receive the
+kudos and benefits from it. Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. Now, as my first order, you go back to Shipmont and pack your
+gear. You'll report to my home as soon as you've made all the
+arrangements. There'll be no more hiding out and playing your little
+process in secret either from Paul Brennan&mdash;yes, I know that you believe
+that he was somehow instrumental in the death of your parents but have no
+shred of evidence that would stand in court&mdash;or the rest of the world. Is
+that, and everything else I've said in private, very clear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. Now, be off with you. And do not hesitate to call upon me if there
+is any interference whatsoever."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIXTEEN" id="CHAPTER_SIXTEEN"></a>CHAPTER SIXTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>Judge Carter insisted and won his point that James Holden accept
+residence in his home.</p>
+
+<p>He did not turn a hair when the trucks of equipment arrived from the
+house on Martin's Hill; he already had room for it in the cellar. He
+cheerfully allowed James the right to set it up and test it out. He
+respected James Holden's absolute insistence that no one be permitted to
+touch the special circuit that was the heart of the entire machine. Judge
+Carter also counter-requested&mdash;and enforced the request&mdash;that he be
+allowed to try the machinery out. He took a simple reading course in
+higher mathematics, after discovering that Holden's machine would not
+teach him how to play the violin. (Judge Carter already played the
+violin&mdash;but badly.)</p>
+
+<p>Later, the judge committed to memory the entire book of Bartlett's Famous
+Quotations despite the objection of young Holden that he was cluttering
+up his memory with a lot of useless material. The Judge learned (as James
+had learned earlier) that the proper way to store such information in the
+memory was to read the book with the machine turned in "stand-by" until
+some section was encountered that was of interest. Using this method, the
+judge picked and pecked at the Holy Bible, a number of documents that
+looked like important governmental records, and a few books in modern
+history.</p>
+
+<p>Then there came other men. First was a Professor Harold White from the
+State Board of Education who came to study both Holden and Holden's
+machinery and what it did. Next came a Dr. Persons who said very little
+but made diagrams and histograms and graphs which he studied. The third
+was a rather cheerful fellow called Jack Cowling who was more interested
+in James Holden's personal feelings than he was in the machine. He
+studied many subjects superficially and watched the behavior of young
+Holden as Holden himself studied subjects recommended by Professor White.</p>
+
+<p>White had a huge blackboard installed on the cellar wall opposite the
+machine, and he proceeded to fill the board with block outlines filled
+with crabbed writing and odd-looking symbols. The whole was meaningless
+to James Holden; it looked like the organization chart of a large
+corporation but it contained no names or titles. The arrival of each new
+visitor caused changes in the block diagram.</p>
+
+<p>These arrivals went at their project with stop watches and slide rules.
+They calibrated themselves and James with the cold-blooded attitude of
+racetrack touts clocking their favorite horses. Where James had simply
+taken what he wanted or what he could at any single sitting, then let
+it settle in his mind before taking another dose of unpremeditated
+magnitude, these fellows ascertained the best effectiveness of each
+application to each of them. They tried taking long terms under the
+machine and then they measured the time it took for the installed
+information to sink in and settle into usable shape. Then they tried
+shorter and shorter sittings and measured the correspondingly shorter
+settling times. They found out that no two men were alike, nor were any
+two subjects. They discovered that a man with an extensive education
+already could take a larger sitting and have the new information
+available for mental use in a shorter settling time than a man whose
+education had been sketchy or incomplete.</p>
+
+<p>They brought in men who had either little or no mathematics and gave them
+courses in advanced subjects. Afterwards they provided the foundation
+mathematics and they calibrated and measured the time it took for the
+higher subject to be understood as it aligned its information to the
+whole. Men came with crude English and bluntly read the dictionary and
+the proper rules of grammar and they were checked to see if their early
+bad-speech habits were corrected, and to what degree the Holden machine
+could be made to help repair the damage of a lifelong ingrained set of
+errors. They sent some of these boys through comparison dictionaries in
+foreign tongues and then had their language checked by specialists who
+were truly polylingual. There were some who spoke fluent English but no
+other tongue; these progressed into German with a German-to-English
+comparison dictionary, and then into French via a German-to-French
+comparison and were finally checked out in French by French-speaking
+examiners.</p>
+
+<p>And Professor White's block diagram grew complex, and Dr. Persons's
+histograms filled pages and pages of his broad notebooks.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time that James Holden had ever seen a team of
+researchers plow into a problem, running a cold and icy scientific
+investigation to ascertain precisely how much cause produced how much
+effect. Holden, who had taken what he wanted or needed as the time came,
+began to understand the desirability of full and careful programming. The
+whole affair intrigued him and interested him. He plunged in with a will
+and gave them all the help he could.</p>
+
+<p>He had no time to be bored, and he did not mark the passage of time until
+he arrived at his thirteenth birthday.</p>
+
+<p>Then one night shortly after his birthday, James Holden discovered women
+indirectly. He had his first erotic dream.</p>
+
+<p>We shall not go into the details of this midnight introduction to the
+arrival of manhood, for the simple reason that if we dwell on the
+subject, someone is certain to attempt a dream-analysis and come up with
+some flanged-up character-study or personality-quirk that really has
+nothing to do with the mind or body of James Holden. The truth is that
+his erotic dream was pleasantly stirring, but not entirely satisfactory.
+It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last very long. It awakened him
+to the realization that knowledge is not the end-all of life, and that a
+full understanding of the words, the medical terms, and the biology
+involved did not tell him a thing about this primary drive of all life.</p>
+
+<p>His total grasp of even the sideline issues was still dim. He came to a
+partial understanding of why Jake Caslow had entertained late visitors of
+the opposite sex, but he still could not quite see the reason why Jake
+kept the collection of calendar photographs and paintings hung up around
+the place. Crude jokes and rude talk heard long years before and dimly
+remembered did not have much connection with the subject. To James
+Holden, a "tomato" was still a vegetable, although he knew that some
+botanists were willing to argue that the tomato was really a fruit.</p>
+
+<p>For many days he watched Judge Carter and his wife with a critical
+curiosity that their childless life had never known before. James found
+that they did not act as if something new and strangely thrilling had
+just hit the known universe. He felt that they should know about it.
+Despite the fact that he knew everything that his textbooks could tell
+him about sex and copulation he still had the quaint notion that the
+reason why Judge Carter and his wife were childless was because they had
+not yet gotten around to Doing It. He made no attempt to correlate this
+oddity with its opposite in Jake Caslow's ladies of the night who seemed
+to go on their merry way without conceiving.</p>
+
+<p>He remembered the joking parry-and-thrust of that midnight talk between
+Tim Fisher and Janet Bagley but it made no sense to him still. But as he
+pondered the multitude of puzzlements, some of the answers fell partly
+into place just as some of the matching pieces of a jigsaw puzzle may lie
+close to one another when they are dumped out of the box. Very dimly
+James began to realize that this sort of thing was not New, but to the
+contrary it had been going on for a long, long time. So long in fact that
+neither Tim Fisher nor Janet Bagley had found it necessary to state
+desire and raise objection respectively in simple clear sentences
+containing subject, verb, and object. This much came to him and it
+bothered him even more, now that he understood that they were bandying
+their meanings lightly over a subject so vital, so important, so&mdash;so
+completely personal.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in that oddly irrational corner of his brain that neither knowledge
+nor information had been adequate to rationalize nor had experience
+arrived to supply the explanation, James Holden's limited but growing
+comprehension arrived at a conclusion that was reasonable within its
+limited framework. Judge Carter and his wife occupied separate bedrooms
+and had therefore never Done It. Conversely, Tim and Janet Fisher from
+their midnight discussion obviously Knew What It Was All About. James
+wondered whether they had Done It yet, and he also wondered whether he
+could tell by listening to their discussions and conversations now that
+they'd been married at least long enough to have Tried It.</p>
+
+<p>With a brand new and very interesting subject to study, James lost
+interest in the program of concentrated research. James Holden found that
+all he had to do to arrange a trip to Shipmont was to state his desire to
+go and the length of his visit. The judge deemed both reasonable, Mrs.
+Carter packed James a bag, and off he went.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The house on Martin's Hill was about the same, with some improvement such
+as a coat of paint and some needed repair work. The grounds had been
+worked over, but it was going to take a number of years of concentrated
+gardening to de-weed the tangled lawn and to cut the undergrowth in the
+thin woodsy back area where James had played in concealment.</p>
+
+<p>But the air inside was changed. Janet, as Mrs. Bagley, had been as close
+to James Holden as any substitute mother could have been. Now she seemed
+preoccupied and too busy with her own life to act more than pleasantly
+polite. He could have been visiting the home of a friend instead of
+returning to the domicile he had created, in which he had provided her
+with a home&mdash;for herself and a frightened little girl. She asked him how
+he had been and what he was doing, but he felt that this was more a
+matter of taking up time than real interest. He had the feeling that
+somewhere deep inside, her soul was biting its fingernails. She spoke of
+Martha with pride and hope, she asked how Judge Carter was making out and
+whether Martha would be able to finish her schooling via Holden's
+machine.</p>
+
+<p>James believed this was her problem. Martha had been educated far beyond
+her years. She could no more enter school now than he could; unwittingly
+he'd made Martha a misfit, too. So James tried to explain that part of
+the study undertaken in Judge Carter's program had been the question of
+what to do about Martha.</p>
+
+<p>The professionals studying the case did not know yet whether Martha would
+remain ahead of her age group, or whether to let her loaf it out until
+her age group caught up with her, or whether to give Martha everything
+she could take as fast as she could take it. This would make a female
+counterpart of James Holden to study.</p>
+
+<p>But knowing that there were a number of very brilliant scientists,
+educators, and psychologists working on Martha's problem did not cheer up
+Mrs. Janet Fisher as much as James thought it should. Yet as he watched
+her, he could not say that Tim Fisher's wife was <i>unhappy</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Tim, on the other hand, looked fine. James watched them together as
+critically curious as he'd been in watching the Judge and Mrs. Carter.
+Tim was gentle with his wife, tender, polite, and more than willing to
+wait on her. From their talk and chit-chat, James could detect nothing.
+There were still elisions, questions answered with a half-phrase,
+comments added with a disconnected word and replied in another word
+that&mdash;in cold print&mdash;would appear to have no bearing on the original
+subject. This sort of thing told James nothing. Judge Carter and his wife
+did the same; if there were any difference to be noted it was only in the
+basic subject materials. The judge and his wife were inclined more toward
+discussions of political questions and judicial problems, whereas Tim and
+Janet Fisher were more interested in music, movies, and the general trend
+of the automobile repair business; or more to the point, whether to
+expand the present facility in Shipmont, to open another branch
+elsewhere, or to sell out to buy a really big operation in some sizable
+city.</p>
+
+<p>James saw a change in Martha, too. It had been months since he came back
+home to supervise the removal of his belongings. Now Martha had filled
+out. She was dressed in a shirt-and-skirt instead of the little jumper
+dresses James remembered. Martha's hair was lightly wavy instead of
+trimmed short, and she was wearing a very faint touch of color on her
+lips. She wore tiny slippers with heels just a trifle higher than the
+altitude recommended for a girl close to thirteen.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately they fell into animated chatter of their own, just as they
+always had. There was a barrier between the pair of them and Martha's
+mother and stepfather&mdash;slightly higher than the usual barrier erected
+between children and their adults because of their educational adventures
+together. They had covered reams and volumes together. Martha's mother
+was interested in Holden's machine only when something specific came to
+her attention that she did not wish to forget such as a recipe or a
+pattern, and one very extensive course that enabled her to add a column
+of three-digit numbers by the whole lines instead of taking each column
+digit by digit. Tim Fisher himself had deeper interests, but nearly all
+of them directed at making Tim Fisher a better manager of the automobile
+repair business. There had been some discussion of the possibility that
+Tim Fisher might memorize some subject such as the names of all baseball
+players and their yearly and lifetime scoring, fielding, and playing
+averages, training for him to go as a contestant on one of the big money
+giveaway shows. This never came to pass; Tim Fisher did not have any
+spectacular qualities about him that would land him an invitation. So
+Tim's work with Holden's machine had been straightforward studies in
+mechanics and bookkeeping and business management&mdash;plus a fine repertoire
+of bawdy songs he had rung in on the sly and subsequently used at
+parties.</p>
+
+<p>James and Martha had taken all they wanted of education and available
+information, sometimes with plan and the guidance of schoolbooks and
+sometimes simply because they found the subject of interest. In the past
+they'd had discussions of problems in understanding; they'd talked of
+things that parents and elders would have considered utterly impossible
+to discuss with young minds. With this communion of interests, they fell
+back into their former pattern of first joining the general conversation
+politely and then gradually confining their remarks to one another until
+there were two conversations going on at the same time, one between
+James and Martha and another between Janet and Tim. Again, the vocal
+interference and cross-talk became too high, and it was Tim and Janet who
+left the living room to mix a couple of highballs and start dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The chatter continued, but now with a growing strain on the part of young
+James Holden.</p>
+
+<p>He wanted to switch to a more personal topic of conversation but he did
+not know how to accomplish this feat. There was plenty of interest but it
+was more clinical than passionate; he was not stirred to yearning, he
+felt no overwhelming desire to hold Martha's hand nor to feel the
+softness of her face, yet there was a stirring urge to make some form of
+contact. But he had no idea of how to steer the conversation towards
+personal lines that might lead into something that would justify a
+gesture towards her. It began to work on him. The original clinical urge
+to touch her just to see what reaction would obtain changed into a
+personal urge that grew higher as he found that he could not kick the
+conversational ball in that direction. The idea of putting an arm about
+her waist as he had seen men embrace their girls on television was a
+pleasing thought; he wanted to find out if kissing was as much fun as it
+was made up to be.</p>
+
+<p>But instead of offering him any encouragement, or even giving him a
+chance to start shifting the conversation, Martha went prattling on and
+on and on about a book she'd read recently.</p>
+
+<p>It did not occur to James Holden that Martha Bagley might entertain the
+idea of physical contact of some mild sort on an experimental basis. He
+did not even consider the possibility that he might <i>start</i> her thinking
+about it. So instead of closing the distance between them like a gentle
+wolf, watching with sly calculation to ascertain whether her response was
+positive, negative, or completely neutral, he sat like a post and fretted
+inwardly because he couldn't control the direction of their conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately, of course, Martha ran out of comment on her book and then
+there fell a deadly silence because James couldn't dredge up another
+lively subject. Desperately, he searched through his mind for an opening.
+There was none. The bright patter between male and female characters in
+books he'd smuggled started off on too high a level on both sides. Books
+that were written adequately for his understanding of this problem signed
+off with the trite explanation that they lived happily ever afterwards
+but did not say a darned thing about how they went about it. The slightly
+lurid books that he'd bought, delivered in plain wrappers, gave some very
+illuminating descriptions of the art or act, but the affair opened with
+the scene all set and the principal characters both ready, willing, and
+able. There was no conversational road map that showed the way that led
+two people from a calm and unemotional discussion into an area that might
+lead to something entirely else.</p>
+
+<p>In silence, James Holden sat there sinking deeper and deeper into his own
+misery.</p>
+
+<p>The more he thought about it, the farther he found himself from his
+desire. Later in the process, he knew, came a big barrier called
+"stealing a kiss," and James with his literal mind provided this game
+with an aggressor, a defender, and the final extraction by coercion or
+violence of the first osculatory contact. If the objective could be
+carried off without the defense repulsing the advance, the rest was
+supposed to come with less trouble. But here he was floundering before he
+began, let alone approaching the barrier that must be an even bigger
+problem.</p>
+
+<p>Briefly he wished that it were Christmas, because at Christmas people
+hung up mistletoe. Mistletoe would not only provide an opening by
+custom and tradition, it also cut through this verbal morass of trying
+to lead up to the subject by the quick process of supplying the subject
+itself. But it was a long time before Christmas. James abandoned that
+ill-conceived idea and went on sinking deep and feeling miserable.</p>
+
+<p>Then Martha's mother took James out of his misery by coming in to
+announce dinner. Regretfully, James sighed for his lost moments and
+helplessness, then got to his feet and held out a hand for Martha.</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand in his and allowed him to lift her to her feet by
+pulling. The first contact did not stir him at all, though it was warm
+and pleasant. Once the pulling pressure was off, he continued to hold
+Martha's hand, tentatively and experimentally.</p>
+
+<p>Then Janet Fisher showered shards of ice with a light laugh. "You two can
+stand there holding hands," she said. "But I'm going to eat it while it's
+on the table."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden's hand opened with the swiftness of a reflex action, almost
+as fast as the wink of an eye at the flash of light or the body's jump at
+the crack of sound. Martha's hand did not drop because she, too, was
+holding his and did not let go abruptly. She giggled, gave his hand a
+little squeeze and said, "Let's go. I'm hungry too."</p>
+
+<p>None of which solved James Holden's problem. But during dinner his
+personal problem slipped aside because he discovered another slight
+change in Janet Fisher's attitude. He puzzled over it quietly, but
+managed to eat without any apparent preoccupation. Dinner took about a
+half hour, after which they spent another fifteen minutes over coffee,
+with Janet refusing her second cup. She disappeared at the first shuffle
+of a foot under the table, while James and Martha resumed their years-old
+chore of clearing the table and tackling the dishwashing problem.</p>
+
+<p>Alone in the kitchen, James asked Martha, "What's with your mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, what's with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's changed, somehow."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way?"</p>
+
+<p>"She seems sort of inner-thoughtful. Cheerful enough but as if
+something's bothering her that she can't stop."</p>
+
+<p>"That all?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he went on. "She hiked upstairs like a shot right after dinner was
+over. Tim raced after her. And she said no to coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that. She's just a little upset in the middle."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's pregnant."</p>
+
+<p>"Pregnant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. Can't you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never occurred to me to look."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's so," said Martha, scouring a coffee cup with an exaggerated
+flourish. "And I'm going to have a half-sibling."</p>
+
+<p>"But look&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't <i>you</i> go getting upset," said Martha. "It's a natural process
+that's been going on for hundreds of thousands of years, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for months," said Martha. "It just happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Too bad she's unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"She's very happy. Both of them wanted it."</p>
+
+<p>James considered this. He had never come across Voltaire's observation
+that marriage is responsible for the population because it provides the
+maximum opportunity with the maximum temptation. But it was beginning to
+filter slowly into his brain that the ways and means were always
+available and there was neither custom, tradition, nor biology that
+dictated a waiting period or a time limit. It was a matter of choice, and
+when two people want their baby, and have no reason for not having their
+baby, it is silly to wait.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did they wait so long if they both want it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," replied Martha in a matter-of-fact voice, "they've been working at
+it right along."</p>
+
+<p>James thought some more. He'd come to see if he could detect any
+difference between the behavior of Judge and Mrs. Carter, and the
+behavior of Tim and Janet Fisher. He saw little, other than the standard
+differences that could be accounted for by age and temperament. Tim and
+Janet did not really act as if they'd Discovered Something New. Tim, he
+knew, was a bit more sweet and tender to Janet than he'd been before, but
+there was nothing startling in his behavior. If there were any difference
+as compared to their original antics, James knew that it was undoubtedly
+due to the fact that they didn't have to stand lollygagging in the
+hallway for two hours while Janet half-heartedly insisted that Tim go
+home. He went on to consider his original theory that the Carters were
+childless because they occupied separate bedrooms; by some sort of
+deduction he came to the conclusion that he was right, because Tim and
+Janet Fisher were making a baby and they slept in the same bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>He went on in a whirl; maybe the Carters didn't want children, but it was
+more likely that they too had tried but it hadn't happened.</p>
+
+<p>And then it came to him suddenly that here he was in the kitchen alone
+with Martha Bagley, discussing the very delicate subject. But he was
+actually no closer to his problem of becoming a participant than he'd
+been an hour ago in the living room. It was one thing to daydream the
+suggestion when you can also daydream the affirmative response, but it
+was another matter when the response was completely out of your control.
+James was not old enough in the ways of the world to even consider
+outright asking; even if he had considered it, he did not know how to
+ask.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The evening went slowly. Janet and Tim returned about the time the
+dishwashing process was complete. Janet proposed a hand of bridge; Tim
+suggested poker, James voted for pinochle, and Martha wanted to toss a
+coin between canasta or gin rummy. They settled it by dealing a shuffled
+deck face upward until the ace of hearts landed in front of Janet,
+whereupon they played bridge until about eleven o'clock. It was
+interesting bridge; James and Martha had studied bridge columns and books
+for recreation; against them were aligned Tim and Janet, who played with
+the card sense developed over years of practice. The youngsters knew the
+theories, their bidding was as precise as bridge bidding could be made
+with value-numbering, honor-counting, response-value addition, and all
+of the other systems. They understood all of the coups and end plays
+complete with classic examples. But having all of the theory engraved on
+their brains did not temporarily imprint the location of every card
+already played, whereas Tim and Janet counted their played cards
+automatically and made up in play what they missed in stratagem.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven, Janet announced that she was tired, Tim joined her; James
+turned on the television set and he and Martha watched a ten-year-old
+movie for an hour. Finally Martha yawned.</p>
+
+<p>And James, still floundering, mentally meandered back to his wish that it
+were Christmas so that mistletoe would provide a traditional gesture of
+affection, and came up with a new and novel idea that he expressed in a
+voice that almost trembled:</p>
+
+<p>"Tired, Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why don't I kiss you good night and send you off to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, if you want to."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;just&mdash;well, everybody does it."</p>
+
+<p>She sat near him on the low divan, looking him full in the face but
+making no move, no gesture, no change in her expression. He looked at her
+and realized that he was not sure of how to take hold of her, how to
+reach for her, how to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>She said, "Well, go ahead."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as I get good and ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we going to sit here all night?"</p>
+
+<p>In its own way, it reminded James of the equally un-brilliant
+conversation between Janet and Tim on the homecoming after their first
+date. He chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"What's so funny?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," he said in a slightly strained voice. "I'm thinking that here
+we sit like a couple of kids that don't know what it's all about."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Martha, "aren't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said reluctantly, "I guess we are. But darn it, Martha, how
+does a guy grow up? How does a guy learn these things?" His voice was
+plaintive, it galled him to admit that for all of his knowledge and his
+competence, he was still just a bit more than a child emotionally.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," she said in a voice as plaintive as his. "I wouldn't know
+where to look to find it. I've tried. All I know," she said with a
+quickening voice, "is that somewhere between now and then I'll learn how
+to toss talk back and forth the way they do."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said glumly.</p>
+
+<p>"James," said Martha brightly, "we should be somewhat better than a pair
+of kids who don't know what it's all about, shouldn't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what bothers me," he admitted. "We're neither of us stupid. Lord
+knows we've plenty of education between us, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"James, how did we get that education?"</p>
+
+<p>"Through my father's machine."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't understand. What I mean is that no matter how we got our
+education, we had to learn, didn't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes. In a&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, let's not get involved in another philosophical argument. Let's run
+this one right on through to the end. Why are we sitting here fumbling?
+Because we haven't yet learned how to behave like adults."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so. But it strikes me that anything should be&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"James, for goodness' sake. Here we are, the two people in the whole
+world who have studied everything we know together, and when we hit
+something we can't study&mdash;you want to go home and kiss your old machine,"
+she finished with a remarkable lack of serial logic. She laughed
+nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"What's so darned funny?" he demanded sourly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said, "you're afraid to kiss me because you don't know how, and
+I'm afraid to let you because I don't know how, and so we're talking away
+a golden opportunity to find out. James," she said seriously, "if you
+fumble a bit, I won't know the difference because I'm no smarter than you
+are."</p>
+
+<p>She leaned forward holding her face up, her lips puckered forward in
+a tight little rosebud. She closed her eyes and waited. Gingerly and
+hesitantly he leaned forward and met her lips with a pucker of his own.
+It was a light contact, warm, and ended quickly with a characteristic
+smack that seemed to echo through the silent house. It had all of the
+emotional charge of a mother-in-law's peck, but it served its purpose
+admirably. They both opened their eyes and looked at one another from
+four inches of distance. Then they tried it again and their second was a
+little longer and a little warmer and a little closer, and it ended with
+less of the noise of opening a fruit jar.</p>
+
+<p>Martha moved over close beside him and put her head on his shoulder;
+James responded by putting an arm around her, and together they tried to
+assemble themselves in the comfortably affectionate position seen in
+movies and on television. It didn't quite work that way. There seemed to
+be too many arms and legs and sharp corners for comfort, or when they
+found a contortion that did not create interferences with limb or corner,
+it was a strain on the spine or a twist in the neck. After a few minutes
+of this coeducational wrestling they decided almost without effort to
+return to the original routine of kissing. By more luck than good
+management they succeeded in an embrace that placed no strain and which
+met them almost face to face. They puckered again and made contact, then
+pressure came and spread out the pair of tightly pursed rosebuds. Martha
+moved once to get her nose free of his cheek for a breath of air.</p>
+
+<p>At the rate they were going, they might have hit paydirt this time, but
+just at the point where James should have relaxed to enjoy the long kiss
+he began to worry: There is something planned and final about the quick
+smacking kiss, but how does one gracefully terminate the long-term,
+high-pressure jobs? So instead of enjoying himself, James planned and
+discarded plans until he decided that the way he'd do it would be to
+exert a short, heavy pressure and then cease with the same action as in
+the quick-smack variety.</p>
+
+<p>It worked fine, but as he opened his eyes to look at her, she was there
+with her eyes still closed and her lips still ready. He took a deep
+breath and plunged in again. Having determined how to start, James was
+now going to experiment with endings.</p>
+
+<p>They came up for air successfully again, and then spent some time
+wriggling around into another position. The figure-fitting went easier
+this time, after threshing around through three or four near-comforts
+they came to rest in a pleasantly natural position and James Holden
+became nervously aware of the fact that his right hand was cupped over
+a soft roundness that filled his palm almost perfectly. He wondered
+whether to remove it quickly to let her know that this intimacy wasn't
+intentional; slowly so that (maybe, he hoped) she wouldn't realize that
+it had been there; or to leave it there because it felt pleasant. While
+he was wondering, Martha moved around because she could not twist her
+neck all the way around like an owl, and she wanted to see him. The move
+solved his problem but presented the equally great problem of how he
+would try it again.</p>
+
+<p>James allowed a small portion of his brain to think about this, and put
+the rest of his mind at ease by kissing her again. Halfway through, he
+felt warm moistness as her lips parted slightly, then the tip of her
+tongue darted forward between his lips to quest against his tongue in a
+caress so fleeting that it was withdrawn before he could react&mdash;and James
+reacted by jerking his head back faster than if he had been clubbed in
+the face. He was still tingling with the shock, a pleasant shock but none
+the less a shock, when Martha giggled lightly.</p>
+
+<p>He bubbled and blurted, "Wha&mdash;whu&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>She told him nervously, "I've been wanting to try that ever since I read
+it in a book."</p>
+
+<p>He shivered. "What book?" he demanded in almost a quaver.</p>
+
+<p>"A paperback of Tim's. Mother calls them, Tim's sex and slay stories."
+Martha giggled again. "You jumped."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure did. I was surprised. Do it again."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you like it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I didn't have time to find out."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh."</p>
+
+<p>He kissed her again and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally he moved
+back an inch and said, "What's the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think we should. Maybe we ought to wait until we're older."</p>
+
+<p>"Not fair," he complained. "You had all the warning."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you like it?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it gave me the most tickly tingle."</p>
+
+<p>"And all I got was a sort of mild electric shock. Come on."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, I'll do it to you."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Just once."</p>
+
+<p>Leaping to the end of this midnight research, there are three primary
+ways of concluding, namely: 1, physical satisfaction; 2, physical
+exhaustion; and 3, interruption. We need not go into sub-classifications
+or argue the point. James and Martha were not emotionally ready to
+conclude with mutual defloration. Ultimately they fell asleep on the
+divan with their arms around each other. They weren't interrupted;
+they awoke as the first flush of daylight brightened the sky, and with
+one more rather chaste kiss, they parted to fall into the deep slumber of
+complete physical and emotional exhaustion.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN" id="CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN"></a>CHAPTER SEVENTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>James Holden's ride home on the train gave him a chance to think, alone
+and isolated from all but superficial interruptions. He felt that he was
+quite the bright young man.</p>
+
+<p>He noticed with surreptitious pride that folks no longer eyed him with
+sly, amused, knowing smiles whenever he opened a newspaper. Perhaps some
+of their amusement had been the sight of a youngster struggling with a
+full-spread page, employing arms that did not quite make the span. But
+most of all he hated the condescending tolerance; their everlasting
+attitude that everything he did was "cute" like the little girl who
+decked herself out in mother's clothing from high heels and brassiere
+to evening gown, costume jewelry, and a fumbled smear of makeup.</p>
+
+<p>That was over. He'd made it to a couple of months over fourteen, he'd
+finally reached a stature large enough so that he did not have to prove
+his right to buy a railroad ticket, nor climb on the suitcase bar so that
+he could peer over the counter. Newsdealers let him alone to pick his own
+fare instead of trying to "save his money" by shoving Mickey Mouse at him
+and putting his own choice back on its pile.</p>
+
+<p>He had not succeeded in gaining his legal freedom, but as Ward of the
+State under Judge Carter he had other interesting expectations that he
+might not have stumbled upon. Carter had connections; there was talk of
+James' entering a comprehensive examination at some university, where the
+examining board, forearmed with the truth about his education, would test
+James to ascertain his true level of comprehension. He could of course
+collect his bachelor's degree once he complied with the required work
+of term papers written to demonstrate that his information could be
+interwoven into the formation of an opinion, or reflection, or view
+of some topic. Master's degrees and doctor's degrees required the
+presentation of some original area of study, competence in his chosen
+field, and the development of some facet of the field that had not been
+touched before. These would require more work, but could be handled in
+time.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, he felt that he was in pretty good shape. There were a couple
+of sticky problems, still. He wanted Paul Brennan to get his comeuppance,
+but he knew that there was no evidence available to support his story
+about the slaughter of his parents. It galled him to realize that
+cold-blooded, premeditated murder for personal profit and avarice could
+go undetected. But until there could be proffered some material evidence,
+Brennan's word was as good as his in any court. So Brennan was getting
+away with it.</p>
+
+<p>The other little item was his own independence. He wanted it. That he
+might continue living with Judge Carter had no bearing. No matter how
+benevolent the tyranny, James wanted no part of it. In fighting for his
+freedom, James Holden's foot had slipped. He'd used his father's machine
+on Martha, and that was a legal error.</p>
+
+<p>Martha? James was not really sorry he'd slipped. Error or not, he'd made
+of her the only person in the world who understood his problem wholly and
+sympathetically. Otherwise he would be completely alone.</p>
+
+<p>Oh yes, he felt that he was quite the bright young man. He was coming
+along fine and getting somewhere. His very pleasant experiences in the
+house on Martin's Hill had raised him from a boy to a young man; he was
+now able to grasp the appreciation of the Big Drive, to understand some
+of the reasons why adults acted in the way that they did. He hadn't
+managed another late session of sofa with Martha, but there had been
+little incidental meetings in the hallway or in the kitchen with the
+exchange of kisses, and they'd boldly kissed goodbye at the railroad
+station under her mother's smile.</p>
+
+<p>He could not know Janet Fisher's mind, of course. Janet, mother to a girl
+entering young womanhood, worried about all of the things that such a
+mother worries about and added a couple of things that no other mother
+ever had. She could hardly slip her daughter a smooth version of the
+birds and the bees and people when she knew full well that Martha had
+gone through a yard or so of books on the subject that covered everything
+from the advanced medical to the lurid expos&eacute; and from the salacious to
+the ribald. Janet could only hope that her daughter valued her chastity
+according to convention despite the natural human curiosity which in
+Martha would be multiplied by the girl's advanced education. Janet knew
+that young people were marrying younger and younger as the years went on;
+she saw young James Holden no longer as a rather odd youngster with
+abilities beyond his age. She saw him now as the potential mate for
+Martha. And when they embraced and kissed at the station, Janet did not
+realize that she was accepting this salute as the natural act of two
+sub-adults, rather than a pair of precocious kids.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, James Holden felt very good. Now he had a girl. He had
+acquired one more of the many attitudes of the Age of Maturity.</p>
+
+<p>So James settled down to read his newspaper, and on page three he saw a
+photograph and an article that attracted his attention. The photograph
+was of a girl no more than seven years old holding a baby at least a year
+old. Beside them was a boy of about nine. In the background was a
+miserable hovel made of crude lumber and patched windows. This couple and
+their baby had been discovered by a geological survey outfit living in
+the backwoods hills. Relief, aid, and help were being rushed, and the
+legislature was considering ways and means of their schooling. Neither
+of them could read or write.</p>
+
+<p>James read the article, and his first thought was to proffer his help.
+Aid and enlightenment they needed, and they needed it quickly. And then
+he stopped immediately because he could do nothing to educate them unless
+they already possessed the ability to read.</p>
+
+<p>His second thought was one of dismay. His exultation came down with a
+dull thud. Within seconds he realized that the acquisition of a girl was
+no evidence of his competent maturity. The couple photographed were human
+beings, but intellectually they were no more than animals with a slight
+edge in vocabulary. It made James Holden sick at heart to read the
+article and to realize that such filth and ignorance could still go on.
+But it took a shock of such violence to make James realize that clams,
+guppies, worms, fleas, cats, dogs, and the great whales reproduced their
+kind; intellect, education and mature competence under law had nothing to
+do with the process whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>And while his heart was still unhappy, he turned to page four and read an
+open editorial that discussed the chances of The Educational Party in the
+coming Election Year.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James blinked.</p>
+
+<p>"Splinter" parties, the editorial said, seldom succeeded in gaining a
+primary objective. They only succeeded in drawing votes from the other
+major parties, in splitting the total ballot, and dividing public
+opinion. On the other hand, they did provide a useful political
+weathervane for the major parties to watch most carefully. If the
+splinter party succeeded in capturing a large vote, it was an indication
+that the People found their program favorable and upon such evidence it
+behooved the major parties to mend their political fences&mdash;or to relocate
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Education, said the editorial, was a primary issue and had been one
+for years. There had been experimenting with education ever since
+the Industrial Revolution uncovered the fact, in about 1900, that
+backbreaking physical toil was going to be replaced by educated workers
+operating machinery.</p>
+
+<p>Then the editorial quoted Judge Norman L. Carter:</p>
+
+<p>"'For many years,' said Judge Carter, 'we have deplored the situation
+whereby a doctor or a physicist is not considered fully educated until he
+has reached his middle or even late twenties. Yet instead of speeding up
+the curriculum in the early school years, we have introduced such
+important studies as social graces, baton twirling, interpretive painting
+and dancing, and a lot of other fiddle-faddle which graduates students
+who cannot spell, nor read a book, nor count above ten without taking off
+their shoes. Perhaps such studies are necessary to make sound citizens
+and graceful companions. I shall not contest the point. However, I
+contend that a sound and basic schooling should be included&mdash;and when I
+so contend I am told by our great educators that the day is not long
+enough nor the years great enough to accomplish this very necessary end.</p>
+
+<p>"'Gentlemen, we leaders of The Education Party propose to accomplish
+precisely that which they said cannot be done!'"</p>
+
+<p>The editorial closed with the terse suggestion: Educator&mdash;Educate
+thyself!</p>
+
+<p>James Holden sat stunned.</p>
+
+<p><i>What was Judge Carter doing?</i></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James Holden arrived to find the home of Judge Norman L. Carter an upset
+madhouse. He was stopped at the front door by a secretary at a small desk
+whose purpose was to screen the visitors and to log them in and out in
+addition to being decorative. Above her left breast was a large enamelled
+button, red on top, white in the middle as a broad stripe from left to
+right, and blue below. Across the white stripe was printed CARTER in
+bold, black letters. From in back of the pin depended two broad silk
+ribbons that cascaded forward over the stuffing in her brassiere and hung
+free until they disappeared behind the edge of the desk. She eyed James
+with curiosity. "Young man, if you're looking for throwaways for your
+civics class, you'll have to wait until we're better organized&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>James eyed her with cold distaste. "I am James Quincy Holden," he told
+her, "and you have neither the authority nor the agility necessary to
+prevent my entrance."</p>
+
+<p>"You are&mdash;I what?"</p>
+
+<p>"I live here," he told her flatly. "Or didn't they provide you with this
+tidbit of vital statistic?"</p>
+
+<p>Wheels rotated behind the girl's eyes somewhere, and memory cells linked
+into comprehension. "Oh!&mdash;You're James."</p>
+
+<p>"I said that first," he replied. "Where's Judge Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's in conference and cannot be disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"Your objection is overruled. I shall disturb him as soon as I find out
+precisely what has been going on."</p>
+
+<p>He went on in through the short hallway and found audible confusion. Men
+in groups of two to four stood in corners talking in bedlam. There was a
+layer of blue smoke above their heads that broke into skirls as various
+individuals left one group to join another. Through this vocal mob scene
+James went veering from left to right to avoid the groupings. He stood
+with polite insolence directly in front of two men sitting on the stairs
+until they made room for his passage&mdash;still talking as he went between
+them. In his room, three were sitting on the bed and the chair holding
+glasses and, of course, smoking like the rest. James dropped his
+overnight bag on a low stand and headed for his bathroom. One of the men
+caught sight of him and said, "Hey kid, scram!"</p>
+
+<p>James looked at the man coldly. "You happen to be using my bedroom. You
+should be asking my permission to do so, or perhaps apologizing for not
+having asked me before you moved in. I have no intention of leaving."</p>
+
+<p>"Get the likes of him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, Pete. This is the Holden kid."</p>
+
+<p>"The little genius, huh?"</p>
+
+<p>James said, "I am no genius. I do happen to have an education that
+provides me with the right to criticize your social behavior. I will
+neither be insulted nor patronized."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to him, will you!"</p>
+
+<p>James turned and with the supreme gesture of contempt, he left the door
+open.</p>
+
+<p>He wound his way through the place to Judge Carter's study and home
+office, strode towards it with purpose and reached for the doorknob. A
+voice halted him: "Hey kid, you can't go in there!"</p>
+
+<p>Turning to face the new voice, James said calmly,</p>
+
+<p>"You mean 'may not' which implies that I have asked your permission. Your
+statement is incorrect as phrased and erroneous when corrected."</p>
+
+<p>He turned the knob and entered. Judge Carter sat at his desk with two
+men; their discussion ceased with the sound of the doorknob. The judge
+looked up in annoyance. "Hello, James. You shouldn't have come in here.
+We're busy. I'll let you know when I'm free."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better make time for me right now," said James angrily. "I'd like
+to know what's going on here."</p>
+
+<p>"This much I'll tell you quickly. We're planning a political campaign.
+Now, please&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know you're planning a political campaign," replied James. "But if
+you're proposing to campaign on the platform of a reform in education,
+I suggest that you educate your henchmen in the rudimentary elements of
+polite speech and gentle behavior. I dislike being ordered out of my room
+by usurpers who have the temerity to address me as 'hey kid'."</p>
+
+<p>"Relax, James. I'll send them out later."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd suggest that you tell them off," snapped James. He turned on his
+heel and left, heading for the cellar. In the workshop he found Professor
+White and Jack Cowling presiding over the machine. In the chair with the
+headset on sat the crowning insult of all:</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan leafing through a heavy sheaf of papers, reading and
+intoning the words of political oratory.</p>
+
+<p>Unable to lick them, Brennan had joined them&mdash;or, wondered young Holden,
+was Judge Norman L. Carter paying for Brennan's silence with some plum of
+political patronage?</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>As he stood there, the years of persecution rose strong in the mind of
+James Holden. Brennan, the man who'd got away with murder and would
+continue to get away with it because there was no shred of evidence, no
+witness, nothing but James Holden's knowledge of Brennan's actions when
+he'd thought himself unseen in his calloused treatment of James Holden's
+dying mother; Brennan's critical inspection of the smashed body of his
+father, coldly checking the dead flesh to be sure beyond doubt; the cruel
+search about the scene of the 'accident' for James himself&mdash;interrupted
+only by the arrival of a Samaritan, whose name was never known to James
+Holden. In James rose the violent resentment of the years, the certain
+knowledge that any act of revenge upon Paul Brennan would be viewed as
+cold-blooded premeditated murder without cause or motive.</p>
+
+<p>And then came the angry knowledge that simple slaughter was too good for
+Paul Brennan. He was not a dog to be quickly released from misery by a
+merciful death. Paul Brennan should suffer until he cried for death as a
+blessed release from daily living.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden, angry, silently, unseen by the preoccupied workers,
+stole across the room to the main switch-panel, flipped up a small
+half-concealed cover, and flipped a small button.</p>
+
+<p>There came a sharp <i>Crack</i>! that shattered the silence and
+re-echoed again and again through the room. The panel that held the
+repeater-circuit of the Holden Educator bulged outward; jets of smoke
+lanced out of broken metal, bulged corners, holes and skirled into little
+clouds that drifted upward&mdash;trailing a flowing billow of thick, black,
+pungent smoke that reached the low ceiling and spread outward, fanwise,
+obscuring the ceiling like a low-lying nimbus.</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of the report, the man in the chair jumped as if he'd been
+stabbed where he sat.</p>
+
+<p>"Ouyeowwww!" yowled Brennan in a pitiful ululation. He fell forward from
+the chair, asprawl on wobbly hands and knees, on elbows and knees as he
+tried to press away the torrent of agony that hammered back and forth
+from temple to temple. James watched Brennan with cold detachment,
+Professor White and Jack Cowling looked on in paralyzed horror. Slowly,
+oh, so slowly, Paul Brennan managed to squirm around until he was sitting
+on the floor still cradling his head between his hands.</p>
+
+<p>James said, "I'm afraid that you're going to have a rough time whenever
+you hear the word 'entrenched'." And then, as Brennan made no response,
+James Holden went on, "Or were you by chance reading the word
+'pedagogue'?"</p>
+
+<p>At the word, Brennan howled again; the pain was too much for him and he
+toppled sidewise to writhe in kicking agony.</p>
+
+<p>James smiled coldly, "I'm sorry that you weren't reading the word 'the'.
+The English language uses more of them than the word 'pedagogue'."</p>
+
+<p>With remarkable effort, Brennan struggled to his feet; he lurched toward
+James. "I'll teach you, you little&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pedagogue?" asked James.</p>
+
+<p>The shock rocked Brennan right to the floor again.</p>
+
+<p>"Better sit there and think," said James coldly. "You come within a dozen
+yards of me and I'll say&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No! Don't!" screamed Paul Brennan. "Not again!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now," asked James, "what's going on here?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was memorizing a political speech," said Jack Cowling. "What did you
+do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I merely fixed my machine so that it will not be used again."</p>
+
+<p>"But you shouldn't have done that!"</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't have been using it for this purpose," replied James. "It
+wasn't intended to further political ambitions."</p>
+
+<p>"But Judge Carter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Judge Carter doesn't own it," said James. "I do."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure that Judge Carter can explain everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him so. Then add that if he'd bothered to give me the time of day,
+I'd be less angry. He's not to be interrupted, is he? I'm ordered out of
+my room, am I? Well, go tell the judge that his political campaign has
+been stopped by a fourteen-year-old boy who knows which button to push!
+I'll wait here."</p>
+
+<p>Professor White took off; Jack Cowling smiled crookedly and shook his
+head at James. "You're a rash young man," he said. "What did you do to
+Brennan, here?"</p>
+
+<p>James pointed at the smoke curling up out of the panel. "I put in a
+destructive charge to addle the circuit as a preventive measure against
+capture or use by unauthorized persons," he replied. "So I pushed the
+button just as Brennan was trying to memorize the word&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" cried Brennan in a pleading scream.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean he's going to throw a fit every time he hears the word&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No! No! Can't anybody talk without saying&mdash;Ouwwouooo!"</p>
+
+<p>"Interesting," commented James. "It seems to start as soon as the
+fore-reading part of his mind predicts that the word may be next, or
+when he thinks about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that Brennan is going to be like the guy who could win the
+world if he sat on the top of a hill for one hour and did not think of
+the word 'Swordfish'? Except that he'll be out of pain so long as he
+doesn't think of the word&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thing I'm interested in is that maybe our orator here doesn't know the
+definition thoroughly. Tell me, dear 'Uncle' Paul, does the word
+'teacher' give&mdash;Sorry. I was just experimenting. Wasn't as bad as&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Gritting his teeth and wincing with pain, Brennan said, "Stop it!
+Even the word 'sch-(wince)-ool' hurts like&mdash;" He thought for a
+moment and then went on with his voice rising to a pitiful
+howl of agony at the end: "Even the name 'Miss Adams' gives
+me a fleeting headache all over my body, and Miss Adams was
+on&mdash;ly&mdash;my&mdash;third&mdash;growww&mdash;school&mdash;Owuuuuoooo&mdash;teach&mdash;earrrrrrr&mdash;Owwww!"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan collapsed in his chair just as Judge Carter came in with his
+white mane flying and hot fire in his attitude. "What goes on here?" he
+stormed at James.</p>
+
+<p>"I stopped your campaign."</p>
+
+<p>"Now see here, you young&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter stopped abruptly, took a deep breath and calmed himself with
+a visible effort to control his rage. "James," he said in a quieter
+voice, "Can you repair the damage quickly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;but I won't."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because one of the things my father taught me was the danger of allowing
+this machine to fall into the hands of ruthless men with political
+ambition."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am a ruthless man with political ambition?"</p>
+
+<p>James nodded. "Under the guise of studying me and my machine," he said,
+"you've been using it to train speakers, and to educate ward-heelers.
+You've been building a political machine by buying delegates. Not with
+money, of course, because that is illegal. With knowledge, and because
+knowledge, education, and information are intangibles and no legality
+has been established, and this is all very legal."</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter smiled distantly. "It is bad to elevate the mind of the
+average ward-heeler? To provide the smalltime politician with a fine
+grasp of the National Problem and how his little local problems fit into
+the big picture? Is this making a better world, or isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's making a political machine that can't be defeated."</p>
+
+<p>"Think not? What makes you think it can't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pedagogue!" said James.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeowwww!"</p>
+
+<p>The judge whirled to look at Brennan. "What was&mdash;that?" asked the judge.</p>
+
+<p>James explained what had happened, then: "I've mentioned hazards. This is
+what would happen if a fuse blew in the middle of a course. Maybe he can
+be trained out of it, and maybe not. You'll have to try, of course. But
+think of what would happen if you and your political machine put these
+things into schools and fixed them to make a voltage twitch or something
+while the student was reading the word 'republican'. You'd end up with a
+single-party system."</p>
+
+<p>"And get myself assassinated by a group of righteously irate citizens,"
+said Judge Carter. "Which I would very warmly deserve. On the other hand,
+suppose we 'treated' people to feel anguish at thoughts of murder or
+killing, theft, treason, and other forms of human deviltry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now that might be a fine idea."</p>
+
+<p>"It would not," said Judge Carter flatly. James Holden's eyes widened,
+and he started to say something but the judge held up his hand, fingers
+outspread, and began to tick off his points finger by finger as he went
+on: "Where would we be in the case of enemy attack? Could our policemen
+aim their guns at a vicious criminal if they were conditioned against
+killing? Could our butchers operate; must our housewives live among a
+horde of flies? Theft? Well, it's harder to justify, James, but it would
+change the game of baseball as in 'stealing a base' or it would ruin the
+game of love as in 'stealing a kiss'. It would ruin the mystery-story
+field for millions of people who really haven't any inclination to go out
+and rob, steal, or kill. Treason? Our very revered Declaration of
+Independence is an article of Treason in the eyes of King George Third;
+it wouldn't be very hard to draw a charge of treason against a man who
+complained about the way the Government is being run. Now, one more
+angle, James. The threat or fear of punishment hasn't deterred any
+potential felon so far as anybody knows. And I hold the odd belief that
+if we removed the quart of mixed felony, chicanery, falsehood, and
+underhandedness from the human makeup, on that day the human race could
+step down to take its place alongside of the cow, just one step ahead of
+the worm.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you accuse me of holding political ambition. I plead guilty of the
+charge and demand to be shown by my accuser just what is undesirable
+about ambition, be it political or otherwise. Have you no ambition? Of
+course you have. Ambition drove your folks to create this machine and
+ambition drove you to the fight for your freedom. Ambition is the
+catalyst that lifts a man above his fellows and then lifts them also.
+There is a sort of tradition in this country that a man must not openly
+seek the office of the Presidency. I consider this downright silly. I
+have announced my candidacy, and I intend to campaign for it as hard as
+I can. I propose to make the problem of <i>education</i> the most important
+argument that has ever come up in a presidential campaign. I believe that
+I shall win because I shall promise to provide this accelerated education
+for everybody who wants it."</p>
+
+<p>"And to do this you've used my machine," objected James.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you intend to keep it for yourself?" snapped Judge Carter.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And when did you intend to release it?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as I could handle it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, fine!" jeered the judge sourly. "Now, let me orate on that subject
+for a moment and then we'll get to the real meat of this argument. James,
+there is no way of delivering this machine to the public without
+delivering it to them through the hands of a capable Government agency.
+If you try to release it as an individual you'll be swamped with cries of
+anger and pleas for special consideration. The reactionaries will shout
+that we're moving too fast and the progressives will complain that we
+aren't moving fast enough. Teachers' organizations will say that we're
+throwing teachers out of jobs, and little petty politicians will try to
+slip their political plug into the daily course in Civics. Start your
+company and within a week some Madison Avenue advertising agency will be
+offering you several million dollars to let them convince people that
+Hickory-Chickory Coffee is the only stuff they can pour down their gullet
+without causing stomach pains, acid system, jittery nerves, sleepless
+nights, flat feet, upset glands, and so on and on and on. Announce it;
+the next day you'll have so many foreign spies in your bailiwick that
+you'll have to hire a stadium to hold them. You'll be ducking
+intercontinental ballistic missiles because there are people who would
+kill the dog in order to get rid of the fleas. You'll start the biggest
+war this planet has ever seen and it will go on long after you are killed
+and your father's secret is lost&mdash;and after the fallout has died off,
+we'll have another scientific race to recreate it. And don't think that
+it can't be rediscovered by determined scientists who know that such a
+thing as the Holden Electromechanical Educator is a reality."</p>
+
+<p>"And how do you propose to prevent this war?"</p>
+
+<p>"By broadcasting the secret as soon as we can; let the British and the
+French and the Russians and the Germans and all the rest build it and
+use it as wisely as they can program it. Which, by the way, James,
+brings us right back to James Quincy Holden, Martha Bagley, and the
+immediate future."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. James, tell me after deliberation, at what point in your life did
+you first believe that you had the competence to enter the adult world in
+freedom to do as you believed right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Um, about five or six, as I recall."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think now about those days?"</p>
+
+<p>James shrugged. "I got along."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't very well, was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I was under a handicap, you know. I had to hide out."</p>
+
+<p>"And now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I had legal ruling, I wouldn't have to hide."</p>
+
+<p>"Think you know everything you need to know to enter this adult world?"</p>
+
+<p>"No man stops learning," parried James. "I think I know enough to start."</p>
+
+<p>"James, no matter what you say, there is a very important but intangible
+thing called 'judgment'. You have part of it, but not by far enough.
+You've been studying the laws about ages and rights, James, but you've
+missed a couple of them because you've been looking for evidence
+favorable to your own argument. First, to become a duly elected member of
+the House of Representatives, a man must be at least twenty-five years of
+age. To be a Senator, he must be at least thirty. To be President, one
+must be at least thirty-five. Have you any idea why the framers of the
+Constitution of the United States placed such restrictions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose it had to do with judgment?" replied James reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"That&mdash;and <i>experience</i>. Experience in knowing people, in understanding
+that there might be another side to any question, in realizing that you
+must not approach every problem from your own purely personal point of
+view nor expect it to be solved to your own private satisfaction or to
+your benefit. Now, let's step off a distance and take a good look at
+James Quincy Holden and see where he lacks the necessary ingredients."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, tell me," said James, sourly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I intend to. Let's take the statistics first. You're four-feet
+eleven-inches tall, you weigh one-hundred and three pounds, and you're a
+few weeks over fourteen. I suppose you know that you've still got one
+more spurt of growth, sometimes known as the post-puberty-growth. You'll
+probably put on another foot in the next couple of years, spread out a
+bit across the shoulders, and that fuzz on your face will become a
+collection of bristles. I suppose you think that any man in this room can
+handle you simply because we're all larger than you are? Possibly true,
+and one of the reasons why we can't give you a ticket and let you
+proclaim yourself an adult. You can't carry the weight. But this isn't
+all. Your muscles and your bones aren't yet in equilibrium. I could find
+a man of age thirty who weighed one-oh-three and stood four-eleven. He
+could pick you up and spin you like a top on his forefinger just because
+his bones match his muscles nicely, and his nervous system and brain have
+had experience in driving the body he's living in."</p>
+
+<p>"Could be, but what has all this to do with me? It does not affect the
+fact that I've been getting along in life."</p>
+
+<p>"You get along. It isn't enough to 'get along.' You've got to have
+judgment. You claim judgment, but still you realize that you can't handle
+your own machine. You can't even come to an equitable choice in selecting
+some agency to handle your machine. You can't decide upon a good outlet.
+You believe that proclaiming your legal competence will provide you with
+some mysterious protection against the wolves and thieves and ruthless
+men with political ambition&mdash;that this ruling will permit you to keep it
+to yourself until you decide that it is time to release it. You still
+want to hide. You want to use it until you are so far above and beyond
+the rest of the world that they can't catch up, once you give it to
+everybody. You now object to my plans and programs, still not knowing
+whether I intend to use it for good or for evil&mdash;and juvenile that you
+are, it must be good or evil and cannot be an in-between shade of gray.
+Men are heroes or villains to <i>you</i>; but <i>I</i> must say with some
+reluctance that the biggest crooks that ever held public office still
+passed laws that were beneficial to their people. There is the area in
+which you lack judgment, James. There and in your blindness."</p>
+
+<p>"Blindness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Blindness," repeated Judge Carter. "As Mark Twain once said, 'When I was
+seventeen, I was ashamed at the ignorance of my father, but by the time I
+was twenty-one I was amazed to discover how much the old man had learned
+in four short years!' Confound it, James, you don't yet realize that
+there are a lot of things in life that you can't even know about until
+you've lived through them. You're blind here, even though your life has
+been a solid case of encounter with unexpected experiences, one after the
+other as you grew. Oh, you're smart enough to know that you've got to top
+the next hill as soon as you've climbed this one, but you're not smart
+enough to realize that the next hill merely hides the one beyond, and
+that there are still higher hills beyond that stretching to the end of
+the road for you&mdash;and that when you've finally reached the end of your
+own road there will be more distant hills to climb for the folks that
+follow you.</p>
+
+<p>"You've a fine education, and it's helped you tremendously. But you've
+loused up your own life and the life of Martha Bagley. You two are a pair
+of outcasts, and you'll be outcasts until about ten years from now when
+your body will have caught up with your mind so that you can join your
+contemporaries without being regarded as a pair of intellectual freaks."</p>
+
+<p>"And what should I have done?" demanded James Holden angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it, again. You do not now realize that there isn't anything
+you could have done, nor is there anything you can do now. That's why I'm
+taking over and I'm going to do it for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!" snapped Judge Carter. "We'll let them have their courses in baton
+twirling and social grace and civic improvement and etiquette&mdash;and at the
+same time we'll give them history and mathematics and spelling and
+graduate them from 'high' school at the age of twelve or fourteen,
+introduce an intermediary school for languages and customs of other
+countries and in universal law and international affairs and economics,
+where our bookkeepers will learn science and scientists will understand
+commercial law; our lawyers will know business and our businessmen will
+be taught politics. After that we'll start them in college and run them
+as high as they can go, and our doctors will no longer go sour from the
+moment they leave school at thirty-five to hang out their shingle.</p>
+
+<p>"As for you, James Holden, you and Martha Bagley will attend this
+preparatory school as soon as we can set it up. There will be no more of
+this argument about being as competent as an adult, because we oldsters
+will still be the chiefs and you kids will be the Indians. Have I made
+myself clear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir. But how about Brennan?"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter looked at the unhappy man. "You still want revenge? Won't he
+be punished enough just hearing the word 'pedagogue'?"</p>
+
+<p>"For the love of&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't blaspheme," snapped the judge. "You'd hang if James could bring
+a shred of evidence, and I'd help him if I could." He turned to James
+Holden. "Now," he asked, "will you repair your machine?"</p>
+
+<p>"And if I say No?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you stand the pressure of a whole world angered because you've
+denied them their right to an education?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not." He looked at Brennan, at Professor White and at Jack
+Cowling. "If I've got to trust somebody," he said reluctantly, "I suppose
+it might as well be you."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="BOOK_FOUR" id="BOOK_FOUR"></a>BOOK FOUR:</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NEW MATURITY</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN" id="CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN"></a>CHAPTER EIGHTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is the campus of Holden Preparatory Academy.</p>
+
+<p>It is spring, but many another spring must pass before the ambitious ivy
+climbs to smother the gray granite walls, before the stripling trees grow
+stately, before the lawn is sturdy enough to withstand the crab grass and
+the students. Anecdote and apocrypha have yet to evolve into hallowed
+tradition. The walks ways are bare of bronze plaques because there are no
+illustrious alumni to honor; Holden Preparatory has yet to graduate its
+first class.</p>
+
+<p>It is youth, a lusty infant whose latent power is already great enough
+to move the world. As it rises, the world rises with it for the whole
+consists of all its parts; no man moves alone.</p>
+
+<p>The movement has its supporters and its enemies, and between them lies a
+vast apathy of folks who simply don't give a damn. Its supporters deplore
+the dolts and the sluggards who either cannot or will not be educated.
+Its enemies see it as a danger to their comfortable position of eminence
+and claim bitterly that the honored degree of doctor is being degraded.
+They refuse to see that it is not the degradation of the standard but
+rather the exaltation of the norm. Comfortable, they lazily object to the
+necessity of rising with the norm to keep their position. Nor do they
+realize that the ones who will be assaulting their fortress will
+themselves be fighting still stronger youth one day when the mistakes are
+corrected and the program streamlined through experience.</p>
+
+<p>On the virgin lawn, in a spot that will someday lie in the shade of a
+great oak, a group of students sit, sprawl, lie. The oldest of them is
+sixteen, and it is true that not one of them has any reverence for
+college degrees, because the entrance requirements demand the scholastic
+level of bachelor in the arts, the sciences, in language and literature.
+The mark of their progress is not stated in grades, but rather in the
+number of supplementary degrees for which they qualify. The honors of
+their graduation are noted by the number of doctorates they acquire.
+Their goal is the title of Scholar, without which they may not attend
+college for their ultimate education.</p>
+
+<p>But they do not have the "look of eagles" nor do they act as if they felt
+some divine purpose fill their lives. They do not lead the pack in an
+easy lope, for who holds rank when admirals meet? They are not dedicated
+nor single-minded; if their jokes and pranks start on a higher or lower
+plane, it is just because they have better minds than their forebears at
+the same time.</p>
+
+<p>On the fringe of this group, an olive-skinned Brazilian co-ed asks:
+"Where's Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>John Philips looks up from a diagram of fieldmatrics he's been using to
+lay out a football play. "She's lending moral support to Holden. He's
+sweating out his scholar's impromptu this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should he be stewing?"</p>
+
+<p>John Philips smiles knowingly. "Tony Dirk put the triple-whammy on him.
+Gimmicked up the random-choice selector in the Regent's office. Herr von
+James is discoursing on the subjects of Medicine, Astronomy, and
+Psychology&mdash;that is if Dirk knows his stuff."</p>
+
+<p>Tony Dirk looks down from his study of a fluffy cloud. "Anybody care to
+hazard some loose change on my ability?"</p>
+
+<p>"But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," replies Philips, "we figure that the first graduating class could
+use a professional <i>Astrologer</i>! We'll be the first in history to have
+one&mdash;if M'sieu Holden can tie Medicine, Astronomy, and Psychology into
+something cogent in his impromptu."</p>
+
+<p>It is a strange tongue they are using, probably the first birth-pains of
+a truly universal language. By some tacit agreement, personal questions
+are voiced in French, the reply in Spanish. Impersonal questions are
+Italian and the response in Portuguese. Anything of a scientific nature
+must be in German; law, language, or literature in English; art in
+Japanese; music in Greek; medicine in Latin; agriculture in Czech.
+Anything laudatory in Mandarin, derogatory in Sanskrit&mdash;and <i>ad libitum</i>
+at any point for any subject.</p>
+
+<p>Anita Lowes has been trying to attract the attention of John Philips from
+his diagram long enough to invite her to the Spring Festival by reciting
+a low-voiced string of nuclear equations carefully compounded to make
+them sound naughty unless they're properly identified with full
+attention. She looks up and says, "What if he doesn't make the
+connection?"</p>
+
+<p>Philips replies, "Well, if he can prove to that tough bunch that there
+is no possible advance in learning through a combination of Astronomy,
+Medicine, and Psychology, he'll make it on that basis. It's just as
+important to close a door as it is to open one, you know. But it's one
+rough deal to prove negation. Maybe we'll have James the Holden on our
+hands for another semester. Martha will like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Talking about me?"</p>
+
+<p>There is a rolling motion, sort of like a bushel of fish trying to leap
+back into the sea. The newcomer is Martha Fisher. At fifteen, her eyes
+are bright, and her features are beginning to soften into the beginning
+of a beauty that will deepen with maturity.</p>
+
+<p>"James," says Tony Dirk. "We figured you'd like to have him around
+another four months. So we gimmicked him."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean that test-trio?" chuckles Martha.</p>
+
+<p>"How's he doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I left, he was wriggling his way through probability math, showing
+the relationship between his three subjects and the solution for random
+choice figures which may or may not be shaded by known or not-known
+agency. He's covered Mason's History of Superstition and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Superstition?" asks a Japanese.</p>
+
+<p>Martha nods. "He claimed superstition is based upon fear and faith, and
+he feared that someone had tampered with his random choice of subjects,
+and he had faith that it was one of his buddies. So&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Martha is interrupted by a shout. The years have done well by James
+Holden, too. He is a lithe sixteen. It is a long time since he formed his
+little theory of human pair-production and it is almost as long since
+he thought of it last. If he reconsiders it now, he does not recognize
+his part in it because everything looks different from within the circle.
+His world, like the organization of the Universe, is made up of schools
+containing classes of groups of clusters of sets of associations created
+by combinations and permutations of individuals.</p>
+
+<p>"I made it!" he says.</p>
+
+<p>James has his problems. Big ones. Shall he go to Harvard alone, or shall
+he go to coeducational California with the hope that Martha will follow
+him? Then there was the fun awaiting him at Heidelberg, the historic
+background of Pisa, the vigorous routine at Tokyo. As a Scholar, he has
+contributed original research in four or five fields to attain
+doctorates, now he is to pick a few allied fields, combine certain phases
+of them, and work for his Specific. It is James Holden's determination to
+prove that the son is worthy of the parents for which his school is
+named.</p>
+
+<p>But there is high competition. At Carter tech-prep, a girl is struggling
+to arrange a Periodic Chart of the Nucleons. At Maxwell, one of his
+contemporaries will contend that the human spleen acts as an ion-exchange
+organ to rid the human body of radioactive minerals, and he will someday
+die trying to prove it. His own classmate Tony Dirk will organize a
+weather-control program, and John Philips will write six lines of odd
+symbols that will be called the Inertiogravitic Equations.</p>
+
+<p>Their children will reach the distant stars, and their children's
+children will, humanlike, cross the vast chasm that lies between one
+swirl of matter and the other before they have barely touched their home
+galaxy.</p>
+
+<p>No man is an island, near or far on Earth as it is across the glowing
+clusters of galaxies&mdash;nay, as it may be in Heaven itself.</p>
+
+<p>The motto is cut deep in the granite over the doorway to Holden Hall:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">You yourself</span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">must light the faggots</span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">that you have brought</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 18602 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+
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+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #18602 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18602)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth R, by George Oliver Smith
+
+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: The Fourth R
+
+Author: George Oliver Smith
+
+Release Date: June 16, 2006 [EBook #18602]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOURTH R ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE FOURTH "R"
+
+                         By George O. Smith
+
+
+
+
+Published by
+DELL PUBLISHING CO., INC.
+1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
+New York, New York 10017
+
+Copyright 1959, by George O. Smith
+All rights reserved. For information contact:
+Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
+
+Printed in the United States of America.
+
+First Dell printing--April 1979
+
+[Transcribers note: This is a rule 6 clearance. A copyright renewal has
+not been found.]
+
+
+
+
+BOOK ONE:
+
+FUTURE IMPROMPTU
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+
+James Quincy Holden was five years old.
+
+His fifth birthday was not celebrated by the usual horde of noisy, hungry
+kids running wild in the afternoon. It started at seven, with cocktails.
+They were served by his host, Paul Brennan, to the celebrants, the boy's
+father and mother. The guest of honor sipped ginger ale and nibbled at
+canapés while he was presented with his gifts: A volume of Kipling's
+_Jungle Tales_, a Spitz Junior Planetarium, and a build-it-yourself kit
+containing parts for a geiger counter and an assortment of radioactive
+minerals to identify. Dinner was served at eight, the menu selected by
+Jimmy Holden--with the exception of the birthday cake and its five proud
+little candles which came as an anticipated surprise from his "Uncle"
+Paul Brennan.
+
+After dinner, they listened to some music chosen by the boy, and the
+evening wound up with three rubbers of bridge. The boy won.
+
+They left Paul Brennan's apartment just after eleven o'clock. Jimmy
+Holden was tired and pleasantly stuffed with good food. But he was
+stimulated by the party. So, instead of dropping off to sleep, he sat
+comfortably wedged between his father and mother, quietly lost in his own
+thoughts until the car was well out of town.
+
+Then he said, "Dad, why did you make that sacrifice bid on the last
+hand?" Father and son had been partners.
+
+"You're not concerned about losing the rubber, are you?" It had been the
+only rubber Jimmy lost.
+
+"No. It's only a game," said Jimmy. "I'm just trying to understand."
+
+His father gave an amused groan. "It has to do with the laws of
+probability and the theory of games," he said.
+
+The boy shook his head. "Bridge," he said thoughtfully, "consists of
+creating a logical process of play out of a random distribution of
+values, doesn't it?"
+
+"Yes, if you admit that your definition is a gross oversimplification. It
+would hardly be a game if everything could be calculated beforehand."
+
+"But what's missing?"
+
+"In any game there is the element of a calculated risk."
+
+Jimmy Holden was silent for a half-mile thinking that one over. "How," he
+asked slowly, "can a risk be calculated?"
+
+His father laughed. "In fine, it can't. Too much depends upon the
+personality of the individual."
+
+"Seems to me," said Jimmy, "that there's not much point in making a bid
+against a distribution of values known to be superior. You couldn't hope
+to make it; Mother and Uncle Paul had the cards."
+
+His father laughed again. "After a few more courses in higher
+mathematics, James, you'll begin to realize that some of the highest
+mathematics is aimed at predicting the unpredictable, or trying to lower
+the entropy of random behavior--"
+
+Jimmy Holden's mother chuckled. "Now explain entropy," she said. "James,
+what your father has been failing to explain is really not subject to
+simple analysis. Who knows why any man will hazard his hard-earned money
+on the orientation of a pair of dice? No amount of education nor academic
+study will explain what drives a man. Deep inside, I suppose it is the
+same force that drives everybody. One man with four spades will take a
+chance to see if he can make five, and another man with directorships in
+three corporations will strive to make it four."
+
+Jimmy's father chuckled. "Some families with one infant will try to make
+it two--"
+
+"Not on your life!"
+
+"--And some others are satisfied with what they've got," finished Jimmy
+Holden's father. "James, some men will avoid seeing what has to be done;
+some men will see it and do it and do no more; and a few men will see
+what has to be done, do it, and then look to the next inevitable problem
+created by their own act--"
+
+A blinding flash of light cut a swath across the road, dazzling them.
+Around the curve ahead, a car careened wide over the white line. His
+mother reached for him, his father fought the wheel to avoid the crash.
+Jimmy Holden both heard and felt the sharp _Bang!_ as the right front
+tire went. The steering wheel snapped through his father's hands by half
+a turn. There was a splintering crash as the car shattered its way
+through the retaining fence, then came a fleeting moment of breathless
+silence as if the entire universe had stopped still for a heartbeat.
+
+Chaos! His mother's automatic scream, his father's oath, and the rending
+crash split the silence at once. The car bucked and flipped, the doors
+were slammed open and ripped off against a tree that went down. The car
+leaped in a skew turn and began to roll and roll, shedding metal and
+humans as it racketed down the ravine.
+
+Jimmy felt himself thrown free in a tumbleturn that ended in a heavy
+thud.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When breath and awareness returned, he was lying in a depression filled
+with soft rotting leaves.
+
+He was dazed beyond hurt. The initial shock and bewilderment oozed out of
+him, leaving him with a feeling of outrage, and a most peculiar sensation
+of being a spectator rather than an important part of the violent drama.
+It held an air of unreality, like a dream that the near-conscious sleeper
+recognizes as a dream and lives through it because he lacks the conscious
+will to direct it.
+
+Strangely, it was as if there were three or more of him all thinking
+different things at the same time. He wanted his mother badly enough to
+cry. Another part of him said that she would certainly be at his side if
+she were able. Then a third section of his confused mind pointed out that
+if she did not come to him, it was because she herself was hurt deeply
+and couldn't.
+
+A more coldly logical portion of his mind was urging him to get up and
+_do_ something about it. They had passed a telephone booth on the
+highway; lying there whimpering wasn't doing anybody any good. This
+logical part of his confused mind did not supply the dime for the
+telephone slot nor the means of scaling the heights needed to insert
+the dime in the adult-altitude machine.
+
+Whether the dazzle of mental activity was serial or simultaneous isn't
+important. The fact is that it was completely disorganized as to plan
+or program, it leaped from one subject to another until he heard the
+scrabble and scratch of someone climbing down the side of the ravine.
+
+Any noise meant help. With relief, Jimmy tried to call out.
+
+But with this arrival of help, afterfright claimed him. His mouth
+worked silently before a dead-dry throat and his muscles twitched in
+uncontrolled nervousness; he made neither sound nor motion. Again he
+watched with the unreal feeling of being a remote spectator. A cone of
+light from a flashlight darted about and it gradually seeped into Jimmy's
+shocked senses that this was a new arrival, picking his way through the
+tangle of brush, following the trail of ruin from the broken guard rail
+to the smashed car below.
+
+The newcomer paused. The light darted forward to fall upon a crumpled
+mass of cloth.
+
+With a toe, the stranger probed at crushed ribs. A pitifully feeble
+moan came from the broken rag doll that lay on the ground. The searcher
+knelt with his light close to peer into the bloody face, and,
+unbelieving, Jimmy Holden heard the voice of his mother straining
+to speak, "Paul--I--we--"
+
+The voice died in a gurgle.
+
+The man with the flashlight tested the flaccid neck by bending the head
+to one side and back sharply. He ended this inspection by letting the
+head fall back to the moist earth. It landed with a thud of finality.
+
+The cold brutality of this stranger's treatment of his mother shocked
+Jimmy Holden into frantic outrage. The frozen cry for help changed into
+protesting anger; no one should be treated that--
+
+"One!" muttered the stranger flatly.
+
+Jimmy's burst of protest died in his throat and he watched, fascinated,
+as the stranger's light moved in a sweep forward to stop a second time.
+"And there's number two!" The callous horror was repeated. Hypnotically,
+Jimmy Holden watched the stranger test the temples and wrists and try a
+hand under his father's heart. He watched the stranger make a detailed
+inspection of the long slash that laid open the entire left abdomen and
+he saw the red that seeped but did not flow.
+
+"That's that!" said the stranger with an air of finality. "Now--" and he
+stood up to swing his flashlight in widening circles, searching the area
+carefully.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jimmy Holden did not sicken. He went cold. He froze as the dancing
+flashlight passed over his head, and relaxed partially when it moved
+away in a series of little jumps pausing to give a steady light for
+close inspection. The light swung around and centered on the smashed
+automobile. It was upside down, a ruin with one wheel still turning idly.
+
+The stranger went to it, and knelt to peer inside. He pried ripped metal
+away to get a clear sight into the crushed interior. He went flat on his
+stomach and tried to penetrate the area between the crumpled car-top and
+the bruised ground, and he wormed his way in a circle all around the car,
+examining the wreck minutely.
+
+The sound of a distant automobile engine became audible, and the
+searching man mumbled a curse. With haste he scrambled to his feet and
+made a quick inspection of the one wabbly-turning wheel. He stripped a
+few shards of rubber away, picked at something in the bent metal rim, and
+put whatever he found in his pocket. When his hand came from the pocket
+it held a packet of paper matches. With an ear cocked at the road above
+and the sound of the approaching car growing louder, the stranger struck
+one match and touched it to the deck of matches. Then with a callous
+gesture he tossed the flaring pack into a pool of spilled gasoline. The
+fuel went up in a blunt _whoosh_!
+
+The dancing flames revealed the face of Jimmy Holden's "Uncle" Paul
+Brennan, his features in a mask that Jimmy Holden had never seen before.
+
+With the determined air of one who knows that still another piece lies
+hidden, Paul Brennan started to beat back and forth across the trail of
+ruin. His light swept the ground like the brush of a painter, missing no
+spot. Slowly and deliberately he went, paying no attention to the
+creeping tongues of flame that crept along damp trails of spilled
+gasoline.
+
+Jimmy Holden felt helplessly alone.
+
+For "Uncle" Paul Brennan was the laughing uncle, the golden uncle; his
+godfather; the bringer of delightful gifts and the teller of fabulous
+stories. Classmate of his father and admirer of his mother, a friend to
+be trusted as he trusted his father and mother, as they trusted Paul
+Brennan. Jimmy Holden did not and could not understand, but he could feel
+the presence of menace. And so with the instinct of any trapped animal,
+he curled inward upon himself and cringed.
+
+Education and information failed. Jimmy Holden had been told and told and
+instructed, and the words had been graven deep in his mind by the same
+fabulous machine that his father used to teach him his grammar and his
+vocabulary and his arithmetic and the horde of other things that made
+Jimmy Holden what he was: "If anything happens to us, you must turn to
+Paul Brennan!"
+
+But nothing in his wealth of extraordinary knowledge covered the way to
+safety when the trusted friend turned fiend.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Shaken by the awful knowledge that all of his props had been kicked out
+from under him, now at last Jimmy Holden whimpered in helpless fright.
+Brennan turned towards the sound and began to beat his way through the
+underbrush.
+
+Jimmy Holden saw him coming. It was like one of those dreams he'd had
+where he was unable to move, his muscles frozen, as some unknown horror
+stalked him. It could only end in a terrifying fall through cold space
+towards a tremendous lurch against the bedsprings that brought little
+comfort until his pounding heart came back to normal. But this was no
+dream; it was a known horror that stalked him, and it could not end as
+a dream ends. It was reality.
+
+The horror was a close friend turned animal, and the end was more
+horrible because Jimmy Holden, like all other five-year-olds, had
+absolutely no understanding nor accurate grasp of the concept called
+_death_. He continued to whimper even though he realized that his fright
+was pointing him out to his enemy. And yet he had no real grasp of the
+concept _enemy_. He knew about pain; he had been hurt. But only by falls,
+simple misadventures, the needles of inoculation administered by his
+surgeon mother, a paddling for mischief by his engineer father.
+
+But whatever unknown fate was coming was going to be worse than "hurt."
+It was frightful.
+
+Then fate, assisted by Brennan's own act of trying to obliterate any
+possible evidence by fire, attracted a savior. The approaching car
+stopped on the road above and a voice called out, "Hello, down there!"
+
+Brennan could not refuse to answer; his own car was in plain sight by the
+shattered retaining fence. He growled under his breath, but he called
+back, "Hello, the road! Go get the police!"
+
+"Can we help?"
+
+"Beyond help!" cried Brennan. "I'm all right. Get the cops!"
+
+The car door slammed before it took off. Then came the unmistakable
+sounds of another man climbing down the ravine. A second flashlight swung
+here and there until the newcomer faced Brennan in the little circle of
+light.
+
+"What happened?" asked the uninvited volunteer.
+
+Brennan, whatever his thoughts, said in a voice filled with standard
+concern: "Blowout. Then everything went blooey."
+
+"Anyone--I mean how many--?"
+
+"Two dead," said Brennan, and then added because he had to, "and a little
+boy lost."
+
+The stranger eyed the flames and shuddered. "In there?"
+
+"Parents were tossed out. Boy's missing."
+
+"Bad," said the stranger. "God, what a mess. Know 'em?"
+
+"Holdens. Folks that live in the big old house on the hill. My best
+friend and his wife. I was following them home," lied Brennan glibly.
+"C'mon let's see if we can find the kid. What about the police?"
+
+"Sent my wife. Telephone down the road."
+
+Paul Brennan's reply carried no sound of disappointment over being
+interrupted. "Okay. Let's take a look. You take it that way, and I'll
+cover this side."
+
+The little-boy mind did not need its extensive education to understand
+that Paul Brennan needed no more than a few seconds of unobserved
+activity, after which he could announce the discovery of the third death
+in a voice cracked with false grief.
+
+Animal instinct took over where intelligence failed. The same force that
+caused Jimmy Holden to curl within himself now caused him to relax; help
+that could be trusted was now at hand. The muscles of his throat relaxed.
+He whimpered. The icy paralysis left his arms and legs; he kicked and
+flailed. And finally his nervous system succeeded in making their contact
+with his brain; the nerves carried the pain of his bumps and scratches,
+and Jimmy Holden began to hurt. His stifled whimper broke into a
+shuddering cry, which swiftly turned into sobbing hysteria.
+
+He went out of control. Nothing, not even violence, would shake him back
+until his accumulation of shock upon shock had been washed away in tears.
+
+The sound attracted both men. Side by side they beat through the
+underbrush. They reached for him and Jimmy turned toward the stranger.
+The man picked the lad out of the bed of soft rotting leaves, cradled him
+and stroked his head. Jimmy wrapped his small arms around the stranger's
+neck and held on for life.
+
+"I'll take him," said Brennan, reaching out.
+
+Jimmy's clutch on the stranger tightened.
+
+"You won't pry him loose easily," chuckled the man. "I know. I've got a
+couple of these myself."
+
+Brennan shrugged. "I thought perhaps--"
+
+"Forget it," said the stranger. "Kid's had trouble. I'll carry him to the
+road, you take him from there."
+
+"Okay."
+
+Getting up the ravine was a job of work for the man who carried Jimmy
+Holden. Brennan gave a hand, aided with a lift, broke down brush, and
+offered to take Jimmy now and again. Jimmy only clung tighter, and the
+stranger waved Brennan away with a quick shake of his head.
+
+By the time they reached the road, sirens were wailing on the road up
+the hill. Police, firemen, and an ambulance swarmed over the scene. The
+firemen went to work on the flaming car with practiced efficiency; the
+police clustered around Paul Brennan and extracted from him a story that
+had enough truth in it to sound completely convincing. The doctors from
+the ambulance took charge of Jimmy Holden. Lacking any other accident
+victim, they went to work on him with everything they could do.
+
+They gave him mild sedation, wrapped him in a warm blanket, and put him
+to bed on the cot in the ambulance with two of them watching over him. In
+the presence of so many solicitous strangers, Jimmy's shock and fright
+diminished. The sedation took hold. He dropped off in a light doze that
+grew less fitful as time went on. By the time the official accident
+report program was over, Jimmy Holden was fast asleep and resting
+comfortably.
+
+He did not hear Paul Brennan's suggestion that Jimmy go home with him,
+to Paul Brennan's personal physician, nor did Jimmy hear the ambulance
+attendants turn away Brennan's suggestion with hard-headed medical
+opinion. Brennan could hardly argue with the fact that an accident victim
+would be better off in a hospital under close observation. Shock demanded
+it, and there was the hidden possibility of internal injury or concussion
+to consider.
+
+So Jimmy Holden awoke with his accident ten hours behind him, and the
+good sleep had completed the standard recuperative powers of the healthy
+child. He looked around, collecting himself, and then remembered the
+accident. He cringed a bit and took another look and identified his
+surroundings as some sort of a children's ward or dormitory.
+
+He was in a crib.
+
+He sat up angrily and rattled the gate of the crib. Putting James Quincy
+Holden in a baby's crib was an insult.
+
+He stopped, because the noise echoed through the room and one of the
+younger patients stirred in sleep and moaned. Jimmy Holden sat back and
+remembered. The vacuum that was to follow the loss of his parents was not
+yet in evidence. They were gone and the knowledge made him unhappy, but
+he was not cognizant of the real meaning or emotion of grief. With almost
+the same feeling of loss he thought of the _Jungle Book_ he would never
+read and the Spitz Planetarium he would never see casting its little star
+images on his bedroom ceiling. Burned and ruined, with the atomic energy
+kit--and he had hoped that he could use the kit to tease his father into
+giving him some education in radioactivity. He was old enough to learn--
+
+Learn--?
+
+_No more, now that his father and mother were dead._
+
+Some of the real meaning of his loss came to him then, and the growing
+knowledge that this first shocking loss meant the ultimate loss of
+everything was beginning to sink in.
+
+He broke down and cried in the misery of his loss and his helplessness;
+ultimately his emotion began to cry itself out, and he began to feel
+resentment against his position. The animal desire to bite back at
+anything that moved did not last long, it focused properly upon the
+person of his tormentor. Then for a time, Jimmy Holden's imagination
+indulged in a series of little vignettes in which he scored his victory
+over Paul Brennan. These little playlets went through their own
+evolution, starting with physical victory reminiscent of his
+Jack-and-the-Beanstalk days to a more advanced triumph of watching Paul
+Brennan led away in handcuffs whilst the District Attorney scanned the
+sheaf of indisputable evidence provided by James Quincy Holden.
+
+Somewhere along about this point in his fantasy, a breath of the
+practical entered, and Jimmy began to consider the more sensible problem
+of what sort of information this sheaf of evidence would contain.
+
+Still identifying himself with the books he knew, Jimmy Holden had
+progressed from the fairy story--where the villain was evil for no more
+motive than to provide menace to the hero--to his more advanced books,
+where the villain did his evil deeds for the logical motive of personal
+gain.
+
+Well, what had Paul Brennan to gain?
+
+Money, for one thing--he would be executor of the Holden Estate. But
+there wasn't enough to justify killing. Revenge? For what? Jealousy? For
+whom? Hate? Envy? Jimmy Holden glossed the words quickly, for they were
+no more than words that carried definitions that did not really explain
+them. He could read with the facility of an adult, but a book written for
+a sophisticated audience went over his head.
+
+No, there was only one possible thing of appreciable value; the one thing
+that Paul Brennan hoped to gain was the device over which they had worked
+through all the long years to perfect: The Holden Electromechanical
+Educator! Brennan wanted it badly enough to murder for its possession!
+
+And with a mind and ingenuity far beyond his years, Jimmy Holden knew
+that he alone was the most active operator in this vicious drama. It was
+not without shock that he realized that he himself could still be killed
+to gain possession of his fabulous machine. For only with all _three_
+Holdens dead could Paul Brennan take full and unquestioned possession.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With daylight clarity he knew what he had to do. In a single act of
+destruction he could simultaneously foil Paul Brennan's plan and ensure
+his own life.
+
+Permanently installed in Jimmy Holden's brain by the machine itself were
+the full details of how to recreate it. Indelibly he knew each wire and
+link, lever and coil, section by section and piece by piece. It was
+incomprehensible information, about in the same way that the printing
+press "knows" the context of its metal plate. Step by step he could
+rebuild it once he had the means of procuring the parts, and it would
+work even though he had not the foggiest notion (now) of what the various
+parts did.
+
+So if the delicate heart of his father's machine were utterly destroyed,
+Paul Brennan would be extremely careful about preserving the life of
+James Quincy Holden.
+
+He considered his position and what he knew:
+
+Physically, he was a five-year-old. He stood forty-one inches tall and
+weighed thirty-nine pounds. A machinist's hammer was a two-handed tool
+and a five-pound sack of sugar was a burden. Doorknobs and latches were a
+problem in manipulation. The negotiation of a swinging door was a feat of
+muscular engineering. Electric light switches were placed at a tiptoe
+reach because, naturally, everything in the adult world is designed by
+the adults for the convenience of adults. This makes it difficult for the
+child who has no adult to do his bidding.
+
+Intellectually, Jimmy Holden was something else.
+
+Reverting to a curriculum considered sound prior to Mr. Dewey's
+often-questionable and more often misused programs of schooling, Jimmy's
+parents had trained and educated their young man quite well in the
+primary informations of fact. He read with facility and spoke with a fine
+vocabulary--although no amount of intellectual training could make his
+voice change until his glands did. His knowledge of history, geography
+and literature were good, because he'd used them to study reading. He was
+well into plane geometry and had a smattering of algebra, and there had
+been a pause due to a parental argument as to the advisability of his
+memorizing a table of six-place logarithms via the Holden machine.
+
+Extra-curricularly, Jimmy Holden had acquired snippets, bits, and
+wholesale chunks of a number of the arts and sciences and other
+aggregations of information both pertinent and trivial for one reason
+or another. As an instance, he had absorbed an entire bridge book by
+Charles Goren just to provide a fourth to sit in with his parents and
+Paul Brennan.
+
+Consequently, James Holden had in data the education of a boy of about
+sixteen, and in other respects, much more.
+
+He escaped from the hospital simply because no one ever thought that a
+five-year-old boy would have enough get-up-and-go to climb out of his
+crib, rummage a nearby closet, dress himself, and then calmly walk out.
+The clothing of a cocky teen-ager would have been impounded and his
+behavior watched.
+
+They did not miss him for hours. He went, taking the little
+identification card from its frame at the foot of his bed--and that
+ruined the correlation between tag and patient.
+
+By the time an overworked nurse stopped to think and finally asked,
+"Kitty, are you taking care of the little boy in Bed 6 over in 219?" and
+received the answer, "No, aren't you?" Jimmy Holden was trudging up the
+hill towards his home. Another hour went by with the two worried nurses
+surreptitiously searching the rest of the hospital in the simple hope
+that he had wandered away and could be restored before it came to the
+attention of the officials. By the time they gave up and called in other
+nurses (who helped them in their anxiety to conceal) Jimmy was entering
+his home.
+
+Each succeeding level of authority was loath to report the truth to the
+next higher up.
+
+By the time the general manager of the hospital forced himself to call
+Paul Brennan, Jimmy Holden was demolishing the last broken bits of
+disassembled subassemblies he had smashed from the heart-circuit of the
+Holden Electromechanical Educator. He was most thorough. Broken glass
+went into the refuse buckets, bent metal was buried in the garden,
+inflammables were incinerated, and meltables and fusibles slagged down in
+ashes that held glass, bottle, and empty tin-can in an unrecognizable
+mass. He left a gaping hole in the machine that Brennan could not
+fill--nor could any living man fill it now but James Quincy Holden.
+
+And only when this destruction was complete did Jimmy Holden first begin
+to understand his father's statement about the few men who see what has
+to be done, do it, _and then_ look to the next inevitable problem created
+by their own act.
+
+It was late afternoon by the time Jimmy had his next moves figured out.
+He left the home he'd grown up in, the home of his parents, of his own
+babyhood. He'd wandered through it for the last time, touching this and
+saying goodbye to that. He was certain that he would never see his things
+again, nor the house itself, but the real vacuum of his loss hadn't yet
+started to form. The concepts of "never" and "forever" were merely words
+that had no real impact.
+
+So was the word "Farewell."
+
+But once his words were said, Jimmy Holden made his small but confident
+way to the window of a railroad ticket agent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+
+You are a ticket agent, settled in the routine of your job. From nine to
+five-thirty, five days a week, you see one face after another. There are
+cheerful faces, sullen faces, faces that breathe garlic, whiskey, chewing
+gum, toothpaste and tobacco fumes. Old faces, young faces, dull faces,
+scarred faces, clear faces, plain faces and faces so plastered with
+makeup that their nature can't be seen at all. They bark place-names at
+you, or ask pleasantly about the cost of round-trip versus one-way
+tickets to Chicago or East Burlap. You deal with them and then you wait
+for the next.
+
+Then one afternoon, about four o'clock, a face barely visible over the
+edge of the marble counter looks up at you with a boy's cheerful freckled
+smile. You have to stand up in order to see him. You smile, and he grins
+at you. Among his belongings is a little leather suitcase, kid's size,
+but not a toy. He is standing on it. Under his arm is a collection of
+comic books, in one small fist is the remains of a candy bar and in the
+other the string of a floating balloon.
+
+"Well, young man, where to? Paris? London? Maybe Mars?"
+
+"No, sir," comes the piping voice, "Roun-tree."
+
+"Roundtree? Yes, I've heard of that metropolis," you reply. You look over
+his head, there aren't any other customers in line behind him so you
+don't mind passing the time of day. "Round-trip or one-way?"
+
+"One-way," comes the quick reply.
+
+This brings you to a slow stop. He does not giggle nor prattle, nor
+launch into a long and involved explanation with halting, dependent
+clauses. This one knows what he wants and how to ask for it. Quite a
+little man!
+
+"How old are you, young fellow?"
+
+"I was five years old yesterday."
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"I'm James Holden."
+
+The name does not ring any bells--because the morning newspaper is
+purchased for its comic strips, the bridge column, the crossword puzzle,
+and the latest dope on love-nest slayings, peccadilloes of the famous,
+the cheesecake photo of the inevitable actress-leaving-for-somewhere, and
+the full page photograph of the latest death-on-the-highway debacle. You
+look at the picture but you don't read the names in the caption, so you
+don't recognize the name, and you haven't been out of your little cage
+since lunchtime and Jimmy Holden was not missing then. So you go on:
+
+"So you're going to go to Roundtree."
+
+"Yessir."
+
+"That costs a lot of money, young Mister Holden."
+
+"Yessir." Then this young man hands you an envelope; the cover says,
+typewritten: _Ticket Clerk, Midland Railroad_.
+
+A bit puzzled, you open the envelope and find a five-dollar bill folded
+in a sheet of manuscript paper. The note says:
+
+  Ticket Clerk
+  Midland Railroad
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  This will introduce my son, James Holden. As a birthday present, I am
+  sending him for a visit to his grandparents in Roundtree, and to make
+  the adventure complete, he will travel alone. Pass the word along to
+  keep an eye on him but don't step in unless he gets into trouble. Ask
+  the dining car steward to see that he eats dinner on something better
+  than candy bars.
+
+  Otherwise, he is to believe that he is making this trip completely on
+  his own.
+
+  Sincerely, Louis Holden.
+
+  PS: Divide the change from this five dollars among you as tips. L.H.
+
+And so you look down at young Mister Holden and get a feeling of
+vicarious pleasure. You stamp his ticket and hand it to him with a
+gesture. You point out the train-gate he is to go through, and you tell
+him that he is to sit in the third railroad car. As he leaves, you pick
+up the telephone and call the station-master, the conductor, and since
+you can't get the dining-car steward directly, you charge the conductor
+with passing the word along.
+
+Then you divide the change. Of the two-fifty, you extract a dollar,
+feeling that the Senior Holden is a cheapskate. You slip the other buck
+and a half into an envelope, ready for the conductor's hand. He'll think
+Holden Senior is more of a cheapskate, and by the time he extracts his
+cut, the dining car steward will _know_ that Holden Senior is a
+cheapskate. But--
+
+Then a face appears at your window and barks, "Holyoke, Mass.," and your
+normal day falls back into shape.
+
+The response of the people you tell about it varies all the way from
+outrage that anybody would let a kid of five go alone on such a dangerous
+mission to loud bragging that he, too, once went on such a journey, at
+four and a half, and didn't need a note.
+
+But Jimmy Holden is gone from your window, and you won't know for at
+least another day that you've been suckered by a note painstakingly
+typewritten, letter by letter, by a five-year-old boy who has a most
+remarkable vocabulary.
+
+Jimmy's trip to Roundtree was without incident. Actually, it was easy
+once he had hurdled the ticket-seller with his forged note and the
+five-dollar bill from the cashbox in his father's desk. His error in not
+making it a ten was minor; a larger tip would not have provided him with
+better service, because the train crew were happy to keep an eye on the
+adventurous youngster for his own small sake. Their mild resentment
+against the small tip was directed against the boy's father, not the
+young passenger himself.
+
+He had one problem. The train was hardly out of the station before
+everybody on it knew that there was a five-year-old making a trip all
+by himself. Of course, he was not to be bothered, but everybody wanted
+to talk to him, to ask him how he was, to chatter endlessly at him.
+Jimmy did not want to talk. His experience in addressing adults was
+exasperating. That he spoke lucid English instead of babygab did not
+compel a rational response. Those who heard him speak made over him
+with the same effusive superiority that they used in applauding a
+golden-haired tot in high heels and a strapless evening gown sitting
+on a piano and singing, _Why Was I Born?_ in a piping, uncertain-toned
+voice. It infuriated him.
+
+So he immersed himself in his comic books. He gave his name politely
+every five minutes for the first fifty miles. He turned down offers of
+candy with, "Mommy says I mustn't before supper." And when dinnertime
+came he allowed himself to be escorted through the train by the
+conductor, because Jimmy knew that he couldn't handle the doors without
+help.
+
+The steward placed a menu in front of him, and then asked carefully, "How
+much money do you want to spend, young man?"
+
+Jimmy had the contents of his father's cashbox pinned to the inside of
+his shirt, and a five-dollar bill folded in a snap-top purse with some
+change in his shirt pocket. He could add with the best of them, but he
+did not want any more attention than he was absolutely forced to attract.
+So he fished out the snap-top purse and opened it to show the steward his
+five-dollar bill. The steward relaxed; he'd had a moment of apprehension
+that Holden Senior might have slipped the kid a half-dollar for dinner.
+(The steward had received a quarter for his share of the original
+two-fifty.)
+
+Jimmy looked at the "Child's Dinner" menu and pointed out a plate: lamb
+chop and mashed potatoes. After that, dinner progressed without incident.
+Jimmy topped it off with a dish of ice cream.
+
+The steward made change. Jimmy watched him carefully, and then said,
+"Daddy says I'm supposed to give you a tip. How much?"
+
+The steward looked down, wondering how he could explain the standard
+dining car tip of fifteen or twenty percent of the bill. He took a
+swallow of air and picked out a quarter. "This will do nicely," he said
+and went off thankful that all people do not ask waiters how much they
+think they deserve for the service rendered.
+
+Thus Jimmy Holden arrived in Roundtree and was observed and convoyed--but
+not bothered--off the train.
+
+It is deplorable that adults are not as friendly and helpful to one
+another as they are to children; it might make for a more pleasant world.
+As Jimmy walked along the station platform at Roundtree, one of his
+former fellow-passengers walked beside him. "Where are you going, young
+man? Someone going to meet you, of course?"
+
+"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I'm supposed to take a cab--"
+
+"I'm going your way, why not ride along with me?"
+
+"Sure it's all right?"
+
+"Sure thing. Come along." Jimmy never knew that this man felt good for a
+week after he'd done his good turn for the year.
+
+His grandfather opened the door and looked down at him in complete
+surprise. "Why, Jimmy! What are you doing here? Who brought--"
+
+His grandmother interrupted, "Come in! Come in! Don't just stand there
+with the door open!"
+
+Grandfather closed the door firmly, grandmother knelt and folded Jimmy
+in her arms and crooned over him, "You poor darling. You brave little
+fellow. Donald," she said firmly to her husband, "go get a glass of warm
+milk and some cookies." She led Jimmy to the old-fashioned parlor and
+seated him on the sofa. "Now, Jimmy, you relax a moment and then you can
+tell me what happened."
+
+Jimmy sighed and looked around. The house was old, and comfortably
+sturdy. It gave him a sense of refuge, of having reached a safe haven at
+last. The house was over-warm, and there was a musty smell of over-aged
+furniture, old leather, and the pungence of mothballs. It seemed to
+generate a feeling of firm stability. Even the slightly stale air--there
+probably hadn't been a wide open window since the storm sashes were
+installed last autumn--provided a locked-in feeling that conversely meant
+that the world was locked out.
+
+Grandfather brought in the glass of warmed milk and a plate of cookies.
+He sat down and asked, "What happened, Jimmy?"
+
+"My mother and father are--"
+
+"You eat your cookies and drink your milk," ordered his grandmother. "We
+know. That Mr. Brennan sent us a telegram."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was slightly more than twenty-four hours since Jimmy Holden had blown
+out the five proud candles on his birthday cake and begun to open his
+fine presents. Now it all came back with a rush, and when it came back,
+nothing could stop it.
+
+Jimmy never knew how very like a little boy of five he sounded that
+night. His speech was clear enough, but his troubled mind was too full
+to take the time to form his headlong thoughts into proper sentences.
+He could not pause to collect his thoughts into any chronology, so it
+came out going back and forth all in a single line, punctuated only by
+necessary pauses for the intake of breath. He was close to tears before
+he was halfway through, and by the time he came to the end he stopped in
+a sob and broke out crying.
+
+His grandfather said, "Jimmy, aren't you exaggerating? Mr. Brennan isn't
+that sort of a man."
+
+"He is too!" exploded Jimmy through his tears. "I saw him!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Donald, this is no time to start cross-examining a child." She crossed
+the room and lifted him onto her lap; she stroked his head and held his
+cheek against her shoulder. His open crying subsided into deep sobs; from
+somewhere she found a handkerchief and made him blow his nose--once,
+twice, and then a deep thrice. "Get me a warm washcloth," she told her
+husband, and with it she wiped away his tears. The warmth soothed Jimmy
+more.
+
+"Now," she said firmly, "before we go into this any more we'll have a
+good night's sleep."
+
+The featherbed was soft and cozy. Like protecting mother-wings, it folded
+Jimmy into its bosom, and the warm softness drew out of Jimmy whatever
+remained of his stamina. Tonight he slept of weariness and exhaustion,
+not of the sedation given last night. Here he felt at home, and it was
+good.
+
+And as tomorrows always had, tomorrow would take care of itself.
+
+Jimmy Holden's father and mother first met over an operating table,
+dressed in the white sterility that leaves only the eyes visible. She
+wielded the trephine that laid the patient's brain bare, he kept track of
+the patient's life by observing the squiggles on the roll of graph paper
+that emerged from his encephalograph. She knew nothing of the craft of
+the delicate instrument-creator, and he knew even less of the craft of
+surgery. There had been a near-argument during the cleaning-up session
+after the operation; the near-argument ended when they both realized that
+neither of them understood a word of what the other was saying. So the
+near-argument became an animated discussion, the general meaning of
+which became clear: Brain surgeons should know more about the intricacies
+of electromechanics, and the designers of delicate, precision
+instrumentation should know more about the mass of human gray matter they
+were trying to measure.
+
+They pooled their intellects and plunged into the problem of creating an
+encephalograph that would record the infinitesimal irregularities that
+were superimposed upon the great waves. Their operation became large;
+they bought the old structure on top of the hill and moved in, bag and
+baggage. They cohabited but did not live together for almost a year;
+Paul Brennan finally pointed out that Organized Society might permit a
+couple of geniuses to become research hermits, but Organized Society
+still took a dim view of cohabitation without a license. Besides, such
+messy arrangements always cluttered up the legal clarity of chattels,
+titles, and estates.
+
+They married in a quiet ceremony about two years prior to the date that
+Louis Holden first identified the fine-line wave-shapes that went with
+determined ideas. When he recorded them and played them back, his brain
+re-traced its original line of thought, and he could not even make a
+mental revision of the way his thoughts were arranged. For two years
+Louis and Laura Holden picked their way slowly through this field;
+stumped at one point for several months because the machine was strictly
+a personal proposition. Recorded by one of them, the playback was clear
+to that one, but to the other it was wild gibberish--an inexplicable
+tangle of noise and colored shapes, odors and tastes both pleasant and
+nasty, and mingled sensations. It was five years after their marriage
+before they found success by engraving information in the brain by
+sitting, connected to the machine, and reading aloud, word for word, the
+information that they wanted.
+
+It went by rote, as they had learned in childhood. It was the tiresome
+repetition of going over and over and over the lines of a poem or the
+numbers of the multiplication table until the pathway was a deeply
+trodden furrow in the brain. Forever imprinted, it was retained until
+death. Knowledge is stored by rote.
+
+To accomplish this end, Louis Holden succeeded in violating all of the
+theories of instrumentation by developing a circuit that acted as a sort
+of reverberation chamber which returned the wave-shape played into it
+back to the same terminals without interference, and this single circuit
+became the very heart of the Holden Electromechanical Educator.
+
+With success under way, the Holdens needed an intellectual guinea pig, a
+virgin mind, an empty store-house to fill with knowledge. They planned a
+twenty-year program of research, to end by handing their machine to the
+world complete with its product and instructions for its use and a list
+of pitfalls to avoid.
+
+The conception of James Quincy Holden was a most carefully-planned
+parenthood. It was not accomplished without love or passion. Love had
+come quietly, locking them together physically as they had been bonded
+intellectually. The passion had been deliberately provoked during the
+proper moment of Laura Holden's cycle of ovulation. This scientific
+approach to procreation was no experiment, it was the foregone-conclusive
+act to produce a component absolutely necessary for the completion of
+their long program of research. They happily left to Nature's Choice the
+one factor they could not control, and planned to accept an infant of
+either sex with equal welcome. They loved their little boy as they loved
+one another, rejoiced with him, despaired with him, and made their own
+way with success and mistake, and succeeded in bringing Jimmy to five
+years of age quite normal except for his education.
+
+Now, proficiency in brain surgery does not come at an early age, nor does
+world-wide fame in the field of delicate instrumentation. Jimmy's parents
+were over forty-five on the date of his birth.
+
+Jimmy's grandparents were, then, understandably aged seventy-eight and
+eighty-one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The old couple had seen their life, and they knew it for what it was.
+They arose each morning and faced the day knowing that there would be no
+new problem, only recurrence of some problem long solved. Theirs was a
+comfortable routine, long gone was their spirit of adventure, the
+pleasant notions of trying something a new and different way. At their
+age, they were content to take the easiest and the simplest way of doing
+what they thought to be Right. Furthermore, they had lived long enough to
+know that no equitable decision can be made by listening to only one side
+of any argument.
+
+While young Jimmy was polishing off a platter of scrambled eggs the
+following morning, Paul Brennan arrived. Jimmy's fork stopped in midair
+at the sound of Brennan's voice in the parlor.
+
+"You called him," he said accusingly.
+
+Grandmother Holden said, "He's your legal guardian, James."
+
+"But--I don't--can't--"
+
+"Now, James, your father and mother knew best."
+
+"But they didn't know about Paul Brennan. I won't go!"
+
+"You must."
+
+"I won't!"
+
+"James," said Grandmother Holden quietly, "you can't stay here."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"We're not prepared to keep you."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+Grandmother Holden despaired. How could she make this youngster
+understand that eighty is not an age at which to embark upon the process
+of raising a five-year-old to maturity?
+
+From the other room, Paul Brennan was explaining his side as he'd given
+it to the police. "--Forgot the land option that had to be signed. So I
+took off after them and drove fast enough to catch up. I was only a
+couple of hundred yards behind when it happened."
+
+"He's a liar!" cried Jimmy Holden.
+
+"That's not a nice thing to say."
+
+"It's true!"
+
+"Jimmy!" came the reproachful tone.
+
+"It's true!" he cried.
+
+His grandfather and Paul Brennan came into the kitchen. "Ah, Jimmy,"
+said Paul in a soothing voice, "why did you run off? You had everybody
+worried."
+
+"You did! You lie! You--"
+
+"James!" snapped his grandfather. "Stop that talk at once!"
+
+"Be easy with him, Mr. Holden. He's upset. Jimmy, let's get this settled
+right now. What did I do and how do I lie?"
+
+"Oh, please Mr. Brennan," said his grandmother. "This isn't necessary."
+
+"Oh, but it is. It is very important. As the legal guardian of young
+James, I can't have him harboring some suspicion as deep as this. Come
+on, Jimmy. Let's talk it out right now. What did I do and how am I
+lying?"
+
+"You weren't behind. You forced us off the road."
+
+"How could he, young man?" demanded Grandfather Holden.
+
+"I don't know, but he did."
+
+"Wait a moment, sir," said Brennan quietly. "It isn't going to be enough
+to force him into agreement. He's got to see the truth for itself, of his
+own construction from the facts. Now, Jimmy, where was I when you left my
+apartment?"
+
+"You--you were there."
+
+"And didn't I say--"
+
+"One moment," said Grandfather Holden. "Don't lead the witness."
+
+"Sorry. James, what did I do?"
+
+"You--" then a long pause.
+
+"Come on, Jimmy."
+
+"You shook hands with my father."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then you--kissed my mother on the cheek."
+
+"And then, again?"
+
+"And then you carried my birthday presents down and put them in the car."
+
+"Now, Jimmy, how does your father drive? Fast or slow?"
+
+"Fast."
+
+"So now, young man, you tell me how I could go back up to my apartment,
+get my coat and hat, get my car out of the garage, and race to the top of
+that hill so that I could turn around and come at you around that curve?
+Just tell me that, young man."
+
+"I--don't know--how you did it."
+
+"It doesn't make sense, does it?"
+
+"--No--"
+
+"Jimmy, I'm trying to help you. Your father and I were fraternity
+brothers in college. I was best man at your parents' wedding. I am your
+godfather. Your folks were taken away from both of us--and I'm hoping to
+take care of you as if you were mine." He turned to Jimmy's grandparents.
+"I wish to God that I could find the driver of that other car. He didn't
+hit anybody, but he's as guilty of a hit-and-run offence as the man who
+does. If I ever find him, I'll have him in jail until he rots!"
+
+"Jimmy," pleaded his grandmother, "can't you see? Mr. Brennan is only
+trying to help. Why would he do the evil thing you say he did?"
+
+"Because--" and Jimmy started to cry. The utter futility of trying to
+make people believe was too much to bear.
+
+"Jimmy, please stop it and be a man," said Brennan. He put a hand on
+Jimmy's shoulder. Jimmy flung it aside with a quick twist and a turn.
+"Please, Jimmy," pleaded Brennan. Jimmy left his chair and buried his
+face in a corner of the wall.
+
+"Jimmy, believe me," pleaded Brennan. "I'm going to take you to live in
+your old house, among your own things. I can't replace your folks, but I
+can try to be as close to your father as I know how. I'll see you through
+everything, just as your mother and father want me to."
+
+"No!" exploded Jimmy through a burst of tears.
+
+Grandfather Holden grunted. "This is getting close to the tantrum stage,"
+he said. "And the only way to deal with a tantrum is to apply the flat of
+the hand to the round of the bottom."
+
+"Please," smiled Brennan. "He's a pretty shaken youngster. He's
+emotionally hurt and frightened, and he wants to strike out and hurt
+something back."
+
+"I think he's done enough of that," said Grandfather Holden. "When Louis
+tossed one of these fits of temper where he wouldn't listen to any
+reason, we did as we saw fit anyway and let him kick and scream until
+he got tired of the noise he made."
+
+"Let's not be rough," pleaded Jimmy's grandmother. "He's just a little
+boy, you know."
+
+"If he weren't so little he'd have better sense," snapped Grandfather.
+
+"James," said Paul Brennan quietly, "do you see you're making trouble for
+your grandparents? Haven't we enough trouble as it is? Now, young man,
+for the last time, will you walk or will you be carried? Whichever,
+Jimmy, we're going back home!"
+
+James Holden gave up. "I'll go," he said bitterly, "but I hate you."
+
+"He'll be all right," promised Brennan. "I swear it!"
+
+"Please, Jimmy, be good for Mr. Brennan," pleaded his grandmother. "After
+all, it's for your own good." Jimmy turned away, bewildered, hurt and
+silent. He stubbornly refused to say goodbye to his grandparents.
+
+He was trapped in the world of grown-ups that believed a lying adult
+before they would even consider the truth of a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+
+The drive home was a bitter experience. Jimmy was sullen, and very quiet.
+He refused to answer any question and he made no reply to any statement.
+Paul Brennan kept up a running chatter of pleasantries, of promises and
+plans for their future, and just enough grief to make it sound honest.
+Had Paul Brennan actually been as honest as his honeyed tones said he
+was, no one could have continued to accuse him. But no one is more
+difficult to fool than a child--even a normal child. Paul Brennan's
+protestations simply made Jimmy Holden bitter.
+
+He sat silent and unhappy in the far corner of the front seat all the way
+home. In his mind was a nameless threat, a dread of what would come once
+they were inside--either inside of Paul Brennan's apartment or inside of
+his own home--with the door locked against the outside world.
+
+But when they arrived, Paul Brennan continued his sympathetic attitude.
+To Jimmy it was sheer hypocrisy; he was not experienced enough to know
+that a person can commit an act and then convince himself that he hadn't.
+
+"Jimmy," said Brennan softly, "I have not the faintest notion of
+punishment. None whatsoever. You ruined your father's great invention.
+You did that because you thought it was right. Someday when you change
+your mind and come to believe in me, I'll ask you to replace it because I
+know you can. But understand me, young man, I shall not ask you until you
+make the first suggestion yourself!"
+
+Jimmy remained silent.
+
+"One more thing," said Brennan firmly. "Don't try that stunt with the
+letter to the station agent again. It won't work twice. Not in this town
+nor any other for a long, long time. I've made a sort of family-news item
+out of it which hit a lot of daily papers. It'll also be in the company
+papers of all the railroads and buslines, how Mr. What's-his-name at the
+Midland Railroad got suckered by a five-year-old running away from home.
+Understand?"
+
+Jimmy understood but made no sign.
+
+"Then in September we'll start you in school," said Brennan.
+
+This statement made no impression upon young James Holden whatsoever. He
+had no intention of enduring this smothering by overkindness any longer
+than it took him to figure out how to run away, and where to run to. It
+was going to be a difficult thing. Cruel treatment, torture, physical
+harm were one thing; this act of being a deeply-concerned guardian was
+something else. A twisted arm he could complain about, a bruise he could
+show, the scars of lashing would give credence to his tale. But who would
+listen to any complaint about too much kindness?
+
+Six months of this sort of treatment and Jimmy Holden himself would begin
+to believe that his parents were monsters, coldly stuffing information in
+the head of an infant instead of letting him grow through a normal
+childhood. A year, and Jimmy Holden would be re-creating his father's
+reverberation circuit out of sheer gratitude. He'd be cajoled into
+signing his own death-warrant.
+
+But where can a five-year-old hide? There was no appeal to the forces of
+law and order. They would merely pop him into a squad car and deliver him
+to his guardian.
+
+Law and order were out. His only chance was to lose himself in some gray
+hinterland where there were so many of his own age that no one could keep
+track of them all. Whether he would succeed was questionable. But until
+he tried, he wouldn't know, and Jimmy was desperate enough to try
+anything.
+
+He attended the funeral services with Paul Brennan. But while the pastor
+was invoking Our Heavenly Father to accept the loving parents of orphaned
+James, James the son left the side of his "Uncle" Paul Brennan, who knelt
+in false piety with his eyes closed.
+
+Jimmy Holden had with him only his clothing and what was left of the wad
+of paper money from his father's cashbox still pinned to the inside of
+his shirt.
+
+This time Jimmy did not ride in style. Burlap sacks covered him when
+night fell; they dirtied his clothing and the bottom of the freight car
+scuffed his shoes. For eighteen hours he hid in the jolting darkness, not
+knowing and caring less where he was going, so long as it was away!
+
+He was hungry and thirsty by the time the train first began to slow down.
+It was morning--somewhere. Jimmy looked furtively out of the slit at the
+edge of the door to see that the train was passing through a region of
+cottages dusted black by smoke, through areas of warehouse and factory,
+through squalor and filth and slum; and vacant lots where the spread of
+the blight area had been so fast that the outward improvement had not
+time to build. Eventually the scene changed to solid areas of railroad
+track, and the trains parked there thickened until he could no longer
+see the city through them.
+
+Ultimately the train stopped long enough for Jimmy to squeeze out through
+the slit at the edge of the door.
+
+The train went on and Jimmy was alone in the middle of some huge city.
+He walked the noisome sidewalk trying to decide what he should do next.
+Food was of high importance, but how could he get it without attracting
+attention to himself? He did not know. But finally he reasoned that a
+hot dog wagon would probably take cash from a youngster without asking
+embarrassing questions, so long as the cash wasn't anything larger than
+a five-dollar bill.
+
+He entered the next one he came to. It was dirty; the windows held
+several years' accumulation of cooking grease, but the aroma was terrific
+to a young animal who'd been without food since yesterday afternoon.
+
+The counterman did not like kids, but he put away his dislike at the
+sight of Jimmy's money. He grunted when Jimmy requested a dog, tossed one
+on the grill and went back to reading his newspaper until some inner
+sense told him it was cooked. Jimmy finished it still hungry and asked
+for another. He finished a third and washed down the whole mass with a
+tall glass of highly watered orange juice. The counterman took his money
+and was very careful about making the right change; if this dirty kid had
+swiped the five-spot, it could be the counterman's problem of explaining
+to someone why he had overcharged. Jimmy's intelligence told him that
+countermen in a joint like this didn't expect tips, so he saved himself
+that hurdle. He left the place with a stomach full of food that only the
+indestructible stomach of a five-year-old could handle and now, fed and
+reasonably content, Jimmy began to seek his next point of contact.
+
+He had never been in a big city before. The sheer number of human beings
+that crowded the streets surpassed his expectations. The traffic was not
+personally terrifying, but it was so thick that Jimmy Holden wondered how
+people drove without colliding. He knew about traffic lights and walked
+with the green, staying out of trouble. He saw groups of small children
+playing in the streets and in the empty lots. Those not much older than
+himself were attending school.
+
+He paused to watch a group of children his own age trying to play
+baseball with a ragged tennis ball and the handle from a broom. It was a
+helter-skelter game that made no pattern but provided a lot of fun and
+screaming. He was quite bothered by a quarrel that came up; two of his
+own age went at one another with tiny fists flying, using words that
+Jimmy hadn't learned from his father's machine.
+
+He wondered how he might join them in their game. But they paid him no
+attention, so he didn't try.
+
+At lunchtime Jimmy consumed another collection of hot dogs. He continued
+to meander aimlessly through the city until schooltime ended, then he saw
+the streets and vacant lots fill with older children playing games with
+more pattern to them. It was a new world he watched, a world that had not
+been a part of his education. The information he owned was that of the
+school curriculum; it held nothing of the daily business of growing up.
+He knew the general rules of big-league baseball, but the kid-business of
+stickball did not register.
+
+He was at a complete loss. It was sheer chance and his own tremendous
+curiosity that led him to the edge of a small group that were busily
+engaged in the odd process of trying to jack up the front of a car.
+
+It wasn't a very good jack; it should have had the weight of a full adult
+against the handle. The kids strained and put their weight on the jack,
+but the handle wouldn't budge though their feet were off the ground.
+
+Here was the place where academic information would be useful--and the
+chance for an "in." Jimmy shoved himself into the small group and said,
+"Get a longer handle."
+
+They turned on him suspiciously.
+
+"Whatcha know about it?" demanded one, shoving his chin out.
+
+"Get a longer handle," repeated Jimmy. "Go ahead, get one."
+
+"G'wan--"
+
+"Wait, Moe. Maybe--"
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"I'm Jimmy."
+
+"Jimmy who?"
+
+"Jimmy--James." Academic information came up again. "Jimmy. Like the
+jimmy you use on a window."
+
+"Jimmy James. Any relation to Jesse James?"
+
+James Quincy Holden now told his first whopper. "I," he said, "am his
+grandson."
+
+The one called Moe turned to one of the younger ones. "Get a longer
+handle," he said.
+
+While the younger one went for something to use as a longer handle, Moe
+invited Jimmy to sit on the curb. "Cigarette?" invited Moe.
+
+"I don't smoke," said Jimmy.
+
+"Sissy?"
+
+Adolescent-age information looking out through five-year-old eyes assayed
+Moe. Moe was about eight, maybe even nine; taller than Jimmy but no
+heavier. He had a longer reach, which was an advantage that Jimmy did not
+care to hazard. There was no sure way to establish physical superiority;
+Jimmy was uncertain whether any show of intellect would be welcome.
+
+"No," he said. "I'm no sissy. I don't like 'em."
+
+Moe lit a cigarette and smoked with much gesturing and flickings of ashes
+and spitting at a spot on the pavement. He was finished when the younger
+one came back with a length of water pipe that would fit over the handle
+of the jack.
+
+The car went up with ease. Then came the business of removing the hubcap
+and the struggle to loose the lugbolts. Jimmy again suggested the
+application of the length of pipe. The wheel came off.
+
+"C'mon, Jimmy," said Moe. "We'll cut you in."
+
+"Sure," nodded Jimmy Holden, willing to see what came next so long as it
+did not have anything to do with Paul Brennan. Moe trundled the car wheel
+down the street, steering it with practiced hands. A block down and a
+block around that corner, a man with a three-day growth of whiskers
+stopped a truck with a very dirty license plate. Moe stopped and the
+man jumped out of the truck long enough to heave the tire and wheel into
+the back.
+
+The man gave Moe a handful of change which Moe distributed among the
+little gang. Then he got in the truck beside the driver and waved for
+Jimmy to come along.
+
+"What's that for?" demanded the driver.
+
+"He's a smarty pants," said Moe. "A real good one."
+
+"Who're you?"
+
+"Jimmy--James."
+
+"What'cha do, kid?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Moe, what did this kid sell you?"
+
+"You and your rusty jacks," grunted Moe. "Jimmy James here told us how to
+put a long hunk of pipe on the handle."
+
+"Jimmy James, who taught you about leverage?" demanded the driver
+suspiciously.
+
+Jimmy Holden believed that he was in the presence of an educated man.
+"Archimedes," he said solemnly, giving it the proper pronunciation.
+
+The driver said to Moe, "Think he's all right?"
+
+"He's smart enough."
+
+"Who're your parents, kid?"
+
+Jimmy Holden realized that this was a fine time to tell the truth, but
+properly diluted to taste. "My folks are dead," he said.
+
+"Who you staying with?"
+
+"No one."
+
+The driver of the truck eyed him cautiously for a moment. "You escaped
+from an orphan asylum?"
+
+"Uh-huh," lied Jimmy.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Ain't saying."
+
+"Wise, huh?"
+
+"Don't want to get sent back," said Jimmy.
+
+"Got a flop?"
+
+"Flop?"
+
+"Place to sleep for the night."
+
+"No."
+
+"Where'd you sleep last night?"
+
+"Boxcar."
+
+"Bindlestiff, huh?" roared the man with laughter.
+
+"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I've no bindle."
+
+The man's roar of laughter stopped abruptly. "You're a pretty wise kid,"
+he said thoughtfully.
+
+"I told y' so," said Moe.
+
+"Shut up," snapped the man. "Kid, do you want a flop for the night?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"Okay. You're in."
+
+"What's your name?" asked Jimmy.
+
+"You call me Jake. Short for Jacob. Er--here's the place."
+
+The "Place" had no other name. It was a junkyard. In it were car parts,
+wrecks with parts undamaged, whole motors rusting in the air, axles,
+wheels, differential assemblies and transmissions from a thousand cars of
+a thousand different parentages. Hubcaps abounded in piles sorted to size
+and shape. Jake drove the little pickup truck into an open shed. The tire
+and wheel came from the back and went immediately into place on a
+complicated gadget. In a couple of minutes, the tire was off the wheel
+and the inner tube was out of the casing. Wheel, casing, and inner tube
+all went into three separate storage piles.
+
+Not only a junkyard, but a stripper's paradise. Bring a hot car in here
+and in a few hours no one could find it. Its separated parts would be
+sold piece by piece and week by week as second-hand replacements.
+
+Jake said, "Dollar-fifty."
+
+"Two," said Moe.
+
+"One seventy-five."
+
+"Two."
+
+"Go find it and put it back."
+
+"Gimme the buck-six," grunted Moe. "Pretty cheap for a good shoe, a
+wheel, and a sausage."
+
+"Bring it in alone next time, and I'll slip you two-fifty. That gang you
+use costs, too. Now scram, Jimmy James and I got business to talk over."
+
+"He taking over?"
+
+"Don't talk stupid. I need a spotter. You're too old, Moe. And if he's
+any good, you gotta promotion coming."
+
+"And if he ain't?"
+
+"Don't come back!"
+
+Moe eyed Jimmy Holden. "Make it good--Jimmy." There was malice in Moe's
+face.
+
+Jake looked down at Jimmy Holden. With precisely the same experienced
+technique he used to estimate the value of a car loaded with road dirt,
+rust, and collision-smashed fenders, Jake stripped the child of the
+dirty clothing, the scuffed shoes, the mussed hair, and saw through to
+the value beneath. Its price was one thousand dollars, offered with no
+questions asked for information that would lead to the return of one
+James Quincy Holden to his legal guardian.
+
+It wasn't magic on Jake's part. Paul Brennan had instantly offered a
+reward. And Jake made it his business to keep aware of such matters.
+
+How soon, wondered Jake, might the ante be raised to two Gee? Five? And
+in the meantime, if things panned, Jimmy could be useful as a spotter.
+
+"You afraid of that Moe punk, Jimmy?"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Good, but keep an eye on him. He'd sell his mother for fifty cents clear
+profit--seventy-five if he had to split the deal. Now, kid, do you know
+anything about spotting?"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Hungry?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"All right. Come on in and we'll eat. Do you like Mulligan?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"Good. You and me are going to get along."
+
+Inside of the squalid shack, Jake had a cozy set-up. The filth that he
+encouraged out in the junkyard was not tolerated inside his shack. The
+dividing line was halfway across the edge of the door; the inside was as
+clean, neat, and shining as the outside was squalid.
+
+"You'll sleep here," said Jake, waving towards a small bedroom with a
+single twin bunk. "You'll make yer own bed and take a shower every
+night--or out! Understand?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"Good. Now, let's have chow, and I'll tell you about this spotting
+business. You help me, and I'll help you. One blab and back you go to
+where you came from. Get it?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+And so, while the police of a dozen cities were scouring their beats for
+a homeless, frightened five-year-old, Jimmy Holden slept in a comfortable
+bed in a clean room, absolutely disguised by an exterior that looked like
+an abandoned manure shed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+
+Jimmy discovered that he was admirably suited to the business of
+spotting. The "job turnover" was high because the spotter must be young
+enough to be allowed the freedom of the preschool age, yet be mature
+enough to follow orders.
+
+The job consisted of meandering through the streets of the city, in
+the aimless patterns of youth, while keeping an eye open for parked
+automobiles with the ignition keys still in their locks.
+
+Only a very young child can go whooping through the streets bumping
+pedestrians, running wildly, or walking from car to car twiggling each
+door handle and peering inside as if he were imitating a door-to-door
+salesman, occasionally making a minor excursion in one shop door and out
+the other.
+
+He takes little risk. He merely spots the target. He reports that there
+is such-and-such a car parked so-and-so, after which he goes on to spot
+the next target. The rest of the business is up to the men who do the
+actual stealing.
+
+Jimmy's job-training program took only one morning. That same afternoon
+he went to work for Jake's crew.
+
+Jake's experience with kids had been no more than so-so promising. He
+used them because they were better than nothing. He did not expect them
+to stay long; they were gobbled up by the rules of compulsory education
+just about the age when they could be counted upon to follow orders.
+
+He felt about the same with Jimmy Holden; the "missing person" report
+stated that one of the most prominent factors in the lad's positive
+identification was his high quality of speech and his superior
+intelligence. (This far Paul Brennan had to go, and he had divulged
+the information with great reluctance.)
+
+But though Jake needed a preschool child with intelligence, he did not
+realize the height of Jimmy Holden's.
+
+It was obvious to Jimmy on the second day that Jake's crew was not taking
+advantage of every car spotted. One of them had been a "natural" to
+Jimmy's way of thinking. He asked Jake about it: "Why didn't you take the
+sea-green Ford in front of the corner store?"
+
+"Too risky."
+
+"Risky?"
+
+Jake nodded. "Spotting isn't risky, Jimmy. But picking the car up is.
+There is a very dangerous time when the driver is a sitting duck. From
+the moment he opens the car door he is in danger. Sitting in the chance
+of getting caught, he must start the car, move it out of the parking
+space into traffic, and get under way and gone before he is safe."
+
+"But the sea-green Ford was sitting there with its engine running!"
+
+"Meaning," nodded Jake, "that the driver pulled in and made a fast dash
+into the store for a newspaper or a pack of cigarettes."
+
+"I understand. Your man could get caught. Or," added Jimmy thoughtfully,
+"the owner might even take his car away before we got there."
+
+Jake nodded. This one was going to make it easy for him.
+
+As the days wore on, Jimmy became more selective. He saw no point in
+reporting a car that wasn't going to be used. An easy mark wedged between
+two other cars couldn't be removed with ease. A car parked in front of a
+parking meter with a red flag was dangerous, it meant that the time was
+up and the driver should be getting nervous about it. A man who came
+shopping along the street to find a meter with some time left by the
+former driver was obviously looking for a quick-stop place--whereas the
+man who fed the meter to its limit was a much better bet.
+
+Jake, thankful for what Fate had brought him, now added refinements of
+education. Cars parked in front of supermarkets weren't safe; the owner
+might be standing just inside the big plate glass window. The car parked
+hurriedly just before the opening of business was likely to be a good bet
+because people are careless about details when they are hurrying to punch
+the old time clock.
+
+Jake even closed down his operations during the calculated danger
+periods, but he made sure to tell Jimmy Holden why.
+
+From school-closing to dinnertime Jimmy was allowed to do as he pleased.
+He found it hard to enjoy playing with his contemporaries, and Jake's
+explanation about dangerous times warned Jimmy against joining Moe and
+his little crew of thieves. Jimmy would have enjoyed helping in the
+stripping yard, but he had not the heft for it. They gave him little
+messy jobs to do that grimed his hands and made Jake's stern rule of
+cleanliness hard to achieve. Jimmy found it easier to avoid such jobs
+than to scrub his skin raw.
+
+One activity he found to his ability was the cooking business.
+
+Jake was a stew-man, a soup-man, a slum-gullion man. The fellows who
+roamed in and out of Jake's Place dipped their plate of slum from the
+pot and their chunk of bread from the loaf and talked all through this
+never-started and never-ended lunch. With the delicacy of his "inside"
+life, Jake knew the value of herbs and spices and he was a hard
+taskmaster. But inevitably, Jimmy learned the routine of brewing a bucket
+of slum that suited Jake's taste, after which Jimmy was now and then
+permitted to take on the more demanding job of cooking the steaks and
+chops that made their final evening meal.
+
+Jimmy applied himself well, for the knowledge was going to be handy. More
+important, it kept him from the jobs that grimed his hands.
+
+He sought other pursuits, but Jake had never had a resident spotter
+before and the play-facilities provided were few. Jimmy took to
+reading--necessarily, the books that Jake read, that is, approximately
+equal parts of science fiction and girlie-girlie books. The science
+fiction he enjoyed; but he was not able to understand why he wasn't
+interested in the girlie books. So Jimmy read. Jake even went out of his
+way to find more science fiction for the lad.
+
+Ultimately, Jimmy located a potential source of pleasure.
+
+He spotted a car with a portable typewriter on the back seat. The car was
+locked and therefore no target, but it stirred his fancy. Thereafter he
+added a contingent requirement to his spotting. A car with a typewriter
+was more desirable than one without.
+
+Jimmy went on to further astound Jake by making a list of what the
+customers were buying. After that he concentrated on spotting those cars
+that would provide the fastest sale for their parts.
+
+It was only a matter of time; Jimmy spotted a car with a portable
+typewriter. It was not as safe a take as his others, but he reported it.
+Jake's driver picked it up and got it out in a squeak; the car itself
+turned up to be no great find.
+
+Jimmy claimed the typewriter at once.
+
+Jake objected: "No dice, Jimmy."
+
+"I want it, Jake."
+
+"Look, kid, I can sell it for twenty."
+
+"But I want it."
+
+Jake eyed Jimmy thoughtfully, and he saw two things. One was a
+thousand-dollar reward standing before him. The other was a row of prison
+bars.
+
+Jake could only collect one and avoid the other by being very sure that
+Jimmy Holden remained grateful to Jake for Jake's shelter and protection.
+
+He laughed roughly. "All right, Jimmy," he said. "You lift it and you can
+have it."
+
+Jimmy struggled with the typewriter, and succeeded only because it was a
+new one made of the titanium-magnesium-aluminum alloys. It hung between
+his little knees, almost--but not quite--touching the ground.
+
+"You have it," said Jake. He lifted it lightly and carried it into the
+boy's little bedroom.
+
+Jimmy started after dinner. He picked out the letters with the same
+painful search he'd used in typing his getaway letter. He made the
+same mistakes he'd made before. It had taken him almost an hour and
+nearly fifty sheets of paper to compose that first note without an
+error; that was no way to run a railroad; now Jimmy was determined
+to learn the proper operation of this machine. But finally the jagged
+tack-tack--pause--tack-tack got on Jake's nerves.
+
+Jake came in angrily. "You're wasting paper," he snapped. He eyed Jimmy
+thoughtfully. "How come with your education you don't know how to type?"
+
+"My father wouldn't let me."
+
+"Seems your father wouldn't let you do anything."
+
+"He said that I couldn't learn until I was old enough to learn properly.
+He said I must not get into the habit of using the hunt-and-peck system,
+or I'd never get out of it."
+
+"So what are you doing now?"
+
+"My father is dead."
+
+"And anything he said before doesn't count any more?"
+
+"He promised me that he'd start teaching me as soon as my hands were big
+enough," said Jimmy soberly. "But he isn't here any more. So I've got to
+learn my own way."
+
+Jake reflected. Jimmy was a superior spotter. He was also a potential
+danger; the other kids played it as a game and didn't really realize what
+they were doing. This one knew precisely what he was doing, knew that it
+was wrong, and had the lucidity of speech to explain in full detail. It
+was a good idea to keep him content.
+
+"If you'll stop that tap-tapping for tonight," promised Jake, "I'll get
+you a book tomorrow. Is it a deal?"
+
+"You will?"
+
+"I will if you'll follow it."
+
+"Sure thing."
+
+"And," said Jake, pushing his advantage, "you'll do it with the door
+closed so's I can hear this TV set."
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+Jake kept his word.
+
+On the following afternoon, not only was Jimmy presented with one of the
+standard learn-it-yourself books on touch-typing, but Jake also contrived
+a sturdy desk out of one old packing case and a miniature chair out of
+another. Both articles of home-brewed furniture Jake insisted upon having
+painted before he permitted them inside his odd dwelling, and that
+delayed Jimmy one more day.
+
+But it was only one more day; and then a new era of experience began for
+Jimmy.
+
+It would be nice to report that he went at it with determination,
+self-discipline, and system, following instructions to the letter and
+emerging a first-rate typist.
+
+Sorry. Jimmy hated every minute of it. He galled at the pages and pages
+of _juj juj juj frf frf frf_. He cried with frustration because he could
+not perform the simple exercise to perfection. He skipped through the
+book so close to complete failure that he hurled it across the room, and
+cried in anger because he had not the strength to throw the typewriter
+after it. Throw the machine? He had not the strength in his pinky to
+press the carriage-shift key!
+
+Part of his difficulty was the size of his hands, of course. But most of
+his trouble lay deep-seated in his recollection of his parents' fabulous
+machine. It would have made a typist of him in a single half-hour
+session, or so he thought.
+
+He had yet to learn about the vast gulf that lies between theory and
+practice.
+
+It took Jimmy several weeks of aimless fiddling before he realized that
+there was no easy short-cut. Then he went back to the _juj juj juj frf
+frf frf_ routine and hated it just as much, but went on.
+
+He invented a kind of home-study "hooky" to break the monotony. He would
+run off a couple of pages of regular exercise, and then turn back to the
+hunt-and-peck system of typing to work on a story. He took a furtive glee
+in this; he felt that he was getting away with something. In mid-July,
+Jake caught him at it.
+
+"What's going on?" demanded Jake, waving the pages of manuscript copy.
+
+"Typing," said Jimmy.
+
+Jake picked up the typing guidebook and waved it under Jimmy's nose.
+"Show me where it says you gotta type anything like, 'Captain Brandon
+struggled against his chains when he heard Lady Hamilton scream. The
+pirate's evil laugh rang through the ship. "Curse you--"'"
+
+Jake snorted.
+
+"But--" said Jimmy faintly.
+
+"But nothing!" snapped Jake. "Stop the drivel and learn that thing! You
+think I let you keep the machine just to play games? We gotta find a way
+to make it pay off. Learn it good!"
+
+He stamped out, taking the manuscript with him. From that moment on,
+Jimmy's furtive career as an author went on only when Jake was either out
+for the evening or entertaining. In any case, he did not bother Jimmy
+further, evidently content to wait until Jimmy had "learned it good"
+before putting this new accomplishment to use. Nor did Jimmy bother him.
+It was a satisfactory arrangement for the time being. Jimmy hid his
+"work" under a pile of raw paper and completed it in late August. Then,
+with the brash assurance of youth, he packed and mailed his first
+finished manuscript to the editor of _Boy's Magazine_.
+
+His typing progressed more satisfactorily than he realized, even though
+he was still running off page after page of repetitious exercise,
+leavened now and then by a page of idiotic sentences the letters of
+which were restricted to the center of the typewriter keyboard. The
+practice, even the hunt-and-peck relaxation from discipline, exercised
+the small muscles. Increased strength brought increased accuracy.
+
+September rolled in, the streets emptied of school-aged children and the
+out-of-state car licenses diminished to a trickle. With the end of the
+carefree vacation days went the careless motorist.
+
+Jake, whose motives were no more altruistic than his intentions were
+legal, began to look for a means of disposing of Jimmy Holden at the
+greatest profit to himself. Jake stalled only because he hoped that the
+reward might be stepped up.
+
+But it was Jimmy's own operations that closed this chapter of his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+
+Jimmy had less scout work to do and no school to attend; he was too small
+to help in the sorting of car parts and too valuable to be tossed out. He
+was in the way.
+
+So he was in Jake's office when the mail came. He brought the bundle to
+Jake's desk and sat on a box, sorting the circulars and catalogs from the
+first class. Halfway down the pile was a long envelope addressed to
+_Jimmy James_.
+
+He dropped the rest with a little yelp. Jake eyed him quickly and
+snatched the letter out of Jimmy's hands.
+
+"Hey! That's mine!" said Jimmy. Jake shoved him away.
+
+"Who's writing you?" demanded Jake.
+
+"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.
+
+"Shut up!" snapped Jake, unfolding the letter. "I read _all_ the mail
+that comes here first."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Shut your mouth and your teeth'll stay in," said Jake flatly. He
+separated a green slip from the letter and held the two covered while he
+read. "Well, well," he said. "Our little Shakespeare!" With a disdainful
+grunt Jake tossed the letter to Jimmy.
+
+Eagerly, Jimmy took the letter and read:
+
+  Dear Mr. James:
+
+  We regret the unconscionable length of time between your submission and
+  this reply. However, the fact that this reply is favorable may be its
+  own apology. We are enclosing a check for $20.00 with the following
+  explanation:
+
+  Our policy is to reject all work written in dialect. At the best we
+  request the author to rewrite the piece in proper English and frame
+  his effect by other means. Your little story is not dialect, nor is it
+  bad literarily, the framework's being (as it is) a fairly good example
+  of a small boy's relating in the first person one of his adventures,
+  using for the first time his father's typewriter. But you went too far.
+  I doubt that even a five-year-old would actually make as many
+  typographical errors.
+
+  However, we found the idea amusing, therefore our payment. One of our
+  editors will work your manuscript into less-erratic typescript for
+  eventual publication.
+
+  Please continue to think of us in the future, but don't corn up your
+  script with so many studied blunders.
+
+  Sincerely,
+  Joseph Brandon, editor,
+  Boy's Magazine.
+
+"Gee," breathed Jimmy, "a check!"
+
+Jake laughed roughly. "Shakespeare," he roared. "Don't corn up your
+stuff! You put too many errors in! Wow!"
+
+Jimmy's eyes began to burn. He had no defense against this sarcasm. He
+wanted praise for having accomplished something, instead of raucous
+laughter.
+
+"I wrote it," he said lamely.
+
+"Oh, go away!" roared Jake.
+
+Jimmy reached for the check.
+
+"Scram," said Jake, shutting his laughter off instantly.
+
+"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.
+
+Jake paused, then laughed again. "Okay, smart kid. Take it and spend it!"
+He handed the check to Jimmy Holden.
+
+Jimmy took it quickly and left.
+
+He wanted to eye it happily, to gloat over it, to turn it over and over
+and to read it again and again; but he wanted to do it in private.
+
+He took it with him to the nearest bank, feeling its folded bulk and
+running a fingernail along the serrated edge.
+
+He re-read it in the bank, then went to a teller's window. "Can you cash
+this, please?" he asked.
+
+The teller turned it over. "It isn't endorsed."
+
+"I can't reach the desk to sign it," complained Jimmy.
+
+"Have you an account here?" asked the teller politely.
+
+"Well, no sir."
+
+"Any identification?"
+
+"No--no sir," said Jimmy thoughtfully. Not a shred of anything did he
+have to show who he was under either name.
+
+"Who is this Jimmy James?" asked the teller.
+
+"Me. I am."
+
+The teller smiled. "And you wrote a short story that sold to _Boy's
+Magazine_?" he asked with a lifted eyebrow. "That's pretty good for a
+little guy like you."
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+The teller looked over Jimmy's head; Jimmy turned to look up at one of
+the bank's policemen. "Tom, what do you make of this?"
+
+The policeman shrugged. He stooped down to Jimmy's level. "Where did you
+get this check, young fellow?" he asked gently.
+
+"It came in the mail this morning."
+
+"You're Jimmy James?"
+
+"Yes sir." Jimmy Holden had been called that for more than half a year;
+his assent was automatic.
+
+"How old are you, young man?" asked the policeman kindly.
+
+"Five and a half."
+
+"Isn't that a bit young to be writing stories?"
+
+Jimmy bit his lip. "I wrote it, though."
+
+The policeman looked up at the teller with a wink. "He can tell a good
+yarn," chuckled the policeman. "Shouldn't wonder if he could write one."
+
+The teller laughed and Jimmy's eyes burned again. "It's mine," he
+insisted.
+
+"If it's yours," said the policeman quietly, "we can settle it fast
+enough. Do your folks have an account here?"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Hmmm. That makes it tough."
+
+Brightly, Jimmy asked, "Can I open an account here?"
+
+"Why, sure you can," said the policeman. "All you have to do is to bring
+your parents in."
+
+"But I want the money," wailed Jimmy.
+
+"Jimmy James," explained the policeman with a slight frown to the teller,
+"we can't cash a check without positive identification. Do you know what
+positive identification means?"
+
+"Yes sir. It means that you've got to be sure that this is me."
+
+"Right! Now, those are the rules. Now, of course, you don't look like
+the sort of young man who would tell a lie. I'll even bet your real
+name is Jimmy James, Jr. But you see, we have no proof, and our boss
+will be awful mad at us if we break the rules and cash this check without
+following the rules. The rules, Jimmy James, aren't to delay nice, honest
+people, but to stop people from making mistakes. Mistakes such as taking
+a little letter out of their father's mailbox. If we cashed that check,
+then it couldn't be put back in father's mailbox without anybody knowing
+about it. And that would be real bad."
+
+"But it's mine!"
+
+"Sonny, if that's yours, all you have to do is to have your folks come in
+and say so. Then we'll open an account for you."
+
+"Yes sir," said Jimmy in a voice that was thick with tears of frustration
+close to the surface. He turned away and left.
+
+Jake was still in the outside office of the Yard when Jimmy returned. The
+boy was crestfallen, frustrated, unhappy, and would not have returned at
+all if there had been another place where he was welcome. He expected
+ridicule from Jake, but Jake smiled.
+
+"No luck, kid?"
+
+Jimmy just shook his head.
+
+"Checks are tough, Jimmy. Give up, now?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"No? What then?"
+
+"I can write a letter and sign it," said Jimmy, explaining how he had
+outfoxed the ticket seller.
+
+"Won't work with checks, Jimmy. For me now, if I was to be polite and
+dressed right they might cash a twenty if I showed up with my social
+security card, driver's license, identification card with photograph
+sealed in, and all that junk. But a kid hasn't got a chance. Look, Jimmy,
+I'm sorry for this morning. To-morrow morning we'll go over to my bank
+and I'll have them cash it for you. It's yours. You earned it and you
+keep it. Okay? Are we friends again?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+Gravely they shook hands. "Watch the place, kid," said Jake. "I got to
+make a phone call."
+
+In the morning, Jake dressed for business and insisted that Jimmy put on
+his best to make a good impression. After breakfast, they set out. Jake
+parked in front of a granite building.
+
+"This isn't any bank," objected Jimmy. "This is a police station."
+
+"Sure," responded Jake. "Here's where we get you an identification card.
+Don't you know?"
+
+"Okay," said Jimmy dubiously.
+
+Inside the station there were a number of men in uniform and in plain
+clothing. Jake strode forward, holding Jimmy by one small hand. They
+approached the sergeant's desk and Jake lifted Jimmy up and seated him on
+one edge of the desk with his feet dangling.
+
+The sergeant looked at them with interest but without surprise.
+
+"Sergeant," said Jake, "this is Jimmy James--as he calls himself when
+he's writing stories. Otherwise he is James Quincy Holden."
+
+Jimmy went cold all over.
+
+Jake backed through the circle that was closing in; the hole he made was
+filled by Paul Brennan.
+
+It was not the first betrayal in Jimmy James's young life, but it was
+totally unexpected. He didn't know that the policeman from the bank had
+worried Jake; he didn't know that Jake had known all along who he was; he
+didn't know how fast Brennan had moved after the phone call from Jake.
+But his young mind leaped past the unknown facts to reach a certain, and
+correct, conclusion.
+
+He had been sold out.
+
+"Jimmy, Jimmy," came the old, pleading voice. "Why did you run away?
+Where have you been?"
+
+Brennan stepped forward and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Without
+a shadow of doubt," he said formally, "this is James Quincy Holden. I so
+identify him. And with no more ado, I hand you the reward." He reached
+into his inside pocket and drew out an envelope, handing it to Jake. "I
+have never parted with one thousand dollars so happily in my life."
+
+Jimmy watched, unable to move. Brennan was busy and cheerful, the model
+of the man whose long-lost ward has been returned to him.
+
+"So, James, shall we go quietly or shall we have a scene?"
+
+Trapped and sullen, Jimmy Holden said nothing. The officers helped him
+down from the desk. He did not move. Brennan took him by a hand that was
+as limp as wet cloth. Brennan started for the door. The arm lifted until
+the link was taut; then, with slow, dragging steps, James Quincy Holden
+started toward home.
+
+Brennan said, "You understand me, don't you, Jimmy?"
+
+"You want my father's machine."
+
+"Only to help you, Jimmy. Can't you believe that?"
+
+"No."
+
+Brennan drove his car with ease. A soft smile lurked around his lips. He
+went on, "You know what your father's machine will do for you, don't you,
+Jimmy?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But have you ever attended school?"
+
+"No." But Jimmy remembered the long hours and hours of study and practice
+before he became proficient with his typewriter. For a moment he felt
+close to tears. It had been the only possession he truly owned, now it
+was gone. And with it was gone the author's first check. The thrill of
+that first check is far greater than Graduation or the First Job. It is
+approximately equal to the flush of pride that comes when the author's
+story hits print with his NAME appended.
+
+But Jimmy's typewriter was gone, and his check was gone. Without a doubt
+the check would turn up cashed--through the operations of Jake Caslow.
+
+Brennan's voice cut into his thoughts. "You will attend school, Jimmy.
+You'll have to."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Oh, now look, Jimmy. There are laws that say you must attend school.
+The only way those laws can be avoided is to make an appeal to the law
+itself, and have your legal guardian--myself--ask for the privilege of
+tutoring you at home. Well, I won't do it."
+
+He drove for a moment, thinking. "So you're going to attend school," he
+said, "and while you're there you're going to be careful not to disclose
+by any act or inference that you already know everything they can teach
+you. Otherwise they will ask some embarrassing questions. And the first
+thing that happens to you is that you will be put in a much harder place
+to escape from than our home, Jimmy. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes sir," the boy said sickly.
+
+"But," purred Uncle Paul Brennan, "you may find school very boring. If
+so, you have only to say the word--rebuild your father's machine--and go
+on with your career."
+
+"I w--" Jimmy began automatically, but his uncle stopped him.
+
+"You won't, no," he agreed. "Not now. In the meantime, then, you will
+live the life proper to your station--and your age. I won't deny you a
+single thing, Jimmy. Not a single thing that a five-year-old can want."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+
+Paul Brennan moved into the Holden house with Jimmy.
+
+Jimmy had the run of the house--almost. Uncle Paul closed off the upper
+sitting room, which the late parents had converted into their laboratory.
+_That_ was locked. But the rest of the house was free, and Jimmy was once
+more among the things he had never hoped to see again.
+
+Brennan's next step was to hire a middle-aged couple to take care of
+house and boy. Their name was Mitchell; they were childless and regretted
+it; they lavished on Jimmy the special love and care that comes only from
+childless child-lovers.
+
+Though Jimmy was wary to the point of paranoia, he discovered that he
+wanted for nothing. He was kept clean and his home kept tidy. He was fed
+well--not only in terms of nourishment, but in terms of what he liked.
+
+Then ... Jimmy began to notice changes.
+
+_Huckleberry Finn_ turned up missing. In its place on the shelf was a
+collection of Little Golden Books.
+
+His advanced Mecanno set was "broken"--so Mrs. Mitchell told him. Uncle
+Paul had accidentally crushed it. "But you'll like this better," she
+beamed, handing him a fresh new box from the toy store. It contained
+bright-colored modular blocks.
+
+Jimmy's parents had given him canvasboard and oil paints; now they were
+gone. Jimmy would have admitted he was no artist; but he didn't enjoy
+retrogressing to his uncle's selection--finger paints.
+
+His supply of drawing paper was not tampered with. But it was not
+replaced. When it was gone, Jimmy was presented with a blackboard and
+boxes of colored chalk.
+
+By Christmas every possession was gone--replaced--the new toys tailored
+to Jimmy's physical age. There was a Christmas tree, and under it a pile
+of gay bright boxes. Jimmy had hardly the heart to open them, for he knew
+what they would contain.
+
+He was right.
+
+Jimmy had everything that would keep a five-year-old boy
+contented ... and not one iota more. He objected; his objections got him
+nowhere. Mrs. Mitchell was reproachful: Ingratitude, Jimmy! Mr. Mitchell
+was scornful: Maybe James would like to vote and smoke a pipe?
+
+And Paul Brennan was very clear. There was a way out of this, yes. Jimmy
+could have whatever he liked. There was just this one step that must be
+taken first; the machine must be put back together again.
+
+When it came time for Jimmy to start school he was absolutely delighted;
+nothing, nothing could be worse than this.
+
+At first it was a novel experience.
+
+He sat at a desk along with forty-seven other children of his size,
+neatly stacked in six aisles with eight desks to the tier. He did his
+best to copy their manners and to reproduce their halting speech and
+imperfect grammar. For the first couple of weeks he was not noticed.
+
+The teacher, with forty-eight young new minds to study, gave him his
+2.08% of her total time and attention. Jimmy Holden was not a deportment
+problem; his answers to the few questions she directed at him were
+correct. Therefore he needed less attention and got less; she spent her
+time on the loud, the unruly and those who lagged behind in education.
+
+Because his total acquaintance with children of his own age had been
+among the slum kids that hung around Jake Caslow's Place, Jimmy found his
+new companions an interesting bunch.
+
+He watched them, and he listened to them. He copied them and in two weeks
+Jimmy found them pitifully lacking and hopelessly misinformed. They could
+not remember at noon what they had been told at ten o'clock. They had
+difficulty in reading the simple pages of the First Reader.
+
+But he swallowed his pride and stumbled on and on, mimicking his friends
+and remaining generally unnoticed.
+
+If written examinations were the rule in the First Grade, Jimmy would
+have been discovered on the first one. But with less than that 2% of the
+teacher's time directed at him, Jimmy's run of correct answers did not
+attract notice. His boredom and his lack of attention during daydreams
+made him seem quite normal.
+
+He began to keep score on his classmates on the fly-leaf of one of his
+books. Jimmy was a far harsher judge than the teacher. He marked them
+either wrong or right; he gave no credit for trying, or for their
+stumbling efforts to express their muddled ideas and incomplete grasp. He
+found their games fun at first, but quickly grew bored. When he tried to
+introduce a note of strategy they ignored him because they did not
+understand. They made rules as they went along and changed them as they
+saw fit. Then, instead of complying with their own rules, they pouted-up
+and sulked when they couldn't do as they wanted.
+
+But in the end it was Jimmy's lack of experience in acting that tripped
+him.
+
+Having kept score on his playmates' answers, Jimmy knew that some fairly
+high percentage of answers must inevitably be wrong. So he embarked upon
+a program of supplying a certain proportion of errors. He discovered that
+supplying a wrong answer that was consistent with the age of his
+contemporaries took too much of his intellect to keep his actions
+straight. He forgot to employ halting speech and childlike grammar. His
+errors were delivered in faultless grammar and excellent self-expression;
+his correct answers came out in the English of his companions;
+mispronounced, ill-composed, and badly delivered.
+
+The contrast was enough to attract even 2.08% of a teacher.
+
+During the third week of school, Jimmy was day-dreaming during class.
+Abruptly his teacher snapped, "James Holden, how much is seven times
+nine?"
+
+"Sixty-three," replied Jimmy, completely automatic.
+
+"James," she said softly, "do you know the rest of your numbers?"
+
+Jimmy looked around like a trapped animal. His teacher waited him out
+until Jimmy, finding no escape, said, "Yes'm."
+
+"Well," she said with a bright smile. "It's nice to know that you do. Can
+you do the multiplication table?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Let's hear you."
+
+Jimmy looked around. "No, Jimmy," said his teacher. "I want you to say
+it. Go ahead." And then as Jimmy hesitated still, she addressed the
+class. "This is important," she said. "Someday you will have to learn it,
+too. You will use it all through life and the earlier you learn it the
+better off you all will be. _Knowledge_," she quoted proudly, "_is
+power_! Now, Jimmy!"
+
+Jimmy began with two-times-two and worked his way through the long table
+to the twelves. When he finished, his teacher appointed one of the
+better-behaved children to watch the class. "Jimmy," she said, "I'm going
+to see if we can't put you up in the next grade. You don't belong here.
+Come along."
+
+They went to the principal's office. "Mr. Whitworth," said Jimmy's
+teacher, "I have a young genius in my class."
+
+"A young genius, Miss Tilden?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. He already knows the multiplication table."
+
+"You do, James? Where did you learn it?"
+
+"My father taught me."
+
+Principal and teacher looked at each another. They said nothing but they
+were both recalling stories and rumors about the brilliance of his
+parents. The accident and death had not escaped notice.
+
+"What else did they teach you, James?" asked Mr. Whitworth. "To read and
+write, of course?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"History?"
+
+Jimmy squirmed inwardly. He did not know how much to admit. "Some," he
+said noncommittally.
+
+"When did Columbus discover America?"
+
+"In Fourteen Ninety-Two."
+
+"Fine," said Mr. Whitworth with a broad smile. He looked at Miss Tilden.
+"You're right. Young James should be advanced." He looked down at Jimmy
+Holden. "James," he said, "we're going to place you in the Second Grade
+for a tryout. Unless we're wrong, you'll stay and go up with them."
+
+Jimmy's entry into Second Grade brought a different attitude. He had
+entered school quietly just for the sake of getting away from Paul
+Brennan. Now he was beginning to form a plan. If he could go from First
+to Second in a matter of three weeks, then, by carefully disclosing his
+store of knowledge bit-by-bit at the proper moment, he might be able to
+go through school in a short time. Moreover, he had tasted the first
+fruits of recognition. He craved more.
+
+Somewhere was born the quaint notion that getting through school would
+automatically make him an adult, with all attendant privileges.
+
+So Jimmy Holden dropped all pretense. His answers were as right as he
+could make them. He dropped the covering mimickry of childish speech
+and took personal pride in using grammar as good as that of his teacher.
+
+This got him nothing. The Second Grade teacher was of the "progressive"
+school; she firmly believed that everybody, having been created equal,
+had to stay that way. She pointedly avoided giving Jimmy any opportunity
+to show his capability.
+
+He bided his time with little grace.
+
+He found his opportunity during the visit of a school superintendent.
+During this session Jimmy hooted when one of his fellows said that
+Columbus proved the world was round.
+
+Angrily she demanded that Jimmy tell her who did prove it, and Jimmy
+Holden replied that he didn't know whether it was Pythagoras or one of
+his followers, but he did know that it was one of the few things that
+Aristotle ever got right. This touched her on a sore spot. She admired
+Aristotle and couldn't bear to hear the great man accused of error.
+
+She started baiting Jimmy with loaded questions and stopped when
+Jimmy stated that Napoleon Bonaparte was responsible for the invention
+of canned food, the adoption of the metric system, and the development
+of the semaphore telegraph. This stopped all proceedings until Jimmy
+himself found the references in the Britannica. That little feat of
+research-reference impressed the visiting superintendent. Jimmy Holden
+was jumped into Third Grade.
+
+Convinced that he was on the right trolley, Jimmy proceeded to plunge in
+with both feet. Third Grade Teacher helped. Within a week he was being
+called upon to aid the laggards. He stood out like a lighthouse; he was
+the one who could supply the right answers when the class was stumped.
+His teacher soon began to take a delight in belaboring the class for a
+minute before turning to Jimmy for the answer. Heaven forgive him, Jimmy
+enjoyed it. He began to hold back slyly, like a comedian building up the
+tension before a punch-line.
+
+His classmates began to call him "old know-it-all." Jimmy did not realize
+that it was their resentment speaking. He accepted it as deference to his
+superior knowledge. The fact that he was not a part of their playtime
+life did not bother him one iota. He knew very well that his size alone
+would cut him out of the rough and heavy games of his classmates; he did
+not know that he was cut out of their games because they disliked him.
+
+As time wore on, some of the rougher ones changed his nickname from
+"know-it-all" to "teacher's pet"; one of them used rougher language
+still. To this Jimmy replied in terms he'd learned from Jake Caslow's
+gutters. All that saved him from a beating was his size; even the ones
+who disliked him would not stand for the bully's beating up a smaller
+child.
+
+But in other ways they picked on him. Jimmy reasoned out his own
+relationship between intelligence and violence. He had yet to learn the
+psychology of vandalism--but he was experiencing it.
+
+Finding no enjoyment out of play periods, Jimmy took to staying in. The
+permissive school encouraged it; if Jimmy Holden preferred to tinker with
+a typewriter instead of playing noisy games, his teacher saw no wrong in
+it--for his Third Grade teacher was something of an intellectual herself.
+
+In April, one week after his sixth birthday, Jimmy Holden was jumped
+again.
+
+Jimmy entered Fourth Grade to find that his fame had gone before him; he
+was received with sullen glances and turned backs.
+
+But he did not care. For his birthday, he received a typewriter from Paul
+Brennan. Brennan never found out that the note suggesting it from Jimmy's
+Third Grade teacher had been written after Jimmy's prompting.
+
+So while other children played, Jimmy wrote.
+
+He was not immediately successful. His first several stories were
+returned; but eventually he drew a winner and a check. Armed with
+superior knowledge, Jimmy mailed it to a bank that was strong in
+advertising "mail-order" banking. With his first check he opened a
+pay-by-the-item, no-minimum-balance checking account.
+
+Gradually his batting average went up, but there were enough returned
+rejections to make Paul Brennan view Jimmy's literary effort with quiet
+amusement. Still, slowly and in secret, Jimmy built up his bank balance
+by twenties, fifties, an occasional hundred.
+
+For above everything, by now Jimmy knew that he could not go on through
+school as he'd planned.
+
+If his entry into Fourth Grade had been against scowls and resentment
+from his classmates, Fifth and Sixth would be more so. Eventually the day
+would come when he would be held back. He was already mingling with
+children far beyond his size. The same permissive school that graduated
+dolts so that their stupid personalities wouldn't be warped would keep
+him back by virtue of the same idiotic reasoning.
+
+He laid his plans well. He covered his absence from school one morning
+and thereby gained six free hours to start going about his own business
+before his absence could be noticed.
+
+This was his third escape. He prayed that it would be permanent.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK TWO:
+
+THE HERMIT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+
+Seventy-five miles south of Chicago there is a whistle-stop called
+Shipmont. (No ship has ever been anywhere near it; neither has a
+mountain.) It lives because of a small college; the college, in turn,
+owes its maintenance to an installation of great interest to the Atomic
+Energy Commission.
+
+Shipmont is served by two trains a day--which stop only when there
+is a passenger to get on or off, which isn't often. These passengers,
+generally speaking, are oddballs carrying attaché cases or eager young
+men carrying miniature slide rules.
+
+But on this day came a woman and a little girl.
+
+Their total visible possessions were two battered suitcases and one
+battered trunk. The little girl was neatly dressed, in often-washed and
+mended clothing; she carried a small covered basket, and there were
+breadcrumbs visible on the lid. She looked bewildered, shy and
+frightened. She was.
+
+The mother was thirty, though there were lines of worry on her forehead
+and around her eyes that made her look older. She wore little makeup and
+her clothing had been bought for wear instead of for looks. She looked
+around, leaned absently down to pat the little girl and straightened as
+the station-master came slowly out.
+
+"Need anything, ma'am?" He was pleasant enough. Janet Bagley appreciated
+that; life had not been entirely pleasant for her for some years.
+
+"I need a taxicab, if there is one."
+
+"There is. I run it after the train gets in for them as ain't met. You're
+not goin' to the college?" He pronounced it "collitch."
+
+Janet Bagley shook her head and took a piece of paper from her bag. "Mr.
+Charles Maxwell, Rural Route Fifty-three, Martin's Hill Road," she read.
+Her daughter began to whimper.
+
+The station-master frowned. "Hum," he said, "that's the Herm--er, d'you
+know him?"
+
+Mrs. Bagley said: "I've never met him. What kind of a man is he?"
+
+That was the sort of question the station-master appreciated. His job was
+neither demanding nor exciting; an opportunity to talk was worth having.
+He said cheerfully, "Why, I don't rightly know, ma'am. Nobody's ever seen
+him."
+
+"Nobody?"
+
+"Nope. Nobody. Does everything by mail."
+
+"My goodness, what's the matter with him?"
+
+"Don't rightly know, ma'am. Story is he was once a professor and got in
+some kind of big explosion. Burned the hide off'n his face and scarred up
+his hands something turrible, so he don't want to show himself. Rented
+the house by mail, pays his rent by mail. Orders stuff by mail. Mostly
+not real U-nited States Mail, y'know, because we don't mind dropping off
+a note to someone in town. I'm the local mailman, too. So when I find a
+note to Herby Wharton, the fellow that owns the general store, I drop it
+off. Margie Clark over at the bank says he writes. Gets checks from New
+York from publishing companies." The station-master looked around as if
+he were looking for Soviet spies. "He's a scientist, all right. He's
+doin' something important and hush-hush up there. Lots and lots of boxes
+and packin' cases I've delivered up there from places like Central
+Scientific and Labotory Supply Company. Must be a smart feller. You
+visitin' him?"
+
+"Well, he hired me for housekeeper. By mail." Mrs. Bagley looked puzzled
+and concerned.
+
+Little Martha began to cry.
+
+"It'll be all right," said the station-master soothingly. "You keep your
+eye open," he said to Mrs. Bagley. "Iff'n you see anything out of line,
+you come right back and me and the missus will give you a lift. But he's
+all right. Nothin' goin' on up there that I know of. Fred Riordan--he's
+the sheriff--has watched the place for days and days and it's always
+quiet. No visitors. No nothin'. Know what I think? I think he's
+experimenting with something to take away the burn scars. That's whut
+I think. Well, hop in and I'll drive you out there."
+
+"Is it going to cost much?"
+
+"Nothin' this trip. We'll charge it to the U-nited States Mail. Got a
+package goin' out. Was waitin' for something else to go along with it,
+but you're here and we can count that. This way to the only taxicab
+service in Shipmont."
+
+The place looked deserted. It was a shabby old clapboard house; the
+architecture of the prosperous farmer of seventy-five years ago. The
+grounds were spacious but the space was filled with scrub weeds. A
+picket fence surrounded the weeds with uncertain security. The
+windows--those that could be seen, that is--were dirty enough to prevent
+seeing inside with clarity, and what transparency there was left was
+covered by curtains. The walk up the "lawn" was flagstone with crabgrass
+between the stones.
+
+The station-master unshipped the small trunk and stood it just inside the
+fence. He parked the suitcases beside it. "Never go any farther than
+this," he explained. "So far's I know, you're the first person to ever
+head up thet walk to the front door."
+
+Mrs. Bagley rapped on the door. It opened almost instantly.
+
+"I'm--" then Mrs. Bagley dropped her eyes to the proper level. To the lad
+who was standing there she said, "I'm Mrs. Bagley. Your father--a Mr.
+Charles Maxwell is expecting me."
+
+"Come in," said Jimmy Holden. "Mr. Maxwell--well, he isn't my father. He
+sent me to let you in."
+
+Mrs. Bagley entered and dropped her suitcases in the front hall. Martha
+held back behind her mother's skirt. Jimmy closed the door and locked it
+carefully, but left the key in the keyhole with a gesture that Mrs.
+Bagley could not mistake. "Please come in here and sit down," said James
+Holden. "Relax a moment." He turned to look at the girl. He smiled at
+her, but she cowered behind her mother's skirt as if she wanted to bury
+her face but was afraid to lose sight of what was going on around her.
+
+"What's your name?" asked James.
+
+She retreated, hiding most of her face. Mrs. Bagley stroked her hair and
+said, "Now, Martha, come on. Tell the little boy your name."
+
+Purely as a matter of personal pride, James Holden objected to the
+"little boy" but he kept his peace because he knew that at eight years
+old he was still a little boy. In a soothing way, James said, "Come on
+out, Martha. I'll show you some girl-type toys we've got."
+
+The girl's head emerged slowly, "I'm Martha Bagley," she announced.
+
+"How old are you?"
+
+"I'm seven."
+
+"I'm eight," stated James. "Come on."
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked around. She saw that the dirt on the windows was all
+on the outside. The inside was clean. So was the room. So were the
+curtains. The room needed a dusting--a most thorough dusting. It had been
+given a haphazard lick-and-a-promise cleanup not too long ago, but the
+cleanup before that had been as desultory as the last, and without a
+doubt the one before and the one before that had been of the same sort of
+half-hearted cleaning. As a woman and a housekeeper, Mrs. Bagley found
+the room a bit strange.
+
+The furniture caught her eye first. A standard open bookcase, a low sofa,
+a very low cocktail-type table. The chair she stood beside was standard
+looking, so was the big easy chair opposite. Yet she felt large in the
+room despite its old-fashioned high ceiling. There were several low
+footstools in the room; ungraceful things that were obviously wooden
+boxes covered with padding and leatherette. The straight chair beside her
+had been lowered; the bottom rung between the legs was almost on the
+floor.
+
+She realized why she felt big. The furniture in the room had all been cut
+down.
+
+She continued to look. The strangeness continued to bother her and she
+realized that there were no ash trays; there was none of the usual
+clutter of things that a family drops in their tracks. It was a room
+fashioned for a small person to live in but it wasn't lived-in.
+
+The lack of hard cleanliness did not bother hervery much. There had been
+an effort here, and the fact that this Charles Maxwell was hiring a
+housekeeper was in itself a statement that the gentleman knew that he
+needed one. It was odd, but it wasn't ominous.
+
+She shook her daughter gently and said, "Come on, Martha. Let's take a
+look at these girl-type toys."
+
+James led them through a short hallway, turned left at the first door,
+and then stood aside to give them a full view of the room. It was a
+playroom for a girl. It was cleaner than the living room, and as--well,
+untouched. It had been furnished with girl-toys that some catalog
+"recommended as suitable for a girl of seven."
+
+The profusion of toys overwhelmed little Martha. She stood just inside of
+the door with her eyes wide, glancing back and forth. She took one slow
+step forward, then another. Then she quickened. She moved through the
+room looking, then putting out a slow, hesitant hand to touch very
+gently. Tense, as if she were waiting for the warning not to touch,
+Martha finally caressed the hair of a baby doll.
+
+Mrs. Bagley smiled. "I'll have a time prying her loose from here," she
+said.
+
+James nodded his head. "Let her amuse herself for a bit," he said. "With
+Martha occupied, you can give your attention to a more delicate matter."
+
+Mrs. Bagley forgot that she was addressing an eight-year-old boy. His
+manner and his speech bemused her. "Yes," she said. "I do want to get
+this settled with your mysterious Charles Maxwell. Do you expect him
+down, or shall I go upstairs--?"
+
+"This may come as a shock, Mrs. Bagley, but Charles Maxwell isn't here."
+
+"Isn't here?" she echoed, in a tone of voice that clearly indicated that
+she had heard the words but hadn't really grasped their full meaning. "He
+won't be gone long, will he?"
+
+James watched her covertly, then said in a matter-of-fact voice, "He left
+you a letter."
+
+"Letter?"
+
+"He was called away on some urgent business."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Please read the letter. It explains everything."
+
+He handed her an envelope addressed to "Mrs. Janet Bagley." She looked
+at it from both sides, in the womanlike process of trying to divine its
+contents instead of opening it. She looked at James, but James sat
+stolidly waiting. Mrs. Bagley was going to get no more information from
+him until she read that letter, and James was prepared to sit it out
+until she did. It placed Mrs. Bagley in the awkward position of having
+to decide what to do next. Then the muffled sound of little-girl crooning
+came from the distant room. That brought the realization that as odd as
+this household was, it was a _home_. Mrs. Bagley delayed no further. She
+opened the letter and read:
+
+  My Dear Mrs. Bagley:
+
+  I deeply regret that I am not there to greet you, but it was not
+  possible. However, please understand that insofar as I am concerned,
+  you were hired and have been drawing your salary from the date that I
+  forwarded railroad fare and traveling expenses. Any face-to-face
+  meeting is no more than a pleasantry, a formal introduction. It must
+  not be considered in any way connected with the thought of a "Final
+  Interview" or the process of "Closing the Deal."
+
+  Please carry on as if you had been in charge long before I departed,
+  or--considering my hermitlike habits--the way you would have carried
+  on if I had not departed, but instead was still upstairs and hard at
+  work with most definite orders that I was not to be disturbed for
+  anything less important than total, personal disaster.
+
+  I can offer you a word of explanation about young James. You will find
+  him extraordinarily competent for a youngster of eight years. Were he
+  less competent, I might have delayed my departure long enough to pass
+  him literally from my supervision to yours. However, James is quite
+  capable of taking care of himself; this fact you will appreciate fully
+  long before you and I meet face-to-face.
+
+  In the meantime, remember that our letters and the other references
+  acquaint us with one another far better than a few short hours of
+  personal contact.
+
+  Sincerely,
+  Charles Maxwell
+
+"Well!" said Mrs. Bagley. "I don't know what to say."
+
+Jimmy smiled. "You don't have to say anything," he said.
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked at the youngster. "I don't think I like your Mr.
+Maxwell," she said.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"He's practically shanghaied me here. He knows very well that I couldn't
+possibly leave you here all alone, no matter how I disliked the
+situation. He's practically forced me to stay."
+
+James suppressed a smile. He said, "Mrs. Bagley, the way the trains run
+in and out of Shipmont, you're stuck for an overnight stay in any case."
+
+"You don't seem to be perturbed."
+
+"I'm not," he said.
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked at James carefully. His size; his physique was
+precisely that of the eight-year-old boy. There was nothing malformed nor
+out-of-proportion; yet he spoke with an adult air of confidence.
+
+"I am," she admitted.
+
+"Perturbed? You needn't be," he said. "You've got to remember that
+writers are an odd lot. They don't conform. They don't punch time-clocks.
+They boast of having written a novel in three weeks but they don't
+mention the fact that they sat around drinking beer for six months
+plotting it."
+
+"Meaning what?"
+
+"Meaning that Maxwell sees nothing wrong in attending to his own affairs
+and expecting you to attend to yours."
+
+"But what shall I do?"
+
+James smiled. "First, take a look around the house and satisfy yourself.
+You'll find the third floor shut off; the rooms up there are Maxwell's,
+and no one goes in but him. My bedroom is the big one in the front of the
+second floor. Pick yourself a room or a suite of rooms or move in all
+over the rest of the house. Build yourself a cup of tea and relax. Do as
+he says: Act as if you'd arrived before he took off, that you'd met and
+agreed verbally to do what you've already agreed to do by letter. Look at
+it from his point of view."
+
+"What is his point of view?"
+
+"He's a writer. He rented this house by mail. He banks by mail and shops
+by mail and makes his living by writing. Don't be surprised when he hires
+a housekeeper by mail and hands her the responsibility in writing. He
+lives by the written word."
+
+Mrs. Bagley said, "In other words, the fact that he offered me a job in
+writing and I took it in writing--?"
+
+"Writing," said James Holden soberly, "was invented for the express
+purpose of recording an agreement between two men in a permanent form
+that could be read by other men. The whole world runs on the theory that
+no one turns a hand until names are signed to written contracts--and here
+you sit, not happy because you weren't contracted-for by a personal
+chit-chat and a handshake."
+
+Mrs. Bagley was taken aback slightly by this rather pointed criticism.
+What hurt was the fact that, generally speaking, it was true and
+especially the way he put it. The young man was too blunt, too
+out-spokenly direct. Obviously he needed someone around the place who
+wasn't the self-centered writer-type. And, Mrs. Bagley admitted to
+herself, there certainly was no evidence of evil-doing here.
+
+No matter what, Charles Maxwell had neatly trapped her into staying by
+turning her own maternal responsibility against her.
+
+"I'll get my bags," she said.
+
+James Holden took a deep breath. He'd won this hurdle, so far so good.
+Now for the next!
+
+Mrs. Bagley found life rather unhurried in the days that followed. She
+relaxed and tried to evaluate James Holden. To her unwarned mind, the boy
+was quite a puzzle.
+
+There was no doubt about his eight years, except that he did not whoop
+and holler with the aimlessness of the standard eight-year-old boy. His
+vocabulary was far ahead of the eight-year-old and his speech was in
+adult grammar rather than halting. It was, she supposed, due to his
+constant adult company; children denied their contemporaries for
+playmates often take on attitudes beyond their years. Still, it was a bit
+on the too-superior side to please her. It was as if he were the result
+of over-indulgent parents who'd committed the mistake of letting the
+child know that their whole universe revolved about him.
+
+Yet Maxwell's letters said that he was motherless, that he was not
+Maxwell's son. This indicated a probable history of broken homes and
+remarriages. Mrs. Bagley thought the problem over and gave it up. It
+was a home.
+
+Things went on. They started warily but smoothly at first with Mrs.
+Bagley asking almost incessantly whether Mr. Maxwell would approve of
+this or that and should she do this or the other and, phrased cleverly,
+indicated that she would take the word of young James for the time being
+but there would be evil sputterings in the fireplace if the programs
+approved by young James Holden were not wholly endorsed by Mr. Charles
+Maxwell.
+
+At the end of the first week, supplies were beginning to run short and
+still there was no sign of any return of the missing Mr. Maxwell. With
+some misgiving, Mrs. Bagley broached the subject of shopping to James.
+The youngster favored Mrs. Bagley with another smile.
+
+"Yes," he said calmly. "Just a minute." And he disappeared upstairs to
+fetch another envelope. Inside was a second letter which read:
+
+  My Dear Mrs. Bagley:
+
+  Attached you will find letters addressed to several of the local
+  merchants in Shipmont, explaining your status as my housekeeper and
+  directing them to honor your purchases against my accounts. Believe me,
+  they recognize my signature despite the fact that they might not
+  recognize me! There should be no difficulty. I'd suggest, however, that
+  you start a savings account at the local bank with the enclosed salary
+  check. You have no idea how much weight the local banker carries in his
+  character-reference of folks with a savings account.
+
+  Otherwise, I trust things are pleasant.
+
+  Sincerely,
+  Charles Maxwell.
+
+"Things," she mused aloud, "are pleasant enough."
+
+James nodded. "Good," he said. "You're satisfied, then?"
+
+Mrs. Bagley smiled at him wistfully. "As they go," she said, "I'm
+satisfied. Lord knows, you're no great bother, James, and I'll be most
+happy to tell Mr. Maxwell so when he returns."
+
+James nodded. "You're not concerned over Maxwell, are you?"
+
+She sobered. "Yes," she said in a whisper. "Yes, I am. I'm afraid that
+he'll change things, that he'll not approve of Martha, or the way dinner
+is made, or my habits in dishwashing or bedmaking or marketing or
+something that will--well, put me right in the role of a paid
+chambermaid, a servant, a menial with no more to say about the running
+of the house, once he returns."
+
+James Holden hesitated, thought, then smiled.
+
+"Mrs. Bagley," he said apologetically, "I've thrown you a lot of curves.
+I hope you won't mind one more."
+
+The woman frowned. James said hurriedly, "Oh, it's nothing bad, believe
+me. I mean--Well, you'll have to judge for yourself.
+
+"You see, Mrs. Bagley," he said earnestly, "there isn't any Charles
+Maxwell."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Janet Bagley, with the look of a stricken animal, sat down heavily. There
+were two thoughts suddenly in her mind: _Now I've got to leave_, and,
+_But I can't leave_.
+
+She sat looking at the boy, trying to make sense of what he had said.
+Mrs. Bagley was a young woman, but she had lived a demanding and
+unrelenting life; her husband dead, her finances calamitous, a baby to
+feed and raise ... there had been enough trouble in her life and she
+sought no more.
+
+But she was also a woman of some strength of character.
+
+Janet Bagley had not been able to afford much joy, but when things were
+at their worst she had not wept. She had been calm. She had taken what
+inexpensive pleasures she could secure--the health of her daughter, the
+strength of her arms to earn a living, the cunning of her mind to make a
+dollar do the work of five. She had learned that there was no bargain
+that was not worth investigating; the shoddiest goods were worth owning
+at a price; the least attractive prospect had to be faced and understood,
+for any commodity becomes a bargain when the price is right. There was
+no room for laziness or indulgence in her life. There was also no room
+for panic.
+
+So Janet Bagley thought for a moment, and then said: "Tell me what you're
+talking about, James."
+
+James Holden said immediately: "I am Charles Maxwell. That is, 'Charles
+Maxwell' is a pen name. He has no other existence."
+
+"But--"
+
+"But it's true, Mrs. Bagley," the boy said earnestly. "I'm only eight
+years old, but I happen to be earning my own living--as a writer, under
+the name of, among others, Charles Maxwell. Perhaps you've looked up some
+of the 'Charles Maxwell' books? If so, you may have seen some of the book
+reviews that were quoted on the jackets--I remember one that said that
+Charles Maxwell writes as though he himself were a boy, with the
+education of an adult. Well, that's the fact of the case."
+
+Mrs. Bagley said slowly, "But I did look Mr. Max--I mean, I did look you
+up. There was a complete biographical sketch in _Woman's Life_.
+Thirty-one years old, I remember."
+
+"I know. I wrote it. It too was fiction."
+
+"You wrote--but why?"
+
+"Because I was asked to write it," said James.
+
+"But, well--what I mean, is--Just who is Mr. Maxwell? The man at the
+station said something about a hermit, but--"
+
+"The Hermit of Martin's Hill is a convenient character carefully prepared
+to explain what might have looked like a very odd household," said James
+Holden. "Charles Maxwell, the Hermit, does not exist except in the minds
+of the neighbors and the editors of several magazines, and of course, the
+readers of those pages."
+
+"But he wrote me himself." The bewildered woman paused.
+
+"That's right, Mrs. Bagley. There's absolutely nothing illegal about a
+writer's using a pen name. Absolutely nothing. Some writers become so
+well-known by their pseudonym that they answer when someone calls them.
+So long as the writer isn't wanted by the F.B.I. for some heinous crime,
+and so long as he can unscramble the gobbledygook on Form 1040, stay out
+of trouble, pay his rent, and make his regular contributions to Social
+Security, nobody cares what name he uses."
+
+"But where are your parents? Have you no friends? No legal guardian? Who
+handles your business affairs?"
+
+James said in a flat tone of recital, "My parents are dead. What friends
+and family I have, want to turn me over to my legal guardian. My legal
+guardian is the murderer of my parents and the would-have-been murderer
+of me if I hadn't been lucky. Someday I shall prove it. And I handle my
+affairs myself, by mail, as you well know. I placed the advertisement,
+wrote the letters of reply, wrote those letters that answered specific
+questions and asked others, and I wrote the check that you cashed in
+order to buy your railroad ticket, Mrs. Bagley. No, don't worry. It's
+good."
+
+Mrs. Bagley tried to digest all that and failed. She returned to the
+central point. "But you're a minor--"
+
+"I am," admitted James Holden. "But you accepted my checks, your bank
+accepted my checks, and they've been honored by the clearing houses. My
+own bank has been accepting them for a couple of years now. It will
+continue to be that way until something goes wrong and I'm found out. I'm
+taking every precaution that nothing goes wrong."
+
+"Still--"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, look at me. I am precisely what I seem to be. I am a young
+male human being, eight years old, possessed of a good command of the
+English language and an education superior to the schooling of any
+high-school graduate. It is true that I am an infant in the eyes of the
+law, so I have not the right to hold the ear of the law long enough to
+explain my competence."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Listen a moment," insisted James. "You can't hope to hear it all in one
+short afternoon. It may take weeks before you fully understand."
+
+"You assume that I'll stay, then?"
+
+James smiled. Not the wide open, simple smile of youth but the knowing
+smile of someone pleased with the success of his own plans. "Mrs. Bagley,
+of the many replies to my advertisement, yours was selected because you
+are in a near-desperate position. My advertisement must have sounded
+tailor-made to fit your case; a young widow to work as resident
+housekeeper, child of preschool or early school age welcome. Well, Mrs.
+Bagley, your qualifications are tailor-made for me, too. You are in need,
+and I can give you what you need--a living salary, a home for you and
+your daughter, and for your daughter an education that will far transcend
+any that you could ever provide for her."
+
+"And how do you intend to make that come to pass?"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, at the present time there are only two people alive who
+know the answer to that question. I am one of them. The other is my
+so-called legal 'guardian' who would be most happy to guard me right out
+of my real secret. You will be the third person alive to know that my
+mother and father built a machine that produces the same deeply-inlaid
+memory-track of information as many months of learning-by-repetition.
+With that machine, I absorbed the information available to a high-school
+student before I was five. I am rebuilding that machine now from plans
+and specifications drilled into my brain by my father. When it is
+complete, I intend to become the best informed person in the world."
+
+"That isn't right," breathed Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"Isn't it?" asked James seriously. "Isn't it right? Is it wrong, when at
+the present time it takes a man until he is almost thirty years old
+before he can say that his education is complete?"
+
+"Well, I suppose you're right."
+
+James eyed Mrs. Bagley carefully. He said softly, "Mrs. Bagley, tell me,
+would you give Martha a college education if you had--or will you if you
+have at the time--the wherewithal to provide it?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"You have it here," said James. "So long as you stay to protect it."
+
+"But won't it make--?" her voice trailed away uncertainly.
+
+"A little intellectual monster out of her?" laughed the boy. "Maybe.
+Maybe I am, too. On the other hand it might make a brilliant woman out of
+her. She might be a doctor if she has the capacity of a brilliant doctor.
+My father's machine is no monster-maker, Mrs. Bagley. With it a person
+could memorize the Britannica. And from the Britannica that person would
+learn that there is much good in the world and also that there is rich
+reward for being a part of that capacity for good."
+
+"I seem to have been outmaneuvered," said Mrs. Bagley with a worried
+frown.
+
+James smiled. "Not at all," he said. "It was just a matter of finding
+someone who wanted desperately to have what I wanted to give, and of
+course overcoming the natural adult reluctance to admit that anybody
+my size and age can operate on grown-up terms."
+
+"You sound so sure of yourself."
+
+"I am sure of myself. And one of the more important things in life is to
+understand one's limitations."
+
+"But couldn't you convince them--?"
+
+"One--you--I can convince. Maybe another, later. But if I tackle the
+great American public, I'm licked by statistics. My guess is that there
+is one brand-new United States citizen born every ten seconds. It takes
+me longer than ten seconds to convince someone, that I know what I'm
+talking about. But so long as I have an accepted adult out front, running
+the store, I don't have to do anything but sit backstage, run the hidden
+strings, and wait until my period of growth provides me with a stature
+that won't demand any explanation."
+
+From the playroom, Martha came running. "Mummy! Mummy!" she cried in a
+shrill voice filled with the strident tones of alarm, "Dolly's sick and
+I can't leave her!"
+
+Mrs. Bagley folded her daughter in her arms. "We won't leave," she said.
+"We're staying."
+
+James Holden nodded with satisfaction, but one thing he realized then and
+there: He simply had to rush the completion of his father's machine.
+
+He could not stand the simpering prattle of Martha Bagley's playgames.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+
+The arrival of Mrs. Bagley changed James Holden's way of life far more
+than he'd expected. His basic idea had been to free himself from the
+hours of dishwashing, bedmaking, dusting, cleaning and straightening
+and from the irking chore of planning his meals far enough ahead to
+obtain sustenance either through mail or carried note. He gave up his
+haphazard chores readily. Mrs. Bagley's menus often served him dishes
+that he wouldn't have given house-room; but he also enjoyed many meals
+that he could not or would not have taken the time to prepare.
+
+He did have some faint notion that being freed from the household toil
+would allow him sixteen or eighteen hours at the typewriter, but he was
+not greatly dismayed to find that this did not work.
+
+When he wrote himself out, he relaxed by reading, or sitting quietly
+planning his next piece. Even that did not fill his entire day. To take
+some advantage of his time, James began to indulge in talk-fests with
+Mrs. Bagley.
+
+These were informative. He was learning from her how the outside world
+was run, from one who had no close association with his own former life.
+Mrs. Bagley was by no means well-informed on all sides of life, but she
+did have her opinions and her experiences and a fair idea of how things
+went on in her own level. And, of course, James had made this choice
+because of the girl. He wanted a companion of his own age. Regardless of
+what Mrs. Bagley really thought of this matter of rapid education, James
+proposed to use it on Martha. That would give him a companion of his own
+like, they would come closer to understanding one another than he could
+ever hope to find understanding elsewhere.
+
+So he talked and played with Martha in his moments of relaxation. And he
+found her grasp of life completely unreal.
+
+James could not get through to her. He could not make her stop
+play-acting in everything that she did not ignore completely. It worried
+him.
+
+With the arrival of summer, James and Martha played outside in the fresh
+air. They made a few shopping excursions into town, walking the mile and
+more by taking their time, and returning with their shopping load in the
+station-master's taxicab mail car. But on these expeditions, James hung
+close to Martha lest her babbling prattle start an unwelcome line of
+thought. She never did it, but James was forever on edge.
+
+This source of possible danger drove him hard. The machine that was
+growing in a mare's-nest on the second floor began to evolve faster.
+
+James Holden's work was a strangely crude efficiency. The prototype had
+been built by his father bit by bit and step by step as its design
+demanded. Sections were added as needed, and other sections believed
+needed were abandoned as the research showed them unnecessary. Louis
+Holden had been a fine instrumentation engineer, but his first models
+were hay-wired in the breadboard form. James copied his father's
+work--including his father's casual breadboard style. And he added some
+inefficiencies of his own.
+
+Furthermore, James was not strong enough to lift the heavier assemblies
+into place. James parked the parts wherever they would sit.
+
+To Mrs. Bagley, the whole thing was bizarre and unreasonable. Given her
+opinion, with no other evidence, she would have rejected the idea at
+once. She simply did not understand anything of a technical nature.
+
+One day she bluntly asked him how he knew what he was doing.
+
+James grinned. "I really _don't_ know what I'm doing," he admitted. "I'm
+only following some very explicit directions. If I knew the pure theory
+of my father's machine I could not design the instrumentation that would
+make it work. But I can build a reproduction of my father's machine from
+the directions."
+
+"How can that be?"
+
+James stopped working and sat on a packing case. "If you bought a
+lawn-mower," he said, "it might come neatly packed in a little box with
+all the parts nested in cardboard formers and all the little nuts and
+bolts packed in a bag. There would be a set of assembly directions,
+written in such a way as to explain to anybody who can read that Part A
+is fastened to Bracket B using Bolt C, Lockwasher D, and Nut E. My
+father's one and only recognition of the dangers of the unforeseeable
+future was to drill deep in my brain these directions. For instance," and
+he pointed to a boxed device, "that thing is an infra-low frequency
+amplifier. Now, I haven't much more than a faint glimmer of what the
+thing is and how it differs from a standard amplifier, but I know that it
+must be built precisely thus-and-so, and finally it must be fitted into
+the machine per instructions. Look, Mrs. Bagley." James picked up a
+recently-received package, swept a place clear on the packing case and
+dumped it out. It disgorged several paper bags of parts, some large
+plates and a box. He handed her a booklet. "Try it yourself," he said.
+"That's a piece of test equipment made in kit form by a commercial outfit
+in Michigan. Follow those directions and build it for me."
+
+"But I don't know anything about this sort of thing."
+
+"You can read," said James with a complete lack of respect. He turned
+back to his own work, leaving Mrs. Bagley leafing her way through the
+assembly manual.
+
+To the woman it was meaningless. But as she read, a secondary thought
+rose in her mind. James was building this devilish-looking nightmare, and
+he had every intention of using it on her daughter! She accepted without
+understanding the fact that James Holden's superior education had come of
+such a machine--but it had been a machine built by a competent mechanic.
+She stole a look at James. The anomaly puzzled her.
+
+When the lad talked, his size and even the thin boyish voice were negated
+by the intelligence of his words, the size of his vocabulary, the clarity
+of his statements. Now that he was silent, he became no more than an
+eight-year-old lad who could not possibly be doing anything constructive
+with this mad array of equipment. The messiness of the place merely made
+the madness of the whole program seem worse.
+
+But she turned back to her booklet. Maybe James was right. If she could
+assemble this doodad without knowing the first principle of its
+operation, without even knowing from the name what the thing did, then
+she might be willing to admit that--messy as it looked--the machine could
+be reconstructed.
+
+Trapped by her own interest, Mrs. Bagley pitched in.
+
+They took a week off to rearrange the place. They built wooden shelves to
+hold the parts in better order. These were by no means the work of a
+carpenter, for Mrs. Bagley's aim with a saw was haphazard, and her
+batting average with a hammer was about .470; but James lacked the
+strength, so the construction job was hers. Crude as it was, the place
+looked less like a junkshop when they were done. Work resumed on the
+assembly of the educator.
+
+Of course the writing suffered.
+
+The budget ran low. James was forced to abandon the project for his
+typewriter. He drove himself hard, fretting and worrying himself into a
+stew time after time. And then as August approached, Nature stepped in to
+add more disorder.
+
+James entered a "period of growth." In three weeks he gained two inches.
+
+His muscles, his bones and his nervous system ceased to coordinate. He
+became clumsy. His handwriting underwent a change, so severe that James
+had to practically forge his own signature of Charles Maxwell. To avoid
+trouble he stopped the practice of writing individual checks for the
+bills and transferred a block sum of money to an operating account in
+Mrs. Bagley's name.
+
+His fine regimen went to pieces.
+
+He embarked on a haphazard program of sleeping, eating and working at odd
+hours, and his appetite became positively voracious. He wanted what he
+wanted when he wanted it, even if it were the middle of the night. He
+pouted and groused when he didn't get it. In calmer moments he hated
+himself for these tantrums, but no amount of self-rationalization stopped
+them.
+
+During this period, James was by no means an efficient youngster. His
+writing suffered the ills of both his period of growth and his upset
+state of mind. His fingers failed to coordinate on his typewriter and his
+manuscript copy turned out rough, with strikeovers, xxx-outs, and gross
+mistakes. The pile of discarded paper massed higher than his finished
+copy until Mrs. Bagley took over and began to retype his rough script
+for him.
+
+His state of mind remained chaotic.
+
+Mrs. Bagley began to treat him with special care. She served him warm
+milk and insisted that he rest. Finally she asked him why he drove
+himself so hard.
+
+"We are approaching the end of summer," he said, "and we are not
+prepared."
+
+"Prepared for what?"
+
+They were relaxing in the living room, James fretting and Mrs. Bagley
+seated, Martha Bagley asprawl on the floor turning the pages of a
+crayon-coloring book. "Look at us," he said. "I am a boy of eight, your
+daughter is a girl of seven. By careful dress and action I could pass for
+a child one year younger, but that would still make me seven. Last summer
+when I was seven, I passed for six."
+
+"Yes, but--?"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, there are laws about compulsory education. Sooner or later
+someone is going to get very curious about us."
+
+"What do you intend to do about it?"
+
+"That's the problem," he said. "I don't really know. With a lot of
+concentrated effort I can probably enter school if I have to, and keep my
+education covered up. But Martha is another story."
+
+"I don't see--?" Mrs. Bagley bit her lip.
+
+"We can't permit her to attend school," said James.
+
+"You shouldn't have advertised for a woman with a girl child!" said Mrs.
+Bagley.
+
+"Perhaps not. But I wanted someone of my own age and size around so that
+we can grow together. I'm a bit of a misfit until I'm granted the right
+to use my education as I see fit."
+
+"And you hope to make Martha another misfit?"
+
+"If you care to put it that way," admitted James. "Someone has to start.
+Someday all kids will be educated with my machine and then there'll be no
+misfits."
+
+"But until then--?"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, I am not worried about what is going to happen next year. I
+am worried about what is going to happen next month."
+
+Mrs. Bagley sat and watched him for a moment. This boy was worried, she
+could see that. But assuming that any part of his story was true--and it
+was impossible to doubt it--he had ample cause.
+
+The past years had given Mrs. Bagley a hard shell because it was useful
+for survival; to keep herself and her child alive she had had to be
+permanently alert for every threat. Clearly this was a threat. Martha was
+involved. Martha's future was, at the least, bound to be affected by what
+James did.
+
+And the ties of blood and habit made Martha's future the first
+consideration in Janet Bagley's thoughts.
+
+But not the only consideration; for there is an in-born trait in the
+human race which demands that any helpless child should be helped. James
+was hardly helpless; but he certainly was a child. It was easy to forget
+it, talking to him--until something came up that the child could not
+handle.
+
+Mrs. Bagley sighed. In a different tone she asked, "What did you do last
+year?"
+
+"Played with Rags on the lawn," James said promptly. "A boy and his dog
+is a perfectly normal sight--in the summer. Then, when school opened, I
+stayed in the house as much as I could. When I had to go out I tried to
+make myself look younger. Short pants, dirty face. I don't think I could
+get away with it this year."
+
+"I think you're right," Mrs. Bagley admitted. "Well, suppose you could do
+what you wish this year? What would that be?"
+
+James said: "I want to get my machine working. Then I want to use it on
+Martha."
+
+"On Martha! But--"
+
+James said patiently: "It won't hurt her, Mrs. Bagley. There isn't any
+other way. The first thing she needs is a good command of English."
+
+"English?" Mrs. Bagley hesitated, and was lost. After all, what was wrong
+with the girl's learning proper speech?
+
+"Martha is a child both physically and intellectually. She has been
+talked to about 'right' and 'wrong' and she knows that 'telling the
+truth' is right, but she doesn't recognize that talking about fairies is
+a misstatement of the truth. Question her carefully about how we live,
+and you'll get a fair approximation of the truth."
+
+"So?"
+
+"But suppose someone asks Martha about the Hermit of Martin's Hill?"
+
+"What do you fear?"
+
+"We might play upon her make-believe stronger than we have. She play-acts
+his existence very well. But suppose someone asks her what he eats, or
+where he gets his exercise, or some other personal question. She hasn't
+the command of logic to improvise a convincing background."
+
+"But why should anybody ask such personal questions?" asked Mrs. Bagley.
+
+James said patiently: "To ask personal questions of an adult is 'prying'
+and is therefore considered improper and antisocial. To ask the same
+questions of a child is proper and social. It indicates a polite interest
+in the world of the child. You and I, Mrs. Bagley, have a complete
+picture of the Hermit all prepared, and with our education we can
+improvise plausible answers. I've hoped to finish my machine early enough
+to provide Martha with the ability to do the same."
+
+"So what can we do?"
+
+"About the only thing we can do is to hide," said James. "Luckily,
+most of the business is conducted out of this place by mail. Write
+letters to some boarding school situated a good many miles from here.
+Ask the usual routine questions about entering a seven-year-old girl
+and an eight-year-old boy for one semester. Robert Holmes, our
+postmaster-taxicab driver-station-master, reads everything that isn't
+sealed. He will read the addresses, and he will see replies and read
+their return address."
+
+"And then we'll pretend to send you and Martha to boarding school?"
+
+James nodded. "Confinement is going to be difficult, but in this climate
+the weather gets nasty early and that keeps people out of one another's
+hair."
+
+"But this station-master business--?"
+
+"We've got to pull some wool over Robert's eyes," said James. "Somehow,
+we've got to make it entirely plausible. You've got to take Martha and me
+away and come back alone just as if we were in school."
+
+"We should have a car," said Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"A car is one piece of hardware that I could never justify," said James.
+"Nor," he chuckled, "buy from a mail-order house because I couldn't
+accept delivery. I bought furniture from Sears and had it delivered
+according to mailed instructions. But I figured it better to have the
+folks in Shipmont wondering why Charles Maxwell didn't own a car than to
+have them puzzling why he owned one that never was used, nor even moved.
+Besides, a car--costs--"
+
+Mrs. Bagley smiled with real satisfaction. "There," she said, "I think I
+can help. I can buy the car."
+
+James was startled. "But can you afford it?"
+
+Mrs. Bagley nodded seriously. "James," she said, "I've been scratching
+out an existence on hard terms and I've had to make sure of tomorrow.
+Even when things were worst, I tried to put something away--some weeks it
+was only a few pennies, sometimes nothing at all. But--well, I'm not
+afraid of tomorrow any more."
+
+James was oddly pleased. While he was trying to find a way to say it,
+Mrs. Bagley relieved him of the necessity. "It won't be a brand-new
+convertible," she warned. "But they tell me you can get something that
+runs for two or three hundred dollars. Tim Fisher has some that look
+about right in his garage--and besides," she said, clinching it, "it
+gives me a chance to give out a little more Maxwell and boarding-school
+propaganda."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+
+The letter was a masterpiece of dissembling. It suggested, without
+promising, that Charles Maxwell intended to send his young charge to
+boarding school along with his housekeeper's daughter. It asked the
+school's advice and explained the deformity that made Charles Maxwell a
+recluse. The reply could hardly have been better if they'd penned it
+themselves for the signature of the faculty advisor. It discussed the
+pros and cons of away-from-home schooling and went on at great length to
+discuss the attitude of children and their upbringing amid strange
+surroundings. It invited a long and inconclusive correspondence--just
+what James wanted.
+
+The supposed departure for school went off neatly, no one in the town of
+Shipmont was surprised when Mrs. Bagley turned up buying an automobile of
+several years' vintage because this was a community where everybody had
+one.
+
+The letters continued at the rate of one every two or three weeks. They
+were picked up by Mrs. Bagley who let it be known that these were
+progress reports. In reality, they were little tracts on the theory of
+child education. They kept up the correspondence for the information it
+contained, and also because Mrs. Bagley enjoyed this contact with an
+outer world that contained adults.
+
+Meanwhile, James ended his spurt of growth and settled down. Work on his
+machine continued when he could afford to buy the parts, and his writing
+settled down into a comfortable channel once more. In his spare time
+James began to work on Martha's diction.
+
+Martha could not have been called a retarded child. Her trouble was lack
+of constant parental attention during her early years. With father gone
+and mother struggling to live, Martha had never overcome some of the
+babytalk-diction faults. There was still a trace of the omitted 'B' here
+and there. 'Y' was a difficult sound; the color of a lemon was "Lellow."
+Martha's English construction still bore marks of the baby. "Do you have
+to--" came out as "Does you has to--?"
+
+James Holden's father had struggled in just this way through his early
+experimental days, when he despaired of ever getting the infant James out
+of the baby-prattle stage. He could not force, he could not even coerce.
+All that his father could do was to watch quietly as baby James acquired
+the awareness of things. Then he could step in and supply the correct
+word-sound to name the object. In those early days the progress of James
+Holden was no greater than the progress of any other infant. Holden
+Senior followed the theory of ciphers; no cryptologist can start
+unravelling a secret message until he is aware of the fact that some
+hidden message exists. No infant can be taught a language until some
+awareness tells the tiny brain that there is some definite connection
+between sound and sight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For the next few weeks James worked with Martha on her speech, and hated
+it. So slow, so dreary! But it was necessary, he thought, to keep her
+from establishing any more permanent errors, so that when the machine was
+ready there would be at least a blank slate to write on, not one all
+scribbled over with mistakes.
+
+Time passed; the weather grew colder; the machine spread its scattered
+parts over his workroom.
+
+Janet Bagley knew that the machine was growing, but it had not occurred
+to her that it would be finished. She had grown accustomed to her life on
+Martin's Hill. By her standards, it was easy. She made three meals each
+day, cleaned the rooms, hung curtains, sewed clothing for Martha and
+herself, did the shopping and had time enough left over to take
+excursions in her little car and keep her daughter out of mischief. It
+was pleasant. It was more than pleasant, it was safe.
+
+And then the machine was finished.
+
+Mrs. Bagley took a sandwich and a glass of milk to James and found him
+sitting on a chair, a heavy headset covering most of his skull, reading
+aloud from a textbook on electronic theory.
+
+Mrs. Bagley stopped at the door, unaccountably startled.
+
+James looked up and shut off his work. "It's finished," he said with
+grave pride.
+
+"All of it?"
+
+"Well," he said, pondering, "the basic part. It works."
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked at the scramble of equipment in the room as though it
+were an enemy. It didn't look finished. It didn't even look safe. But she
+trusted James, although she felt at that moment that she would grow old
+and die before she understood why and how any collection of apparatus
+could be functional and still be so untidy. "It--could teach me?"
+
+"If you had something you want to memorize."
+
+"I'd like to memorize some of the pet recipes from my cookbook."
+
+"Get it," directed James.
+
+She hesitated. "How does it work?" she wanted to know first.
+
+He countered with another question. "How do we memorize anything?"
+
+She thought. "Why, by repeating and repeating and rehearsing and
+rehearsing."
+
+"Yes," said James. "So this device does the repetition for you.
+Electromechanically."
+
+"But how?"
+
+James smiled wistfully. "I can give you only a thumbnail sketch," he
+said, "until I have had time to study the subjects that lead up to the
+final theory."
+
+"Goodness," exclaimed Mrs. Bagley, "all I want is a brief idea. I
+wouldn't understand the principles at all."
+
+"Well, then, my mother, as a cerebral surgeon, knew the anatomy of the
+human brain. My father, as an instrument-maker, designed and built
+encephalographs. Together, they discovered that if the great waves of the
+brain were filtered down and the extremely minute waves that ride on top
+of them were amplified, the pattern of these superfine waves went through
+convolutions peculiar to certain thoughts. Continued research refined
+their discovery.
+
+"Now, the general theory is that the cells of the brain act sort of like
+a binary digital computer, with certain banks of cells operating to store
+sufficient bits of information to furnish a complete memory. In the
+process of memorization, individual cells become activated and linked by
+the constant repetition.
+
+"Second, the brain within the skull is a prisoner, connected to the
+'outside' by the five standard sensory channels of sight, sound, touch,
+taste, and smell. Stimulate a channel, and the result is a certain
+wave-shape of electrical impulse that enters the brain and--sort of like
+the key to a Yale lock--fits only one combination of cells. Or if no
+previous memory is there, it starts its own new collection of cells to
+linking and combining. When we repeat and repeat, we are deepening the
+groove, so to speak.
+
+"Finally comes the Holden Machine. The helmet makes contact with the
+skull in those spots where the probes of the encephalograph are placed.
+When the brain is stimulated into thought, the brain waves are monitored
+and recorded, amplified, and then fed back to the same brain-spots. Not
+once, but multifold, like the vibration of a reed or violin string. The
+circuit that accepts signals, amplifies them, returns them to the same
+set of terminals, and causes them to be repeated several hundred times
+per millisecond without actually ringing or oscillating is the real
+research secret of the machine. My father's secret and now mine."
+
+"And how do we use it?"
+
+"You want to memorize a list of ingredients," said James. "So you will
+put this helmet on your head with the cookbook in your hands. You will
+turn on the machine when you have read the part you want to memorize just
+to be sure of your material. Then, with the machine running, you
+carefully read aloud the passage from your book. The vibrating amplifier
+in the machine monitors and records each electrical impulse, then
+furnishes it back to your brain as a successive series of repetitious
+vibrations, each identical in shape and magnitude, just as if you had
+actually read and re-read that list of stuff time and again."
+
+"And then I'll know it cold?"
+
+James shook his head. "Then you'll be about as confused as you've ever
+been. For several hours, none of it will make sense. You'll be thinking
+things like a 'cup of salt and a pinch of water,' or maybe, 'sugar three
+of mustard and two spoonthree teas.' And then in a few hours all of this
+mish-mash will settle itself down into the proper serial arrangement; it
+will fit the rest of your brain-memory-pattern comfortably."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I don't know. It has something to do with the same effect one gets out
+of studying. On Tuesday one can read a page of textbook and not grasp a
+word of it. Successive readings help only a little. Then in about a week
+it all becomes quite clear, just as if the brain had sorted it and filed
+it logically among the other bits of information. Well, what about that
+cookbook?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Bagley, with the air of someone agreeing to have a tooth
+pulled when it hasn't really started to hurt, "I'll get it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden allowed himself a few pleasant daydreams. The most
+satisfactory of all was one of himself pleading his own case before the
+black-robed Justices of the Supreme Court, demolishing his detractors
+with a flow of his brilliance and convincing them beyond any doubt that
+he did indeed have the right to walk alone. That there be no question of
+his intellect, James proposed to use his machine to educate himself to
+completion. He would be the supreme student of the arts and the sciences,
+of law, language, and literature. He would know history and the
+humanities, and the dreams and aims of the great philosophers and
+statesmen, and he would even be able to quote in their own terms the
+drives of the great dictators and some of the evil men so that he could
+draw and compare to show that he knew the difference between good and
+bad.
+
+But James Holden had no intention of sharing this limelight.
+
+His superb brilliance was to be compared to the average man's, not to
+another one like him. He had the head start. He intended to keep it until
+he had succeeded in compelling the whole world to accept him with the
+full status of a free adult.
+
+Then, under his guidance, he would permit the world-wide use of his
+machine.
+
+His loneliness had forced him to revise that dream by the addition of
+Martha Bagley; he needed a companion, contemporary, and foil. His mental
+playlet no longer closed with James Holden standing alone before the
+Bench. Now it ended with Martha saying proudly, "James, I knew you could
+do it."
+
+Martha Bagley's brilliance would not conflict with his. He could
+stay ahead of her forever. But he had no intention of allowing some
+experienced adult to partake of this program of enforced education. He
+was, therefore, going to find himself some manner or means of preventing
+Mrs. Bagley from running the gamut of all available information.
+
+James Holden evaluated all people in his own terms, he believed that
+everybody was just as eager for knowledge as he was.
+
+So he was surprised to find that Mrs. Bagley's desire for extended
+education only included such information as would make her own immediate
+personal problems easier. Mrs. Bagley was the first one of the mass of
+people James was destined to meet who not only did not know how or why
+things worked, but further had no intention whatsoever of finding out.
+
+Instead of trying to monopolize James Holden's machine, Mrs. Bagley was
+satisfied to learn a number of her pet recipes. After a day of thought
+she added her social security number, blood type, some birthdays, dates,
+a few telephone numbers and her multiplication tables. She announced that
+she was satisfied. It solved James Holden's problem--and stunned him
+completely.
+
+But James had very little time to worry about Mrs. Bagley's attitude. He
+found his hands full with Martha.
+
+Martha played fey. Her actions and attitude baffled James, and even
+confused her mother. There was no way of really determining whether the
+girl was scared to death of the machine itself, or whether she simply
+decided to be difficult. And she uttered the proper replies with all of
+the promptness--and intelligence--of a ventriloquist's dummy:
+
+"You don't want to be ignorant, do you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You want to be smart, like James, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You know the machine won't hurt, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then let's try it just once, please?"
+
+"No."
+
+Back to the beginning again. Martha would agree to absolutely anything
+except the educator.
+
+Leaving the argument to Mrs. Bagley, James sat down angrily with a book.
+He was so completely frustrated that he couldn't read, but he sat there
+leafing the pages slowly and making a determined show of not lifting his
+head.
+
+Mrs. Bagley went on for another hour before she reached the end of her
+own patience. She stood up almost rigid with anger. James never knew how
+close Mrs. Bagley was to making use of a hairbrush on her daughter's
+bottom. But Mrs. Bagley also realized that Martha had to go into this
+process willing to cooperate. So, instead of physical punishment, she
+issued a dictum:
+
+"You'll go to your room and stay there until you're willing!"
+
+And at that point Martha ceased being stubborn and began playing games.
+
+She permitted herself to be led to the chair, and then went through a
+routine of skittishness, turning her head and squirming incessantly,
+which made it impossible for James to place the headset properly. This
+went on until he stalked away and sat down again. Immediately Martha sat
+like a statue. But as soon as James reached for the little screws that
+adjusted the electrodes, Martha started to giggle and squirm. He stalked
+away and sat through another session between Martha and her mother.
+
+Late in the afternoon James succeeded in getting her to the machine;
+Martha uttered a sentence without punctuating it with little giggles, but
+it came as elided babytalk.
+
+"Again," he commanded.
+
+"I don't wan' to."
+
+"Again!" he snapped.
+
+Martha began to cry.
+
+That, to James, was the end. But Mrs. Bagley stepped forward with a
+commanding wave for James to vacate the premises and took over. James
+could not analyze her expression, but it did look as if it held relief.
+He left the room to them; a half hour later Mrs. Bagley called him back.
+
+"She's had it," said Mrs. Bagley. "Now you can start, I think."
+
+James looked dubious; but said, "Read this."
+
+"Martha?"
+
+Martha took a deep breath and said, nicely, "'A' is the first
+letter of the English Alphabet."
+
+"Good." He pressed the button. "Again? Please?"
+
+Martha recited it nicely.
+
+"Fine," he said. "Now we'll look up 'Is' and go on from there."
+
+"My goodness," said Mrs. Bagley, "this is going to take months."
+
+"Not at all," said James. "It just goes slowly at the start. Most of the
+definitions use the same words over and over again. Martha really knows
+most of these simple words, we've just got to be dead certain that her
+own definition of them agrees wholly and completely with ours. After a
+couple of hours of this minute detail, we'll be skipping over everything
+but new words. After all, she only has to work them over once, and as we
+find them, we'll mark them out of the book. Ready, Martha?"
+
+"Can't read it."
+
+James took the little dictionary. "Um," he said. "Hadn't occurred to me."
+
+"What?" asked Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"This thing says, Three-rd pers period sing periodic indic period of Be,'
+the last in heavy bold type. Can't have Martha talking in abbreviations,"
+he chuckled. He went to the typewriter and wrote it out fully. "Now read
+that," he directed.
+
+She did and again the process went through without a hitch. Slowly, but
+surely, they progressed for almost two hours before Martha rebelled.
+James stopped, satisfied with the beginning.
+
+But as time wore on into the late autumn, Martha slowly--oh, so
+slowly!--began to realize that there was importance to getting things
+right. She continued to tease. But she did her teasing before James
+closed the "Run" button.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+
+Once James progressed Martha through the little dictionary, he began with
+a book of grammar. Again it started slowly; he had to spend quite a bit
+of time explaining to Martha that she did indeed know all of the terms
+used in the book of grammar because they'd all been defined by the
+dictionary, now she was going to learn how the terms and their
+definitions were used.
+
+James was on more familiar ground now. James, like Martha, had learned
+his first halting sentence structure by mimicking his parents, but he
+remembered the process of learning why and how sentences are constructed
+according to the rules, and how the rules are used rather than intuition
+in forming sentences.
+
+Grammar was a topic that could not be taken in snippets and bits. Whole
+paragraphs had to be read until Martha could read them without a halt or
+a mispronunciation, and then committed to memory with the "Run" button
+held down. At the best it was a boring process, even though it took only
+minutes instead of days. It was not conflicting, but it was confusing.
+It installed permanently certain solid blocks of information that were
+isolated; they stood alone until later blocks came in to connect them
+into a whole area.
+
+Each session was numbing. Martha could take no more than a couple of
+hours, after which her reading became foggy. She wanted a nap after each
+session and even after the nap she went around in a bemused state of
+mental dizziness.
+
+Life settled down once more in the House on Martin's Hill. James worked
+with the machine himself and laid out lessons to guide Martha. Then,
+finished for the day with education, James took to his typewriter while
+Martha had her nap. It filled the days of the boy and girl completely.
+
+This made an unexpected and pleasant change in Mrs. Bagley's routine. It
+had been a job to keep Martha occupied. Now that Martha was busy, Mrs.
+Bagley found time on her own hands; without interruption, her housework
+routine was completed quite early in the afternoon.
+
+Mrs. Bagley had never made any great point of getting dressed for dinner.
+She accumulated a collection of house-frocks; printed cotton washables
+differing somewhat in color and cut but functionally identical. She wore
+them serially as they came from the row of hangers in her closet.
+
+Now she began to acquire some dressier things, wearing them even during
+her shopping trips.
+
+James paid little attention to this change in his housekeeper's routine,
+but he approved. Mrs. Bagley was also taking more pains with the 'do' of
+her hair, but the boy's notice was not detailed enough to take a
+part-by-section inventory of the whole. In fact, James gave the whole
+matter very little thought until Mrs. Bagley made a second change after
+her return from town, appearing for dinner in what James could only
+classify as a party dress.
+
+She asked, "James, do you mind if I go out this evening?"
+
+James, startled, shrugged and said, "No, I guess not."
+
+"You'll keep an ear out for Martha?"
+
+The need for watching a sleeping girl of seven and a half did not
+penetrate. "What's up?" he asked.
+
+"It's been months since I saw a movie."
+
+James shrugged again, puzzled. "You saw the 'Bride of Frankenstein' last
+night on TV," he pointed out.
+
+"I first saw that old horror when I was about your age," she told him
+with a trace of disdain.
+
+"I liked it."
+
+"So did I at eight and a half. But tonight I'm going to see a _new_
+picture."
+
+"Okay," said James, wondering why anybody in their right mind would go
+out on a chilly night late in November just to see a moving picture when
+they could stay at home and watch one in comfort. "Have a good time."
+
+He expected Mrs. Bagley to take off in her car, but she did not. She
+waited until a brief _toot_! came from the road. Then, with a swirl of
+motion, she left.
+
+It took James Holden's limited experience some little time to identify
+the event with some similar scenes from books he'd read; even with him,
+reading about it was one world and seeing it happen was another thing
+entirely.
+
+For James Holden it opened a new area for contemplation. He would have to
+know something about this matter if he hoped to achieve his dreamed-of
+status as an adult.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Information about the relation between man and woman had not been
+included in the course of education devised by his father and mother.
+Therefore his physical age and his information on the delicate subject
+were approximately parallel.
+
+His personal evaluation of the subject was uncomplicated. At some age not
+much greater than his own, boys and girls conglomerated in a mass that
+milled around in a constant state of flux and motion, like individual
+atoms of gas compressed in a container. Meetings and encounters took
+place both singly and in groups until nearly everybody had been in touch
+with almost everybody else. Slowly the amorphous mass changed. Groups
+became attracted by mutual interests. Changes and exchanges took place,
+and then a pair-formation began to take place. The pair-formation went
+through its interchanges both with and without friction as the
+settling-down process proceeded. At times predictable by comparing it
+to the statistics of radioactivity, the pair-production resulted in
+permanent combination, which effectively removed this couple from free
+circulation.
+
+James Holden had no grasp or feeling for the great catalyst that causes
+this pair-production; he saw it only for its sheer mechanics. To him, the
+sensible way to go about this matter was to get there early and move
+fast, because one stands to make a better choice when there is a greater
+number of unattached specimens from which to choose. Those left over are
+likely to have flaws.
+
+And so he pondered, long after Martha had gone to bed.
+
+He was still up and waiting when he heard the car stop at the gate.
+He watched them come up the walk arm in arm, their stride slow and
+lingering. They paused for several moments on the doorstep, once there
+was a short, muted laugh. The snick of the key came next and they came
+into the hallway.
+
+"No, please don't come in," said Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"But--" replied the man.
+
+"But me no buts. It's late, Tim."
+
+Tim? Tim? That would probably be Timothy Fisher. He ran the local garage
+where Mrs. Bagley bought her car. James went on listening shamelessly.
+
+"Late? Phooey. When is eleven-thirty late?"
+
+"When it's right now," she replied with a light laugh. "Now, Tim. It's
+been very--"
+
+There came a long silence.
+
+Her voice was throaty when the silence broke. "Now, will you go?"
+
+"Of course," he said.
+
+"Not that way, silly," she said. "The door's behind you."
+
+"Isn't the door I want," he chuckled.
+
+"We're making enough noise to wake the dead," she complained.
+
+"Then let's stop talking," he told her.
+
+There was another long silence.
+
+"Now please go."
+
+"Can I come back tomorrow night?"
+
+"Not tomorrow."
+
+"Friday?"
+
+"Saturday."
+
+"It's a date, then."
+
+"All right. Now get along with you."
+
+"You're cruel and heartless, Janet," he complained. "Sending a man out in
+that cold and storm."
+
+"It isn't storming, and you've a fine heater in that car of yours."
+
+"I'd rather have you."
+
+"Do you tell that to all the girls?"
+
+"Sure. Even Maggie the Washerwoman is better than an old car heater."
+
+Mrs. Bagley chuckled throatily. "How is Maggie?"
+
+"She's fine."
+
+"I mean as a date."
+
+"Better than the car heater."
+
+"Tim, you're a fool."
+
+"When I was a kid," said Tim reflectively, "there used to be a female
+siren in the movies. Her pet line used to be 'Kiss me, my fool!' Theda
+Bara, I think. Before talkies. Now--"
+
+"No, Tim--"
+
+Another long silence.
+
+"Now, Tim, you've simply _got_ to go!"
+
+"Yeah, I know. You've convinced me."
+
+"Then why aren't you going?"
+
+He chuckled. "Look, you've convinced me. I can't stay so I'll go,
+obviously. But now that we've covered this problem, let's drop the
+subject for a while, huh?"
+
+"Don't spoil a fine evening, Tim."
+
+"Janet, what's with you, anyway?"
+
+"What do you mean, 'what's with me?'"
+
+"Just this. Somewhere up in the house is this oddball Maxwell who hides
+out all the time. He's either asleep or busy. Anyway, he isn't here. Do
+you have to report in, punch a time clock, tuck him in--or do you turn
+into a pumpkin at the stroke of twelve?"
+
+"Mr. Maxwell is paying me wages to keep house for him. That's all. Part
+of my wages is my keep. But it doesn't entitle me to have full run of the
+house or to bring guests in at midnight for a two-hour good-night
+session."
+
+"I'd like to tell this bird a thing or two," said Tim Fisher sharply. "He
+can't keep you cooped up like--like--"
+
+"Nobody is keeping me cooped up," she said. "Like what?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"You said 'like--'"
+
+"Skip it. What I meant is that you can't moulder, Janet. You've got to
+get out and meet people."
+
+"I've been out and I've met people. I've met you."
+
+"All to the good."
+
+"Fine. So you invited me out, and I went. It was fun. I liked it. You've
+asked me, and I've said that I'd like to do it again on Saturday. I've
+enjoyed being kissed, and I'll probably enjoy it again on Saturday. So--"
+
+"I'd think you'd enjoy a lot of it."
+
+"Because my husband has been gone for five years?"
+
+"Oh, now Janet--"
+
+"That's what you meant, isn't it?"
+
+"No. You've got me wrong."
+
+"Tim, stop it. You're spoiling a fine evening. You should have gone
+before it started to spoil. Now please put your smile on again and leave
+cheerfully. There's always Saturday--if you still want it."
+
+"I'll call you," he said.
+
+The door opened once more and then closed. James took a deep breath, and
+then stole away quietly to his own room.
+
+By some instinct he knew that this was no time to intercept Mrs. Bagley
+with a lot of fool questions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To the surprise and puzzlement of young James Quincy Holden, Mr. Timothy
+Fisher telephoned early upon the following evening. He was greeted quite
+cordially by Mrs. Bagley. Their conversation was rambling and inane,
+especially when heard from one end only, and it took them almost ten
+minutes to confirm their Saturday night date. That came as another shock.
+
+Well, not quite. The explanation bothered him even more than the fact
+itself. As a further extension of his little mechanical mating process,
+James had to find a place for the like of Jake Caslow and the women Jake
+knew. None of them were classed in the desirable group, all of them were
+among the leftovers. But of course, since none of them were good enough
+for the 'good' people, they were good enough for one another, and that
+made it all right--for them.
+
+But Mrs. Bagley was not of their ilk. It was not right that she should be
+forced to take a leftover.
+
+And then it occurred to him that perhaps Mrs. Bagley was not really
+taking the leftover, Tim Fisher, but instead was using Tim Fisher's
+company as a means toward meeting a larger group, from which there might
+be a better specimen. So he bided his time, thinking deeply around the
+subject, about which he knew nothing whatsoever.
+
+Saturday night was a repeat of Wednesday. They stayed out later, and upon
+their return they took possession of the living room for at least an hour
+before they started their routine about the going-home process. With
+minor variations in the dialog, and with longer and more frequent
+silences, it almost followed the Wednesday night script. The variation
+puzzled James even more. This session went according to program for a
+while until Tim Fisher admitted with regret that it was, indeed, time for
+him to depart. At which juncture Mrs. Bagley did not leap to her feet to
+accept his offer to do that which she had been asking him to do for a
+half hour. Mrs. Bagley compounded the affair by sighing deeply and
+agreeing with him that it was a shame that it was so late and that she,
+too, wished that he could stay a little longer. This, of course, put them
+precisely where they were a half hour earlier and they had to start the
+silly business all over again.
+
+They parted after a final fifteen-minute discussion at the front door.
+This discussion covered Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and finally came to
+agreement on Wednesday.
+
+And so James Holden went to bed that night fully convinced that in a town
+of approximately two thousand people--he did not count the two or three
+hundred A.E.C.-College group as part of the problem--there were entirely
+too few attractive leftovers from which Mrs. Bagley could choose.
+
+But as this association grew, it puzzled him even more. For in his
+understanding, any person forced to accept a second-rate choice does so
+with an air of resignation, but not with a cheerful smile, a sparkle in
+the eyes, and two hours of primping.
+
+James sought the answer in his books but they were the wrong volumes for
+reference of this subject. He considered the local Public Library only
+long enough to remember that it carried a few hundred books suitable for
+the A.E.C.-College crew and a thousand or so of second-hand culls donated
+by local citizens during cleanup campaigns. He resorted to buying books
+by mail through advertisements in newspapers and magazines and received a
+number of volumes of medical treatises, psychological texts, and a book
+on obstetrics that convinced him that baby-having was both rare and
+hazardous. He read _By Love Possessed_ but he did not recognize the many
+forms of love portrayed by the author because the volume was not
+annotated with signs or provided with a road map, and he did not know
+it when he read about it.
+
+He went through the Kinsey books and absorbed a lot of data and graphs
+and figures on human behavior that meant nothing to him. James was not
+even interested in the incidence of homosexuality among college students
+as compared to religious groups, or in the comparison between premarital
+experience and level of education. He knew the words and what the words
+meant as defined in other words. But they were only words and did not
+touch him where he lived.
+
+So, because none of the texts bothered to explain why a woman says Yes,
+when she means No, nor why a woman will cling to a man's lapels and press
+herself against him and at the same time tell him he has to go home,
+James remained ignorant. He could have learned more from Lord Byron,
+Shelley, Keats, or Browning than from Kinsey, deLee, or the "Instructive
+book on Sex, forwarded under plain wrapper for $2.69 postpaid."
+
+Luckily for James, he did not study any of his material via the medium of
+his father's machine or it would have made him sick. For he was not yet
+capable of understanding the single subject upon which more words have
+been expended in saying less than any other subject since the dawn of
+history.
+
+His approach was academic, he could have been reading the definitive
+material on the life-cycle of the beetle insofar as any stir of his own
+blood was concerned.
+
+From his study he did identify a couple of items. Tim Fisher obviously
+desired extramarital relations with Mrs. Bagley--or was it premarital
+relations? Probably both. Logic said that Mrs. Bagley, having already
+been married to Martha's father, could hardly enter into _pre_marital
+relations, although Tim could, since he was a bachelor. But they wouldn't
+be _pre_marital with Tim unless he followed through and married Mrs.
+Bagley. And so they must be _extra_marital. But whatever they were
+called, the Book said that there was about as much on one side as on the
+other.
+
+With a mind mildly aware of the facts of life, distorted through the eyes
+of near-nine James Holden, he watched them and listened in.
+
+As for Mrs. Bagley, she did not know that she was providing part of James
+Holden's extraliterary education. She enjoyed the company of Tim Fisher.
+Hesitantly, she asked James if she could have Tim for dinner one evening,
+and was a bit surprised at his immediate assent. They planned the
+evening, cleaned the lower part of the house of every trace of its
+current occupancy, and James and Martha hied themselves upstairs. Dinner
+went with candlelight and charcoal-broiled steak--and a tray taken aloft
+for "Mr. Maxwell" was consumed by James and Martha. The evening went
+smoothly. They listened to music and danced, they sat and talked. And
+James listened.
+
+Tim was not the same man. He sat calm and comfortably on the low sofa
+with Mrs. Bagley's head on his shoulder, both of them pleasantly bemused
+by the dancing fireplace and with each other's company. He said, "Well,
+I'm glad this finally happened."
+
+"What happened?" she replied in a murmur.
+
+"Getting the invite for dinner."
+
+"Might have been sooner, I suppose. Sorry."
+
+"What took you so long?"
+
+"Just being cautious, I guess."
+
+He chuckled. "Cautious?"
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+Tim laughed.
+
+"What's so darned funny?"
+
+"Women."
+
+"Are we such a bunch of clowns?"
+
+"Not clowns, Janet. Just funny."
+
+"All right, genius. Explain that."
+
+"A woman is a lovely creature who sends a man away so that he can't do
+what she wants him to do most of all."
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+"She feeds him full of rare steak until he wants to crawl off in a corner
+like the family mutt and go to sleep. Once she gets him in a somnolent
+state, she drapes herself tastefully on his shoulder and gets soft and
+warm and willing."
+
+Mrs. Bagley laughed throatily. "Just start getting active," she warned,
+"and you'll see how fast I can beat a hasty retreat."
+
+"Janet, what _is_ with you?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"What are you hiding?"
+
+"Hiding?"
+
+"Yes, confound it, hiding!" he said, his voice turning hard. "Just who is
+this Charles Maxwell character, anyway?"
+
+"Tim, please--"
+
+His voice lowered again. "Janet," he said softly, "you're asking me to
+trust you, and at the same time you're not trusting me."
+
+"But I've nothing to hide."
+
+"Oh, stop it. I'm no schoolboy, Janet. If you have nothing to hide, why
+are you acting as if you were sitting on the lid?"
+
+"I still don't know what you're talking about."
+
+"Your words say so, but your tone is the icy haughtiness that dares me,
+mere male that I am, to call your lie. I've a half-notion to stomp
+upstairs and confront your mysterious Maxwell--if he indeed exists."
+
+"You mustn't. He'd--"
+
+"He'd what? I've been in this house for hours day and night and now all
+evening. I've never heard a sound, not the creak of a floorboard, the
+slam of a door, the opening of a window, nor the distant gurgle of cool,
+clear water, gushing into plumbing. So you've been married. This I know.
+You have a daughter. This I accept. Your husband is dead. This happens to
+people every day; nice people, bad people, bright people, dull people.
+There was a young boy here last summer. Him I do not know, but you and
+your daughter I do know about. I've checked--"
+
+"How dare you check--?"
+
+"I damn well dare check anything and anybody I happen to be personally
+interested in," he stormed. "As a potential bed partner I wouldn't give a
+hoot who you were or what you were. But before I go to the point of
+dividing the rest of my life on an exclusive contract, I have the right
+to know what I'm splitting it with."
+
+"You have no right--"
+
+"Balderdash! I have as much right as anybody to look at the record. I
+grant you the same right to look up my family and my friends and the
+status of my bank account and my credit rating and my service record.
+Grant it? Hell, I couldn't stop you. Now, what's going on? Where is your
+daughter and where is that little boy? And where--if he exists--is this
+Charles Maxwell?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James had heard enough. No matter which way this was going, it would end
+up wrong. He was proud of Mrs. Bagley's loyalty, but he knew that it was
+an increasing strain and could very well lead to complications that could
+not be explained away without the whole truth. He decided that the only
+thing to do was to put in his own oar and relieve Mrs. Bagley.
+
+He walked in, yawning. He stood between them, facing Tim Fisher. Behind
+him, Mrs. Bagley cried, "Now see--you've awakened him!"
+
+In a dry-throated voice, Tim said, "I thought he was away at school. Now,
+what's the story?"
+
+"It isn't her story to tell," said James. "It's mine."
+
+"Now see here--"
+
+"Mr. Fisher, you can't learn anything by talking incessantly."
+
+Tim Fisher took a step forward, his face dark, his intention to shake the
+truth out of somebody. James held up a hand. "Sit down a moment and
+listen," he ordered.
+
+The sight of James and the words that this child was uttering stopped Tim
+Fisher. Puzzled, he nodded dumbly, found a chair, and sat on the front
+edge of it, poised.
+
+"The whereabouts of Mr. Maxwell is his own business and none of yours.
+Your criticism is unfounded and your suspicions unworthy. But since you
+take the attitude that this is some of your business, we don't mind
+telling you that Mr. Maxwell is in New York on business."
+
+Tim Fisher eyed the youngster. "I thought you were away at school," he
+repeated.
+
+"I heard you the first time," said James. "Obviously, I am not. Why I am
+not is Mr. Maxwell's business, not yours. And by insisting that something
+is wrong here and demanding the truth, you have placed Mrs. Bagley in the
+awkward position of having to make a decision that divides her loyalties.
+She has had the complete trust of Mr. Maxwell for almost a year and a
+half. Now, tell me, Mr. Fisher, to whom shall she remain loyal?"
+
+"That isn't the point--"
+
+"Yes, it is the point, Mr. Fisher. It is exactly the point. You're asking
+Mrs. Bagley to tell you the details of her employer's business, which is
+unethical."
+
+"How much have you heard?" demanded Fisher crossly.
+
+"Enough, at least to know what you've been hammering at."
+
+"Then you know that I've as much as said that there was some suspicion
+attached."
+
+"Suspicion of what?"
+
+"Well, why aren't you in school?"
+
+"That's Mr. Maxwell's business."
+
+"Let me tell you, youngster, it is more than your Mr. Maxwell's business.
+There are laws about education and he's breaking them."
+
+James said patiently: "The law states that every child shall receive an
+adequate education. The precise wording I do not know, but it does
+provide for schooling outside of the state school system if the parent or
+guardian so prefers, and providing that such extraschool education is
+deemed adequate by the state. Can you say that I am not properly
+educated, Mr. Fisher?"
+
+"Well, you'd hardly expect me to be an expert on the subject."
+
+"Then I'd hardly expect you to pass judgment, either," said James
+pointedly.
+
+"You're pretty--" Tim Fisher caught his tongue at the right moment. He
+felt his neck getting hot. It is hard enough to be told that you are
+off-base and that your behavior has been bad when an adult says the
+damning words. To hear the same words from a ten-year-old is unbearable.
+Right or wrong, the adult's position is to turn aside or shut the child
+up either by pulling rank or cuffing the young offender with an open
+hand. To have this upstart defend Mrs. Bagley, in whose presence he could
+hardly lash back, put Mr. Fisher in a very unhappy state of mind. He
+swallowed and then asked, lamely, "Why does he have to be so furtive?"
+
+"What is your definition of 'furtive'?" asked James calmly. "Do you
+employ the same term to describe the operations of that combination
+College-A.E.C. installation on the other side of town?"
+
+"That's secret--"
+
+"Implying that atomic energy is secretly above-board, legal, and
+honorable, whereas Mr. Maxwell's--"
+
+"But we know about atomic energy."
+
+"Sure we do," jeered James, and the sound of his immature near-treble
+voice made the jeer very close to an insult. "We know _all_ about atomic
+energy. Was the Manhattan Project called 'furtive' until Hiroshima gave
+the story away?"
+
+"You're trying to put words in my mouth," objected Tim.
+
+"No, I'm not. I'm merely trying to make you understand something
+important to everybody. You come in here and claim by the right of
+personal interest that we should be most willing to tell you our
+business. Then in the next breath you defend the installation over on the
+other side of town for their attitude in giving the bum's rush to people
+who try to ask questions about their business. Go read your Constitution,
+Mr. Fisher. It says there that I have as much right to defend my home
+against intruders as the A.E.C. has to defend their home against spies."
+
+"But I'm not intruding."
+
+James nodded his head gently. "Not," he said, "until you make the grave
+error of equating personal privacy with culpable guilt."
+
+"I didn't mean that."
+
+"You should learn to say what you mean," said James, "instead of trying
+to pry information out of someone who happens to be fond of you."
+
+"Now see here," said Tim Fisher, "I happen to be fond of her too, you
+know. Doesn't that give me some rights?"
+
+"Would you expect to know all of her business if she were your wife?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Suppose she were working in the A.E.C.-College?"
+
+"Well, that--er--"
+
+"Would be different?"
+
+"Well, now--"
+
+"I talked this right around in its circle for a purpose," said James.
+"Stop and think for a moment. Let's discuss me. Mr. Fisher, where would
+you place me in school?"
+
+"Er--how old are you?"
+
+"Nine," said James. "In April."
+
+"Well, I'm not sure--"
+
+"Exactly. Do you suppose that I could sit in a classroom among my
+nine-year-old contemporaries very long without being found out?"
+
+"Er--no--I suppose not."
+
+"Mr. Fisher, how long do you think I could remain a secret if I attended
+high school, sitting at a specially installed desk in a class among
+teenagers twice my size?"
+
+"Not very long."
+
+"Then remember that some secrets are so big that you have to have armed
+guards to keep them secret, and others are so easy to conceal that all
+you need is a rambling old house and a plausible façade."
+
+"Why have you told me all this?"
+
+"Because you have penetrated this far by your own effort, justified by
+your own personal emotions, and driven by an urge that is all-powerful if
+I am to believe the books I've read on the subject. You are told this
+much of the truth so that you won't go off half-cocked with a fine
+collection of rather dangerous untruths. Understand?"
+
+"I'm beginning to."
+
+"Well, whether Mrs. Bagley accepts your offer of marriage or not,
+remember one thing: If she were working for the A.E.C. you'd be proud of
+her, and you'd also be quite careful not to ask questions that would
+cause her embarrassment."
+
+Tim Fisher looked at Mrs. Bagley. "Well?" he asked.
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked bleak. "Please don't ask me until I've had a chance to
+discuss all of the angles with Mr. Maxwell, Tim."
+
+"Maxwell, again."
+
+"Tim," she said in a quiet voice, "remember--he's an employer, not an
+emotional involvement."
+
+James Holden looked at Tim Fisher. "And if you'll promise to keep this
+thing as close a secret as you would some information about atomic
+energy, I'll go to bed and let you settle your personal problems in
+private. Good night!"
+
+He left, reasonably satisfied that Tim Fisher would probably keep their
+secret for a time, at least. The hinted suggestion that this was as
+important a government project as the Atomic Energy Commission's works
+would prevent casual talk. There was also the slim likelihood that Tim
+Fisher might enjoy the position of being on the inside of a big secret,
+although this sort of inner superiority lacks true satisfaction. There
+was a more solid chance that Tim Fisher, being the ambitious man that he
+was, would keep their secret in the hope of acquiring for himself some
+of the superior knowledge and the advanced ability that went with it.
+
+But James was certain that the program that had worked so well with Mrs.
+Bagley would fail with Tim Fisher. James had nothing material to offer
+Tim. Tim was the kind of man who would insist upon his wife being a
+full-time wife, physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
+
+And James suddenly realized that Tim Fisher's own ambition and character
+would insist that Mrs. Bagley, with Martha, leave James Holden to take up
+residence in a home furnished by Tim Fisher upon the date and at time she
+became Mrs. Timothy Fisher.
+
+He was still thinking about the complications this would cause when he
+heard Tim leave. His clock said three-thirty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden's mechanical educator was a wonderful machine, but there
+were some aspects of knowledge that it was not equipped to impart. The
+glandular comprehension of love was one such; there were others. In all
+of his hours under the machine James had not learned how personalities
+change and grow.
+
+And yet there was a textbook case right before his eyes.
+
+In a few months, Janet Bagley had changed from a frightened and
+belligerent mother-animal to a cheerful young prospective wife. The
+importance of the change lay in the fact that it was not polar, nothing
+reversed; it was only that the emphasis passed gradually from the
+protection of the young to the development of Janet Bagley herself.
+
+James could not very well understand, though he tried, but he couldn't
+miss seeing it happen. It was worrisome. It threatened complications.
+
+There was quite a change that came with Tim Fisher's elevation in status
+from steady date to affianced husband, heightened by Tim Fisher's partial
+understanding of the situation at Martin's Hill.
+
+Then, having assumed the right to drop in as he pleased, he went on to
+assume more "rights" as Mrs. Bagley's fiancé. He brought in his friends
+from time to time. Not without warning, of course, for he understood the
+need for secrecy. When he brought friends it was after warning, and very
+frequently after he had helped them to remove the traces of juvenile
+occupancy from the lower part of the house.
+
+In one way, this took some of the pressure off. The opening of the
+"hermit's" house to the friends of the "hermit's" housekeeper's fiancé
+and friends was a pleasant evidence of good will; people stopped
+wondering, a little.
+
+On the other hand, James did not wholly approve. He contrasted this with
+what he remembered of his own home life. The guests who came to visit his
+mother and father were quiet and earnest. They indulged in animated
+discussions, argued points of deep reasoning, and in moments of
+relaxation they indulged in games that demanded skill and intellect.
+
+Tim Fisher's friends were noisy and boisterous. They mixed highballs.
+They danced to music played so loud that it made the house throb. They
+watched the fights on television and argued with more volume than logic.
+
+They were, to young James, a far cry from his parents' friends.
+
+But, as he couldn't do anything about it, he refused to worry about it.
+James Holden turned his thoughts forward and began to plan how he was
+going to face the culmination of this romance next September Fifteenth.
+He even suspected that there would probably be a number of knotty little
+problems that he now knew nothing about; he resolved to allow some
+thinking-time to cope with them when, as, and if.
+
+In the meantime, the summer was coming closer.
+
+He prepared to make a visible show of having Mr. Charles Maxwell leave
+for a protracted summer travel. This would ease the growing problem of
+providing solid evidence of Maxwell's presence during the increasing
+frequency of Tim Fisher's visits and the widening circle of Mrs. Bagley's
+acquaintances in Shipmont. At the same time he and Martha would make a
+return from the Bolton School for Youth. This would allow them their
+freedom for the summer; for the first time James looked forward to it.
+Martha Bagley was progressing rapidly. This summer would see her over and
+done with the scatter-brain prattle that gave equal weight to fact or
+fancy. Her store of information was growing; she could be relied upon to
+maintain a fairly secure cover. Her logic was not to James Holden's
+complete satisfaction but she accepted most of his direction as necessary
+information to be acted upon now and reasoned later.
+
+In the solving of his immediate problems, James can be forgiven for
+putting Paul Brennan out of his mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+
+But Paul Brennan was still alive, and he had not forgotten.
+
+While James was, with astonishing success, building a life for himself in
+hiding, Brennan did everything he could to find him. That is to say, he
+did everything that--under the circumstances--he could afford to do.
+
+The thing was, the boy had got clean away, without a trace.
+
+When James escaped for the third, and very successful, time, Brennan was
+helpless. James had planned well. He had learned from his first two
+efforts. The first escape was a blind run toward a predictable objective;
+all right, that was a danger to be avoided. His second was entirely
+successful--until James created his own area of danger. Another lesson
+learned.
+
+The third was planned with as much care as Napoleon's deliverance from
+the island.
+
+James had started by choosing his time. He'd waited until Easter Week.
+He'd had a solid ten days during which he would be only one of countless
+thousands of children on the streets; there would be no slight suspicion
+because he was out when others were in.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James didn't go to school that day. That was common; children in the
+lower grades are often absent, and no one asks a question until they
+return, with the proper note from the parent. He was not missed anywhere
+until the school bus that should have dropped him off did not. This was
+an area of weakness that Brennan could not plug; he could hardly justify
+the effort of delivering and fetching the lad to and from school when the
+public school bus passed the Holden home. Brennan relied upon the
+Mitchells to see James upon the bus and to check him off when he
+returned. Whether James would have been missed earlier even with a
+personal delivery is problematical; certainly James would have had to
+concoct some other scheme to gain him his hours of free time.
+
+At any rate, the first call to the school connected the Mitchells with a
+grumpy-voiced janitor who growled that teachers and principals had headed
+for their hills of freedom and wouldn't be back until Monday Week. It
+took some calling to locate a couple of James Holden's classmates who
+asserted that he hadn't been in school that day.
+
+Paul Brennan knew at once what had happened, but he could not raise an
+immediate hue-and-cry. He fretted because of the Easter Week vacation; in
+any other time the sight of a school-aged boy free during school hours
+would have caused suspicion. During Easter Week vacation, every schoolboy
+would be free. James would also be protected by his size. A youngster
+walking alone is not suspect; his folks _must_ be close by. The fact that
+it was "again" placed Paul Brennan in an undesirable position. This was
+not the youthful adventure that usually ends about three blocks from
+home. This was a repeat of the first absence during which James had been
+missing for months. People smile at the parents of the child who packs
+his little bag with a handkerchief and a candy bar to sally forth into
+the great big world, but it becomes another matter when the lad of six
+leaves home with every appearance of making it stick. So Brennan had to
+play it cozy, inviting newspaper reporters to the Holden home to display
+what he had to offer young James and giving them free rein to question
+Brennan's housekeeper and general factotum, the Mitchells. With
+honest-looking zeal, Paul Brennan succeeded in building up a picture that
+depicted James as ungrateful, hard to understand, wilful, and something
+of an intellectual brat.
+
+Then the authorities proceeded to throw out a fine-mesh dragnet. They
+questioned and cross-questioned bus drivers and railroad men. They made
+contact with the local airport even though its facilities were only used
+for a daisy-cutting feeder line. Posters were printed and sent to all
+truck lines for display to the truck drivers. The roadside diners were
+covered thoroughly. And knowing the boy's ability to talk convincingly,
+the authorities even went so far as to try the awesome project of making
+contact with passengers bound out-of-town with young male children in
+tow.
+
+Had James given them no previous experience to think about, he would have
+been merely considered a missing child and not a deliberate runaway.
+Then, instead of dragging down all of the known avenues of standard
+escape, the townspeople would have organized a tree-by-tree search of the
+fields and woods with hundreds of men walking hand in hand to inspect
+every square foot of the ground for either tracks or the child himself.
+But the _modus operandi_ of young James Holden had been to apply sly
+touches such as writing letters and forging signatures of adults to
+cause the unquestioned sale of railroad tickets, or the unauthorized ride
+in the side-door Pullman.
+
+Therefore, while the authorities were extending their circle of search
+based upon the velocity of modern transportation, James Holden was making
+his slow way across field and stream, guided by a Boy Scout compass and a
+U.S. Geodetic Survey map to keep him well out of the reach of roadway or
+town. With difficulty, but with dogged determination, he carried a light
+cot-blanket into which he had rolled four cans of pork and beans. He had
+a Boy Scout knife and a small pair of pliers to open it with. He had
+matches. He had the Boy Scout Handbook which was doubly useful; the pages
+devoted to woodsman's lore he kept for reference, the pages wasted on the
+qualifications for merit badges he used to start fires. He enjoyed
+sleeping in the open because it was spring and pleasantly warm, and
+because the Boy Scout Manual said that camping out was fun.
+
+A grown man with an objective can cover thirty or forty miles per day
+without tiring. James made it ten to fifteen. Thus, by the time the
+organized search petered out for lack of evidence and manpower--try
+asking one question of everybody within a hundred-mile radius--James was
+quietly making his way, free of care, like a hardy pioneer looking for a
+homestead site.
+
+The hint of kidnap went out early. The Federal Bureau of Investigation,
+of course, could not move until the waiting period was ended, but they
+did collect information and set up their organization ready to move
+into high speed at the instant of legal time. But then no ransom letter
+came; no evidence of the crime of kidnapping. This did not close the
+case; there were other cases on record where a child was stolen by adults
+for purposes other than ransom. It was not very likely that a child of
+six would be stolen by a neurotic adult to replace a lost infant, and
+Paul Brennan was personally convinced that James Holden had enough
+self-reliance to make such a kidnap attempt fail rather early in the
+game. He could hardly say so, nor could he suggest that James had indeed
+run away deliberately and skilfully, and with planned steps worthy of a
+much older person. He could only hint and urge the F.B.I. into any action
+that he could coerce them into taking; he did not care how or who brought
+James back just so long as the child was returned to his custody.
+
+Then as the days wore into weeks with no sign, the files were placed
+in the inactive drawer. Paul Brennan made contact with a few private
+agencies.
+
+He was stopped here, again, by another angle. The Holdens were by no
+means wealthy. Brennan could not justify the offer of some reward so
+large that people simply could not turn down the slim chance of
+collecting. If the missing one is heir to a couple of million dollars,
+the trustees can justify a reward of a good many thousand dollars for his
+return. The amount that Brennan was prepared to offer could not compel
+the services of a private agency on a full-time basis. The best and the
+most interested of the agencies took the case on a contingent basis; if
+something turned their way in the due course of their work they'd
+immediately take steps. Solving the case of a complete disappearance on
+the part of a child who virtually vanished into thin air would be good
+advertising, but their advertising budget would not allow them to put one
+man on the case without the first shred of evidence to point the way.
+
+If Paul Brennan had been above-board, he could have evoked a lot of
+interest. The search for a six-year-old boy with the educational
+development of a youth of about eighteen, informed through the services
+of an electromechanical device, would have fired public interest,
+Government intervention, and would also have justified Paul Brennan's
+depth of interest. But Paul Brennan could say nothing about the excellent
+training, he could only hint at James Holden's mental proficiency which
+was backed up by the boy's school record. As it was, Paul Brennan's
+most frightful nightmare was one where young James was spotted by some
+eagle-eyed detective and then in desperation--anything being better than
+an enforced return to Paul Brennan--James Holden pulled out all the stops
+and showed everybody precisely how well educated he really was.
+
+In his own affairs, Paul still had to make a living, which took up his
+time. As guardian and trustee of the Holden Estate, he was responsible to
+the State for his handling of James Holden's inheritance. The State takes
+a sensible view of the disbursements of the inheritance of a minor.
+Reasonable sums may be spent on items hardly deemed necessities to the
+average person, but the ceiling called "reasonable" is a flexible term
+and subject to close scrutiny by the State.
+
+In the long run it was Paul Brennan's own indefensible position that made
+it impossible to prosecute a proper search for the missing James Holden.
+Brennan suspected James of building up a bank account under some false
+name, but he could not saunter into banks and ask to examine their
+records without a Court order. Brennan knew that James had not taken off
+without preparation, but the examination of the stuff that James left
+behind was not very informative. There was a small blanket missing and
+Mrs. Mitchell said that it looked as though some cans had been removed
+from the stock but she could not be sure. And in a large collection of
+boy's stuff, one would not observe the absence of a Boy Scout knife and
+other trivia. Had a 100% inventory been available, the list of missing
+items would have pointed out James Holden's avenue of escape.
+
+The search for an adult would have included questioning of banks. No one
+knows whether such a questioning would have uncovered the bank-by-mail
+routine conducted under the name of Charles Maxwell. It is not a regular
+thing, but the receipt of a check drawn on a New York bank, issued by a
+publishing company, and endorsed to be paid to the account of so-and-so,
+accompanied by a request to open an account in that name might never be
+connected with the manipulations of a six-year-old genius, who was
+overtly just plain bright.
+
+And so Paul Brennan worried himself out of several pounds for fear
+that James would give himself away to the right people. He cursed the
+necessity of keeping up his daily work routine. The hue-and-cry he could
+not keep alive, but he knew that somewhere there was a young boy entirely
+capable of reconstructing the whole machine that Paul Brennan wanted so
+desperately that he had killed for it.
+
+Paul Brennan was blocked cold. With the F.B.I. maintaining a hands-off
+attitude because there was no trace of any Federal crime involved, the
+case of James Holden was relegated to the missing-persons files. It
+became the official opinion that the lad had suffered some mishap and
+that it would only be a matter of time before his body was discovered.
+Paul Brennan could hardly prove them wrong without explaining the whole
+secret of James Holden's intelligence, competence, and the certainty that
+the young man would improve upon both as soon as he succeeded in
+rebuilding the Holden Electromechanical Educator.
+
+With the F.B.I. out of the picture, the local authorities waiting for the
+discovery of a small body, and the state authorities shelving the case
+except for the routine punch-card checks, official action died. Brennan's
+available reward money was not enough to buy a private agency's interest
+full-time.
+
+Brennan could not afford to tell anybody of his suspicion of James
+Holden's source of income, for the idea of a child's making a living by
+writing would be indefensible without full explanation. However, Paul
+Brennan resorted to reading of magazines edited for boys. Month after
+month he bought them and read them, comparing the styles of the many
+writers against the style of the manuscript copy left behind by James.
+
+Brennan naturally assumed that James would use a pen name. Writers often
+used pen names to conceal their own identity for any one of several
+reasons. A writer might use three or more pen names, each one identified
+with a known style of writing, or a certain subject or established
+character. But Paul Brennan did not know all there was to know about the
+pen-name business, such as an editor assigning a pen name to prevent the
+too-often appearance of some prolific writer, or conversely to make one
+writer's name seem exclusive with his magazine; nor could Brennan know
+that a writer's literary standing can be kept high by assigning a pen
+name to any second-rate material he may be so unfortunate as to turn out.
+
+Paul Brennan read many stories written by James Holden under several
+names, including the name of Charles Maxwell, but Brennan's
+identification according to literary style was no better than if he had
+tossed a coin.
+
+And so, blocked by his own guilt and avarice from making use of the legal
+avenues of approach, Paul Brennan fumed and fretted away four long years
+while James Holden grew from six to ten years old, hiding under the guise
+of the Hermit of Martin's Hill and behind the pleasant adult façade of
+Mrs. Janet Bagley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+
+If Paul Brennan found himself blocked in his efforts to find James Holden
+and the re-created Holden Educator, James himself was annoyed by one
+evident fact: Everything he did resulted in spreading the news of the
+machine itself.
+
+Had he been eighteen or so, he might have made out to his own taste. In
+the days of late teen-age, a youth can hold a job and rent a room, buy
+his own clothing and conduct himself to the limit of his ability. At ten
+he is suspect, because no one will permit him to paddle his own canoe. At
+a later age James could have rented a small apartment and built his
+machine alone. But starting as young as he did, he was forced to hide
+behind the cover of some adult, and he had picked Mrs. Bagley because he
+could control her both through her desire for security and the promise of
+a fine education for the daughter Martha Bagley.
+
+The daughter was a two-way necessity; she provided him with a
+contemporary companion and also gave him a lever to wield against the
+adult. A lone woman could have made her way without trouble. A lone woman
+with a girl-child is up against a rather horrifying problem of providing
+both support and parental care. He felt that he had done what he had to
+do, up to the point where Mrs. Bagley became involved with Tim Fisher or
+anybody else. This part of adulthood was not yet within his grasp.
+
+But there it was and here it is, and now there was Martha to complicate
+the picture. Had Mrs. Bagley been alone, she and Tim could go off and
+marry and then settle down in Timbuctoo if they wanted to. But not with
+Martha. She was in the same intellectual kettle of sardines as James. Her
+taste in education was by no means the same. She took to the mathematical
+subjects indifferently, absorbing them well enough--once she could be
+talked into spending the couple of hours that each day demanded--but
+without interest. Martha could rattle off quotations from literary
+masters, she could follow the score of most operas (her voice was a bit
+off-key but she knew what was going on) and she enjoyed all of the
+available information on keeping a house in order. Her eye and her mind
+were, as James Holden's, faster than her hand. She went through the same
+frustrations as he did, with different tools and in a different medium.
+The first offside snick of the scissors she knew to be bad before she
+tried the pattern for size, and the only way she could correct such
+defective work was to practice and practice until her muscles were
+trained enough to respond to the direction of her mind.
+
+Remove her now and place her in a school--even the most advanced
+school--and she would undergo the unhappy treatment that James had
+undergone these several years ago.
+
+And yet she could not be cut loose. Martha was as much a part of this
+very strange life as James was. So this meant that any revision in
+overall policy must necessarily include the addition of Tim Fisher and
+not the subtraction of Mrs. Bagley and Martha.
+
+"Charles Maxwell" had to go.
+
+James's problem had not changed. His machine must be kept a secret as
+long as he could. The machine was his, James Quincy Holden's property by
+every known and unwritten legal right of direct, single, uncluttered
+inheritance. The work of his parents had been stopped by their death, but
+it was by no means finished with the construction of the machine. To the
+contrary, the real work had only begun with the completion of the first
+working model. And whether he turned out to be a machine-made genius, an
+over-powered dolt, or an introverted monster it was still his own
+personal reason for being alive.
+
+He alone should reap the benefit or the sorrow, and had his parents lived
+they would have had their right to reap good or bad with him. Good or
+bad, had they lived, he would have received their protection.
+
+As it was, he had no protection whatsoever. Until he could have and hold
+the right to control his own property as he himself saw fit, he had to
+hide just as deep from the enemy who would steal it as he must hide from
+the friend who would administrate it as a property in escrow for his own
+good, since he as a minor was legally unable to walk a path both fitting
+and proper for his feet.
+
+So, the facts had to be concealed. Yet all he was buying was time.
+
+By careful juggling, he had already bought some. Months with Jake Caslow,
+a few months stolidly fighting the school, and two with the help of Mrs.
+Bagley and Martha. Then in these later months there had been more
+purchased time; time gained by the post-dated engagement and the
+procrastinated marriage, which was now running out.
+
+No matter what he did, it seemed that the result was a wider spread of
+knowledge about the Holden Electromechanical Educator.
+
+So with misgiving and yet unaware of any way or means to circumvent the
+necessity without doing more overall harm, James decided that Tim Fisher
+must be handed another piece of the secret. A plausible piece, with as
+much truth as he would accept for the time being. Maybe--hand Tim Fisher
+a bit with great gesture and he would not go prying for the whole?
+
+His chance came in mid-August. It was after dinner on an evening
+uncluttered with party or shower or the horde of just-dropped-in-friends
+of whom Tim Fisher had legion.
+
+Janet Bagley and Tim Fisher sat on the low divan in the living room
+half-facing each other. Apart, but just so far apart that they could
+touch with half a gesture, they were discussing the problem of domicile.
+They were also still quibbling mildly about the honeymoon. Tim Fisher
+wanted a short, noisy one. A ten-day stay in Hawaii, flying both ways,
+with a ten-hour stopover in Los Angeles on the way back. Janet Bagley
+wanted a long and lazy stay somewhere no closer than fifteen hundred
+miles to the nearest telephone, newspaper, mailbox, airline, bus stop, or
+highway. She'd take the 762-day rocket trip to Venus if they had one
+available. Tim was duly sympathetic to her desire to get away from her
+daily grind for as long a time as possible, but he also had a garage to
+run, and he was by no means incapable of pointing out the practical side
+of crass commercialism.
+
+But unlike the problem of the honeymoon, which Janet Bagley was willing
+to discuss on any terms for the pleasure of discussing it, the problem of
+domicile had been avoided--to the degree of being pointed.
+
+For Janet Bagley was still torn between two loyalties. Hers was not
+a lone loyalty to James Holden, there had been almost a complete
+association with the future of her daughter in the loyalty. She realized
+as well as James did, that Martha must not be wrested from this life and
+forced to live, forever an outcast, raised mentally above the level of
+her age and below the physical size of her mental development. Mrs.
+Bagley thought only of Martha's future; she gave little or no thought on
+the secondary part of the problem. But James knew that once Martha was
+separated from the establishment, she could not long conceal her advanced
+information, and revealing that would reveal its source.
+
+And so, as they talked together with soft voices, James Holden decided
+that he could best buy time by employing logic, finance, and good common
+sense. He walked into the living room and sat across the coffee table
+from them. He said, "You'll have to live here, you know."
+
+The abrupt statement stunned them both. Tim sat bolt upright and
+objected, "I'll see to it that we're properly housed, young fellow."
+
+"This isn't charity," replied James. "Nor the goodness of my little
+heart. It's a necessity."
+
+"How so?" demanded Tim crossly. "It's my life--and Janet's."
+
+"And--Martha's life," added James.
+
+"You don't think I'm including her out, do you?"
+
+"No, but you're forgetting that she isn't to be popped here and there as
+the fancy hits you, either. She's much to be considered."
+
+"I'll consider her," snapped Tim. "She shall be my daughter. If she will,
+I'll have her use my name as well as my care and affection."
+
+"Of course you will," agreed James. The quick gesture of Mrs. Bagley's
+hand towards Tim, and his equally swift caress in reply were noticed but
+not understood by James. "But you're not thinking deeply enough about
+it."
+
+"All right. You tell me all about it."
+
+"Martha must stay here," said James. "Neither of you--nor Martha--have
+any idea of how stultifying it can be to be forced into school under the
+supervision of teachers who cannot understand, and among classmates
+whose grasp of any subject is no stronger than a feeble grope in the
+mental dawn."
+
+"Maybe so. But that's no reason why we must run our life your way."
+
+"You're wrong, Mr. Fisher. Think a moment. Without hesitation, you will
+include the education of Martha Bagley along with the 'care and
+affection' you mentioned a moment ago."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"This means, Mr. Fisher, that Martha, approaching ten years old,
+represents a responsibility of about seven more years prior to her
+graduation from high school and another four years of college--granting
+that Martha is a standard, normal, healthy young lady. Am I right?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"Well, since you are happy and willing to take on the responsibility of
+eleven years of care and affection and the expense of schooling the girl,
+you might as well take advantage of the possibilities here and figure on
+five years--or less. If we cannot give her the equal of a master's degree
+in three, I'm shooting in the dark. Make it five, and she'll have her
+doctor's degree--or at least it's equivalent. Does that make sense?"
+
+"Of course it does. But--"
+
+"No buts until we're finished. You'll recall the tales we told you about
+the necessity of hiding out. It must continue. During the school year we
+must not be visible to the general public."
+
+"But dammit, I don't want to set up my family in someone else's house,"
+objected Tim Fisher.
+
+"Buy this one," suggested James. "Then it will be yours. I'll stay on and
+pay rent on my section."
+
+"You'll--now wait a minute! What are you talking about?"
+
+"I said, _'I'll pay rent on my section,'_" said James.
+
+"But this guy upstairs--" Tim took a long breath. "Let's get this
+straight," he said, "now that we're on the subject, what about Mr.
+Charles Maxwell?"
+
+"I can best quote," said James with a smile, "'Oh, what a tangled web we
+weave, when first we practice to deceive!'"
+
+"That's Shakespeare."
+
+"Sorry. That's Sir Walter Scott. _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_. Canto
+Six, Stanza Seventeen. The fact of the matter is that we could go on
+compounding this lie, but it's time to stop it. Mr. Charles Maxwell
+does not exist."
+
+"I don't understand!"
+
+"Hasn't it puzzled you that this hermit-type character that never puts a
+foot out of the house has been out and gone on some unstated vacation or
+business trip for most of the spring and summer?"
+
+"Hadn't given it a thought," said Fisher with a fatuous look at Mrs.
+Bagley. She mooned back at him. For a moment they were lost in one
+another, giving proof to the idea that blinder than he who will not
+see is the fellow who has his eye on a woman.
+
+"Charles Maxwell does not exist except in the minds of his happy
+readers," said James. "He is a famous writer of boys' stories and known
+to a lot of people for that talent. Yet he is no more a real person
+than Lewis Carroll."
+
+"But Lewis Carroll did exist--"
+
+"As Charles L. Dodgson, a mathematician famous for his work in symbolic
+logic."
+
+"All right! Then who writes these stories? Who supports you--and this
+house?"
+
+"I do!"
+
+Tim blinked, looked around the room a bit wildly and then settled on
+Martha, looking at her helplessly.
+
+"It's true, Tim," she said quietly. "It's crazy but it works. I've been
+living with it for years."
+
+Tim considered that for a full minute. "All right," he said shortly. "So
+it works. But why does any kid have to live for himself?" He eyed James.
+"Who's responsible for you?"
+
+"I am!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Got an hour?" asked James with a smile. "Then listen--"
+
+At the end of James Holden's long explanation, Tim Fisher said, "Me--?
+Now, I need a drink!"
+
+James chuckled, "Alcoholic, of course--which is Pi to seven decimal
+places if you ever need it. Just count the letters."
+
+Over his glass, Tim eyed James thoughtfully. "So if this is true, James,
+just who owns that fabulous machine of yours?"
+
+"It is mine, or ours."
+
+"You gave me to believe that it was a high-priority Government project,"
+he said accusingly.
+
+"Sorry. But I would lie as glibly to God Himself if it became necessary
+to protect myself by falsehood. I'm sorry it isn't a Government project,
+but it's just as important a secret."
+
+"Anything as big as this _should_ be the business of the Government."
+
+"Perhaps so. But it's mine to keep or to give, and it's mine to study."
+James was thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose that you can argue that
+anything as important as this should be handed over to the authorities
+immediately; that a large group of men dedicated to such a study can
+locate its difficulties and its pitfalls and failures far swifter than
+a single youth of eleven. Yet by the right of invention, a process
+protected by the Constitution of the United States and circumvented by
+some very odd rulings on the part of the Supreme Court, it is mine by
+inheritance, to reap the exclusive rewards for my family's work. Until
+I'm of an age when I am deemed capable of managing my own life, I'd be
+'protected' out of my rights if I handed this to anybody--including the
+Government. They'd start a commission full of bureaucrats who'd first
+use the machine to study how to best expand their own little empire,
+perpetuate themselves in office, and then they'd rule me out on the
+quaint theory that education is so important that it mustn't be wasted
+on the young."
+
+Tim Fisher smiled wryly. He turned to Janet Bagley. "How do you want it?"
+he asked her.
+
+"For Martha's sake, I want it his way," she said.
+
+"All right. Then that's the way we'll have it," said Tim Fisher. He eyed
+James somewhat ruefully. "You know, it's a funny thing. I've always
+thought this was a screwy set-up, and to be honest, I've always thought
+you were a pretty bumptious kid. I guess you had a good reason. Anyway, I
+should have known Janet wouldn't have played along with it unless she had
+a reason that was really helping somebody."
+
+James saw with relief that Tim had allied himself with the cause; he was,
+in fact, very glad to have someone knowledgeable and levelheaded in on
+the problem. Anyway he really liked Tim, and was happy to have the
+deception out of the way.
+
+"That's all right," he said awkwardly.
+
+Tim laughed. "Hey, will this contraption of yours teach me how to adjust
+a set of tappets?"
+
+"No," said James quickly. "It will teach you the theory of how to chop
+down a tree but it can't show you how to swing an axe. Or," he went on
+with a smile, "it will teach you how to be an efficient accountant--but
+you have to use your own money!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the house on Martin's Hill, everybody won. Tim Fisher objected at
+first to the idea of gallivanting off on a protracted honeymoon, leaving
+a nine-year-old daughter in the care of a ten-year-old boy. But
+Janet--now Mrs. Fisher--pointed out that James and Martha were both quite
+competent, and furthermore there was little to be said for a honeymoon
+encumbered with a little pitcher that had such big ears, to say nothing
+of a pair of extremely curious eyes and a rather loud voice. And
+furthermore, if we allow the woman's privilege of adding one furthermore
+on top of another, it had been a long, long time since Janet had enjoyed
+a child-free vacation. So she won. It was not Hawaii by air for a ten-day
+stay. It was Hawaii by ship with a sixty-day sojourn in a hotel that
+offered both seclusion and company to the guests' immediate preference.
+
+James Holden won more time. He felt that every hour was a victory. At
+times he despaired because time passed so crawlingly slow. All the wealth
+of his education could not diminish that odd sense of the time-factor
+that convinces all people that the length of the years diminish as age
+increases. Far from being a simple, amusing remark, the problem has been
+studied because it is universal. It is psychological, of course, and it
+is not hard to explain simply in terms of human experience plus the known
+fact that the human senses respond to the logarithm of the stimulus.
+
+With most people, time is reasonably important. We live by the clock, and
+we die by the clock, and before there were clocks there were candles
+marked in lengths and sand flowing through narrow orifices, water
+dripping into jars, and posts stuck in the ground with marks for the
+shadow to divide the day. The ancient ones related womanhood to the moon
+and understood that time was vital in the course of Life.
+
+With James, time was more important, perhaps, than to any other human
+being alive. He was fighting for time, always. His was not the immature
+desire of uneducated youth to become adult overnight for vague reasons.
+
+With James it was an honest evaluation of his precarious position. He
+had to hide until he was deemed capable of handling his own affairs,
+after which he could fight his own battles in his own way without the
+interference of the laws that are set up to protect the immature.
+
+With Tim Fisher and his brand-new bride out of the way, James took a deep
+breath at having leaped one more hurdle. Then he sat down to think.
+
+Obviously there is no great sea-change that takes place at the Stroke Of
+Midnight on the date of the person's 21st birthday; no magic wand is
+waved over his scalp to convert him in a moment of time from a puling
+infant to a mature adult. The growth of child to adult is as gradual as
+the increase of his stature, which varies from one child to the next.
+
+The fact remained that few people are confronted by the necessity of
+making a decision based upon the precise age of the subject. We usually
+cross this barrier with no trouble, taking on our rights and
+responsibilities as we find them necessary to our life. Only in probating
+an estate left by the demise of both parents in the presence of minor
+children does this legal matter of precise age become noticeable. Even
+then, the control exerted over the minor by the legal guardian diminishes
+by some obscure mathematical proportion that approaches zero as the minor
+approaches the legal age of maturity. Rare is the case of the reluctant
+guardian who jealously relinquishes the iron rule only after the proper
+litigation directs him to let go, render the accounting for audit, and
+turn over the keys to the treasury to the rightful heir.
+
+James Holden was the seldom case. James Holden needed a very adroit
+lawyer to tell him how and when his rights and privileges as a citizen
+could be granted, and under what circumstances. From the evidence already
+at hand, James saw loopholes available in the matter of the legal age of
+twenty-one. But he also knew that he could not approach a lawyer with
+questions without giving full explanation of every why and wherefore.
+
+So James Holden, already quite competent in the do-it-himself method of
+cutting his own ice, decided to study law. Without any forewarning of the
+monumental proportions of the task he faced, James started to acquire
+books on legal procedure and the law.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With the return of Tim and Janet Fisher matters progressed well. Mrs.
+Fisher took over the running of the household; Tim continued his running
+of the garage and started to dicker for the purchase of the house on
+Martin's Hill. The "Hermit" who had returned before the wedding remained
+temporarily. With a long-drawn plan, Charles Maxwell would slowly fade
+out of sight. Already his absence during the summer was hinting as being
+a medical study; during the winter he would return to the distant
+hospital. Later he would leave completely cured to take up residence
+elsewhere. Beyond this they planned to play it by ear.
+
+James and Martha, freed from the housework routine, went deep into study.
+
+Christmas passed and spring came and in April, James marked his eleventh
+birthday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+
+One important item continued to elude James Holden. The Educator could
+not be made to work in "tandem." In less technical terms, the Educator
+was strictly an individual device, a one-man-dog. The wave forms that
+could be recorded were as individual as fingerprints and pore-patterns
+and iris markings. James could record a series of ideas or a few pages of
+information and play them back to himself. During the playback he could
+think in no other terms; he could not even correct, edit or improve the
+phrasing. It came back word for word with the faithful reproduction of
+absolute fidelity. Similarly, Martha could record a phase of information
+and she, too, underwent the same repetition when her recording was played
+back to her.
+
+But if Martha's recording were played through to James, utter confusion
+came. It was a whirling maze of colors and odors, sound, taste and touch.
+
+It spoiled some of James Holden's hopes; he sought the way to mass-use,
+his plan was to employ a teacher to digest the information and then via
+the Educator, impress the information upon many other brains each coupled
+to the machine. This would not work.
+
+He made an extra headset late in June and they tried it, sitting
+side-by-side and still it did not work. With Martha doing the reading,
+she got the full benefit of the machine and James emerged with a whirling
+head full of riotous colors and other sensations. At one point he hoped
+that they might learn some subject by sitting side-by-side and reading
+the text in unison, but from this they received the information horribly
+mingled with equal intensity of sensory noise.
+
+He did not abandon this hope completely. He merely put it aside as a
+problem that he was not ready to study yet. He would re-open the question
+when he knew more about the whole process. To know the whole process
+meant studying many fields of knowledge and combining them into a
+research of his own.
+
+And so James entered the summer months as he'd entered them before; Tim
+and Janet Fisher took off one day and returned the next afternoon with a
+great gay show of "bringing the children home for the summer."
+
+Even in this day of multi-billion-dollar budgets and farm surpluses that
+cost forty thousand dollars per hour for warehouse rental, twenty-five
+hundred dollars is still a tidy sum to dangle before the eyes of any
+individual. This was the reward offered by Paul Brennan for any
+information as to the whereabouts of James Quincy Holden.
+
+If Paul Brennan could have been honest, the information he could have
+supplied would have provided any of the better agencies with enough
+lead-material to track James Holden down in a time short enough to make
+the reward money worth the effort. Similarly, if James Holden's
+competence had been no greater than Brennan's scaled-down description,
+he could not have made his own way without being discovered.
+
+Bound by his own guilt, Brennan could only fret. Everything including
+time, was running against him.
+
+And as the years of James Holden's independence looked toward the sixth,
+Paul Brennan was willing to make a mental bet that the young man's
+education was deeper than ever.
+
+He would have won. James was close to his dream of making his play for an
+appearance in court and pleading for the law to recognize his competence
+to act as an adult. He abandoned all pretense; he no longer hid through
+the winter months, and he did not keep Martha under cover either. They
+went shopping with Mrs. Fisher now and then, and if any of the folks in
+Shipmont wondered about them, the fact that the children were in the care
+and keeping of responsible adults and were oh-so-quick on the uptake
+stopped anybody who might have made a fast call to the truant officer.
+
+Then in the spring of James Holden's twelfth year and the sixth of
+his freedom, he said to Tim Fisher. "How would you like to collect
+twenty-five hundred dollars?"
+
+Fisher grinned. "Who do you want killed?"
+
+"Seriously."
+
+"Who wouldn't?"
+
+"All right, drop the word to Paul Brennan and collect the reward."
+
+"Can you protect yourself?"
+
+"I can quote Gladstone from one end to the other. I can cite every civil
+suit regarding the majority or minority problem that has any importance.
+If I fail, I'll skin out of there in a hurry on the next train. But I
+can't wait forever."
+
+"What's the gimmick, James?"
+
+"First, I am sick and tired of running and hiding, and I think I've got
+enough to prove my point and establish my rights. Second, there is a bit
+of cupidity here; the reward money is being offered out of my own
+inheritance so I feel that I should have some say in where it should go.
+Third, the fact that I steer it into the hands of someone I'd prefer to
+get it tickles my sense of humor. The trapper trapped; the bopper bopped;
+the sapper hoist by his own petard."
+
+"And--?"
+
+"It isn't fair to Martha, either. So the sooner we get this whole affair
+settled, the sooner we can start to move towards a reasonable way of
+life."
+
+"Okay, but how are we going to work it? I can't very well turn up by
+myself, you know."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"People would think I'm a heel."
+
+"Let them think so. They'll change their opinion once the whole truth is
+known." James smiled. "It'll also let you know who your true friends
+are."
+
+"Okay. Twenty-five hundred bucks and a chance at the last laugh sounds
+good. I'll talk it over with Janet."
+
+That night they buried Charles Maxwell, the Hermit of Martin's Hill.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THREE:
+
+THE REBEL
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+
+In his years of searching, Paul Brennan had followed eleven fruitless
+leads. It had cost him over thirteen hundred dollars and he was prepared
+to go on and on until he located James Holden, no matter how much it
+took. He fretted under two fears, one that James had indeed suffered a
+mishap, and the other that James might reveal his secret in a dramatic
+announcement, or be discovered by some force or agency that would place
+the whole process in hands that Paul Brennan could not reach.
+
+The registered letter from Tim Fisher culminated this six years of
+frantic search. Unlike the previous leads, this spoke with authority,
+named names, gave dates, and outlined sketchily but adequately the
+operations of the young man in very plausible prose. Then the letter went
+on in the manner of a man with his foot in a cleft stick; the writer did
+not approve of James Holden's operations since they involved his wife and
+newly-adopted daughter, but since wife and daughter were fond of James
+Holden, the writer could not make any overt move to rid his household of
+the interfering young man. Paul Brennan was asked to move with caution
+and in utter secrecy, even to sending the reward in cash to a special
+post-office box.
+
+Paul Brennan's reaction was a disappointment to himself. He neither felt
+great relief nor the desire to exult. He found himself assaying his own
+calmness and wondering why he lacked emotion over this culmination of so
+many years of futile effort. He re-read the letter carefully to see if
+there were something hidden in the words that his subconscious had
+caught, but he found nothing that gave him any reason to believe that
+this letter was a false lead. It rang true; Brennan could understand Tim
+Fisher's stated reaction and the man's desire to collect. Brennan even
+suspected that Fisher might use the reward money for his own private
+purpose.
+
+It was not until he read the letter for the third time that he saw the
+suggestion to move with caution and secrecy not as its stated request to
+protect the writer, but as an excellent advice for his own guidance.
+
+And then Paul Brennan realized that for six years he had been
+concentrating upon the single problem of having James Holden returned to
+his custody, and in that concentration he had lost sight of the more
+important problem of achieving his true purpose of gaining control of the
+Holden Educator. The letter had not been the end of a long quest, but
+just the signal to start.
+
+Paul Brennan of course did not give a fig for the Holden Estate nor the
+welfare of James. His only interest was in the machine, and the secret of
+that machine was locked in the young man's mind and would stay that way
+unless James could be coerced into revealing it. The secret indubitably
+existed as hardware in the machine rebuilt in the house on Martin's Hill,
+but Brennan guessed that any sight of him would cause James to repeat his
+job of destruction. Brennan also envisioned a self-destructive device
+that would addle the heart of the machine at the touch of a button,
+perhaps booby-traps fitted like burglar alarms that would ruin the
+machine at the first touch of an untrained hand.
+
+Brennan's mind began to work. He must plan his moves carefully to acquire
+the machine by stealth. He toyed with the idea of murder and rejected it
+as too dangerous to chance a repeat, especially in view of the existence
+of the rebuilt machine.
+
+Brennan read the letter again. It gave him to think. James had obviously
+succeeded in keeping his secret by imparting it to a few people that he
+could either trust or bind to him, perhaps with the offer of education
+via the machine, which James and only James maintained in hiding could
+provide. Brennan could not estimate the extent of James Holden's
+knowledge but it was obvious that he was capable of some extremely
+intelligent planning. He was willing to grant the boy the likelihood of
+being the equal of a long and experienced campaigner, and the fact that
+James was in the favor of Tim Fisher's wife and daughter meant that the
+lad would be able to call upon them for additional advice. Brennan
+counted the daughter Martha in this planning program, most certainly
+James would have given the girl an extensive education, too. Everything
+added up, even to Tim Fisher's resentment.
+
+But there was not time to ponder over the efficiency of James Holden's
+operations. It was time for Paul Brennan to cope, and it seemed sensible
+to face the fact that Paul Brennan alone could not plot the illegal
+grab of the Holden Educator and at the same time masquerade as the
+deeply-concerned loving guardian. He could label James Holden's little
+group as an organization, and if he was to combat this organization he
+needed one himself.
+
+Paul Brennan began to form a mental outline of his requirements. First he
+had to figure out the angle at which to make his attack. Once he knew the
+legal angle, then he could find ruthless men in the proper position of
+authority whose ambitions he could control. He regretted that the elder
+Holden had not allowed him to study civil and criminal law along with his
+courses in real estate and corporate law. As it was, Brennan was unsure
+of his legal rights, and he could not plan until he had researched the
+problem most thoroughly.
+
+To his complete surprise, Paul Brennan discovered that there was no law
+that would stay an infant from picking up his marbles and leaving home.
+So long as the minor did not become a ward of responsibility of the
+State, his freedom was as inviolable as the freedom of any adult. The
+universal interest in missing-persons cases is overdrawn because of their
+dramatic appeal. In every case that comes to important notice, the
+missing person has left some important responsibilities that had to be
+satisfied. A person with no moral, legal, or ethical anchor has every
+right to pack his suitcase and catch the next conveyance for parts
+unknown. If he is found by the authorities after an appeal by friends or
+relatives, the missing party can tell the police that, Yes he did leave
+home and, No he isn't returning and, furthermore he does not wish his
+whereabouts made known; and all the authorities can report is that the
+missing one is hale, happy, and hearty and wants to stay missing.
+
+Under the law, a minor is a minor and there is no proposition that
+divides one degree of minority from another. Major decisions, such as
+voting, the signing of binding contracts of importance, the determination
+of a course of drastic medical treatment, are deemed to be matters that
+require mature judgment. The age for such decisions is arbitrarily set at
+age twenty-one. Acts such as driving a car, sawing a plank, or buying
+food and clothing are considered to be "skills" that do not require
+judgment and therefore the age of demarcation varies with the state and
+the state legislature's attitude.
+
+James was a minor; presumably he could repudiate contracts signed while a
+minor, at the time he reached the age of twenty-one. From a practical
+standpoint, however, anything that James contracted for was expendable
+and of vital necessity. He could not stop payment on a check for his
+rent, nor claim that he had not received proper payment for his stories
+and demand damages. Paul Brennan might possibly interfere with the smooth
+operation by squawking to the bank that Charles Maxwell was a phantom
+front for the minor child James Holden. And bankers, being bankers, might
+very well clog up the operation with a lot of questions. But there was
+the possibility that James Holden, operating through the agency of an
+adult, would switch his method. He could even go so far as to bring
+Brennan to lawsuit to have Brennan stopped from his interference. Child
+or not, James Holden had been running a checking account by mail for a
+number of years which could be used as evidence of his good faith and
+ability.
+
+Indeed, the position of James Holden was so solid that Brennan could only
+plead personal interest and personal responsibility in the case for
+securing a writ of habeas corpus to have the person of James Holden
+returned to his custody and protection. And this of itself was a bit on
+the dangerous side. A writ of habeas corpus will, by law, cause the
+delivery of the person to the right hands, but there is no part of the
+writ that can be used to guarantee that the person will remain
+thereafter. If Brennan tried to repeat this program, James Holden was
+very apt to suggest either the rather rare case of Barratry or
+Maintenance against Brennan. Barratry consists of the constant harassment
+of a citizen by the serial entry of lawsuit after lawsuit against him,
+each of which he must defend to the loss of time and money--and the tying
+up of courts and their officials. Maintenance is the re-opening of the
+same suit and its charges time after time in court after court. One need
+only be sure of the attitude of the plaintiff to strike back; if he is
+interested in heckling the defendant and this can be demonstrated in
+evidence, the heckler is a dead duck. Such a response would surely damage
+Paul Brennan's overt position as a responsible, interested, affectionate
+guardian of his best friends' orphaned child.
+
+Then to put the top on the bottle, James Holden had crossed state lines
+in his flight from home. This meant that the case was not the simple
+proposition of appearing before a local magistrate and filing an
+emotional appeal. It was interstate. It smacked of extradition, and James
+Holden had committed no crime in either state.
+
+To Paul Brennan's qualifications for his henchmen, he now added the need
+for flouting the law if the law could not be warped to fit his need.
+
+Finding a man with ambition, with a casual disregard for ethics, is not
+hard in political circles. Paul Brennan found his man in Frank Manison,
+a rising figure in the office of the District Attorney. Manison had
+gubernatorial ambitions, and he was politically sharp. He personally
+conducted only those cases that would give him ironclad publicity; he
+preferred to lower the boom on a lighter charge than chance an acquittal.
+Manison also had a fine feeling for anticipating public trends, a sense
+of the drama, and an understanding of public opinion.
+
+He granted Brennan a conference of ten minutes, and knowing from long
+experience that incoming information flows faster when it is not
+interrupted, he listened attentively, oiling and urging the flow by
+facial expressions of interest and by leaning forward attentively
+whenever a serious point was about to come forth. Brennan explained about
+James Holden, his superior education, and what it had enabled the lad to
+do. He explained the education not as a machine but as a "system of
+study" devised by James Holden's parents, feeling that it was better to
+leave a few stones lying flat and unturned for his own protection.
+Manison nodded at the end of the ten-minute time-limit, used his desk
+interphone to inform his secretary that he was not to be disturbed until
+further notice (which also told Paul Brennan that he was indeed
+interested) and then said:
+
+"You know you haven't a legal leg to stand on, Brennan."
+
+"So I find out. It seems incredible that there isn't any law set up to
+control the activity of a child."
+
+"Incredible? No, Brennan, not so. To now it hasn't been necessary. People
+just do not see the necessity of laws passed to prevent something that
+isn't being done anyway. The number of outmoded laws, ridiculous laws,
+and laws passed in the heat of public emotion are always a subject for
+public ridicule. If the state legislature were to pass a law stating that
+any child under fourteen may not leave home without the consent of his
+parents, every opposition newspaper in the state would howl about the
+waste of time and money spent on ridiculous legislation passed to govern
+activities that are already under excellent control. They would poll the
+state and point out that for so many million children under age fourteen,
+precisely zero of them have left home to set up their own housekeeping.
+One might just as well waste the taxpayer's money by passing a law that
+confirms the Universal Law of Gravity.
+
+"But that's neither here nor there," he said. "Your problem is to figure
+out some means of exerting the proper control over this intelligent
+infant."
+
+"My problem rises higher than that," said Brennan ruefully. "He dislikes
+me to the point of blind, unreasonable hatred. He believes that I am the
+party responsible for the death of his parents and furthermore that the
+act was deliberate. Tantamount to a charge of first-degree murder."
+
+"Has he made that statement recently?" asked Manison.
+
+"I would hardly know."
+
+"When last did you hear him say words to that effect?"
+
+"At the time, following the accidental death of his parents, James Holden
+ran off to the home of his grandparents. Puzzled and concerned, they
+called me as the child's guardian. I went there to bring him back to his
+home. I arrived the following morning and it was during that session that
+James Holden made the accusation."
+
+"And he has not made it since, to the best of your knowledge?"
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"Hardly make anything out of that. Seven years ago. Not a formal charge,
+only a cry of rage, frustration, hysterical grief. The complaint of a
+five-year-old made under strain could hardly be considered slanderous.
+It is too bad that the child hasn't broken any laws. Your success in
+collecting him the first time was entirely due to the associations he'd
+made with this automobile thief--Caslow, you said his name was. We can't
+go back to that. The responsibility has been fixed, I presume, upon Jake
+Caslow in another state. Brennan, you've a real problem: How can you be
+sure that this James Holden will disclose his secret system of study even
+if we do succeed in cooking up some legal means of placing him and keep
+him in your custody?"
+
+Brennan considered, and came to the conclusion that now was the time to
+let another snibbet of information go. "The system of study consists of
+an electronic device, the exact nature of which I do not understand. The
+entire machine is large and cumbersome. In it, as a sort of 'heart,' is a
+special circuit. Without this special circuit the thing is no more than
+an expensive aggregation of delicate devices that could be used elsewhere
+in electronics. One such machine stands unused in the Holden Home because
+the central circuit was destroyed beyond repair or replacement by young
+James Holden. He destroyed it because he felt that this secret should
+remain his own, the intellectual inheritance from his parents. There is
+one other machine--undoubtedly in full function and employed daily--in
+the house on Martin's Hill under James Holden's personal supervision."
+
+"Indeed? How, may I ask?"
+
+"It was rebuilt by James Holden from plans, specifications, and
+information engraved on his brain by his parents through the use of their
+first machine. Unfortunately, I have every reason to believe that this
+new machine is so booby-trapped and tamper-protected that the first
+interference by someone other than James Holden will cause its
+destruction."
+
+"Um. It might be possible to impound this machine as a device of high
+interest to the State," mused Manison. "But if we start any proceeding
+as delicate as that, it will hit every newspaper in the country and our
+advantage will be lost."
+
+"Technically," said Paul Brennan, "you don't know that such a machine
+exists. But as soon as young Holden realizes that you know about his
+machine, he'll also know that you got the information from me." Brennan
+sat quietly and thought for a moment. "There's another distressing angle,
+too," he said at last. "I don't think that there is a soul on earth who
+knows how to run this machine but James Holden. Steal it or impound it or
+take it away legally, you've got to know how it runs. I doubt that we'd
+find a half-dozen people on the earth who'd willingly sit in a chair with
+a heavy headset on, connected to a devilish aggregation of electrical
+machinery purported to educate the victim, while a number of fumblers
+experimented with the dials and the knobs and the switches. No sir, some
+sort of pressure must be brought to bear upon the youngster."
+
+"Um. Perhaps civic pride? Might work. Point out to him that he is in
+control of a device that is essential to the security of the United
+States. That he is denying the children of this country the right to
+their extensive education. Et cetera?"
+
+"Could be. But how are you going to swing it, technically in ignorance of
+the existence of such a machine?"
+
+"Were I a member of the Congressional Committee on Education, I could
+investigate the matter of James Holden's apparent superiority of
+intellect."
+
+"And hit Page One of every newspaper in the country," sneered Brennan.
+
+"Well, I'm not," snapped Manison angrily. "However, there is a way,
+perhaps several ways, once we find the first entering wedge. After all,
+Brennan, the existence of a method of accelerating the course of
+educational training is of the utmost importance to the future of not
+only the United States of America, but the entire human race. Once I can
+locate some plausible reason for asking James Holden the first question
+about anything, the remainder of any session can be so slanted as to
+bring into the open any secret knowledge he may have. We, to make the
+disclosure easier, shall hold any sessions in the strictest of secrecy.
+We can quite readily agree with James Holden's concern over the
+long-range effectiveness of his machine and state that secrecy is
+necessary lest headstrong factions take the plunge into something that
+could be very detrimental to the human race instead of beneficial.
+Frankly, Mr. Brennan," said Manison with a wry smile, "I should like to
+borrow that device for about a week myself. It might help me locate some
+of the little legal points that would help me." He sighed. "Yes," he said
+sadly, "I know the law, but no one man knows all of the finer points.
+Lord knows," he went on, "if the law were a simple matter of behaving as
+it states, we'd not have this tremendous burden. But the law is subject
+to interpretation and change and argument and precedent--Precedent? Um,
+here we may have an interesting angle, Brennan. I must look into it."
+
+"Precedent?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. Any ruling that we were to make covering the right of a
+seven, eight, or nine year old to run his own life as he sees fit will be
+a ruling that establishes precedent."
+
+"And--?"
+
+"Well, up to now there's no ruling about such a case; no child of ten has
+ever left home to live as he prefers. But this James Holden is apparently
+capable of doing just that--and any impartial judge deliberating such a
+case would find it difficult to justify a decision that placed the
+competent infant under the guardianship and protection of an adult who is
+less competent than the infant."
+
+Brennan's face turned dark. "You're saying that this Holden kid is
+smarter than I am?"
+
+"Sit down and stop sputtering," snapped Manison. "What were you doing at
+six years old, Brennan? Did you have the brains to leave home and protect
+yourself by cooking up the plausible front of a very interesting
+character such as the mythical Hermit of Martin's Hill? Were you writing
+boys' stories for a nationwide magazine of high circulation and
+accredited quality? Could you have planned your own dinner and prepared
+it, or would you have dined on chocolate bars washed down with strawberry
+pop? Stop acting indignant. Start thinking. If for no other reason than
+that we don't want to end up selling pencils on Halstead Street because
+we're not quite bright, we've got to lay our hands on that machine. We've
+got to lead, not follow. Yet at the present time I'll wager that your
+James Holden is going to give everybody concerned a very rough time. Now,
+let me figure out the angles and pull the wires. One thing that nobody
+can learn from any electronic machine is how to manipulate the component
+people that comprise a political machine. I'll be in touch with you,
+Brennan."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The ring at the door was Chief of Police Joseph Colling and another
+gentleman. Janet Fisher answered the door, "Good evening, Mr. Colling.
+Come in?"
+
+"Thank you," said Colling politely. "This is Mr. Frank Manison, from the
+office of the State Department of Justice."
+
+"Oh? Is something wrong?"
+
+"Not that we know of," replied Manison. "We're simply after some
+information. I apologize for calling at eight o'clock in the evening, but
+I wanted to catch you all under one roof. Is Mr. Fisher home? And the
+children?"
+
+"Why, yes. We're all here." Janet stepped aside to let them enter the
+living room, and then called upstairs. Mr. Manison was introduced around
+and Tim Fisher said, cautiously, "What's the trouble here?"
+
+"No trouble that we know of," said Manison affably. "We're just after
+some information about the education of James Holden, a legal minor, who
+seems never to have been enrolled in any school."
+
+"If you don't mind," replied Tim Fisher, "I'll not answer anything
+without the advice of my attorney."
+
+Janet Fisher gasped.
+
+Tim turned with a smile. "Don't you like lawyers, honey?"
+
+"It isn't that. But isn't crying for a lawyer an admission of some sort?"
+
+"Sure is," replied Tim Fisher. "It's an admission that I don't know all
+of my legal rights. If lawyers come to me because they don't know all
+there is to know about the guts of an automobile, I have every right to
+the same sort of consultation in reverse. Agree, James?"
+
+James Holden nodded. "The man who represents himself in court has a fool
+for a client," he said. "I think that's Daniel Webster, but I'm not
+certain. No matter; it's right. Call Mr. Waterman, and until he arrives
+we'll discuss the weather, the latest dope in high-altitude research, or
+nuclear physics."
+
+Frank Manison eyed the lad. "You're James Holden?"
+
+"I am."
+
+Tim interrupted. "We're not answering _anything_," he warned.
+
+"Oh, I don't mind admitting my identity," said James. "I've committed no
+crime, I've broken no law. No one can point to a single act of mine that
+shows a shred of evidence to the effect that my intentions are not
+honorable. Sooner or later this whole affair had to come to a showdown,
+and I'm prepared to face it squarely."
+
+"Thank you," said Manison. "Now, without inviting comment, let me explain
+one important fact. The state reserves the right to record marriages,
+births, and deaths as a simple matter of vital statistics. We feel that
+we have every right to the compiling of the census, and we can justify
+our feeling. I am here because of some apparent irregularities, records
+of which we do not have. If these apparent irregularities can be
+explained to our satisfaction for the record, this meeting will be ended.
+Now, let's relax until your attorney arrives."
+
+"May I get you some coffee or a highball?" asked Janet Fisher.
+
+"Coffee, please," agreed Frank Manison. Chief Colling nodded quietly.
+They relaxed over coffee and small talk for a half hour. The arrival of
+Waterman, Tim Fisher's attorney, signalled the opening of the discussion.
+
+"First," said Manison, his pencil poised over a notebook, "Who lives here
+in permanent residence, and for how long?" He wrote rapidly as they told
+him. "The house is your property?" he asked Tim, and wrote again. "And
+you are paying a rental on certain rooms of this house?" he asked James,
+who nodded.
+
+"Where did you attend school?" he asked James.
+
+"I did not."
+
+"Where did you get your education?"
+
+"By a special course in home study."
+
+"You understand that under the state laws that provide for the education
+of minor children, the curriculum must be approved by the state?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And has it?"
+
+Waterman interrupted. "Just a moment, Mr. Manison. In what way must the
+curriculum be approved? Does the State study all textbooks and the manner
+in which each and every school presents them? Or does the State merely
+insist that the school child be taught certain subjects?"
+
+"The State merely insists that certain standards of education be
+observed."
+
+"In fact," added James, "the State does not even insist that the child
+_learn_ the subjects, realizing that some children lack the intellect to
+be taught certain subjects completely and fully. Let's rather say that
+the State demands that school children be exposed to certain subjects in
+the hope that they 'take.' Am I not correct?"
+
+"I presume you are."
+
+"Then I shall answer your question. In my home study, I have indeed
+followed the approved curriculum by making use of the approved textbooks
+in their proper order. I am aware of the fact that this is not the same
+State, but if you will consult the record of my earlier years in
+attendance at a school selected by my legal guardian, you'll find that I
+passed from preschool grade to Fourth Grade in a matter of less than half
+a year, at the age of five-approaching-six. If this matter is subject to
+question, I'll submit to any course of extensive examination your
+educators care to prepare. The law regarding compulsory education in this
+state says that the minor child must attend school until either the age
+of eighteen, or until he has completed the standard eight years of
+grammar school and four years of high school. I shall then stipulate that
+the suggested examination be limited to the schooling of a high school
+graduate."
+
+"For the moment we'll pass this over. We may ask that you do prove your
+contention," said Manison.
+
+"You don't doubt that I can, do you?" asked James.
+
+Manison shook his head. "No, at this moment I have no doubt."
+
+"Then why do you bother asking?"
+
+"I am here for a rather odd reason," said Manison. "I've told you the
+reservations that the State holds, which justify my presence. Now, it is
+patently obvious that you are a very competent young man, James Holden.
+The matter of making your own way is difficult, as many adults can
+testify. To have contrived a means of covering up your youth, in addition
+to living a full and competent life, demonstrates an ability above and
+beyond the average. Now, the State is naturally interested in anything
+that smacks of acceleration of the educational period. Can you understand
+that?"
+
+"Naturally. None but a dolt would avoid education."
+
+"Then you agree with our interest?"
+
+"I--"
+
+"Just a moment, James," said Waterman. "Let's put it that you understand
+their interest, but that you do not necessarily agree."
+
+"I understand," said James.
+
+"Then you must also understand that this 'course of study' by which you
+claim the equal of a high-school education at the age of ten or eleven
+(perhaps earlier) must be of high importance."
+
+"I understand that it might," agreed James.
+
+"Then will you explain why you have kept this a secret?"
+
+"Because--"
+
+"Just a moment," said Waterman again. "James, would you say that your
+method of educating yourself is completely perfected?"
+
+"Not completely."
+
+"Not perfected?" asked Manison. "Yet you claim to have the education of a
+high-school graduate?"
+
+"I so claim," said James. "But I must also point out that I have acquired
+a lot of mish-mash in the course of this education. For instance, it is
+one thing to study English, its composition, spelling, vocabulary,
+construction, rules and regulations. One must learn these things if he is
+to be considered literate. In the course of such study, one also becomes
+acquainted with English literature. With literature it is enough to
+merely be acquainted with the subject. One need not know the works of
+Chaucer or Spenser intimately--unless one is preparing to specialize in
+the English literature of the writers of that era. Frankly, sir, I should
+hate to have my speech colored by the flowery phrases of that time, and
+the spelling of that day would flunk me out of First Grade if I made use
+of it. In simple words, I am still perfecting the method."
+
+"Now, James," went on Waterman, "have you ever entertained the idea of
+not releasing the details of your method?"
+
+"Occasionally," admitted James.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Until we know everything about it, we can not be certain that its
+ultimate effect will be wholly beneficial."
+
+"So, you see," said Waterman to Manison, "the intention is reasonable.
+Furthermore, we must point out that this system is indeed the invention
+created by the labor and study of the parents of James Holden, and as
+such it is a valuable property retained by James Holden as his own by the
+right of inheritance. The patent laws of the United States are clear, it
+is the many conflicting rulings that have weakened the system. The law
+itself is contained in the Constitution of the United States, which
+provides for the establishment of a Patent Office as a means to encourage
+inventors by granting them the exclusive right to the benefits of their
+labor for a reasonable period of time--namely seventeen years with
+provision for a second period under renewal."
+
+"Then why doesn't he make use of it?" demanded Manison.
+
+"Because the process, like so many another process, can be copied and
+used by individuals without payment, and because there hasn't been a
+patent suit upheld for about forty years, with the possible exception
+of Major Armstrong's suit against the Radio Corporation of America,
+settled in Armstrong's favor after about twenty-five years of expensive
+litigation. A secret is no longer a secret these days, once it has been
+written on a piece of paper and called to the attention of a few million
+people across the country."
+
+"You realize that anything that will give an extensive education at an
+early age is vital to the security of the country."
+
+"We recognize that responsibility, sir," said Waterman quietly. "We also
+recognize that in the hands of unscrupulous men, the system could be
+misused. We also realize its dangers, and we are trying to avoid them
+before we make the announcement. We are very much aware of the important,
+although unfortunate, fact that James Holden, as a minor, can have his
+rights abridged. Normally honest men, interested in the protection of
+youth, could easily prevent him from using his own methods, thus
+depriving him of the benefits that are legally his. This could be
+done under the guise of protection, and the result would be the
+super-education of the protectors--whose improving intellectual
+competence would only teach them more and better reasons for depriving
+the young man of his rights. James Holden has a secret, and he has a
+right to keep that secret, and his only protection is for him to continue
+to keep that secret inviolate. It was his parents' determination not to
+release this process upon the world until they were certain of the
+results. James is a living example of their effort; they conceived him
+for the express purpose of providing a virgin mind to educate by their
+methods, so that no outside interference would becloud their results. If
+this can be construed as the illegal experimentation on animals under the
+anti-vivisection laws, or cruelty to children, it was their act, not his.
+Is that clear?"
+
+"It is clear," replied Manison. "We may be back for more discussion on
+this point. I'm really after information, not conducting a case, you
+know."
+
+"Well, you have your information."
+
+"Not entirely. We've another point to consider, Mr. Waterman. It is
+admittedly a delicate point. It is the matter of legal precedent.
+Granting everything you say is true--and I'll grant that hypothetically
+for the purpose of this argument--let's assume that James Holden
+ultimately finds his process suitable for public use. Now, happily to
+this date James had not broken any laws. He is an honorable individual.
+Let's now suppose that in the near future, someone becomes educated by
+his process and at the age of twelve or so decided to make use of his
+advanced intelligence in nefarious work?"
+
+"All right. Let's suppose."
+
+"Then you tell me who is responsible for the person of James Holden?"
+
+"He is responsible unto himself."
+
+"Not under the existing laws," said Manison. "Let's consider James just
+as we know him now. Who says, 'go ahead,' if he has an attack of acute
+appendicitis?"
+
+"In the absence of someone to take the personal responsibility," said
+James quietly, "the attending doctor would toss his coin to see whether
+his Oath of Hippocrates was stronger than his fear of legal reprisals.
+It's been done before. But let's get to the point, Mr. Manison. What do
+you have in mind?"
+
+"You've rather pointedly demonstrated your preference to live here rather
+than with your legally-appointed guardian."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, young man, I suggest that we get this matter settled legally. You
+are not living under the supervision of your guardian, but you are indeed
+living under the auspices of people who are not recognized by law as
+holding the responsibility for you."
+
+"So far there's been no cause for complaint."
+
+"Let's keep it that way," smiled Manison. "I'll ask you to accept a writ
+of habeas corpus, directing you to show just cause why you should not be
+returned to the custody of your guardian."
+
+"And what good will that do?"
+
+"If you can show just cause," said Manison, "the Court will follow
+established precedent and appoint Mr. and Mrs. Fisher as your responsible
+legal guardians--if that is your desire."
+
+"Can this be done?" asked Mrs. Fisher.
+
+"It's been done before, time and again. The State is concerned primarily
+with the welfare of the child; children have been legally removed from
+natural but unsuitable parents, you know." He looked distressed for a
+moment and then went on, "The will of the deceased is respected, but the
+law recognizes that it is the living with which it must be primarily
+concerned, that mistakes can be made, and that such errors in judgment
+must be rectified in the name of the public weal."
+
+"I've been--" started James but Attorney Waterman interrupted him:
+
+"We'll accept the service of your writ, Mr. Manison." And to James after
+the man had departed: "Never give the opposition an inkling of what you
+have in mind--and always treat anybody who is not in your retainer as
+opposition."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+
+The case of Brennan vs. Holden opened in the emptied court room of Judge
+Norman L. Carter, with a couple of bored members of the press wishing
+they were elsewhere. For the first two hours, it was no more than
+formalized outlining of the whole situation.
+
+The plaintiff identified himself, testified that he was indeed the legal
+guardian of the minor James Quincy Holden, entered a transcript of the
+will in evidence, and then went on to make his case. He had provided
+a home atmosphere that was, to the best of his knowledge, the type of
+home atmosphere that would have been highly pleasing to the deceased
+parents--especially in view of the fact that this home was one and the
+same house as theirs and that little had been changed. He was supported
+by the Mitchells. It all went off in the slow, cumbersome dry phraseology
+of the legal profession and the sum and substance of two hours of
+back-and-forth question-and-answer was to establish the fact that Paul
+Brennan had provided a suitable home for the minor, James Quincy Holden,
+and that the minor James Quincy Holden had refused to live in it and had
+indeed demonstrated his objections by repeatedly absenting himself
+wilfully and with premeditation.
+
+The next half hour covered a blow-by-blow account of Paul Brennan's
+efforts to have the minor restored to him. The attorneys for both sides
+were alert. Brennan's counsel did not even object when Waterman paved the
+way to show why James Holden wanted his freedom by asking Brennan:
+
+"Were you aware that James Holden was a child of exceptional intellect?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you've testified that when you moved into the Holden home, you found
+things as the Holdens had provided them for their child?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In your opinion, were these surroundings suitable for James Holden?"
+
+"They were far too advanced for a child of five."
+
+"I asked specifically about James Holden."
+
+"James Holden was five years old."
+
+Waterman eyed Brennan with some surprise, then cast a glance at Frank
+Manison, who sat at ease, calmly watching and listening with no sign of
+objection. Waterman turned back to Brennan and said, "Let's take one more
+turn around Robin Hood's Barn, Mr. Brennan. First, James Holden was an
+exceptional child?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And the nature of his toys and furnishings?"
+
+"In my opinion, too advanced for a child of five."
+
+"But were they suitable for James Holden?"
+
+"James Holden was a child of five."
+
+Waterman faced Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "I submit that the
+witness is evasive. Will you direct him to respond to my direct question
+with a direct answer?"
+
+"The witness will answer the question properly," said Judge Carter with
+a slight frown of puzzlement, "unless counsel for the witness has some
+plausible objection?"'
+
+"No objection," said Manison.
+
+"Please repeat or rephrase your question," suggested Judge Carter.
+
+"Mr. Brennan," said Waterman, "you've testified that James was an
+exceptional child, advanced beyond his years. You've testified that the
+home and surroundings provided by James Holden's parents reflected this
+fact. Now tell me, were the toys, surroundings, and the home suitable for
+James Holden?"
+
+"In my opinion, no."
+
+"And subsequently you replaced them with stuff you believed more suitable
+for a child of five, is that it?"
+
+"Yes. I did, and you are correct."
+
+"To which he objected?"
+
+"To which James Holden objected."
+
+"And what was your response to his objection?"
+
+"I overruled his objection."
+
+"Upon what grounds?"
+
+"Upon the grounds that the education and the experience of an adult
+carries more wisdom than the desires of a child."
+
+"Now, Mr. Brennan, please listen carefully. During the months following
+your guardianship, you successively removed the books that James Holden
+was fond of reading, replaced his advanced Meccano set with a set of
+modular blocks, exchanged his oil-painting equipment for a child's
+coloring books and standard crayolas, and in general you removed
+everything interesting to a child with known superiority of intellect?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And your purpose in opening this hearing was to convince this Court that
+James Holden should be returned by legal procedure to such surroundings?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"No more questions," said Waterman. He sat down and rubbed his forehead
+with the palm of his right hand, trying to think.
+
+Manison said, "I have one question to ask of Janet Fisher, known formerly
+as Mrs. Bagley."
+
+Janet Fisher was sworn and properly identified.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Fisher, prior to your marriage to Mr. Fisher and during your
+sojourn with James Holden in the House on Martin's Hill, did you
+supervise the activities of James Holden?"
+
+"No," she said.
+
+"Thank you," said Manison. He turned to Waterman and waved him to any
+cross-questioning.
+
+Still puzzled, Waterman asked, "Mrs. Fisher, who did supervise the House
+on Martin's Hill?"
+
+"James Holden."
+
+"During those years, Mrs. Fisher, did James Holden at any time conduct
+himself in any other manner but the actions of an honest citizen? I mean,
+did he perform or suggest the performance of any illegal act to your
+knowledge?"
+
+"No, he did not."
+
+Waterman turned to Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "it seems quite
+apparent to me that the plaintiff in this case has given more testimony
+to support the contentions of my client than they have to support their
+own case. Will the Court honor a petition that the case be dismissed?"
+
+Judge Norman L. Carter smiled slightly. "This is irregular," he said.
+"You should wait for that petition until the plaintiff's counsel has
+closed his case, you know." He looked at Frank Manison. "Any objection?"
+
+Manison said, "Your Honor, I have permitted my client to be shown in this
+questionable light for no other purpose than to bring out the fact that
+any man can make a mistake in the eyes of other men when in reality he
+was doing precisely what he thought to be the best thing to do for
+himself and for the people within his responsibility. The man who raises
+his child to be a roustabout is wrong in the eyes of his neighbor who is
+raising his child to be a scientist, and vice versa. We'll accept the
+fact that James Holden's mind is superior. We'll point out that there
+have been many cases of precocious children or child geniuses who make a
+strong mark in their early years and drop into oblivion by the time
+they're twenty. Now, consider James Holden, sitting there discussing
+something with his attorney--I have no doubt in the world that he could
+conjugate Latin verbs, discuss the effect of the Fall of Rome on Western
+Civilization, and probably compute the orbit of an artificial satellite.
+But can James Holden fly a kite or shoot a marble? Has he ever had the
+fun of sliding into third base, or whittling on a peg, or any of the
+other enjoyable trivia of boyhood? Has he--"
+
+"One moment," said Judge Carter. "Let's not have an impassioned oration,
+counsel. What is your point?"
+
+"James Holden has a legal guardian, appointed by law at the express will
+of his parents. Headstrong, he has seen fit to leave that protection. He
+is fighting now to remain away from that protection. I can presume that
+James Holden would prefer to remain in the company of the Fishers where,
+according to Mrs. Fisher, he was not responsible to her whatsoever, but
+rather ran the show himself. I--"
+
+"You can't make that presumption," said Judge Carter. "Strike it from the
+record."
+
+"I apologize," said Manison. "But I object to dismissing this case until
+we find out just what James Holden has in mind for his future."
+
+"I'll hold Counsel Waterman's petition in abeyance until the point you
+mention is in the record," said Judge Carter. "Counsel, are you
+finished?"
+
+"Yes," said Manison. "I'll rest."
+
+"Mr. Waterman?"
+
+Waterman said, "Your Honor, we've been directed to show just cause why
+James Holden should not be returned to the protection of his legal
+guardian. Counsel has implied that James Holden desires to be placed in
+the legal custody of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher. This is a pardonable error
+whether it stands in the record or not. The fact is that James Holden
+does not need protection, nor does he want protection. To the contrary,
+James Holden petitions this Court to declare him legally competent so
+that he may conduct his own affairs with the rights, privileges, and
+indeed, even the _risks_ taken by the status of adult.
+
+"I'll point out that the rules and laws that govern the control and
+protection of minor children were passed by benevolent legislators to
+prevent exploitation, cruelty, and deprivation of the child's life by
+men who would take advantage of his immaturity. However we have here a
+young man of twelve who has shown his competence to deal with the adult
+world by actual practice. Therefore it is our contention that protective
+laws are not only unnecessary, but undesirable because they restrict the
+individual from his desire to live a full and fruitful life.
+
+"To prove our contention beyond any doubt, I'll ask that James Holden be
+sworn in as my first witness."
+
+Frank Manison said, "I object, Your Honor. James Holden is a minor and
+not qualified under law to give creditable testimony as a witness."
+
+Waterman turned upon Manison angrily. "You really mean that you object to
+my case _per se_."
+
+"That, too," replied Manison easily.
+
+"Your Honor, I take exception! It is my purpose to place James Holden on
+the witness stand, and there to show this Court and all the world that he
+is of honorable mind, properly prepared to assume the rights of an adult.
+We not only propose to show that he acted honorably, we shall show that
+James Holden consulted the law to be sure that whatever he did was not
+illegal."
+
+"Or," added Manison, "was it so that he would know how close to the limit
+he could go without stepping over the line?"
+
+"Your Honor," asked Waterman, "can't we have your indulgence?"
+
+"I object! The child is a minor."
+
+"I accept the statement!" stormed Waterman. "And I say that we intend to
+prove that this minor is qualified to act as an adult."
+
+"And," sneered Manison, "I'll guess that one of your later arguments will
+be that Judge Carter, having accepted this minor as qualified to deliver
+sworn testimony, has already granted the first premise of your argument."
+
+"I say that James Holden has indeed shown his competence already by
+actually doing it!"
+
+"While hiding under a false façade!"
+
+"A façade forced upon him by the restrictive laws that he is petitioning
+the Court to set aside in his case so that he need hide no longer."
+
+Frank Manison said, "Your Honor, how shall the case of James Holden be
+determined for the next eight or ten years if we do grant James Holden
+this legal right to conduct his own affairs as an adult? That we must
+abridge the laws regarding compulsory education is evident. James Holden
+is twelve years and five months old. Shall he be granted the right to
+enter a tavern to buy a drink? Will his request for a license to marry be
+honored? May he enter the polling place and cast his vote? The contention
+of counsel that the creation of Charles Maxwell was a physical necessity
+is acceptable. But what happens without 'Maxwell'? Must we prepare a card
+of identity for James Holden, stating his legal status, and renew it
+every year like an automobile license because the youth will grow in
+stature, add to his weight, and ultimately grow a beard? Must we enter on
+this identification card the fact that he is legally competent to sign
+contracts, rent a house, write checks, and make his own decision about
+the course of dangerous medical treatment--or shall we list those items
+that he is not permitted to do such as drinking in a public place, cast
+his vote, or marry? This State permits a youth to drive an automobile at
+the age of sixteen, this act being considered a skill rather than an act
+that requires judgment. Shall James Holden be permitted to drive an
+automobile even though he can not reach the foot pedals from any position
+where he can see through the windshield?"
+
+Judge Carter sat quietly. He said calmly, "Let the record show that I
+recognize the irregularity of this procedure and that I permit it only
+because of the unique aspects of this case. Were there a Jury, I would
+dismiss them until this verbal exchange of views and personalities has
+subsided.
+
+"Now," he went on, "I will not allow James Holden to take the witness
+stand as a qualified witness to prove that he is a qualified witness.
+I am sure that he can display his own competence with a flow of academic
+brilliance, or his attorney would not have tried to place him upon the
+stand where such a display could have been demonstrated. Of more
+importance to the Court and to the State is an equitable disposition
+of the responsibility to and over James Quincy Holden."
+
+Judge Norman L. Carter leaned forward and looked from Frank Manison to
+James Holden, and then to Attorney Waterman.
+
+"We must face some awkward facts," he said. "If I rule that he be
+returned to Mr. Brennan, he will probably remain no longer than he finds
+it convenient, at which point he will behave just as if this Court had
+never convened. Am I not correct, Mr. Manison?"
+
+"Your Honor, you are correct. However, as a member of the Department of
+Justice of this State, I suggest that you place the responsibility in my
+hands. As an Officer of the Court, my interest would be to the best
+interest of the State rather than based upon experience, choice, or
+opinion as to what is better for a five-year-old or a child prodigy. In
+other words, I would exert the control that the young man needed. At the
+same time I would not make the mistakes that were made by Mr. Brennan's
+personal opinion of how a child should be reared."
+
+Waterman shouted, "I object, Your Honor. I object--"
+
+Brennan leaped to his feet and cried, "Manison, you can't freeze me
+out--"
+
+James Holden shrilled, "I won't! I won't!"
+
+Judge Carter eyed them one by one, staring them into silence. Finally he
+looked at Janet Fisher and said, "May I also presume that you would be
+happy to resume your association with James Holden?"
+
+She nodded and said, "I'd be glad to," in a sincere voice. Tim Fisher
+nodded his agreement.
+
+Brennan whirled upon them and snarled. "My reward money--" but he was
+shoved down in his seat with a heavy hand by Frank Manison who snapped,
+"Your money bought what it was offered for. So now shut up, you utter
+imbecile!"
+
+Judge Norman L. Carter cleared his throat and said, "This great concern
+over the welfare of James Holden is touching. We have Mr. Brennan already
+twice a loser and yet willing to try it for three times. We have Mr. and
+Mrs. Fisher who are not dismayed at the possibility of having their home
+occupied by a headstrong youth whose actions they cannot control. We find
+one of the ambitious members of the District Attorney's Office offering
+to take on an additional responsibility--all, of course, in the name of
+the State and the welfare of James Holden. Finally we have James Holden
+who wants no part of the word 'protection' and claims the ability to run
+his own life.
+
+"Now it strikes me that assigning the responsibility for this young
+man's welfare is by no means the reason why you all are present, and it
+similarly occurs to me that the young man's welfare is of considerably
+less importance than the very interesting question of how and why this
+young man has achieved so much."
+
+With a thoughtful expression, Judge Carter said, "James Holden, how did
+you acquire this magnificent education at the tender age of twelve-plus?"
+
+"I--"
+
+"I object!" cried Frank Manison. "The minor is not qualified to give
+testimony."
+
+"Objection overruled. This is not testimony. I have every right in the
+world to seek out as much information from whatever source I may select;
+and I have the additional right to inspect the information I receive to
+pass upon its competence and relevance. Sit down, counsel!"
+
+Manison sat grumpily and Judge Carter eyed James again, and James took a
+full breath. This was the moment he had been waiting for.
+
+"Go on, James. Answer my question. Where did you come by your knowledge?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden stood up. This was the question that had to arise; he was
+only surprised it had taken so long.
+
+He said calmly: "Your Honor, you may not ask that question."
+
+"I may not?" asked Judge Carter with a lift of his eyebrows.
+
+"No sir. You may not."
+
+"And just why may I not?"
+
+"If this were a criminal case, and if you could establish that some of my
+knowledge were guilty knowledge, you could then demand that I reveal the
+source of my guilty knowledge and under what circumstance it was
+obtained. If I refused to disclose my source, I could then be held in
+contempt of court or charged with being an accessory to the corpus of the
+crime. However, this is a court hearing to establish whether or not I am
+competent under law to manage my own affairs. How I achieve my mental
+competence is not under question. Let us say that it is a process that is
+my secret by the right of inheritance from my parents and as such it is
+valuable to me so long as I can demand payment for its use."
+
+"This information may have a bearing on my ruling."
+
+"Your Honor, the acquisition of knowledge or information _per se_ is
+concomitant with growing up. I can and will demonstrate that I have the
+equivalent of the schooling necessary to satisfy both this Court and the
+State Board of Education. I will state that my education has been
+acquired by concentration and application in home study, and that I admit
+to attendance at no school. I will provide you or anybody else with a
+list of the books from which I have gleaned my education. But whether I
+practice Yoga, Dianetics, or write the lines on a sugarcoated pill and
+swallow it is my trade secret. It can not be extracted from me by any
+process of the law because no illegality exists."
+
+"And what if I rule that you are not competent under the law, or withhold
+judgment until I have had an opportunity to investigate these ways and
+means of acquiring an accelerated education?"
+
+"I'll then go on record as asking you to disbar yourself from this
+hearing on the grounds that you are not an impartial judge of the justice
+in my case."
+
+"Upon what grounds?"
+
+"Upon the grounds that you are personally interested in being provided
+with a process whereby you may acquire an advanced education yourself."
+
+The judge looked at James thoughtfully for a moment. "And if I point out
+that any such process is of extreme interest to the State and to the
+Union itself, and as such must be disclosed?"
+
+"Then I shall point out that your ruling is based upon a personal opinion
+because you don't know anything about the process. If I am ruled a legal
+minor you cannot punish me for not telling you my secrets, and if I am
+ruled legally competent, I am entitled to my own decision."
+
+"You are within your rights," admitted Judge Carter with some interest.
+"I shall not make such a demand. But I now ask you if this process of
+yours is both safe and simple."
+
+"If it is properly used with some good judgment."
+
+"Now listen to me carefully," said Judge Carter. "Is it not true that
+your difficulties in school, your inability to get along with your
+classmates, and your having to hide while you toiled for your livelihood
+in secret--these are due to this extensive education brought about
+through your secret process?"
+
+"I must agree, but--"
+
+"You must agree," interrupted Judge Carter. "Yet knowing these unpleasant
+things did not deter you from placing, or trying to place, the daughter
+of your housekeeper in the same unhappy state. In other words, you hoped
+to make an intellectual misfit out of her, too?"
+
+"I--now see here--"
+
+"You see here! Did you or did you not aid in the education of Martha
+Bagley, now Martha Fisher?"
+
+"Yes, I did, and--"
+
+"Was that good judgment, James Holden?"
+
+"What's wrong with higher education?" demanded James angrily.
+
+"Nothing, if it's acquired properly."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Now listen again. If I were to rule in your favor, would Martha Fisher
+be the next bratling in a long and everlasting line of infant supermen
+applying to this and that and the other Court to have their legal
+majority ruled, each of them pointing to your case as having established
+precedence?"
+
+"I have no way of predicting the future, sir. What may happen in the
+future really has no bearing in evidence here."
+
+"Granted that it does not. But I am not going to establish a dangerous
+precedent that will end with doctors qualified to practice surgery before
+they are big enough to swing a stethoscope or attorneys that plead a case
+before they are out of short pants. I am going to recess this case
+indefinitely with a partial ruling. First, until this process of yours
+comes under official study, I am declaring you, James Holden, to be a
+Ward of this State, under the jurisdiction of this Court. You will have
+the legal competence to act in matters of skill, including the signing of
+documents and instruments necessary to your continued good health. In all
+matters that require mature judgment, you will report to this Court and
+all such questions shall be rendered after proper deliberation either in
+open session or in chambers, depending upon the Court's opinion of their
+importance. The court stenographer will now strike all of the testimony
+given by James Holden from the record."
+
+"I object!" exploded Brennan's attorney, rising swiftly and with one hand
+pressing Brennan down to prevent him from rising also.
+
+"All objections are overruled. The new Ward of the State will meet with
+me in my chambers at once. Court is adjourned."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The session was stormy but brief. Holden objected to everything, but the
+voice of Judge Carter was loud and his stature was large; they overrode
+James Holden and compelled his attention.
+
+"We're out of the court," snapped Judge Carter. "We no longer need
+observe the niceties of court etiquette, so now shut up and listen!
+Holden, you are involved in a thing that is explosively dangerous. You
+claim it to be a secret, but your secret is slowly leaking out of your
+control. You asked for your legal competence to be ruled. Fine, but if I
+allowed that, every statement made by you about your education would be
+in court record and your so-called secret that much more widespread. How
+long do you think it would have been before millions of people howled at
+your door? Some of them yelping for help and some of them bitterly
+objecting to tampering with the immature brain? You'd be accused of
+brainwashing, of making monsters, of depriving children of their heritage
+of happiness--and in the same ungodly howl there would be voices as
+loudly damning you for not tossing your process into their laps. And
+there would be a number trying to get to you on the sly so that they
+could get a head start over the rest.
+
+"You want your competence affirmed legally? James, you have not the
+stature nor the voice to fight them off. Even now, your little secret is
+in danger and you'll probably have to bribe a few wiseacres with a touch
+of accelerated knowledge to keep them from spilling the whole story, even
+though I've ruled your testimony incompetent and immaterial and stricken
+from the record. Now, we'll study this system of yours under controlled
+conditions as your parents wanted, and we'll have professional help and
+educated advice, and both you and your process shall be under the
+protection of my Court, and when the time comes you shall receive the
+kudos and benefits from it. Understand?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"Good. Now, as my first order, you go back to Shipmont and pack your
+gear. You'll report to my home as soon as you've made all the
+arrangements. There'll be no more hiding out and playing your little
+process in secret either from Paul Brennan--yes, I know that you believe
+that he was somehow instrumental in the death of your parents but have no
+shred of evidence that would stand in court--or the rest of the world. Is
+that, and everything else I've said in private, very clear?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Good. Now, be off with you. And do not hesitate to call upon me if there
+is any interference whatsoever."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+
+Judge Carter insisted and won his point that James Holden accept
+residence in his home.
+
+He did not turn a hair when the trucks of equipment arrived from the
+house on Martin's Hill; he already had room for it in the cellar. He
+cheerfully allowed James the right to set it up and test it out. He
+respected James Holden's absolute insistence that no one be permitted to
+touch the special circuit that was the heart of the entire machine. Judge
+Carter also counter-requested--and enforced the request--that he be
+allowed to try the machinery out. He took a simple reading course in
+higher mathematics, after discovering that Holden's machine would not
+teach him how to play the violin. (Judge Carter already played the
+violin--but badly.)
+
+Later, the judge committed to memory the entire book of Bartlett's Famous
+Quotations despite the objection of young Holden that he was cluttering
+up his memory with a lot of useless material. The Judge learned (as James
+had learned earlier) that the proper way to store such information in the
+memory was to read the book with the machine turned in "stand-by" until
+some section was encountered that was of interest. Using this method, the
+judge picked and pecked at the Holy Bible, a number of documents that
+looked like important governmental records, and a few books in modern
+history.
+
+Then there came other men. First was a Professor Harold White from the
+State Board of Education who came to study both Holden and Holden's
+machinery and what it did. Next came a Dr. Persons who said very little
+but made diagrams and histograms and graphs which he studied. The third
+was a rather cheerful fellow called Jack Cowling who was more interested
+in James Holden's personal feelings than he was in the machine. He
+studied many subjects superficially and watched the behavior of young
+Holden as Holden himself studied subjects recommended by Professor White.
+
+White had a huge blackboard installed on the cellar wall opposite the
+machine, and he proceeded to fill the board with block outlines filled
+with crabbed writing and odd-looking symbols. The whole was meaningless
+to James Holden; it looked like the organization chart of a large
+corporation but it contained no names or titles. The arrival of each new
+visitor caused changes in the block diagram.
+
+These arrivals went at their project with stop watches and slide rules.
+They calibrated themselves and James with the cold-blooded attitude of
+racetrack touts clocking their favorite horses. Where James had simply
+taken what he wanted or what he could at any single sitting, then let
+it settle in his mind before taking another dose of unpremeditated
+magnitude, these fellows ascertained the best effectiveness of each
+application to each of them. They tried taking long terms under the
+machine and then they measured the time it took for the installed
+information to sink in and settle into usable shape. Then they tried
+shorter and shorter sittings and measured the correspondingly shorter
+settling times. They found out that no two men were alike, nor were any
+two subjects. They discovered that a man with an extensive education
+already could take a larger sitting and have the new information
+available for mental use in a shorter settling time than a man whose
+education had been sketchy or incomplete.
+
+They brought in men who had either little or no mathematics and gave them
+courses in advanced subjects. Afterwards they provided the foundation
+mathematics and they calibrated and measured the time it took for the
+higher subject to be understood as it aligned its information to the
+whole. Men came with crude English and bluntly read the dictionary and
+the proper rules of grammar and they were checked to see if their early
+bad-speech habits were corrected, and to what degree the Holden machine
+could be made to help repair the damage of a lifelong ingrained set of
+errors. They sent some of these boys through comparison dictionaries in
+foreign tongues and then had their language checked by specialists who
+were truly polylingual. There were some who spoke fluent English but no
+other tongue; these progressed into German with a German-to-English
+comparison dictionary, and then into French via a German-to-French
+comparison and were finally checked out in French by French-speaking
+examiners.
+
+And Professor White's block diagram grew complex, and Dr. Persons's
+histograms filled pages and pages of his broad notebooks.
+
+It was the first time that James Holden had ever seen a team of
+researchers plow into a problem, running a cold and icy scientific
+investigation to ascertain precisely how much cause produced how much
+effect. Holden, who had taken what he wanted or needed as the time came,
+began to understand the desirability of full and careful programming. The
+whole affair intrigued him and interested him. He plunged in with a will
+and gave them all the help he could.
+
+He had no time to be bored, and he did not mark the passage of time until
+he arrived at his thirteenth birthday.
+
+Then one night shortly after his birthday, James Holden discovered women
+indirectly. He had his first erotic dream.
+
+We shall not go into the details of this midnight introduction to the
+arrival of manhood, for the simple reason that if we dwell on the
+subject, someone is certain to attempt a dream-analysis and come up with
+some flanged-up character-study or personality-quirk that really has
+nothing to do with the mind or body of James Holden. The truth is that
+his erotic dream was pleasantly stirring, but not entirely satisfactory.
+It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last very long. It awakened him
+to the realization that knowledge is not the end-all of life, and that a
+full understanding of the words, the medical terms, and the biology
+involved did not tell him a thing about this primary drive of all life.
+
+His total grasp of even the sideline issues was still dim. He came to a
+partial understanding of why Jake Caslow had entertained late visitors of
+the opposite sex, but he still could not quite see the reason why Jake
+kept the collection of calendar photographs and paintings hung up around
+the place. Crude jokes and rude talk heard long years before and dimly
+remembered did not have much connection with the subject. To James
+Holden, a "tomato" was still a vegetable, although he knew that some
+botanists were willing to argue that the tomato was really a fruit.
+
+For many days he watched Judge Carter and his wife with a critical
+curiosity that their childless life had never known before. James found
+that they did not act as if something new and strangely thrilling had
+just hit the known universe. He felt that they should know about it.
+Despite the fact that he knew everything that his textbooks could tell
+him about sex and copulation he still had the quaint notion that the
+reason why Judge Carter and his wife were childless was because they had
+not yet gotten around to Doing It. He made no attempt to correlate this
+oddity with its opposite in Jake Caslow's ladies of the night who seemed
+to go on their merry way without conceiving.
+
+He remembered the joking parry-and-thrust of that midnight talk between
+Tim Fisher and Janet Bagley but it made no sense to him still. But as he
+pondered the multitude of puzzlements, some of the answers fell partly
+into place just as some of the matching pieces of a jigsaw puzzle may lie
+close to one another when they are dumped out of the box. Very dimly
+James began to realize that this sort of thing was not New, but to the
+contrary it had been going on for a long, long time. So long in fact that
+neither Tim Fisher nor Janet Bagley had found it necessary to state
+desire and raise objection respectively in simple clear sentences
+containing subject, verb, and object. This much came to him and it
+bothered him even more, now that he understood that they were bandying
+their meanings lightly over a subject so vital, so important, so--so
+completely personal.
+
+Then, in that oddly irrational corner of his brain that neither knowledge
+nor information had been adequate to rationalize nor had experience
+arrived to supply the explanation, James Holden's limited but growing
+comprehension arrived at a conclusion that was reasonable within its
+limited framework. Judge Carter and his wife occupied separate bedrooms
+and had therefore never Done It. Conversely, Tim and Janet Fisher from
+their midnight discussion obviously Knew What It Was All About. James
+wondered whether they had Done It yet, and he also wondered whether he
+could tell by listening to their discussions and conversations now that
+they'd been married at least long enough to have Tried It.
+
+With a brand new and very interesting subject to study, James lost
+interest in the program of concentrated research. James Holden found that
+all he had to do to arrange a trip to Shipmont was to state his desire to
+go and the length of his visit. The judge deemed both reasonable, Mrs.
+Carter packed James a bag, and off he went.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The house on Martin's Hill was about the same, with some improvement such
+as a coat of paint and some needed repair work. The grounds had been
+worked over, but it was going to take a number of years of concentrated
+gardening to de-weed the tangled lawn and to cut the undergrowth in the
+thin woodsy back area where James had played in concealment.
+
+But the air inside was changed. Janet, as Mrs. Bagley, had been as close
+to James Holden as any substitute mother could have been. Now she seemed
+preoccupied and too busy with her own life to act more than pleasantly
+polite. He could have been visiting the home of a friend instead of
+returning to the domicile he had created, in which he had provided her
+with a home--for herself and a frightened little girl. She asked him how
+he had been and what he was doing, but he felt that this was more a
+matter of taking up time than real interest. He had the feeling that
+somewhere deep inside, her soul was biting its fingernails. She spoke of
+Martha with pride and hope, she asked how Judge Carter was making out and
+whether Martha would be able to finish her schooling via Holden's
+machine.
+
+James believed this was her problem. Martha had been educated far beyond
+her years. She could no more enter school now than he could; unwittingly
+he'd made Martha a misfit, too. So James tried to explain that part of
+the study undertaken in Judge Carter's program had been the question of
+what to do about Martha.
+
+The professionals studying the case did not know yet whether Martha would
+remain ahead of her age group, or whether to let her loaf it out until
+her age group caught up with her, or whether to give Martha everything
+she could take as fast as she could take it. This would make a female
+counterpart of James Holden to study.
+
+But knowing that there were a number of very brilliant scientists,
+educators, and psychologists working on Martha's problem did not cheer up
+Mrs. Janet Fisher as much as James thought it should. Yet as he watched
+her, he could not say that Tim Fisher's wife was _unhappy_.
+
+Tim, on the other hand, looked fine. James watched them together as
+critically curious as he'd been in watching the Judge and Mrs. Carter.
+Tim was gentle with his wife, tender, polite, and more than willing to
+wait on her. From their talk and chit-chat, James could detect nothing.
+There were still elisions, questions answered with a half-phrase,
+comments added with a disconnected word and replied in another word
+that--in cold print--would appear to have no bearing on the original
+subject. This sort of thing told James nothing. Judge Carter and his wife
+did the same; if there were any difference to be noted it was only in the
+basic subject materials. The judge and his wife were inclined more toward
+discussions of political questions and judicial problems, whereas Tim and
+Janet Fisher were more interested in music, movies, and the general trend
+of the automobile repair business; or more to the point, whether to
+expand the present facility in Shipmont, to open another branch
+elsewhere, or to sell out to buy a really big operation in some sizable
+city.
+
+James saw a change in Martha, too. It had been months since he came back
+home to supervise the removal of his belongings. Now Martha had filled
+out. She was dressed in a shirt-and-skirt instead of the little jumper
+dresses James remembered. Martha's hair was lightly wavy instead of
+trimmed short, and she was wearing a very faint touch of color on her
+lips. She wore tiny slippers with heels just a trifle higher than the
+altitude recommended for a girl close to thirteen.
+
+Ultimately they fell into animated chatter of their own, just as they
+always had. There was a barrier between the pair of them and Martha's
+mother and stepfather--slightly higher than the usual barrier erected
+between children and their adults because of their educational adventures
+together. They had covered reams and volumes together. Martha's mother
+was interested in Holden's machine only when something specific came to
+her attention that she did not wish to forget such as a recipe or a
+pattern, and one very extensive course that enabled her to add a column
+of three-digit numbers by the whole lines instead of taking each column
+digit by digit. Tim Fisher himself had deeper interests, but nearly all
+of them directed at making Tim Fisher a better manager of the automobile
+repair business. There had been some discussion of the possibility that
+Tim Fisher might memorize some subject such as the names of all baseball
+players and their yearly and lifetime scoring, fielding, and playing
+averages, training for him to go as a contestant on one of the big money
+giveaway shows. This never came to pass; Tim Fisher did not have any
+spectacular qualities about him that would land him an invitation. So
+Tim's work with Holden's machine had been straightforward studies in
+mechanics and bookkeeping and business management--plus a fine repertoire
+of bawdy songs he had rung in on the sly and subsequently used at
+parties.
+
+James and Martha had taken all they wanted of education and available
+information, sometimes with plan and the guidance of schoolbooks and
+sometimes simply because they found the subject of interest. In the past
+they'd had discussions of problems in understanding; they'd talked of
+things that parents and elders would have considered utterly impossible
+to discuss with young minds. With this communion of interests, they fell
+back into their former pattern of first joining the general conversation
+politely and then gradually confining their remarks to one another until
+there were two conversations going on at the same time, one between
+James and Martha and another between Janet and Tim. Again, the vocal
+interference and cross-talk became too high, and it was Tim and Janet who
+left the living room to mix a couple of highballs and start dinner.
+
+The chatter continued, but now with a growing strain on the part of young
+James Holden.
+
+He wanted to switch to a more personal topic of conversation but he did
+not know how to accomplish this feat. There was plenty of interest but it
+was more clinical than passionate; he was not stirred to yearning, he
+felt no overwhelming desire to hold Martha's hand nor to feel the
+softness of her face, yet there was a stirring urge to make some form of
+contact. But he had no idea of how to steer the conversation towards
+personal lines that might lead into something that would justify a
+gesture towards her. It began to work on him. The original clinical urge
+to touch her just to see what reaction would obtain changed into a
+personal urge that grew higher as he found that he could not kick the
+conversational ball in that direction. The idea of putting an arm about
+her waist as he had seen men embrace their girls on television was a
+pleasing thought; he wanted to find out if kissing was as much fun as it
+was made up to be.
+
+But instead of offering him any encouragement, or even giving him a
+chance to start shifting the conversation, Martha went prattling on and
+on and on about a book she'd read recently.
+
+It did not occur to James Holden that Martha Bagley might entertain the
+idea of physical contact of some mild sort on an experimental basis. He
+did not even consider the possibility that he might _start_ her thinking
+about it. So instead of closing the distance between them like a gentle
+wolf, watching with sly calculation to ascertain whether her response was
+positive, negative, or completely neutral, he sat like a post and fretted
+inwardly because he couldn't control the direction of their conversation.
+
+Ultimately, of course, Martha ran out of comment on her book and then
+there fell a deadly silence because James couldn't dredge up another
+lively subject. Desperately, he searched through his mind for an opening.
+There was none. The bright patter between male and female characters in
+books he'd smuggled started off on too high a level on both sides. Books
+that were written adequately for his understanding of this problem signed
+off with the trite explanation that they lived happily ever afterwards
+but did not say a darned thing about how they went about it. The slightly
+lurid books that he'd bought, delivered in plain wrappers, gave some very
+illuminating descriptions of the art or act, but the affair opened with
+the scene all set and the principal characters both ready, willing, and
+able. There was no conversational road map that showed the way that led
+two people from a calm and unemotional discussion into an area that might
+lead to something entirely else.
+
+In silence, James Holden sat there sinking deeper and deeper into his own
+misery.
+
+The more he thought about it, the farther he found himself from his
+desire. Later in the process, he knew, came a big barrier called
+"stealing a kiss," and James with his literal mind provided this game
+with an aggressor, a defender, and the final extraction by coercion or
+violence of the first osculatory contact. If the objective could be
+carried off without the defense repulsing the advance, the rest was
+supposed to come with less trouble. But here he was floundering before he
+began, let alone approaching the barrier that must be an even bigger
+problem.
+
+Briefly he wished that it were Christmas, because at Christmas people
+hung up mistletoe. Mistletoe would not only provide an opening by
+custom and tradition, it also cut through this verbal morass of trying
+to lead up to the subject by the quick process of supplying the subject
+itself. But it was a long time before Christmas. James abandoned that
+ill-conceived idea and went on sinking deep and feeling miserable.
+
+Then Martha's mother took James out of his misery by coming in to
+announce dinner. Regretfully, James sighed for his lost moments and
+helplessness, then got to his feet and held out a hand for Martha.
+
+She put her hand in his and allowed him to lift her to her feet by
+pulling. The first contact did not stir him at all, though it was warm
+and pleasant. Once the pulling pressure was off, he continued to hold
+Martha's hand, tentatively and experimentally.
+
+Then Janet Fisher showered shards of ice with a light laugh. "You two can
+stand there holding hands," she said. "But I'm going to eat it while it's
+on the table."
+
+James Holden's hand opened with the swiftness of a reflex action, almost
+as fast as the wink of an eye at the flash of light or the body's jump at
+the crack of sound. Martha's hand did not drop because she, too, was
+holding his and did not let go abruptly. She giggled, gave his hand a
+little squeeze and said, "Let's go. I'm hungry too."
+
+None of which solved James Holden's problem. But during dinner his
+personal problem slipped aside because he discovered another slight
+change in Janet Fisher's attitude. He puzzled over it quietly, but
+managed to eat without any apparent preoccupation. Dinner took about a
+half hour, after which they spent another fifteen minutes over coffee,
+with Janet refusing her second cup. She disappeared at the first shuffle
+of a foot under the table, while James and Martha resumed their years-old
+chore of clearing the table and tackling the dishwashing problem.
+
+Alone in the kitchen, James asked Martha, "What's with your mother?"
+
+"What do you mean, what's with her?"
+
+"She's changed, somehow."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"She seems sort of inner-thoughtful. Cheerful enough but as if
+something's bothering her that she can't stop."
+
+"That all?"
+
+"No," he went on. "She hiked upstairs like a shot right after dinner was
+over. Tim raced after her. And she said no to coffee."
+
+"Oh, that. She's just a little upset in the middle."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"She's pregnant."
+
+"Pregnant?"
+
+"Sure. Can't you see?"
+
+"Never occurred to me to look."
+
+"Well, it's so," said Martha, scouring a coffee cup with an exaggerated
+flourish. "And I'm going to have a half-sibling."
+
+"But look--"
+
+"Don't _you_ go getting upset," said Martha. "It's a natural process
+that's been going on for hundreds of thousands of years, you know."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Not for months," said Martha. "It just happened."
+
+"Too bad she's unhappy."
+
+"She's very happy. Both of them wanted it."
+
+James considered this. He had never come across Voltaire's observation
+that marriage is responsible for the population because it provides the
+maximum opportunity with the maximum temptation. But it was beginning to
+filter slowly into his brain that the ways and means were always
+available and there was neither custom, tradition, nor biology that
+dictated a waiting period or a time limit. It was a matter of choice, and
+when two people want their baby, and have no reason for not having their
+baby, it is silly to wait.
+
+"Why did they wait so long if they both want it?"
+
+"Oh," replied Martha in a matter-of-fact voice, "they've been working at
+it right along."
+
+James thought some more. He'd come to see if he could detect any
+difference between the behavior of Judge and Mrs. Carter, and the
+behavior of Tim and Janet Fisher. He saw little, other than the standard
+differences that could be accounted for by age and temperament. Tim and
+Janet did not really act as if they'd Discovered Something New. Tim, he
+knew, was a bit more sweet and tender to Janet than he'd been before, but
+there was nothing startling in his behavior. If there were any difference
+as compared to their original antics, James knew that it was undoubtedly
+due to the fact that they didn't have to stand lollygagging in the
+hallway for two hours while Janet half-heartedly insisted that Tim go
+home. He went on to consider his original theory that the Carters were
+childless because they occupied separate bedrooms; by some sort of
+deduction he came to the conclusion that he was right, because Tim and
+Janet Fisher were making a baby and they slept in the same bedroom.
+
+He went on in a whirl; maybe the Carters didn't want children, but it was
+more likely that they too had tried but it hadn't happened.
+
+And then it came to him suddenly that here he was in the kitchen alone
+with Martha Bagley, discussing the very delicate subject. But he was
+actually no closer to his problem of becoming a participant than he'd
+been an hour ago in the living room. It was one thing to daydream the
+suggestion when you can also daydream the affirmative response, but it
+was another matter when the response was completely out of your control.
+James was not old enough in the ways of the world to even consider
+outright asking; even if he had considered it, he did not know how to
+ask.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The evening went slowly. Janet and Tim returned about the time the
+dishwashing process was complete. Janet proposed a hand of bridge; Tim
+suggested poker, James voted for pinochle, and Martha wanted to toss a
+coin between canasta or gin rummy. They settled it by dealing a shuffled
+deck face upward until the ace of hearts landed in front of Janet,
+whereupon they played bridge until about eleven o'clock. It was
+interesting bridge; James and Martha had studied bridge columns and books
+for recreation; against them were aligned Tim and Janet, who played with
+the card sense developed over years of practice. The youngsters knew the
+theories, their bidding was as precise as bridge bidding could be made
+with value-numbering, honor-counting, response-value addition, and all
+of the other systems. They understood all of the coups and end plays
+complete with classic examples. But having all of the theory engraved on
+their brains did not temporarily imprint the location of every card
+already played, whereas Tim and Janet counted their played cards
+automatically and made up in play what they missed in stratagem.
+
+At eleven, Janet announced that she was tired, Tim joined her; James
+turned on the television set and he and Martha watched a ten-year-old
+movie for an hour. Finally Martha yawned.
+
+And James, still floundering, mentally meandered back to his wish that it
+were Christmas so that mistletoe would provide a traditional gesture of
+affection, and came up with a new and novel idea that he expressed in a
+voice that almost trembled:
+
+"Tired, Martha?"
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+"Well, why don't I kiss you good night and send you off to bed."
+
+"All right, if you want to."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Oh--just--well, everybody does it."
+
+She sat near him on the low divan, looking him full in the face but
+making no move, no gesture, no change in her expression. He looked at her
+and realized that he was not sure of how to take hold of her, how to
+reach for her, how to proceed.
+
+She said, "Well, go ahead."
+
+"I'm going to."
+
+"When?"
+
+"As soon as I get good and ready."
+
+"Are we going to sit here all night?"
+
+In its own way, it reminded James of the equally un-brilliant
+conversation between Janet and Tim on the homecoming after their first
+date. He chuckled.
+
+"What's so funny?"
+
+"Nothing," he said in a slightly strained voice. "I'm thinking that here
+we sit like a couple of kids that don't know what it's all about."
+
+"Well," said Martha, "aren't we?"
+
+"Yes," he said reluctantly, "I guess we are. But darn it, Martha, how
+does a guy grow up? How does a guy learn these things?" His voice was
+plaintive, it galled him to admit that for all of his knowledge and his
+competence, he was still just a bit more than a child emotionally.
+
+"I don't know," she said in a voice as plaintive as his. "I wouldn't know
+where to look to find it. I've tried. All I know," she said with a
+quickening voice, "is that somewhere between now and then I'll learn how
+to toss talk back and forth the way they do."
+
+"Yes," he said glumly.
+
+"James," said Martha brightly, "we should be somewhat better than a pair
+of kids who don't know what it's all about, shouldn't we?"
+
+"That's what bothers me," he admitted. "We're neither of us stupid. Lord
+knows we've plenty of education between us, but--"
+
+"James, how did we get that education?"
+
+"Through my father's machine."
+
+"No, you don't understand. What I mean is that no matter how we got our
+education, we had to learn, didn't we?"
+
+"Why, yes. In a--"
+
+"Now, let's not get involved in another philosophical argument. Let's run
+this one right on through to the end. Why are we sitting here fumbling?
+Because we haven't yet learned how to behave like adults."
+
+"I suppose so. But it strikes me that anything should be--"
+
+"James, for goodness' sake. Here we are, the two people in the whole
+world who have studied everything we know together, and when we hit
+something we can't study--you want to go home and kiss your old machine,"
+she finished with a remarkable lack of serial logic. She laughed
+nervously.
+
+"What's so darned funny?" he demanded sourly.
+
+"Oh," she said, "you're afraid to kiss me because you don't know how, and
+I'm afraid to let you because I don't know how, and so we're talking away
+a golden opportunity to find out. James," she said seriously, "if you
+fumble a bit, I won't know the difference because I'm no smarter than you
+are."
+
+She leaned forward holding her face up, her lips puckered forward in
+a tight little rosebud. She closed her eyes and waited. Gingerly and
+hesitantly he leaned forward and met her lips with a pucker of his own.
+It was a light contact, warm, and ended quickly with a characteristic
+smack that seemed to echo through the silent house. It had all of the
+emotional charge of a mother-in-law's peck, but it served its purpose
+admirably. They both opened their eyes and looked at one another from
+four inches of distance. Then they tried it again and their second was a
+little longer and a little warmer and a little closer, and it ended with
+less of the noise of opening a fruit jar.
+
+Martha moved over close beside him and put her head on his shoulder;
+James responded by putting an arm around her, and together they tried to
+assemble themselves in the comfortably affectionate position seen in
+movies and on television. It didn't quite work that way. There seemed to
+be too many arms and legs and sharp corners for comfort, or when they
+found a contortion that did not create interferences with limb or corner,
+it was a strain on the spine or a twist in the neck. After a few minutes
+of this coeducational wrestling they decided almost without effort to
+return to the original routine of kissing. By more luck than good
+management they succeeded in an embrace that placed no strain and which
+met them almost face to face. They puckered again and made contact, then
+pressure came and spread out the pair of tightly pursed rosebuds. Martha
+moved once to get her nose free of his cheek for a breath of air.
+
+At the rate they were going, they might have hit paydirt this time, but
+just at the point where James should have relaxed to enjoy the long kiss
+he began to worry: There is something planned and final about the quick
+smacking kiss, but how does one gracefully terminate the long-term,
+high-pressure jobs? So instead of enjoying himself, James planned and
+discarded plans until he decided that the way he'd do it would be to
+exert a short, heavy pressure and then cease with the same action as in
+the quick-smack variety.
+
+It worked fine, but as he opened his eyes to look at her, she was there
+with her eyes still closed and her lips still ready. He took a deep
+breath and plunged in again. Having determined how to start, James was
+now going to experiment with endings.
+
+They came up for air successfully again, and then spent some time
+wriggling around into another position. The figure-fitting went easier
+this time, after threshing around through three or four near-comforts
+they came to rest in a pleasantly natural position and James Holden
+became nervously aware of the fact that his right hand was cupped over
+a soft roundness that filled his palm almost perfectly. He wondered
+whether to remove it quickly to let her know that this intimacy wasn't
+intentional; slowly so that (maybe, he hoped) she wouldn't realize that
+it had been there; or to leave it there because it felt pleasant. While
+he was wondering, Martha moved around because she could not twist her
+neck all the way around like an owl, and she wanted to see him. The move
+solved his problem but presented the equally great problem of how he
+would try it again.
+
+James allowed a small portion of his brain to think about this, and put
+the rest of his mind at ease by kissing her again. Halfway through, he
+felt warm moistness as her lips parted slightly, then the tip of her
+tongue darted forward between his lips to quest against his tongue in a
+caress so fleeting that it was withdrawn before he could react--and James
+reacted by jerking his head back faster than if he had been clubbed in
+the face. He was still tingling with the shock, a pleasant shock but none
+the less a shock, when Martha giggled lightly.
+
+He bubbled and blurted, "Wha--whu--?"
+
+She told him nervously, "I've been wanting to try that ever since I read
+it in a book."
+
+He shivered. "What book?" he demanded in almost a quaver.
+
+"A paperback of Tim's. Mother calls them, Tim's sex and slay stories."
+Martha giggled again. "You jumped."
+
+"Sure did. I was surprised. Do it again."
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Didn't you like it?"
+
+"Did you?"
+
+"I don't know. I didn't have time to find out."
+
+"Oh."
+
+He kissed her again and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally he moved
+back an inch and said, "What's the matter?"
+
+"I don't think we should. Maybe we ought to wait until we're older."
+
+"Not fair," he complained. "You had all the warning."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Didn't you like it?" he asked.
+
+"Well, it gave me the most tickly tingle."
+
+"And all I got was a sort of mild electric shock. Come on."
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, then, I'll do it to you."
+
+"All right. Just once."
+
+Leaping to the end of this midnight research, there are three primary
+ways of concluding, namely: 1, physical satisfaction; 2, physical
+exhaustion; and 3, interruption. We need not go into sub-classifications
+or argue the point. James and Martha were not emotionally ready to
+conclude with mutual defloration. Ultimately they fell asleep on the
+divan with their arms around each other. They weren't interrupted;
+they awoke as the first flush of daylight brightened the sky, and with
+one more rather chaste kiss, they parted to fall into the deep slumber of
+complete physical and emotional exhaustion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+
+James Holden's ride home on the train gave him a chance to think, alone
+and isolated from all but superficial interruptions. He felt that he was
+quite the bright young man.
+
+He noticed with surreptitious pride that folks no longer eyed him with
+sly, amused, knowing smiles whenever he opened a newspaper. Perhaps some
+of their amusement had been the sight of a youngster struggling with a
+full-spread page, employing arms that did not quite make the span. But
+most of all he hated the condescending tolerance; their everlasting
+attitude that everything he did was "cute" like the little girl who
+decked herself out in mother's clothing from high heels and brassiere
+to evening gown, costume jewelry, and a fumbled smear of makeup.
+
+That was over. He'd made it to a couple of months over fourteen, he'd
+finally reached a stature large enough so that he did not have to prove
+his right to buy a railroad ticket, nor climb on the suitcase bar so that
+he could peer over the counter. Newsdealers let him alone to pick his own
+fare instead of trying to "save his money" by shoving Mickey Mouse at him
+and putting his own choice back on its pile.
+
+He had not succeeded in gaining his legal freedom, but as Ward of the
+State under Judge Carter he had other interesting expectations that he
+might not have stumbled upon. Carter had connections; there was talk of
+James' entering a comprehensive examination at some university, where the
+examining board, forearmed with the truth about his education, would test
+James to ascertain his true level of comprehension. He could of course
+collect his bachelor's degree once he complied with the required work
+of term papers written to demonstrate that his information could be
+interwoven into the formation of an opinion, or reflection, or view
+of some topic. Master's degrees and doctor's degrees required the
+presentation of some original area of study, competence in his chosen
+field, and the development of some facet of the field that had not been
+touched before. These would require more work, but could be handled in
+time.
+
+In fact, he felt that he was in pretty good shape. There were a couple
+of sticky problems, still. He wanted Paul Brennan to get his comeuppance,
+but he knew that there was no evidence available to support his story
+about the slaughter of his parents. It galled him to realize that
+cold-blooded, premeditated murder for personal profit and avarice could
+go undetected. But until there could be proffered some material evidence,
+Brennan's word was as good as his in any court. So Brennan was getting
+away with it.
+
+The other little item was his own independence. He wanted it. That he
+might continue living with Judge Carter had no bearing. No matter how
+benevolent the tyranny, James wanted no part of it. In fighting for his
+freedom, James Holden's foot had slipped. He'd used his father's machine
+on Martha, and that was a legal error.
+
+Martha? James was not really sorry he'd slipped. Error or not, he'd made
+of her the only person in the world who understood his problem wholly and
+sympathetically. Otherwise he would be completely alone.
+
+Oh yes, he felt that he was quite the bright young man. He was coming
+along fine and getting somewhere. His very pleasant experiences in the
+house on Martin's Hill had raised him from a boy to a young man; he was
+now able to grasp the appreciation of the Big Drive, to understand some
+of the reasons why adults acted in the way that they did. He hadn't
+managed another late session of sofa with Martha, but there had been
+little incidental meetings in the hallway or in the kitchen with the
+exchange of kisses, and they'd boldly kissed goodbye at the railroad
+station under her mother's smile.
+
+He could not know Janet Fisher's mind, of course. Janet, mother to a girl
+entering young womanhood, worried about all of the things that such a
+mother worries about and added a couple of things that no other mother
+ever had. She could hardly slip her daughter a smooth version of the
+birds and the bees and people when she knew full well that Martha had
+gone through a yard or so of books on the subject that covered everything
+from the advanced medical to the lurid exposé and from the salacious to
+the ribald. Janet could only hope that her daughter valued her chastity
+according to convention despite the natural human curiosity which in
+Martha would be multiplied by the girl's advanced education. Janet knew
+that young people were marrying younger and younger as the years went on;
+she saw young James Holden no longer as a rather odd youngster with
+abilities beyond his age. She saw him now as the potential mate for
+Martha. And when they embraced and kissed at the station, Janet did not
+realize that she was accepting this salute as the natural act of two
+sub-adults, rather than a pair of precocious kids.
+
+At any rate, James Holden felt very good. Now he had a girl. He had
+acquired one more of the many attitudes of the Age of Maturity.
+
+So James settled down to read his newspaper, and on page three he saw a
+photograph and an article that attracted his attention. The photograph
+was of a girl no more than seven years old holding a baby at least a year
+old. Beside them was a boy of about nine. In the background was a
+miserable hovel made of crude lumber and patched windows. This couple and
+their baby had been discovered by a geological survey outfit living in
+the backwoods hills. Relief, aid, and help were being rushed, and the
+legislature was considering ways and means of their schooling. Neither
+of them could read or write.
+
+James read the article, and his first thought was to proffer his help.
+Aid and enlightenment they needed, and they needed it quickly. And then
+he stopped immediately because he could do nothing to educate them unless
+they already possessed the ability to read.
+
+His second thought was one of dismay. His exultation came down with a
+dull thud. Within seconds he realized that the acquisition of a girl was
+no evidence of his competent maturity. The couple photographed were human
+beings, but intellectually they were no more than animals with a slight
+edge in vocabulary. It made James Holden sick at heart to read the
+article and to realize that such filth and ignorance could still go on.
+But it took a shock of such violence to make James realize that clams,
+guppies, worms, fleas, cats, dogs, and the great whales reproduced their
+kind; intellect, education and mature competence under law had nothing to
+do with the process whatsoever.
+
+And while his heart was still unhappy, he turned to page four and read an
+open editorial that discussed the chances of The Educational Party in the
+coming Election Year.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James blinked.
+
+"Splinter" parties, the editorial said, seldom succeeded in gaining a
+primary objective. They only succeeded in drawing votes from the other
+major parties, in splitting the total ballot, and dividing public
+opinion. On the other hand, they did provide a useful political
+weathervane for the major parties to watch most carefully. If the
+splinter party succeeded in capturing a large vote, it was an indication
+that the People found their program favorable and upon such evidence it
+behooved the major parties to mend their political fences--or to relocate
+them.
+
+Education, said the editorial, was a primary issue and had been one
+for years. There had been experimenting with education ever since
+the Industrial Revolution uncovered the fact, in about 1900, that
+backbreaking physical toil was going to be replaced by educated workers
+operating machinery.
+
+Then the editorial quoted Judge Norman L. Carter:
+
+"'For many years,' said Judge Carter, 'we have deplored the situation
+whereby a doctor or a physicist is not considered fully educated until he
+has reached his middle or even late twenties. Yet instead of speeding up
+the curriculum in the early school years, we have introduced such
+important studies as social graces, baton twirling, interpretive painting
+and dancing, and a lot of other fiddle-faddle which graduates students
+who cannot spell, nor read a book, nor count above ten without taking off
+their shoes. Perhaps such studies are necessary to make sound citizens
+and graceful companions. I shall not contest the point. However, I
+contend that a sound and basic schooling should be included--and when I
+so contend I am told by our great educators that the day is not long
+enough nor the years great enough to accomplish this very necessary end.
+
+"'Gentlemen, we leaders of The Education Party propose to accomplish
+precisely that which they said cannot be done!'"
+
+The editorial closed with the terse suggestion: Educator--Educate
+thyself!
+
+James Holden sat stunned.
+
+_What was Judge Carter doing?_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden arrived to find the home of Judge Norman L. Carter an upset
+madhouse. He was stopped at the front door by a secretary at a small desk
+whose purpose was to screen the visitors and to log them in and out in
+addition to being decorative. Above her left breast was a large enamelled
+button, red on top, white in the middle as a broad stripe from left to
+right, and blue below. Across the white stripe was printed CARTER in
+bold, black letters. From in back of the pin depended two broad silk
+ribbons that cascaded forward over the stuffing in her brassiere and hung
+free until they disappeared behind the edge of the desk. She eyed James
+with curiosity. "Young man, if you're looking for throwaways for your
+civics class, you'll have to wait until we're better organized--"
+
+James eyed her with cold distaste. "I am James Quincy Holden," he told
+her, "and you have neither the authority nor the agility necessary to
+prevent my entrance."
+
+"You are--I what?"
+
+"I live here," he told her flatly. "Or didn't they provide you with this
+tidbit of vital statistic?"
+
+Wheels rotated behind the girl's eyes somewhere, and memory cells linked
+into comprehension. "Oh!--You're James."
+
+"I said that first," he replied. "Where's Judge Carter?"
+
+"He's in conference and cannot be disturbed."
+
+"Your objection is overruled. I shall disturb him as soon as I find out
+precisely what has been going on."
+
+He went on in through the short hallway and found audible confusion. Men
+in groups of two to four stood in corners talking in bedlam. There was a
+layer of blue smoke above their heads that broke into skirls as various
+individuals left one group to join another. Through this vocal mob scene
+James went veering from left to right to avoid the groupings. He stood
+with polite insolence directly in front of two men sitting on the stairs
+until they made room for his passage--still talking as he went between
+them. In his room, three were sitting on the bed and the chair holding
+glasses and, of course, smoking like the rest. James dropped his
+overnight bag on a low stand and headed for his bathroom. One of the men
+caught sight of him and said, "Hey kid, scram!"
+
+James looked at the man coldly. "You happen to be using my bedroom. You
+should be asking my permission to do so, or perhaps apologizing for not
+having asked me before you moved in. I have no intention of leaving."
+
+"Get the likes of him!"
+
+"Wait a moment, Pete. This is the Holden kid."
+
+"The little genius, huh?"
+
+James said, "I am no genius. I do happen to have an education that
+provides me with the right to criticize your social behavior. I will
+neither be insulted nor patronized."
+
+"Listen to him, will you!"
+
+James turned and with the supreme gesture of contempt, he left the door
+open.
+
+He wound his way through the place to Judge Carter's study and home
+office, strode towards it with purpose and reached for the doorknob. A
+voice halted him: "Hey kid, you can't go in there!"
+
+Turning to face the new voice, James said calmly,
+
+"You mean 'may not' which implies that I have asked your permission. Your
+statement is incorrect as phrased and erroneous when corrected."
+
+He turned the knob and entered. Judge Carter sat at his desk with two
+men; their discussion ceased with the sound of the doorknob. The judge
+looked up in annoyance. "Hello, James. You shouldn't have come in here.
+We're busy. I'll let you know when I'm free."
+
+"You'd better make time for me right now," said James angrily. "I'd like
+to know what's going on here."
+
+"This much I'll tell you quickly. We're planning a political campaign.
+Now, please--"
+
+"I know you're planning a political campaign," replied James. "But if
+you're proposing to campaign on the platform of a reform in education,
+I suggest that you educate your henchmen in the rudimentary elements of
+polite speech and gentle behavior. I dislike being ordered out of my room
+by usurpers who have the temerity to address me as 'hey kid'."
+
+"Relax, James. I'll send them out later."
+
+"I'd suggest that you tell them off," snapped James. He turned on his
+heel and left, heading for the cellar. In the workshop he found Professor
+White and Jack Cowling presiding over the machine. In the chair with the
+headset on sat the crowning insult of all:
+
+Paul Brennan leafing through a heavy sheaf of papers, reading and
+intoning the words of political oratory.
+
+Unable to lick them, Brennan had joined them--or, wondered young Holden,
+was Judge Norman L. Carter paying for Brennan's silence with some plum of
+political patronage?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As he stood there, the years of persecution rose strong in the mind of
+James Holden. Brennan, the man who'd got away with murder and would
+continue to get away with it because there was no shred of evidence, no
+witness, nothing but James Holden's knowledge of Brennan's actions when
+he'd thought himself unseen in his calloused treatment of James Holden's
+dying mother; Brennan's critical inspection of the smashed body of his
+father, coldly checking the dead flesh to be sure beyond doubt; the cruel
+search about the scene of the 'accident' for James himself--interrupted
+only by the arrival of a Samaritan, whose name was never known to James
+Holden. In James rose the violent resentment of the years, the certain
+knowledge that any act of revenge upon Paul Brennan would be viewed as
+cold-blooded premeditated murder without cause or motive.
+
+And then came the angry knowledge that simple slaughter was too good for
+Paul Brennan. He was not a dog to be quickly released from misery by a
+merciful death. Paul Brennan should suffer until he cried for death as a
+blessed release from daily living.
+
+James Holden, angry, silently, unseen by the preoccupied workers,
+stole across the room to the main switch-panel, flipped up a small
+half-concealed cover, and flipped a small button.
+
+There came a sharp _Crack_! that shattered the silence and
+re-echoed again and again through the room. The panel that held the
+repeater-circuit of the Holden Educator bulged outward; jets of smoke
+lanced out of broken metal, bulged corners, holes and skirled into little
+clouds that drifted upward--trailing a flowing billow of thick, black,
+pungent smoke that reached the low ceiling and spread outward, fanwise,
+obscuring the ceiling like a low-lying nimbus.
+
+At the sound of the report, the man in the chair jumped as if he'd been
+stabbed where he sat.
+
+"Ouyeowwww!" yowled Brennan in a pitiful ululation. He fell forward from
+the chair, asprawl on wobbly hands and knees, on elbows and knees as he
+tried to press away the torrent of agony that hammered back and forth
+from temple to temple. James watched Brennan with cold detachment,
+Professor White and Jack Cowling looked on in paralyzed horror. Slowly,
+oh, so slowly, Paul Brennan managed to squirm around until he was sitting
+on the floor still cradling his head between his hands.
+
+James said, "I'm afraid that you're going to have a rough time whenever
+you hear the word 'entrenched'." And then, as Brennan made no response,
+James Holden went on, "Or were you by chance reading the word
+'pedagogue'?"
+
+At the word, Brennan howled again; the pain was too much for him and he
+toppled sidewise to writhe in kicking agony.
+
+James smiled coldly, "I'm sorry that you weren't reading the word 'the'.
+The English language uses more of them than the word 'pedagogue'."
+
+With remarkable effort, Brennan struggled to his feet; he lurched toward
+James. "I'll teach you, you little--"
+
+"Pedagogue?" asked James.
+
+The shock rocked Brennan right to the floor again.
+
+"Better sit there and think," said James coldly. "You come within a dozen
+yards of me and I'll say--"
+
+"No! Don't!" screamed Paul Brennan. "Not again!"
+
+"Now," asked James, "what's going on here?"
+
+"He was memorizing a political speech," said Jack Cowling. "What did you
+do?"
+
+"I merely fixed my machine so that it will not be used again."
+
+"But you shouldn't have done that!"
+
+"You shouldn't have been using it for this purpose," replied James. "It
+wasn't intended to further political ambitions."
+
+"But Judge Carter--"
+
+"Judge Carter doesn't own it," said James. "I do."
+
+"I'm sure that Judge Carter can explain everything."
+
+"Tell him so. Then add that if he'd bothered to give me the time of day,
+I'd be less angry. He's not to be interrupted, is he? I'm ordered out of
+my room, am I? Well, go tell the judge that his political campaign has
+been stopped by a fourteen-year-old boy who knows which button to push!
+I'll wait here."
+
+Professor White took off; Jack Cowling smiled crookedly and shook his
+head at James. "You're a rash young man," he said. "What did you do to
+Brennan, here?"
+
+James pointed at the smoke curling up out of the panel. "I put in a
+destructive charge to addle the circuit as a preventive measure against
+capture or use by unauthorized persons," he replied. "So I pushed the
+button just as Brennan was trying to memorize the word--"
+
+"Don't!" cried Brennan in a pleading scream.
+
+"You mean he's going to throw a fit every time he hears the word--"
+
+"No! No! Can't anybody talk without saying--Ouwwouooo!"
+
+"Interesting," commented James. "It seems to start as soon as the
+fore-reading part of his mind predicts that the word may be next, or
+when he thinks about it."
+
+"Do you mean that Brennan is going to be like the guy who could win the
+world if he sat on the top of a hill for one hour and did not think of
+the word 'Swordfish'? Except that he'll be out of pain so long as he
+doesn't think of the word--"
+
+"Thing I'm interested in is that maybe our orator here doesn't know the
+definition thoroughly. Tell me, dear 'Uncle' Paul, does the word
+'teacher' give--Sorry. I was just experimenting. Wasn't as bad as--"
+
+Gritting his teeth and wincing with pain, Brennan said, "Stop it!
+Even the word 'sch-(wince)-ool' hurts like--" He thought for a
+moment and then went on with his voice rising to a pitiful
+howl of agony at the end: "Even the name 'Miss Adams' gives
+me a fleeting headache all over my body, and Miss Adams was
+on--ly--my--third--growww--school--Owuuuuoooo--teach--earrrrrrr--Owwww!"
+
+Brennan collapsed in his chair just as Judge Carter came in with his
+white mane flying and hot fire in his attitude. "What goes on here?" he
+stormed at James.
+
+"I stopped your campaign."
+
+"Now see here, you young--"
+
+Judge Carter stopped abruptly, took a deep breath and calmed himself with
+a visible effort to control his rage. "James," he said in a quieter
+voice, "Can you repair the damage quickly?"
+
+"Yes--but I won't."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because one of the things my father taught me was the danger of allowing
+this machine to fall into the hands of ruthless men with political
+ambition."
+
+"And I am a ruthless man with political ambition?"
+
+James nodded. "Under the guise of studying me and my machine," he said,
+"you've been using it to train speakers, and to educate ward-heelers.
+You've been building a political machine by buying delegates. Not with
+money, of course, because that is illegal. With knowledge, and because
+knowledge, education, and information are intangibles and no legality
+has been established, and this is all very legal."
+
+Judge Carter smiled distantly. "It is bad to elevate the mind of the
+average ward-heeler? To provide the smalltime politician with a fine
+grasp of the National Problem and how his little local problems fit into
+the big picture? Is this making a better world, or isn't it?"
+
+"It's making a political machine that can't be defeated."
+
+"Think not? What makes you think it can't?"
+
+"Pedagogue!" said James.
+
+"Yeowwww!"
+
+The judge whirled to look at Brennan. "What was--that?" asked the judge.
+
+James explained what had happened, then: "I've mentioned hazards. This is
+what would happen if a fuse blew in the middle of a course. Maybe he can
+be trained out of it, and maybe not. You'll have to try, of course. But
+think of what would happen if you and your political machine put these
+things into schools and fixed them to make a voltage twitch or something
+while the student was reading the word 'republican'. You'd end up with a
+single-party system."
+
+"And get myself assassinated by a group of righteously irate citizens,"
+said Judge Carter. "Which I would very warmly deserve. On the other hand,
+suppose we 'treated' people to feel anguish at thoughts of murder or
+killing, theft, treason, and other forms of human deviltry?"
+
+"Now that might be a fine idea."
+
+"It would not," said Judge Carter flatly. James Holden's eyes widened,
+and he started to say something but the judge held up his hand, fingers
+outspread, and began to tick off his points finger by finger as he went
+on: "Where would we be in the case of enemy attack? Could our policemen
+aim their guns at a vicious criminal if they were conditioned against
+killing? Could our butchers operate; must our housewives live among a
+horde of flies? Theft? Well, it's harder to justify, James, but it would
+change the game of baseball as in 'stealing a base' or it would ruin the
+game of love as in 'stealing a kiss'. It would ruin the mystery-story
+field for millions of people who really haven't any inclination to go out
+and rob, steal, or kill. Treason? Our very revered Declaration of
+Independence is an article of Treason in the eyes of King George Third;
+it wouldn't be very hard to draw a charge of treason against a man who
+complained about the way the Government is being run. Now, one more
+angle, James. The threat or fear of punishment hasn't deterred any
+potential felon so far as anybody knows. And I hold the odd belief that
+if we removed the quart of mixed felony, chicanery, falsehood, and
+underhandedness from the human makeup, on that day the human race could
+step down to take its place alongside of the cow, just one step ahead of
+the worm.
+
+"Now you accuse me of holding political ambition. I plead guilty of the
+charge and demand to be shown by my accuser just what is undesirable
+about ambition, be it political or otherwise. Have you no ambition? Of
+course you have. Ambition drove your folks to create this machine and
+ambition drove you to the fight for your freedom. Ambition is the
+catalyst that lifts a man above his fellows and then lifts them also.
+There is a sort of tradition in this country that a man must not openly
+seek the office of the Presidency. I consider this downright silly. I
+have announced my candidacy, and I intend to campaign for it as hard as
+I can. I propose to make the problem of _education_ the most important
+argument that has ever come up in a presidential campaign. I believe that
+I shall win because I shall promise to provide this accelerated education
+for everybody who wants it."
+
+"And to do this you've used my machine," objected James.
+
+"Did you intend to keep it for yourself?" snapped Judge Carter.
+
+"No, but--"
+
+"And when did you intend to release it?"
+
+"As soon as I could handle it myself."
+
+"Oh, fine!" jeered the judge sourly. "Now, let me orate on that subject
+for a moment and then we'll get to the real meat of this argument. James,
+there is no way of delivering this machine to the public without
+delivering it to them through the hands of a capable Government agency.
+If you try to release it as an individual you'll be swamped with cries of
+anger and pleas for special consideration. The reactionaries will shout
+that we're moving too fast and the progressives will complain that we
+aren't moving fast enough. Teachers' organizations will say that we're
+throwing teachers out of jobs, and little petty politicians will try to
+slip their political plug into the daily course in Civics. Start your
+company and within a week some Madison Avenue advertising agency will be
+offering you several million dollars to let them convince people that
+Hickory-Chickory Coffee is the only stuff they can pour down their gullet
+without causing stomach pains, acid system, jittery nerves, sleepless
+nights, flat feet, upset glands, and so on and on and on. Announce it;
+the next day you'll have so many foreign spies in your bailiwick that
+you'll have to hire a stadium to hold them. You'll be ducking
+intercontinental ballistic missiles because there are people who would
+kill the dog in order to get rid of the fleas. You'll start the biggest
+war this planet has ever seen and it will go on long after you are killed
+and your father's secret is lost--and after the fallout has died off,
+we'll have another scientific race to recreate it. And don't think that
+it can't be rediscovered by determined scientists who know that such a
+thing as the Holden Electromechanical Educator is a reality."
+
+"And how do you propose to prevent this war?"
+
+"By broadcasting the secret as soon as we can; let the British and the
+French and the Russians and the Germans and all the rest build it and
+use it as wisely as they can program it. Which, by the way, James,
+brings us right back to James Quincy Holden, Martha Bagley, and the
+immediate future."
+
+"Oh?"
+
+"Yes. James, tell me after deliberation, at what point in your life did
+you first believe that you had the competence to enter the adult world in
+freedom to do as you believed right?"
+
+"Um, about five or six, as I recall."
+
+"What do you think now about those days?"
+
+James shrugged. "I got along."
+
+"Wasn't very well, was it?"
+
+"No, but I was under a handicap, you know. I had to hide out."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"Well, if I had legal ruling, I wouldn't have to hide."
+
+"Think you know everything you need to know to enter this adult world?"
+
+"No man stops learning," parried James. "I think I know enough to start."
+
+"James, no matter what you say, there is a very important but intangible
+thing called 'judgment'. You have part of it, but not by far enough.
+You've been studying the laws about ages and rights, James, but you've
+missed a couple of them because you've been looking for evidence
+favorable to your own argument. First, to become a duly elected member of
+the House of Representatives, a man must be at least twenty-five years of
+age. To be a Senator, he must be at least thirty. To be President, one
+must be at least thirty-five. Have you any idea why the framers of the
+Constitution of the United States placed such restrictions?"
+
+"Well, I suppose it had to do with judgment?" replied James reluctantly.
+
+"That--and _experience_. Experience in knowing people, in understanding
+that there might be another side to any question, in realizing that you
+must not approach every problem from your own purely personal point of
+view nor expect it to be solved to your own private satisfaction or to
+your benefit. Now, let's step off a distance and take a good look at
+James Quincy Holden and see where he lacks the necessary ingredients."
+
+"Yes, tell me," said James, sourly.
+
+"Oh, I intend to. Let's take the statistics first. You're four-feet
+eleven-inches tall, you weigh one-hundred and three pounds, and you're a
+few weeks over fourteen. I suppose you know that you've still got one
+more spurt of growth, sometimes known as the post-puberty-growth. You'll
+probably put on another foot in the next couple of years, spread out a
+bit across the shoulders, and that fuzz on your face will become a
+collection of bristles. I suppose you think that any man in this room can
+handle you simply because we're all larger than you are? Possibly true,
+and one of the reasons why we can't give you a ticket and let you
+proclaim yourself an adult. You can't carry the weight. But this isn't
+all. Your muscles and your bones aren't yet in equilibrium. I could find
+a man of age thirty who weighed one-oh-three and stood four-eleven. He
+could pick you up and spin you like a top on his forefinger just because
+his bones match his muscles nicely, and his nervous system and brain have
+had experience in driving the body he's living in."
+
+"Could be, but what has all this to do with me? It does not affect the
+fact that I've been getting along in life."
+
+"You get along. It isn't enough to 'get along.' You've got to have
+judgment. You claim judgment, but still you realize that you can't handle
+your own machine. You can't even come to an equitable choice in selecting
+some agency to handle your machine. You can't decide upon a good outlet.
+You believe that proclaiming your legal competence will provide you with
+some mysterious protection against the wolves and thieves and ruthless
+men with political ambition--that this ruling will permit you to keep it
+to yourself until you decide that it is time to release it. You still
+want to hide. You want to use it until you are so far above and beyond
+the rest of the world that they can't catch up, once you give it to
+everybody. You now object to my plans and programs, still not knowing
+whether I intend to use it for good or for evil--and juvenile that you
+are, it must be good or evil and cannot be an in-between shade of gray.
+Men are heroes or villains to _you_; but _I_ must say with some
+reluctance that the biggest crooks that ever held public office still
+passed laws that were beneficial to their people. There is the area in
+which you lack judgment, James. There and in your blindness."
+
+"Blindness?"
+
+"Blindness," repeated Judge Carter. "As Mark Twain once said, 'When I was
+seventeen, I was ashamed at the ignorance of my father, but by the time I
+was twenty-one I was amazed to discover how much the old man had learned
+in four short years!' Confound it, James, you don't yet realize that
+there are a lot of things in life that you can't even know about until
+you've lived through them. You're blind here, even though your life has
+been a solid case of encounter with unexpected experiences, one after the
+other as you grew. Oh, you're smart enough to know that you've got to top
+the next hill as soon as you've climbed this one, but you're not smart
+enough to realize that the next hill merely hides the one beyond, and
+that there are still higher hills beyond that stretching to the end of
+the road for you--and that when you've finally reached the end of your
+own road there will be more distant hills to climb for the folks that
+follow you.
+
+"You've a fine education, and it's helped you tremendously. But you've
+loused up your own life and the life of Martha Bagley. You two are a pair
+of outcasts, and you'll be outcasts until about ten years from now when
+your body will have caught up with your mind so that you can join your
+contemporaries without being regarded as a pair of intellectual freaks."
+
+"And what should I have done?" demanded James Holden angrily.
+
+"That's just it, again. You do not now realize that there isn't anything
+you could have done, nor is there anything you can do now. That's why I'm
+taking over and I'm going to do it for you."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Yes!" snapped Judge Carter. "We'll let them have their courses in baton
+twirling and social grace and civic improvement and etiquette--and at the
+same time we'll give them history and mathematics and spelling and
+graduate them from 'high' school at the age of twelve or fourteen,
+introduce an intermediary school for languages and customs of other
+countries and in universal law and international affairs and economics,
+where our bookkeepers will learn science and scientists will understand
+commercial law; our lawyers will know business and our businessmen will
+be taught politics. After that we'll start them in college and run them
+as high as they can go, and our doctors will no longer go sour from the
+moment they leave school at thirty-five to hang out their shingle.
+
+"As for you, James Holden, you and Martha Bagley will attend this
+preparatory school as soon as we can set it up. There will be no more of
+this argument about being as competent as an adult, because we oldsters
+will still be the chiefs and you kids will be the Indians. Have I made
+myself clear?"
+
+"Yes sir. But how about Brennan?"
+
+Judge Carter looked at the unhappy man. "You still want revenge? Won't he
+be punished enough just hearing the word 'pedagogue'?"
+
+"For the love of--"
+
+"Don't blaspheme," snapped the judge. "You'd hang if James could bring
+a shred of evidence, and I'd help him if I could." He turned to James
+Holden. "Now," he asked, "will you repair your machine?"
+
+"And if I say No?"
+
+"Can you stand the pressure of a whole world angered because you've
+denied them their right to an education?"
+
+"I suppose not." He looked at Brennan, at Professor White and at Jack
+Cowling. "If I've got to trust somebody," he said reluctantly, "I suppose
+it might as well be you."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK FOUR:
+
+THE NEW MATURITY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+
+It is the campus of Holden Preparatory Academy.
+
+It is spring, but many another spring must pass before the ambitious ivy
+climbs to smother the gray granite walls, before the stripling trees grow
+stately, before the lawn is sturdy enough to withstand the crab grass and
+the students. Anecdote and apocrypha have yet to evolve into hallowed
+tradition. The walks ways are bare of bronze plaques because there are no
+illustrious alumni to honor; Holden Preparatory has yet to graduate its
+first class.
+
+It is youth, a lusty infant whose latent power is already great enough
+to move the world. As it rises, the world rises with it for the whole
+consists of all its parts; no man moves alone.
+
+The movement has its supporters and its enemies, and between them lies a
+vast apathy of folks who simply don't give a damn. It supporters deplore
+the dolts and the sluggards who either cannot or will not be educated.
+Its enemies see it as a danger to their comfortable position of eminence
+and claim bitterly that the honored degree of doctor is being degraded.
+They refuse to see that it is not the degradation of the standard but
+rather the exaltation of the norm. Comfortable, they lazily object to the
+necessity of rising with the norm to keep their position. Nor do they
+realize that the ones who will be assaulting their fortress will
+themselves be fighting still stronger youth one day when the mistakes are
+corrected and the program streamlined through experience.
+
+On the virgin lawn, in a spot that will someday lie in the shade of a
+great oak, a group of students sit, sprawl, lie. The oldest of them is
+sixteen, and it is true that not one of them has any reverence for
+college degrees, because the entrance requirements demand the scholastic
+level of bachelor in the arts, the sciences, in language and literature.
+The mark of their progress is not stated in grades, but rather in the
+number of supplementary degrees for which they qualify. The honors of
+their graduation are noted by the number of doctorates they acquire.
+Their goal is the title of Scholar, without which they may not attend
+college for their ultimate education.
+
+But they do not have the "look of eagles" nor do they act as if they felt
+some divine purpose fill their lives. They do not lead the pack in an
+easy lope, for who holds rank when admirals meet? They are not dedicated
+nor single-minded; if their jokes and pranks start on a higher or lower
+plane, it is just because they have better minds than their forebears at
+the same time.
+
+On the fringe of this group, an olive-skinned Brazilian co-ed asks:
+"Where's Martha?"
+
+John Philips looks up from a diagram of fieldmatrics he's been using to
+lay out a football play. "She's lending moral support to Holden. He's
+sweating out his scholar's impromptu this afternoon."
+
+"Why should he be stewing?"
+
+John Philips smiles knowingly. "Tony Dirk put the triple-whammy on him.
+Gimmicked up the random-choice selector in the Regent's office. Herr von
+James is discoursing on the subjects of Medicine, Astronomy, and
+Psychology--that is if Dirk knows his stuff."
+
+Tony Dirk looks down from his study of a fluffy cloud. "Anybody care to
+hazard some loose change on my ability?"
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Oh," replies Philips, "we figure that the first graduating class could
+use a professional _Astrologer_! We'll be the first in history to have
+one--if M'sieu Holden can tie Medicine, Astronomy, and Psychology into
+something cogent in his impromptu."
+
+It is a strange tongue they are using, probably the first birth-pains of
+a truly universal language. By some tacit agreement, personal questions
+are voiced in French, the reply in Spanish. Impersonal questions are
+Italian and the response in Portuguese. Anything of a scientific nature
+must be in German; law, language, or literature in English; art in
+Japanese; music in Greek; medicine in Latin; agriculture in Czech.
+Anything laudatory in Mandarin, derogatory in Sanskrit--and _ad libitum_
+at any point for any subject.
+
+Anita Lowes has been trying to attract the attention of John Philips from
+his diagram long enough to invite her to the Spring Festival by reciting
+a low-voiced string of nuclear equations carefully compounded to make
+them sound naughty unless they're properly identified with full
+attention. She looks up and says, "What if he doesn't make the
+connection?"
+
+Philips replies, "Well, if he can prove to that tough bunch that there
+is no possible advance in learning through a combination of Astronomy,
+Medicine, and Psychology, he'll make it on that basis. It's just as
+important to close a door as it is to open one, you know. But it's one
+rough deal to prove negation. Maybe we'll have James the Holden on our
+hands for another semester. Martha will like that."
+
+"Talking about me?"
+
+There is a rolling motion, sort of like a bushel of fish trying to leap
+back into the sea. The newcomer is Martha Fisher. At fifteen, her eyes
+are bright, and her features are beginning to soften into the beginning
+of a beauty that will deepen with maturity.
+
+"James," says Tony Dirk. "We figured you'd like to have him around
+another four months. So we gimmicked him."
+
+"You mean that test-trio?" chuckles Martha.
+
+"How's he doing?"
+
+"When I left, he was wriggling his way through probability math, showing
+the relationship between his three subjects and the solution for random
+choice figures which may or may not be shaded by known or not-known
+agency. He's covered Mason's History of Superstition and--"
+
+"Superstition?" asks a Japanese.
+
+Martha nods. "He claimed superstition is based upon fear and faith, and
+he feared that someone had tampered with his random choice of subjects,
+and he had faith that it was one of his buddies. So--"
+
+Martha is interrupted by a shout. The years have done well by James
+Holden, too. He is a lithe sixteen. It is a long time since he formed his
+little theory of human pair-production and it is almost as long since
+he thought of it last. If he reconsiders it now, he does not recognize
+his part in it because everything looks different from within the circle.
+His world, like the organization of the Universe, is made up of schools
+containing classes of groups of clusters of sets of associations created
+by combinations and permutations of individuals.
+
+"I made it!" he says.
+
+James has his problems. Big ones. Shall he go to Harvard alone, or shall
+he go to coeducational California with the hope that Martha will follow
+him? Then there was the fun awaiting him at Heidelberg, the historic
+background of Pisa, the vigorous routine at Tokyo. As a Scholar, he has
+contributed original research in four or five fields to attain
+doctorates, now he is to pick a few allied fields, combine certain phases
+of them, and work for his Specific. It is James Holden's determination to
+prove that the son is worthy of the parents for which his school is
+named.
+
+But there is high competition. At Carter tech-prep, a girl is struggling
+to arrange a Periodic Chart of the Nucleons. At Maxwell, one of his
+contemporaries will contend that the human spleen acts as an ion-exchange
+organ to rid the human body of radioactive minerals, and he will someday
+die trying to prove it. His own classmate Tony Dirk will organize a
+weather-control program, and John Philips will write six lines of odd
+symbols that will be called the Inertiogravitic Equations.
+
+Their children will reach the distant stars, and their children's
+children will, humanlike, cross the vast chasm that lies between one
+swirl of matter and the other before they have barely touched their home
+galaxy.
+
+No man is an island, near or far on Earth as it is across the glowing
+clusters of galaxies--nay, as it may be in Heaven itself.
+
+The motto is cut deep in the granite over the doorway to Holden Hall:
+
+YOU YOURSELF
+MUST LIGHT THE FAGGOTS
+THAT YOU HAVE BROUGHT
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth R, by George Oliver Smith
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth R, by George Oliver Smith
+
+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: The Fourth R
+
+Author: George Oliver Smith
+
+Release Date: June 16, 2006 [EBook #18602]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOURTH R ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1>THE FOURTH "R"</h1>
+
+<h2>By George O. Smith</h2>
+
+
+
+<h4>Published by<br />
+DELL PUBLISHING CO., INC.<br />
+1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza<br />
+New York, New York 10017</h4>
+
+
+<h4>Copyright 1959, by George O. Smith<br />
+All rights reserved. For information contact:<br />
+Dell Publishing Co., Inc.</h4>
+
+<h4>Printed in the United States of America.</h4>
+
+<h4>First Dell printing&mdash;April 1979</h4>
+
+<p>[Transcribers note: This is a rule 6 clearance. A copyright renewal has not been found.]</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3>Contents</h3>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#BOOK_ONE">BOOK ONE: FUTURE IMPROMPTU</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_ONE">CHAPTER ONE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TWO">CHAPTER TWO</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_THREE">CHAPTER THREE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FOUR">CHAPTER FOUR</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FIVE">CHAPTER FIVE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SIX">CHAPTER SIX</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#BOOK_TWO">BOOK TWO: THE HERMIT</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SEVEN">CHAPTER SEVEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_EIGHT">CHAPTER EIGHT</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_NINE">CHAPTER NINE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TEN">CHAPTER TEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_ELEVEN">CHAPTER ELEVEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TWELVE">CHAPTER TWELVE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_THIRTEEN">CHAPTER THIRTEEN</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#BOOK_THREE">BOOK THREE: THE REBEL</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FOURTEEN">CHAPTER FOURTEEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTEEN">CHAPTER FIFTEEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SIXTEEN">CHAPTER SIXTEEN</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN">CHAPTER SEVENTEEN</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#BOOK_FOUR">BOOK FOUR: THE NEW MATURITY</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN">CHAPTER EIGHTEEN</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="BOOK_ONE" id="BOOK_ONE"></a>BOOK ONE:</h2>
+
+<h3>FUTURE IMPROMPTU</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ONE" id="CHAPTER_ONE"></a>CHAPTER ONE</h2>
+
+
+<p>James Quincy Holden was five years old.</p>
+
+<p>His fifth birthday was not celebrated by the usual horde of noisy, hungry
+kids running wild in the afternoon. It started at seven, with cocktails.
+They were served by his host, Paul Brennan, to the celebrants, the boy's
+father and mother. The guest of honor sipped ginger ale and nibbled at
+canap&eacute;s while he was presented with his gifts: A volume of Kipling's
+<i>Jungle Tales</i>, a Spitz Junior Planetarium, and a build-it-yourself kit
+containing parts for a geiger counter and an assortment of radioactive
+minerals to identify. Dinner was served at eight, the menu selected by
+Jimmy Holden&mdash;with the exception of the birthday cake and its five proud
+little candles which came as an anticipated surprise from his "Uncle"
+Paul Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner, they listened to some music chosen by the boy, and the
+evening wound up with three rubbers of bridge. The boy won.</p>
+
+<p>They left Paul Brennan's apartment just after eleven o'clock. Jimmy
+Holden was tired and pleasantly stuffed with good food. But he was
+stimulated by the party. So, instead of dropping off to sleep, he sat
+comfortably wedged between his father and mother, quietly lost in his own
+thoughts until the car was well out of town.</p>
+
+<p>Then he said, "Dad, why did you make that sacrifice bid on the last
+hand?" Father and son had been partners.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not concerned about losing the rubber, are you?" It had been the
+only rubber Jimmy lost.</p>
+
+<p>"No. It's only a game," said Jimmy. "I'm just trying to understand."</p>
+
+<p>His father gave an amused groan. "It has to do with the laws of
+probability and the theory of games," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The boy shook his head. "Bridge," he said thoughtfully, "consists of
+creating a logical process of play out of a random distribution of
+values, doesn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you admit that your definition is a gross oversimplification. It
+would hardly be a game if everything could be calculated beforehand."</p>
+
+<p>"But what's missing?"</p>
+
+<p>"In any game there is the element of a calculated risk."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden was silent for a half-mile thinking that one over. "How," he
+asked slowly, "can a risk be calculated?"</p>
+
+<p>His father laughed. "In fine, it can't. Too much depends upon the
+personality of the individual."</p>
+
+<p>"Seems to me," said Jimmy, "that there's not much point in making a bid
+against a distribution of values known to be superior. You couldn't hope
+to make it; Mother and Uncle Paul had the cards."</p>
+
+<p>His father laughed again. "After a few more courses in higher
+mathematics, James, you'll begin to realize that some of the highest
+mathematics is aimed at predicting the unpredictable, or trying to lower
+the entropy of random behavior&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden's mother chuckled. "Now explain entropy," she said. "James,
+what your father has been failing to explain is really not subject to
+simple analysis. Who knows why any man will hazard his hard-earned money
+on the orientation of a pair of dice? No amount of education nor academic
+study will explain what drives a man. Deep inside, I suppose it is the
+same force that drives everybody. One man with four spades will take a
+chance to see if he can make five, and another man with directorships in
+three corporations will strive to make it four."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's father chuckled. "Some families with one infant will try to make
+it two&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not on your life!"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;And some others are satisfied with what they've got," finished Jimmy
+Holden's father. "James, some men will avoid seeing what has to be done;
+some men will see it and do it and do no more; and a few men will see
+what has to be done, do it, and then look to the next inevitable problem
+created by their own act&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A blinding flash of light cut a swath across the road, dazzling them.
+Around the curve ahead, a car careened wide over the white line. His
+mother reached for him, his father fought the wheel to avoid the crash.
+Jimmy Holden both heard and felt the sharp <i>Bang!</i> as the right front
+tire went. The steering wheel snapped through his father's hands by half
+a turn. There was a splintering crash as the car shattered its way
+through the retaining fence, then came a fleeting moment of breathless
+silence as if the entire universe had stopped still for a heartbeat.</p>
+
+<p>Chaos! His mother's automatic scream, his father's oath, and the rending
+crash split the silence at once. The car bucked and flipped, the doors
+were slammed open and ripped off against a tree that went down. The car
+leaped in a skew turn and began to roll and roll, shedding metal and
+humans as it racketed down the ravine.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy felt himself thrown free in a tumbleturn that ended in a heavy
+thud.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>When breath and awareness returned, he was lying in a depression filled
+with soft rotting leaves.</p>
+
+<p>He was dazed beyond hurt. The initial shock and bewilderment oozed out of
+him, leaving him with a feeling of outrage, and a most peculiar sensation
+of being a spectator rather than an important part of the violent drama.
+It held an air of unreality, like a dream that the near-conscious sleeper
+recognizes as a dream and lives through it because he lacks the conscious
+will to direct it.</p>
+
+<p>Strangely, it was as if there were three or more of him all thinking
+different things at the same time. He wanted his mother badly enough to
+cry. Another part of him said that she would certainly be at his side if
+she were able. Then a third section of his confused mind pointed out that
+if she did not come to him, it was because she herself was hurt deeply
+and couldn't.</p>
+
+<p>A more coldly logical portion of his mind was urging him to get up and
+<i>do</i> something about it. They had passed a telephone booth on the
+highway; lying there whimpering wasn't doing anybody any good. This
+logical part of his confused mind did not supply the dime for the
+telephone slot nor the means of scaling the heights needed to insert
+the dime in the adult-altitude machine.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the dazzle of mental activity was serial or simultaneous isn't
+important. The fact is that it was completely disorganized as to plan
+or program, it leaped from one subject to another until he heard the
+scrabble and scratch of someone climbing down the side of the ravine.</p>
+
+<p>Any noise meant help. With relief, Jimmy tried to call out.</p>
+
+<p>But with this arrival of help, afterfright claimed him. His mouth
+worked silently before a dead-dry throat and his muscles twitched in
+uncontrolled nervousness; he made neither sound nor motion. Again he
+watched with the unreal feeling of being a remote spectator. A cone of
+light from a flashlight darted about and it gradually seeped into Jimmy's
+shocked senses that this was a new arrival, picking his way through the
+tangle of brush, following the trail of ruin from the broken guard rail
+to the smashed car below.</p>
+
+<p>The newcomer paused. The light darted forward to fall upon a crumpled
+mass of cloth.</p>
+
+<p>With a toe, the stranger probed at crushed ribs. A pitifully feeble
+moan came from the broken rag doll that lay on the ground. The searcher
+knelt with his light close to peer into the bloody face, and,
+unbelieving, Jimmy Holden heard the voice of his mother straining
+to speak, "Paul&mdash;I&mdash;we&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The voice died in a gurgle.</p>
+
+<p>The man with the flashlight tested the flaccid neck by bending the head
+to one side and back sharply. He ended this inspection by letting the
+head fall back to the moist earth. It landed with a thud of finality.</p>
+
+<p>The cold brutality of this stranger's treatment of his mother shocked
+Jimmy Holden into frantic outrage. The frozen cry for help changed into
+protesting anger; no one should be treated that&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"One!" muttered the stranger flatly.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's burst of protest died in his throat and he watched, fascinated,
+as the stranger's light moved in a sweep forward to stop a second time.
+"And there's number two!" The callous horror was repeated. Hypnotically,
+Jimmy Holden watched the stranger test the temples and wrists and try a
+hand under his father's heart. He watched the stranger make a detailed
+inspection of the long slash that laid open the entire left abdomen and
+he saw the red that seeped but did not flow.</p>
+
+<p>"That's that!" said the stranger with an air of finality. "Now&mdash;" and he
+stood up to swing his flashlight in widening circles, searching the area
+carefully.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden did not sicken. He went cold. He froze as the dancing
+flashlight passed over his head, and relaxed partially when it moved
+away in a series of little jumps pausing to give a steady light for
+close inspection. The light swung around and centered on the smashed
+automobile. It was upside down, a ruin with one wheel still turning idly.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger went to it, and knelt to peer inside. He pried ripped metal
+away to get a clear sight into the crushed interior. He went flat on his
+stomach and tried to penetrate the area between the crumpled car-top and
+the bruised ground, and he wormed his way in a circle all around the car,
+examining the wreck minutely.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of a distant automobile engine became audible, and the
+searching man mumbled a curse. With haste he scrambled to his feet and
+made a quick inspection of the one wabbly-turning wheel. He stripped a
+few shards of rubber away, picked at something in the bent metal rim, and
+put whatever he found in his pocket. When his hand came from the pocket
+it held a packet of paper matches. With an ear cocked at the road above
+and the sound of the approaching car growing louder, the stranger struck
+one match and touched it to the deck of matches. Then with a callous
+gesture he tossed the flaring pack into a pool of spilled gasoline. The
+fuel went up in a blunt <i>whoosh</i>!</p>
+
+<p>The dancing flames revealed the face of Jimmy Holden's "Uncle" Paul
+Brennan, his features in a mask that Jimmy Holden had never seen before.</p>
+
+<p>With the determined air of one who knows that still another piece lies
+hidden, Paul Brennan started to beat back and forth across the trail of
+ruin. His light swept the ground like the brush of a painter, missing no
+spot. Slowly and deliberately he went, paying no attention to the
+creeping tongues of flame that crept along damp trails of spilled
+gasoline.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden felt helplessly alone.</p>
+
+<p>For "Uncle" Paul Brennan was the laughing uncle, the golden uncle; his
+godfather; the bringer of delightful gifts and the teller of fabulous
+stories. Classmate of his father and admirer of his mother, a friend to
+be trusted as he trusted his father and mother, as they trusted Paul
+Brennan. Jimmy Holden did not and could not understand, but he could feel
+the presence of menace. And so with the instinct of any trapped animal,
+he curled inward upon himself and cringed.</p>
+
+<p>Education and information failed. Jimmy Holden had been told and told and
+instructed, and the words had been graven deep in his mind by the same
+fabulous machine that his father used to teach him his grammar and his
+vocabulary and his arithmetic and the horde of other things that made
+Jimmy Holden what he was: "If anything happens to us, you must turn to
+Paul Brennan!"</p>
+
+<p>But nothing in his wealth of extraordinary knowledge covered the way to
+safety when the trusted friend turned fiend.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Shaken by the awful knowledge that all of his props had been kicked out
+from under him, now at last Jimmy Holden whimpered in helpless fright.
+Brennan turned towards the sound and began to beat his way through the
+underbrush.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden saw him coming. It was like one of those dreams he'd had
+where he was unable to move, his muscles frozen, as some unknown horror
+stalked him. It could only end in a terrifying fall through cold space
+towards a tremendous lurch against the bedsprings that brought little
+comfort until his pounding heart came back to normal. But this was no
+dream; it was a known horror that stalked him, and it could not end as
+a dream ends. It was reality.</p>
+
+<p>The horror was a close friend turned animal, and the end was more
+horrible because Jimmy Holden, like all other five-year-olds, had
+absolutely no understanding nor accurate grasp of the concept called
+<i>death</i>. He continued to whimper even though he realized that his fright
+was pointing him out to his enemy. And yet he had no real grasp of the
+concept <i>enemy</i>. He knew about pain; he had been hurt. But only by falls,
+simple misadventures, the needles of inoculation administered by his
+surgeon mother, a paddling for mischief by his engineer father.</p>
+
+<p>But whatever unknown fate was coming was going to be worse than "hurt."
+It was frightful.</p>
+
+<p>Then fate, assisted by Brennan's own act of trying to obliterate any
+possible evidence by fire, attracted a savior. The approaching car
+stopped on the road above and a voice called out, "Hello, down there!"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan could not refuse to answer; his own car was in plain sight by the
+shattered retaining fence. He growled under his breath, but he called
+back, "Hello, the road! Go get the police!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can we help?"</p>
+
+<p>"Beyond help!" cried Brennan. "I'm all right. Get the cops!"</p>
+
+<p>The car door slammed before it took off. Then came the unmistakable
+sounds of another man climbing down the ravine. A second flashlight swung
+here and there until the newcomer faced Brennan in the little circle of
+light.</p>
+
+<p>"What happened?" asked the uninvited volunteer.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan, whatever his thoughts, said in a voice filled with standard
+concern: "Blowout. Then everything went blooey."</p>
+
+<p>"Anyone&mdash;I mean how many&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two dead," said Brennan, and then added because he had to, "and a little
+boy lost."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger eyed the flames and shuddered. "In there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Parents were tossed out. Boy's missing."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad," said the stranger. "God, what a mess. Know 'em?"</p>
+
+<p>"Holdens. Folks that live in the big old house on the hill. My best
+friend and his wife. I was following them home," lied Brennan glibly.
+"C'mon let's see if we can find the kid. What about the police?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sent my wife. Telephone down the road."</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan's reply carried no sound of disappointment over being
+interrupted. "Okay. Let's take a look. You take it that way, and I'll
+cover this side."</p>
+
+<p>The little-boy mind did not need its extensive education to understand
+that Paul Brennan needed no more than a few seconds of unobserved
+activity, after which he could announce the discovery of the third death
+in a voice cracked with false grief.</p>
+
+<p>Animal instinct took over where intelligence failed. The same force that
+caused Jimmy Holden to curl within himself now caused him to relax; help
+that could be trusted was now at hand. The muscles of his throat relaxed.
+He whimpered. The icy paralysis left his arms and legs; he kicked and
+flailed. And finally his nervous system succeeded in making their contact
+with his brain; the nerves carried the pain of his bumps and scratches,
+and Jimmy Holden began to hurt. His stifled whimper broke into a
+shuddering cry, which swiftly turned into sobbing hysteria.</p>
+
+<p>He went out of control. Nothing, not even violence, would shake him back
+until his accumulation of shock upon shock had been washed away in tears.</p>
+
+<p>The sound attracted both men. Side by side they beat through the
+underbrush. They reached for him and Jimmy turned toward the stranger.
+The man picked the lad out of the bed of soft rotting leaves, cradled him
+and stroked his head. Jimmy wrapped his small arms around the stranger's
+neck and held on for life.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take him," said Brennan, reaching out.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's clutch on the stranger tightened.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't pry him loose easily," chuckled the man. "I know. I've got a
+couple of these myself."</p>
+
+<p>Brennan shrugged. "I thought perhaps&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Forget it," said the stranger. "Kid's had trouble. I'll carry him to the
+road, you take him from there."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay."</p>
+
+<p>Getting up the ravine was a job of work for the man who carried Jimmy
+Holden. Brennan gave a hand, aided with a lift, broke down brush, and
+offered to take Jimmy now and again. Jimmy only clung tighter, and the
+stranger waved Brennan away with a quick shake of his head.</p>
+
+<p>By the time they reached the road, sirens were wailing on the road up
+the hill. Police, firemen, and an ambulance swarmed over the scene. The
+firemen went to work on the flaming car with practiced efficiency; the
+police clustered around Paul Brennan and extracted from him a story that
+had enough truth in it to sound completely convincing. The doctors from
+the ambulance took charge of Jimmy Holden. Lacking any other accident
+victim, they went to work on him with everything they could do.</p>
+
+<p>They gave him mild sedation, wrapped him in a warm blanket, and put him
+to bed on the cot in the ambulance with two of them watching over him. In
+the presence of so many solicitous strangers, Jimmy's shock and fright
+diminished. The sedation took hold. He dropped off in a light doze that
+grew less fitful as time went on. By the time the official accident
+report program was over, Jimmy Holden was fast asleep and resting
+comfortably.</p>
+
+<p>He did not hear Paul Brennan's suggestion that Jimmy go home with him,
+to Paul Brennan's personal physician, nor did Jimmy hear the ambulance
+attendants turn away Brennan's suggestion with hard-headed medical
+opinion. Brennan could hardly argue with the fact that an accident victim
+would be better off in a hospital under close observation. Shock demanded
+it, and there was the hidden possibility of internal injury or concussion
+to consider.</p>
+
+<p>So Jimmy Holden awoke with his accident ten hours behind him, and the
+good sleep had completed the standard recuperative powers of the healthy
+child. He looked around, collecting himself, and then remembered the
+accident. He cringed a bit and took another look and identified his
+surroundings as some sort of a children's ward or dormitory.</p>
+
+<p>He was in a crib.</p>
+
+<p>He sat up angrily and rattled the gate of the crib. Putting James Quincy
+Holden in a baby's crib was an insult.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, because the noise echoed through the room and one of the
+younger patients stirred in sleep and moaned. Jimmy Holden sat back and
+remembered. The vacuum that was to follow the loss of his parents was not
+yet in evidence. They were gone and the knowledge made him unhappy, but
+he was not cognizant of the real meaning or emotion of grief. With almost
+the same feeling of loss he thought of the <i>Jungle Book</i> he would never
+read and the Spitz Planetarium he would never see casting its little star
+images on his bedroom ceiling. Burned and ruined, with the atomic energy
+kit&mdash;and he had hoped that he could use the kit to tease his father into
+giving him some education in radioactivity. He was old enough to learn&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Learn&mdash;?</p>
+
+<p><i>No more, now that his father and mother were dead.</i></p>
+
+<p>Some of the real meaning of his loss came to him then, and the growing
+knowledge that this first shocking loss meant the ultimate loss of
+everything was beginning to sink in.</p>
+
+<p>He broke down and cried in the misery of his loss and his helplessness;
+ultimately his emotion began to cry itself out, and he began to feel
+resentment against his position. The animal desire to bite back at
+anything that moved did not last long, it focused properly upon the
+person of his tormentor. Then for a time, Jimmy Holden's imagination
+indulged in a series of little vignettes in which he scored his victory
+over Paul Brennan. These little playlets went through their own
+evolution, starting with physical victory reminiscent of his
+Jack-and-the-Beanstalk days to a more advanced triumph of watching Paul
+Brennan led away in handcuffs whilst the District Attorney scanned the
+sheaf of indisputable evidence provided by James Quincy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere along about this point in his fantasy, a breath of the
+practical entered, and Jimmy began to consider the more sensible problem
+of what sort of information this sheaf of evidence would contain.</p>
+
+<p>Still identifying himself with the books he knew, Jimmy Holden had
+progressed from the fairy story&mdash;where the villain was evil for no more
+motive than to provide menace to the hero&mdash;to his more advanced books,
+where the villain did his evil deeds for the logical motive of personal
+gain.</p>
+
+<p>Well, what had Paul Brennan to gain?</p>
+
+<p>Money, for one thing&mdash;he would be executor of the Holden Estate. But
+there wasn't enough to justify killing. Revenge? For what? Jealousy? For
+whom? Hate? Envy? Jimmy Holden glossed the words quickly, for they were
+no more than words that carried definitions that did not really explain
+them. He could read with the facility of an adult, but a book written for
+a sophisticated audience went over his head.</p>
+
+<p>No, there was only one possible thing of appreciable value; the one thing
+that Paul Brennan hoped to gain was the device over which they had worked
+through all the long years to perfect: The Holden Electromechanical
+Educator! Brennan wanted it badly enough to murder for its possession!</p>
+
+<p>And with a mind and ingenuity far beyond his years, Jimmy Holden knew
+that he alone was the most active operator in this vicious drama. It was
+not without shock that he realized that he himself could still be killed
+to gain possession of his fabulous machine. For only with all <i>three</i>
+Holdens dead could Paul Brennan take full and unquestioned possession.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>With daylight clarity he knew what he had to do. In a single act of
+destruction he could simultaneously foil Paul Brennan's plan and ensure
+his own life.</p>
+
+<p>Permanently installed in Jimmy Holden's brain by the machine itself were
+the full details of how to recreate it. Indelibly he knew each wire and
+link, lever and coil, section by section and piece by piece. It was
+incomprehensible information, about in the same way that the printing
+press "knows" the context of its metal plate. Step by step he could
+rebuild it once he had the means of procuring the parts, and it would
+work even though he had not the foggiest notion (now) of what the various
+parts did.</p>
+
+<p>So if the delicate heart of his father's machine were utterly destroyed,
+Paul Brennan would be extremely careful about preserving the life of
+James Quincy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>He considered his position and what he knew:</p>
+
+<p>Physically, he was a five-year-old. He stood forty-one inches tall and
+weighed thirty-nine pounds. A machinist's hammer was a two-handed tool
+and a five-pound sack of sugar was a burden. Doorknobs and latches were a
+problem in manipulation. The negotiation of a swinging door was a feat of
+muscular engineering. Electric light switches were placed at a tiptoe
+reach because, naturally, everything in the adult world is designed by
+the adults for the convenience of adults. This makes it difficult for the
+child who has no adult to do his bidding.</p>
+
+<p>Intellectually, Jimmy Holden was something else.</p>
+
+<p>Reverting to a curriculum considered sound prior to Mr. Dewey's
+often-questionable and more often misused programs of schooling, Jimmy's
+parents had trained and educated their young man quite well in the
+primary informations of fact. He read with facility and spoke with a fine
+vocabulary&mdash;although no amount of intellectual training could make his
+voice change until his glands did. His knowledge of history, geography
+and literature were good, because he'd used them to study reading. He was
+well into plane geometry and had a smattering of algebra, and there had
+been a pause due to a parental argument as to the advisability of his
+memorizing a table of six-place logarithms via the Holden machine.</p>
+
+<p>Extra-curricularly, Jimmy Holden had acquired snippets, bits, and
+wholesale chunks of a number of the arts and sciences and other
+aggregations of information both pertinent and trivial for one reason
+or another. As an instance, he had absorbed an entire bridge book by
+Charles Goren just to provide a fourth to sit in with his parents and
+Paul Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently, James Holden had in data the education of a boy of about
+sixteen, and in other respects, much more.</p>
+
+<p>He escaped from the hospital simply because no one ever thought that a
+five-year-old boy would have enough get-up-and-go to climb out of his
+crib, rummage a nearby closet, dress himself, and then calmly walk out.
+The clothing of a cocky teen-ager would have been impounded and his
+behavior watched.</p>
+
+<p>They did not miss him for hours. He went, taking the little
+identification card from its frame at the foot of his bed&mdash;and that
+ruined the correlation between tag and patient.</p>
+
+<p>By the time an overworked nurse stopped to think and finally asked,
+"Kitty, are you taking care of the little boy in Bed 6 over in 219?" and
+received the answer, "No, aren't you?" Jimmy Holden was trudging up the
+hill towards his home. Another hour went by with the two worried nurses
+surreptitiously searching the rest of the hospital in the simple hope
+that he had wandered away and could be restored before it came to the
+attention of the officials. By the time they gave up and called in other
+nurses (who helped them in their anxiety to conceal) Jimmy was entering
+his home.</p>
+
+<p>Each succeeding level of authority was loath to report the truth to the
+next higher up.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the general manager of the hospital forced himself to call
+Paul Brennan, Jimmy Holden was demolishing the last broken bits of
+disassembled subassemblies he had smashed from the heart-circuit of the
+Holden Electromechanical Educator. He was most thorough. Broken glass
+went into the refuse buckets, bent metal was buried in the garden,
+inflammables were incinerated, and meltables and fusibles slagged down in
+ashes that held glass, bottle, and empty tin-can in an unrecognizable
+mass. He left a gaping hole in the machine that Brennan could not
+fill&mdash;nor could any living man fill it now but James Quincy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>And only when this destruction was complete did Jimmy Holden first begin
+to understand his father's statement about the few men who see what has
+to be done, do it, <i>and then</i> look to the next inevitable problem created
+by their own act.</p>
+
+<p>It was late afternoon by the time Jimmy had his next moves figured out.
+He left the home he'd grown up in, the home of his parents, of his own
+babyhood. He'd wandered through it for the last time, touching this and
+saying goodbye to that. He was certain that he would never see his things
+again, nor the house itself, but the real vacuum of his loss hadn't yet
+started to form. The concepts of "never" and "forever" were merely words
+that had no real impact.</p>
+
+<p>So was the word "Farewell."</p>
+
+<p>But once his words were said, Jimmy Holden made his small but confident
+way to the window of a railroad ticket agent.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWO" id="CHAPTER_TWO"></a>CHAPTER TWO</h2>
+
+
+<p>You are a ticket agent, settled in the routine of your job. From nine to
+five-thirty, five days a week, you see one face after another. There are
+cheerful faces, sullen faces, faces that breathe garlic, whiskey, chewing
+gum, toothpaste and tobacco fumes. Old faces, young faces, dull faces,
+scarred faces, clear faces, plain faces and faces so plastered with
+makeup that their nature can't be seen at all. They bark place-names at
+you, or ask pleasantly about the cost of round-trip versus one-way
+tickets to Chicago or East Burlap. You deal with them and then you wait
+for the next.</p>
+
+<p>Then one afternoon, about four o'clock, a face barely visible over the
+edge of the marble counter looks up at you with a boy's cheerful freckled
+smile. You have to stand up in order to see him. You smile, and he grins
+at you. Among his belongings is a little leather suitcase, kid's size,
+but not a toy. He is standing on it. Under his arm is a collection of
+comic books, in one small fist is the remains of a candy bar and in the
+other the string of a floating balloon.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, young man, where to? Paris? London? Maybe Mars?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," comes the piping voice, "Roun-tree."</p>
+
+<p>"Roundtree? Yes, I've heard of that metropolis," you reply. You look over
+his head, there aren't any other customers in line behind him so you
+don't mind passing the time of day. "Round-trip or one-way?"</p>
+
+<p>"One-way," comes the quick reply.</p>
+
+<p>This brings you to a slow stop. He does not giggle nor prattle, nor
+launch into a long and involved explanation with halting, dependent
+clauses. This one knows what he wants and how to ask for it. Quite a
+little man!</p>
+
+<p>"How old are you, young fellow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was five years old yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"What's your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm James Holden."</p>
+
+<p>The name does not ring any bells&mdash;because the morning newspaper is
+purchased for its comic strips, the bridge column, the crossword puzzle,
+and the latest dope on love-nest slayings, peccadilloes of the famous,
+the cheesecake photo of the inevitable actress-leaving-for-somewhere, and
+the full page photograph of the latest death-on-the-highway debacle. You
+look at the picture but you don't read the names in the caption, so you
+don't recognize the name, and you haven't been out of your little cage
+since lunchtime and Jimmy Holden was not missing then. So you go on:</p>
+
+<p>"So you're going to go to Roundtree."</p>
+
+<p>"Yessir."</p>
+
+<p>"That costs a lot of money, young Mister Holden."</p>
+
+<p>"Yessir." Then this young man hands you an envelope; the cover says,
+typewritten: <i>Ticket Clerk, Midland Railroad</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A bit puzzled, you open the envelope and find a five-dollar bill folded
+in a sheet of manuscript paper. The note says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>/P
+Ticket Clerk
+Midland Railroad
+Dear Sir:
+P/</p>
+
+<p>This will introduce my son, James Holden. As a birthday present, I am
+sending him for a visit to his grandparents in Roundtree, and to make
+the adventure complete, he will travel alone. Pass the word along to
+keep an eye on him but don't step in unless he gets into trouble. Ask
+the dining car steward to see that he eats dinner on something better
+than candy bars.</p>
+
+<p>Otherwise, he is to believe that he is making this trip completely on
+his own.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sincerely, Louis Holden.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">PS: Divide the change from this five dollars among you as tips. L.H.<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>And so you look down at young Mister Holden and get a feeling of
+vicarious pleasure. You stamp his ticket and hand it to him with a
+gesture. You point out the train-gate he is to go through, and you tell
+him that he is to sit in the third railroad car. As he leaves, you pick
+up the telephone and call the station-master, the conductor, and since
+you can't get the dining-car steward directly, you charge the conductor
+with passing the word along.</p>
+
+<p>Then you divide the change. Of the two-fifty, you extract a dollar,
+feeling that the Senior Holden is a cheapskate. You slip the other buck
+and a half into an envelope, ready for the conductor's hand. He'll think
+Holden Senior is more of a cheapskate, and by the time he extracts his
+cut, the dining car steward will <i>know</i> that Holden Senior is a
+cheapskate. But&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Then a face appears at your window and barks, "Holyoke, Mass.," and your
+normal day falls back into shape.</p>
+
+<p>The response of the people you tell about it varies all the way from
+outrage that anybody would let a kid of five go alone on such a dangerous
+mission to loud bragging that he, too, once went on such a journey, at
+four and a half, and didn't need a note.</p>
+
+<p>But Jimmy Holden is gone from your window, and you won't know for at
+least another day that you've been suckered by a note painstakingly
+typewritten, letter by letter, by a five-year-old boy who has a most
+remarkable vocabulary.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's trip to Roundtree was without incident. Actually, it was easy
+once he had hurdled the ticket-seller with his forged note and the
+five-dollar bill from the cashbox in his father's desk. His error in not
+making it a ten was minor; a larger tip would not have provided him with
+better service, because the train crew were happy to keep an eye on the
+adventurous youngster for his own small sake. Their mild resentment
+against the small tip was directed against the boy's father, not the
+young passenger himself.</p>
+
+<p>He had one problem. The train was hardly out of the station before
+everybody on it knew that there was a five-year-old making a trip all
+by himself. Of course, he was not to be bothered, but everybody wanted
+to talk to him, to ask him how he was, to chatter endlessly at him.
+Jimmy did not want to talk. His experience in addressing adults was
+exasperating. That he spoke lucid English instead of babygab did not
+compel a rational response. Those who heard him speak made over him
+with the same effusive superiority that they used in applauding a
+golden-haired tot in high heels and a strapless evening gown sitting
+on a piano and singing, <i>Why Was I Born?</i> in a piping, uncertain-toned
+voice. It infuriated him.</p>
+
+<p>So he immersed himself in his comic books. He gave his name politely
+every five minutes for the first fifty miles. He turned down offers of
+candy with, "Mommy says I mustn't before supper." And when dinnertime
+came he allowed himself to be escorted through the train by the
+conductor, because Jimmy knew that he couldn't handle the doors without
+help.</p>
+
+<p>The steward placed a menu in front of him, and then asked carefully, "How
+much money do you want to spend, young man?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy had the contents of his father's cashbox pinned to the inside of
+his shirt, and a five-dollar bill folded in a snap-top purse with some
+change in his shirt pocket. He could add with the best of them, but he
+did not want any more attention than he was absolutely forced to attract.
+So he fished out the snap-top purse and opened it to show the steward his
+five-dollar bill. The steward relaxed; he'd had a moment of apprehension
+that Holden Senior might have slipped the kid a half-dollar for dinner.
+(The steward had received a quarter for his share of the original
+two-fifty.)</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy looked at the "Child's Dinner" menu and pointed out a plate: lamb
+chop and mashed potatoes. After that, dinner progressed without incident.
+Jimmy topped it off with a dish of ice cream.</p>
+
+<p>The steward made change. Jimmy watched him carefully, and then said,
+"Daddy says I'm supposed to give you a tip. How much?"</p>
+
+<p>The steward looked down, wondering how he could explain the standard
+dining car tip of fifteen or twenty percent of the bill. He took a
+swallow of air and picked out a quarter. "This will do nicely," he said
+and went off thankful that all people do not ask waiters how much they
+think they deserve for the service rendered.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Jimmy Holden arrived in Roundtree and was observed and convoyed&mdash;but
+not bothered&mdash;off the train.</p>
+
+<p>It is deplorable that adults are not as friendly and helpful to one
+another as they are to children; it might make for a more pleasant world.
+As Jimmy walked along the station platform at Roundtree, one of his
+former fellow-passengers walked beside him. "Where are you going, young
+man? Someone going to meet you, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I'm supposed to take a cab&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going your way, why not ride along with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure it's all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing. Come along." Jimmy never knew that this man felt good for a
+week after he'd done his good turn for the year.</p>
+
+<p>His grandfather opened the door and looked down at him in complete
+surprise. "Why, Jimmy! What are you doing here? Who brought&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His grandmother interrupted, "Come in! Come in! Don't just stand there
+with the door open!"</p>
+
+<p>Grandfather closed the door firmly, grandmother knelt and folded Jimmy
+in her arms and crooned over him, "You poor darling. You brave little
+fellow. Donald," she said firmly to her husband, "go get a glass of warm
+milk and some cookies." She led Jimmy to the old-fashioned parlor and
+seated him on the sofa. "Now, Jimmy, you relax a moment and then you can
+tell me what happened."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy sighed and looked around. The house was old, and comfortably
+sturdy. It gave him a sense of refuge, of having reached a safe haven at
+last. The house was over-warm, and there was a musty smell of over-aged
+furniture, old leather, and the pungence of mothballs. It seemed to
+generate a feeling of firm stability. Even the slightly stale air&mdash;there
+probably hadn't been a wide open window since the storm sashes were
+installed last autumn&mdash;provided a locked-in feeling that conversely meant
+that the world was locked out.</p>
+
+<p>Grandfather brought in the glass of warmed milk and a plate of cookies.
+He sat down and asked, "What happened, Jimmy?"</p>
+
+<p>"My mother and father are&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You eat your cookies and drink your milk," ordered his grandmother. "We
+know. That Mr. Brennan sent us a telegram."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It was slightly more than twenty-four hours since Jimmy Holden had blown
+out the five proud candles on his birthday cake and begun to open his
+fine presents. Now it all came back with a rush, and when it came back,
+nothing could stop it.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy never knew how very like a little boy of five he sounded that
+night. His speech was clear enough, but his troubled mind was too full
+to take the time to form his headlong thoughts into proper sentences.
+He could not pause to collect his thoughts into any chronology, so it
+came out going back and forth all in a single line, punctuated only by
+necessary pauses for the intake of breath. He was close to tears before
+he was halfway through, and by the time he came to the end he stopped in
+a sob and broke out crying.</p>
+
+<p>His grandfather said, "Jimmy, aren't you exaggerating? Mr. Brennan isn't
+that sort of a man."</p>
+
+<p>"He is too!" exploded Jimmy through his tears. "I saw him!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Donald, this is no time to start cross-examining a child." She crossed
+the room and lifted him onto her lap; she stroked his head and held his
+cheek against her shoulder. His open crying subsided into deep sobs; from
+somewhere she found a handkerchief and made him blow his nose&mdash;once,
+twice, and then a deep thrice. "Get me a warm washcloth," she told her
+husband, and with it she wiped away his tears. The warmth soothed Jimmy
+more.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," she said firmly, "before we go into this any more we'll have a
+good night's sleep."</p>
+
+<p>The featherbed was soft and cozy. Like protecting mother-wings, it folded
+Jimmy into its bosom, and the warm softness drew out of Jimmy whatever
+remained of his stamina. Tonight he slept of weariness and exhaustion,
+not of the sedation given last night. Here he felt at home, and it was
+good.</p>
+
+<p>And as tomorrows always had, tomorrow would take care of itself.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden's father and mother first met over an operating table,
+dressed in the white sterility that leaves only the eyes visible. She
+wielded the trephine that laid the patient's brain bare, he kept track of
+the patient's life by observing the squiggles on the roll of graph paper
+that emerged from his encephalograph. She knew nothing of the craft of
+the delicate instrument-creator, and he knew even less of the craft of
+surgery. There had been a near-argument during the cleaning-up session
+after the operation; the near-argument ended when they both realized that
+neither of them understood a word of what the other was saying. So the
+near-argument became an animated discussion, the general meaning of
+which became clear: Brain surgeons should know more about the intricacies
+of electromechanics, and the designers of delicate, precision
+instrumentation should know more about the mass of human gray matter they
+were trying to measure.</p>
+
+<p>They pooled their intellects and plunged into the problem of creating an
+encephalograph that would record the infinitesimal irregularities that
+were superimposed upon the great waves. Their operation became large;
+they bought the old structure on top of the hill and moved in, bag and
+baggage. They cohabited but did not live together for almost a year;
+Paul Brennan finally pointed out that Organized Society might permit a
+couple of geniuses to become research hermits, but Organized Society
+still took a dim view of cohabitation without a license. Besides, such
+messy arrangements always cluttered up the legal clarity of chattels,
+titles, and estates.</p>
+
+<p>They married in a quiet ceremony about two years prior to the date that
+Louis Holden first identified the fine-line wave-shapes that went with
+determined ideas. When he recorded them and played them back, his brain
+re-traced its original line of thought, and he could not even make a
+mental revision of the way his thoughts were arranged. For two years
+Louis and Laura Holden picked their way slowly through this field;
+stumped at one point for several months because the machine was strictly
+a personal proposition. Recorded by one of them, the playback was clear
+to that one, but to the other it was wild gibberish&mdash;an inexplicable
+tangle of noise and colored shapes, odors and tastes both pleasant and
+nasty, and mingled sensations. It was five years after their marriage
+before they found success by engraving information in the brain by
+sitting, connected to the machine, and reading aloud, word for word, the
+information that they wanted.</p>
+
+<p>It went by rote, as they had learned in childhood. It was the tiresome
+repetition of going over and over and over the lines of a poem or the
+numbers of the multiplication table until the pathway was a deeply
+trodden furrow in the brain. Forever imprinted, it was retained until
+death. Knowledge is stored by rote.</p>
+
+<p>To accomplish this end, Louis Holden succeeded in violating all of the
+theories of instrumentation by developing a circuit that acted as a sort
+of reverberation chamber which returned the wave-shape played into it
+back to the same terminals without interference, and this single circuit
+became the very heart of the Holden Electromechanical Educator.</p>
+
+<p>With success under way, the Holdens needed an intellectual guinea pig, a
+virgin mind, an empty store-house to fill with knowledge. They planned a
+twenty-year program of research, to end by handing their machine to the
+world complete with its product and instructions for its use and a list
+of pitfalls to avoid.</p>
+
+<p>The conception of James Quincy Holden was a most carefully-planned
+parenthood. It was not accomplished without love or passion. Love had
+come quietly, locking them together physically as they had been bonded
+intellectually. The passion had been deliberately provoked during the
+proper moment of Laura Holden's cycle of ovulation. This scientific
+approach to procreation was no experiment, it was the foregone-conclusive
+act to produce a component absolutely necessary for the completion of
+their long program of research. They happily left to Nature's Choice the
+one factor they could not control, and planned to accept an infant of
+either sex with equal welcome. They loved their little boy as they loved
+one another, rejoiced with him, despaired with him, and made their own
+way with success and mistake, and succeeded in bringing Jimmy to five
+years of age quite normal except for his education.</p>
+
+<p>Now, proficiency in brain surgery does not come at an early age, nor does
+world-wide fame in the field of delicate instrumentation. Jimmy's parents
+were over forty-five on the date of his birth.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's grandparents were, then, understandably aged seventy-eight and
+eighty-one.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The old couple had seen their life, and they knew it for what it was.
+They arose each morning and faced the day knowing that there would be no
+new problem, only recurrence of some problem long solved. Theirs was a
+comfortable routine, long gone was their spirit of adventure, the
+pleasant notions of trying something a new and different way. At their
+age, they were content to take the easiest and the simplest way of doing
+what they thought to be Right. Furthermore, they had lived long enough to
+know that no equitable decision can be made by listening to only one side
+of any argument.</p>
+
+<p>While young Jimmy was polishing off a platter of scrambled eggs the
+following morning, Paul Brennan arrived. Jimmy's fork stopped in midair
+at the sound of Brennan's voice in the parlor.</p>
+
+<p>"You called him," he said accusingly.</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother Holden said, "He's your legal guardian, James."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;I don't&mdash;can't&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, James, your father and mother knew best."</p>
+
+<p>"But they didn't know about Paul Brennan. I won't go!"</p>
+
+<p>"You must."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't!"</p>
+
+<p>"James," said Grandmother Holden quietly, "you can't stay here."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"We're not prepared to keep you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>Grandmother Holden despaired. How could she make this youngster
+understand that eighty is not an age at which to embark upon the process
+of raising a five-year-old to maturity?</p>
+
+<p>From the other room, Paul Brennan was explaining his side as he'd given
+it to the police. "&mdash;Forgot the land option that had to be signed. So I
+took off after them and drove fast enough to catch up. I was only a
+couple of hundred yards behind when it happened."</p>
+
+<p>"He's a liar!" cried Jimmy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>"That's not a nice thing to say."</p>
+
+<p>"It's true!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy!" came the reproachful tone.</p>
+
+<p>"It's true!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>His grandfather and Paul Brennan came into the kitchen. "Ah, Jimmy,"
+said Paul in a soothing voice, "why did you run off? You had everybody
+worried."</p>
+
+<p>"You did! You lie! You&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"James!" snapped his grandfather. "Stop that talk at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be easy with him, Mr. Holden. He's upset. Jimmy, let's get this settled
+right now. What did I do and how do I lie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please Mr. Brennan," said his grandmother. "This isn't necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but it is. It is very important. As the legal guardian of young
+James, I can't have him harboring some suspicion as deep as this. Come
+on, Jimmy. Let's talk it out right now. What did I do and how am I
+lying?"</p>
+
+<p>"You weren't behind. You forced us off the road."</p>
+
+<p>"How could he, young man?" demanded Grandfather Holden.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, but he did."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, sir," said Brennan quietly. "It isn't going to be enough
+to force him into agreement. He's got to see the truth for itself, of his
+own construction from the facts. Now, Jimmy, where was I when you left my
+apartment?"</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you were there."</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't I say&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"One moment," said Grandfather Holden. "Don't lead the witness."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry. James, what did I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;" then a long pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Jimmy."</p>
+
+<p>"You shook hands with my father."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you&mdash;kissed my mother on the cheek."</p>
+
+<p>"And then, again?"</p>
+
+<p>"And then you carried my birthday presents down and put them in the car."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Jimmy, how does your father drive? Fast or slow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fast."</p>
+
+<p>"So now, young man, you tell me how I could go back up to my apartment,
+get my coat and hat, get my car out of the garage, and race to the top of
+that hill so that I could turn around and come at you around that curve?
+Just tell me that, young man."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;don't know&mdash;how you did it."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't make sense, does it?"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;No&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy, I'm trying to help you. Your father and I were fraternity
+brothers in college. I was best man at your parents' wedding. I am your
+godfather. Your folks were taken away from both of us&mdash;and I'm hoping to
+take care of you as if you were mine." He turned to Jimmy's grandparents.
+"I wish to God that I could find the driver of that other car. He didn't
+hit anybody, but he's as guilty of a hit-and-run offence as the man who
+does. If I ever find him, I'll have him in jail until he rots!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy," pleaded his grandmother, "can't you see? Mr. Brennan is only
+trying to help. Why would he do the evil thing you say he did?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;" and Jimmy started to cry. The utter futility of trying to
+make people believe was too much to bear.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy, please stop it and be a man," said Brennan. He put a hand on
+Jimmy's shoulder. Jimmy flung it aside with a quick twist and a turn.
+"Please, Jimmy," pleaded Brennan. Jimmy left his chair and buried his
+face in a corner of the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy, believe me," pleaded Brennan. "I'm going to take you to live in
+your old house, among your own things. I can't replace your folks, but I
+can try to be as close to your father as I know how. I'll see you through
+everything, just as your mother and father want me to."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" exploded Jimmy through a burst of tears.</p>
+
+<p>Grandfather Holden grunted. "This is getting close to the tantrum stage,"
+he said. "And the only way to deal with a tantrum is to apply the flat of
+the hand to the round of the bottom."</p>
+
+<p>"Please," smiled Brennan. "He's a pretty shaken youngster. He's
+emotionally hurt and frightened, and he wants to strike out and hurt
+something back."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he's done enough of that," said Grandfather Holden. "When Louis
+tossed one of these fits of temper where he wouldn't listen to any
+reason, we did as we saw fit anyway and let him kick and scream until
+he got tired of the noise he made."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's not be rough," pleaded Jimmy's grandmother. "He's just a little
+boy, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"If he weren't so little he'd have better sense," snapped Grandfather.</p>
+
+<p>"James," said Paul Brennan quietly, "do you see you're making trouble for
+your grandparents? Haven't we enough trouble as it is? Now, young man,
+for the last time, will you walk or will you be carried? Whichever,
+Jimmy, we're going back home!"</p>
+
+<p>James Holden gave up. "I'll go," he said bitterly, "but I hate you."</p>
+
+<p>"He'll be all right," promised Brennan. "I swear it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Jimmy, be good for Mr. Brennan," pleaded his grandmother. "After
+all, it's for your own good." Jimmy turned away, bewildered, hurt and
+silent. He stubbornly refused to say goodbye to his grandparents.</p>
+
+<p>He was trapped in the world of grown-ups that believed a lying adult
+before they would even consider the truth of a child.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THREE" id="CHAPTER_THREE"></a>CHAPTER THREE</h2>
+
+
+<p>The drive home was a bitter experience. Jimmy was sullen, and very quiet.
+He refused to answer any question and he made no reply to any statement.
+Paul Brennan kept up a running chatter of pleasantries, of promises and
+plans for their future, and just enough grief to make it sound honest.
+Had Paul Brennan actually been as honest as his honeyed tones said he
+was, no one could have continued to accuse him. But no one is more
+difficult to fool than a child&mdash;even a normal child. Paul Brennan's
+protestations simply made Jimmy Holden bitter.</p>
+
+<p>He sat silent and unhappy in the far corner of the front seat all the way
+home. In his mind was a nameless threat, a dread of what would come once
+they were inside&mdash;either inside of Paul Brennan's apartment or inside of
+his own home&mdash;with the door locked against the outside world.</p>
+
+<p>But when they arrived, Paul Brennan continued his sympathetic attitude.
+To Jimmy it was sheer hypocrisy; he was not experienced enough to know
+that a person can commit an act and then convince himself that he hadn't.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy," said Brennan softly, "I have not the faintest notion of
+punishment. None whatsoever. You ruined your father's great invention.
+You did that because you thought it was right. Someday when you change
+your mind and come to believe in me, I'll ask you to replace it because I
+know you can. But understand me, young man, I shall not ask you until you
+make the first suggestion yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"One more thing," said Brennan firmly. "Don't try that stunt with the
+letter to the station agent again. It won't work twice. Not in this town
+nor any other for a long, long time. I've made a sort of family-news item
+out of it which hit a lot of daily papers. It'll also be in the company
+papers of all the railroads and buslines, how Mr. What's-his-name at the
+Midland Railroad got suckered by a five-year-old running away from home.
+Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy understood but made no sign.</p>
+
+<p>"Then in September we'll start you in school," said Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>This statement made no impression upon young James Holden whatsoever. He
+had no intention of enduring this smothering by overkindness any longer
+than it took him to figure out how to run away, and where to run to. It
+was going to be a difficult thing. Cruel treatment, torture, physical
+harm were one thing; this act of being a deeply-concerned guardian was
+something else. A twisted arm he could complain about, a bruise he could
+show, the scars of lashing would give credence to his tale. But who would
+listen to any complaint about too much kindness?</p>
+
+<p>Six months of this sort of treatment and Jimmy Holden himself would begin
+to believe that his parents were monsters, coldly stuffing information in
+the head of an infant instead of letting him grow through a normal
+childhood. A year, and Jimmy Holden would be re-creating his father's
+reverberation circuit out of sheer gratitude. He'd be cajoled into
+signing his own death-warrant.</p>
+
+<p>But where can a five-year-old hide? There was no appeal to the forces of
+law and order. They would merely pop him into a squad car and deliver him
+to his guardian.</p>
+
+<p>Law and order were out. His only chance was to lose himself in some gray
+hinterland where there were so many of his own age that no one could keep
+track of them all. Whether he would succeed was questionable. But until
+he tried, he wouldn't know, and Jimmy was desperate enough to try
+anything.</p>
+
+<p>He attended the funeral services with Paul Brennan. But while the pastor
+was invoking Our Heavenly Father to accept the loving parents of orphaned
+James, James the son left the side of his "Uncle" Paul Brennan, who knelt
+in false piety with his eyes closed.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden had with him only his clothing and what was left of the wad
+of paper money from his father's cashbox still pinned to the inside of
+his shirt.</p>
+
+<p>This time Jimmy did not ride in style. Burlap sacks covered him when
+night fell; they dirtied his clothing and the bottom of the freight car
+scuffed his shoes. For eighteen hours he hid in the jolting darkness, not
+knowing and caring less where he was going, so long as it was away!</p>
+
+<p>He was hungry and thirsty by the time the train first began to slow down.
+It was morning&mdash;somewhere. Jimmy looked furtively out of the slit at the
+edge of the door to see that the train was passing through a region of
+cottages dusted black by smoke, through areas of warehouse and factory,
+through squalor and filth and slum; and vacant lots where the spread of
+the blight area had been so fast that the outward improvement had not
+time to build. Eventually the scene changed to solid areas of railroad
+track, and the trains parked there thickened until he could no longer
+see the city through them.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately the train stopped long enough for Jimmy to squeeze out through
+the slit at the edge of the door.</p>
+
+<p>The train went on and Jimmy was alone in the middle of some huge city.
+He walked the noisome sidewalk trying to decide what he should do next.
+Food was of high importance, but how could he get it without attracting
+attention to himself? He did not know. But finally he reasoned that a
+hot dog wagon would probably take cash from a youngster without asking
+embarrassing questions, so long as the cash wasn't anything larger than
+a five-dollar bill.</p>
+
+<p>He entered the next one he came to. It was dirty; the windows held
+several years' accumulation of cooking grease, but the aroma was terrific
+to a young animal who'd been without food since yesterday afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>The counterman did not like kids, but he put away his dislike at the
+sight of Jimmy's money. He grunted when Jimmy requested a dog, tossed one
+on the grill and went back to reading his newspaper until some inner
+sense told him it was cooked. Jimmy finished it still hungry and asked
+for another. He finished a third and washed down the whole mass with a
+tall glass of highly watered orange juice. The counterman took his money
+and was very careful about making the right change; if this dirty kid had
+swiped the five-spot, it could be the counterman's problem of explaining
+to someone why he had overcharged. Jimmy's intelligence told him that
+countermen in a joint like this didn't expect tips, so he saved himself
+that hurdle. He left the place with a stomach full of food that only the
+indestructible stomach of a five-year-old could handle and now, fed and
+reasonably content, Jimmy began to seek his next point of contact.</p>
+
+<p>He had never been in a big city before. The sheer number of human beings
+that crowded the streets surpassed his expectations. The traffic was not
+personally terrifying, but it was so thick that Jimmy Holden wondered how
+people drove without colliding. He knew about traffic lights and walked
+with the green, staying out of trouble. He saw groups of small children
+playing in the streets and in the empty lots. Those not much older than
+himself were attending school.</p>
+
+<p>He paused to watch a group of children his own age trying to play
+baseball with a ragged tennis ball and the handle from a broom. It was a
+helter-skelter game that made no pattern but provided a lot of fun and
+screaming. He was quite bothered by a quarrel that came up; two of his
+own age went at one another with tiny fists flying, using words that
+Jimmy hadn't learned from his father's machine.</p>
+
+<p>He wondered how he might join them in their game. But they paid him no
+attention, so he didn't try.</p>
+
+<p>At lunchtime Jimmy consumed another collection of hot dogs. He continued
+to meander aimlessly through the city until schooltime ended, then he saw
+the streets and vacant lots fill with older children playing games with
+more pattern to them. It was a new world he watched, a world that had not
+been a part of his education. The information he owned was that of the
+school curriculum; it held nothing of the daily business of growing up.
+He knew the general rules of big-league baseball, but the kid-business of
+stickball did not register.</p>
+
+<p>He was at a complete loss. It was sheer chance and his own tremendous
+curiosity that led him to the edge of a small group that were busily
+engaged in the odd process of trying to jack up the front of a car.</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't a very good jack; it should have had the weight of a full adult
+against the handle. The kids strained and put their weight on the jack,
+but the handle wouldn't budge though their feet were off the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Here was the place where academic information would be useful&mdash;and the
+chance for an "in." Jimmy shoved himself into the small group and said,
+"Get a longer handle."</p>
+
+<p>They turned on him suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatcha know about it?" demanded one, shoving his chin out.</p>
+
+<p>"Get a longer handle," repeated Jimmy. "Go ahead, get one."</p>
+
+<p>"G'wan&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, Moe. Maybe&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Who's he?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm Jimmy."</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy who?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy&mdash;James." Academic information came up again. "Jimmy. Like the
+jimmy you use on a window."</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy James. Any relation to Jesse James?"</p>
+
+<p>James Quincy Holden now told his first whopper. "I," he said, "am his
+grandson."</p>
+
+<p>The one called Moe turned to one of the younger ones. "Get a longer
+handle," he said.</p>
+
+<p>While the younger one went for something to use as a longer handle, Moe
+invited Jimmy to sit on the curb. "Cigarette?" invited Moe.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't smoke," said Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Sissy?"</p>
+
+<p>Adolescent-age information looking out through five-year-old eyes assayed
+Moe. Moe was about eight, maybe even nine; taller than Jimmy but no
+heavier. He had a longer reach, which was an advantage that Jimmy did not
+care to hazard. There was no sure way to establish physical superiority;
+Jimmy was uncertain whether any show of intellect would be welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said. "I'm no sissy. I don't like 'em."</p>
+
+<p>Moe lit a cigarette and smoked with much gesturing and flickings of ashes
+and spitting at a spot on the pavement. He was finished when the younger
+one came back with a length of water pipe that would fit over the handle
+of the jack.</p>
+
+<p>The car went up with ease. Then came the business of removing the hubcap
+and the struggle to loose the lugbolts. Jimmy again suggested the
+application of the length of pipe. The wheel came off.</p>
+
+<p>"C'mon, Jimmy," said Moe. "We'll cut you in."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," nodded Jimmy Holden, willing to see what came next so long as it
+did not have anything to do with Paul Brennan. Moe trundled the car wheel
+down the street, steering it with practiced hands. A block down and a
+block around that corner, a man with a three-day growth of whiskers
+stopped a truck with a very dirty license plate. Moe stopped and the
+man jumped out of the truck long enough to heave the tire and wheel into
+the back.</p>
+
+<p>The man gave Moe a handful of change which Moe distributed among the
+little gang. Then he got in the truck beside the driver and waved for
+Jimmy to come along.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that for?" demanded the driver.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a smarty pants," said Moe. "A real good one."</p>
+
+<p>"Who're you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy&mdash;James."</p>
+
+<p>"What'cha do, kid?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Moe, what did this kid sell you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You and your rusty jacks," grunted Moe. "Jimmy James here told us how to
+put a long hunk of pipe on the handle."</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy James, who taught you about leverage?" demanded the driver
+suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden believed that he was in the presence of an educated man.
+"Archimedes," he said solemnly, giving it the proper pronunciation.</p>
+
+<p>The driver said to Moe, "Think he's all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's smart enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Who're your parents, kid?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy Holden realized that this was a fine time to tell the truth, but
+properly diluted to taste. "My folks are dead," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Who you staying with?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one."</p>
+
+<p>The driver of the truck eyed him cautiously for a moment. "You escaped
+from an orphan asylum?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh," lied Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't saying."</p>
+
+<p>"Wise, huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't want to get sent back," said Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Got a flop?"</p>
+
+<p>"Flop?"</p>
+
+<p>"Place to sleep for the night."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Where'd you sleep last night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Boxcar."</p>
+
+<p>"Bindlestiff, huh?" roared the man with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I've no bindle."</p>
+
+<p>The man's roar of laughter stopped abruptly. "You're a pretty wise kid,"
+he said thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I told y' so," said Moe.</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up," snapped the man. "Kid, do you want a flop for the night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay. You're in."</p>
+
+<p>"What's your name?" asked Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"You call me Jake. Short for Jacob. Er&mdash;here's the place."</p>
+
+<p>The "Place" had no other name. It was a junkyard. In it were car parts,
+wrecks with parts undamaged, whole motors rusting in the air, axles,
+wheels, differential assemblies and transmissions from a thousand cars of
+a thousand different parentages. Hubcaps abounded in piles sorted to size
+and shape. Jake drove the little pickup truck into an open shed. The tire
+and wheel came from the back and went immediately into place on a
+complicated gadget. In a couple of minutes, the tire was off the wheel
+and the inner tube was out of the casing. Wheel, casing, and inner tube
+all went into three separate storage piles.</p>
+
+<p>Not only a junkyard, but a stripper's paradise. Bring a hot car in here
+and in a few hours no one could find it. Its separated parts would be
+sold piece by piece and week by week as second-hand replacements.</p>
+
+<p>Jake said, "Dollar-fifty."</p>
+
+<p>"Two," said Moe.</p>
+
+<p>"One seventy-five."</p>
+
+<p>"Two."</p>
+
+<p>"Go find it and put it back."</p>
+
+<p>"Gimme the buck-six," grunted Moe. "Pretty cheap for a good shoe, a
+wheel, and a sausage."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring it in alone next time, and I'll slip you two-fifty. That gang you
+use costs, too. Now scram, Jimmy James and I got business to talk over."</p>
+
+<p>"He taking over?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk stupid. I need a spotter. You're too old, Moe. And if he's
+any good, you gotta promotion coming."</p>
+
+<p>"And if he ain't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't come back!"</p>
+
+<p>Moe eyed Jimmy Holden. "Make it good&mdash;Jimmy." There was malice in Moe's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>Jake looked down at Jimmy Holden. With precisely the same experienced
+technique he used to estimate the value of a car loaded with road dirt,
+rust, and collision-smashed fenders, Jake stripped the child of the
+dirty clothing, the scuffed shoes, the mussed hair, and saw through to
+the value beneath. Its price was one thousand dollars, offered with no
+questions asked for information that would lead to the return of one
+James Quincy Holden to his legal guardian.</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't magic on Jake's part. Paul Brennan had instantly offered a
+reward. And Jake made it his business to keep aware of such matters.</p>
+
+<p>How soon, wondered Jake, might the ante be raised to two Gee? Five? And
+in the meantime, if things panned, Jimmy could be useful as a spotter.</p>
+
+<p>"You afraid of that Moe punk, Jimmy?"</p>
+
+<p>"No sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good, but keep an eye on him. He'd sell his mother for fifty cents clear
+profit&mdash;seventy-five if he had to split the deal. Now, kid, do you know
+anything about spotting?"</p>
+
+<p>"No sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Hungry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Come on in and we'll eat. Do you like Mulligan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. You and me are going to get along."</p>
+
+<p>Inside of the squalid shack, Jake had a cozy set-up. The filth that he
+encouraged out in the junkyard was not tolerated inside his shack. The
+dividing line was halfway across the edge of the door; the inside was as
+clean, neat, and shining as the outside was squalid.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll sleep here," said Jake, waving towards a small bedroom with a
+single twin bunk. "You'll make yer own bed and take a shower every
+night&mdash;or out! Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. Now, let's have chow, and I'll tell you about this spotting
+business. You help me, and I'll help you. One blab and back you go to
+where you came from. Get it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>And so, while the police of a dozen cities were scouring their beats for
+a homeless, frightened five-year-old, Jimmy Holden slept in a comfortable
+bed in a clean room, absolutely disguised by an exterior that looked like
+an abandoned manure shed.</p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOUR" id="CHAPTER_FOUR"></a>CHAPTER FOUR</h2>
+
+<p>Jimmy discovered that he was admirably suited
+to the business of spotting. The "job turnover" was high because the
+spotter must be young enough to be allowed the freedom of the preschool
+age, yet be mature enough to follow orders.</p>
+
+<p>The job consisted of meandering through the streets of the city, in
+the aimless patterns of youth, while keeping an eye open for parked
+automobiles with the ignition keys still in their locks.</p>
+
+<p>Only a very young child can go whooping through the streets bumping
+pedestrians, running wildly, or walking from car to car twiggling each
+door handle and peering inside as if he were imitating a door-to-door
+salesman, occasionally making a minor excursion in one shop door and out
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>He takes little risk. He merely spots the target. He reports that there
+is such-and-such a car parked so-and-so, after which he goes on to spot
+the next target. The rest of the business is up to the men who do the
+actual stealing.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's job-training program took only one morning. That same afternoon
+he went to work for Jake's crew.</p>
+
+<p>Jake's experience with kids had been no more than so-so promising. He
+used them because they were better than nothing. He did not expect them
+to stay long; they were gobbled up by the rules of compulsory education
+just about the age when they could be counted upon to follow orders.</p>
+
+<p>He felt about the same with Jimmy Holden; the "missing person" report
+stated that one of the most prominent factors in the lad's positive
+identification was his high quality of speech and his superior
+intelligence. (This far Paul Brennan had to go, and he had divulged
+the information with great reluctance.)</p>
+
+<p>But though Jake needed a preschool child with intelligence, he did not
+realize the height of Jimmy Holden's.</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious to Jimmy on the second day that Jake's crew was not taking
+advantage of every car spotted. One of them had been a "natural" to
+Jimmy's way of thinking. He asked Jake about it: "Why didn't you take the
+sea-green Ford in front of the corner store?"</p>
+
+<p>"Too risky."</p>
+
+<p>"Risky?"</p>
+
+<p>Jake nodded. "Spotting isn't risky, Jimmy. But picking the car up is.
+There is a very dangerous time when the driver is a sitting duck. From
+the moment he opens the car door he is in danger. Sitting in the chance
+of getting caught, he must start the car, move it out of the parking
+space into traffic, and get under way and gone before he is safe."</p>
+
+<p>"But the sea-green Ford was sitting there with its engine running!"</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning," nodded Jake, "that the driver pulled in and made a fast dash
+into the store for a newspaper or a pack of cigarettes."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand. Your man could get caught. Or," added Jimmy thoughtfully,
+"the owner might even take his car away before we got there."</p>
+
+<p>Jake nodded. This one was going to make it easy for him.</p>
+
+<p>As the days wore on, Jimmy became more selective. He saw no point in
+reporting a car that wasn't going to be used. An easy mark wedged between
+two other cars couldn't be removed with ease. A car parked in front of a
+parking meter with a red flag was dangerous, it meant that the time was
+up and the driver should be getting nervous about it. A man who came
+shopping along the street to find a meter with some time left by the
+former driver was obviously looking for a quick-stop place&mdash;whereas the
+man who fed the meter to its limit was a much better bet.</p>
+
+<p>Jake, thankful for what Fate had brought him, now added refinements of
+education. Cars parked in front of supermarkets weren't safe; the owner
+might be standing just inside the big plate glass window. The car parked
+hurriedly just before the opening of business was likely to be a good bet
+because people are careless about details when they are hurrying to punch
+the old time clock.</p>
+
+<p>Jake even closed down his operations during the calculated danger
+periods, but he made sure to tell Jimmy Holden why.</p>
+
+<p>From school-closing to dinnertime Jimmy was allowed to do as he pleased.
+He found it hard to enjoy playing with his contemporaries, and Jake's
+explanation about dangerous times warned Jimmy against joining Moe and
+his little crew of thieves. Jimmy would have enjoyed helping in the
+stripping yard, but he had not the heft for it. They gave him little
+messy jobs to do that grimed his hands and made Jake's stern rule of
+cleanliness hard to achieve. Jimmy found it easier to avoid such jobs
+than to scrub his skin raw.</p>
+
+<p>One activity he found to his ability was the cooking business.</p>
+
+<p>Jake was a stew-man, a soup-man, a slum-gullion man. The fellows who
+roamed in and out of Jake's Place dipped their plate of slum from the
+pot and their chunk of bread from the loaf and talked all through this
+never-started and never-ended lunch. With the delicacy of his "inside"
+life, Jake knew the value of herbs and spices and he was a hard
+taskmaster. But inevitably, Jimmy learned the routine of brewing a bucket
+of slum that suited Jake's taste, after which Jimmy was now and then
+permitted to take on the more demanding job of cooking the steaks and
+chops that made their final evening meal.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy applied himself well, for the knowledge was going to be handy. More
+important, it kept him from the jobs that grimed his hands.</p>
+
+<p>He sought other pursuits, but Jake had never had a resident spotter
+before and the play-facilities provided were few. Jimmy took to
+reading&mdash;necessarily, the books that Jake read, that is, approximately
+equal parts of science fiction and girlie-girlie books. The science
+fiction he enjoyed; but he was not able to understand why he wasn't
+interested in the girlie books. So Jimmy read. Jake even went out of his
+way to find more science fiction for the lad.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately, Jimmy located a potential source of pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>He spotted a car with a portable typewriter on the back seat. The car was
+locked and therefore no target, but it stirred his fancy. Thereafter he
+added a contingent requirement to his spotting. A car with a typewriter
+was more desirable than one without.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy went on to further astound Jake by making a list of what the
+customers were buying. After that he concentrated on spotting those cars
+that would provide the fastest sale for their parts.</p>
+
+<p>It was only a matter of time; Jimmy spotted a car with a portable
+typewriter. It was not as safe a take as his others, but he reported it.
+Jake's driver picked it up and got it out in a squeak; the car itself
+turned up to be no great find.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy claimed the typewriter at once.</p>
+
+<p>Jake objected: "No dice, Jimmy."</p>
+
+<p>"I want it, Jake."</p>
+
+<p>"Look, kid, I can sell it for twenty."</p>
+
+<p>"But I want it."</p>
+
+<p>Jake eyed Jimmy thoughtfully, and he saw two things. One was a
+thousand-dollar reward standing before him. The other was a row of prison
+bars.</p>
+
+<p>Jake could only collect one and avoid the other by being very sure that
+Jimmy Holden remained grateful to Jake for Jake's shelter and protection.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed roughly. "All right, Jimmy," he said. "You lift it and you can
+have it."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy struggled with the typewriter, and succeeded only because it was a
+new one made of the titanium-magnesium-aluminum alloys. It hung between
+his little knees, almost&mdash;but not quite&mdash;touching the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You have it," said Jake. He lifted it lightly and carried it into the
+boy's little bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy started after dinner. He picked out the letters with the same
+painful search he'd used in typing his getaway letter. He made the
+same mistakes he'd made before. It had taken him almost an hour and
+nearly fifty sheets of paper to compose that first note without an
+error; that was no way to run a railroad; now Jimmy was determined
+to learn the proper operation of this machine. But finally the jagged
+tack-tack&mdash;pause&mdash;tack-tack got on Jake's nerves.</p>
+
+<p>Jake came in angrily. "You're wasting paper," he snapped. He eyed Jimmy
+thoughtfully. "How come with your education you don't know how to type?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father wouldn't let me."</p>
+
+<p>"Seems your father wouldn't let you do anything."</p>
+
+<p>"He said that I couldn't learn until I was old enough to learn properly.
+He said I must not get into the habit of using the hunt-and-peck system,
+or I'd never get out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"So what are you doing now?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"And anything he said before doesn't count any more?"</p>
+
+<p>"He promised me that he'd start teaching me as soon as my hands were big
+enough," said Jimmy soberly. "But he isn't here any more. So I've got to
+learn my own way."</p>
+
+<p>Jake reflected. Jimmy was a superior spotter. He was also a potential
+danger; the other kids played it as a game and didn't really realize what
+they were doing. This one knew precisely what he was doing, knew that it
+was wrong, and had the lucidity of speech to explain in full detail. It
+was a good idea to keep him content.</p>
+
+<p>"If you'll stop that tap-tapping for tonight," promised Jake, "I'll get
+you a book tomorrow. Is it a deal?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will if you'll follow it."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing."</p>
+
+<p>"And," said Jake, pushing his advantage, "you'll do it with the door
+closed so's I can hear this TV set."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>Jake kept his word.</p>
+
+<p>On the following afternoon, not only was Jimmy presented with one of the
+standard learn-it-yourself books on touch-typing, but Jake also contrived
+a sturdy desk out of one old packing case and a miniature chair out of
+another. Both articles of home-brewed furniture Jake insisted upon having
+painted before he permitted them inside his odd dwelling, and that
+delayed Jimmy one more day.</p>
+
+<p>But it was only one more day; and then a new era of experience began for
+Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>It would be nice to report that he went at it with determination,
+self-discipline, and system, following instructions to the letter and
+emerging a first-rate typist.</p>
+
+<p>Sorry. Jimmy hated every minute of it. He galled at the pages and pages
+of <i>juj juj juj frf frf frf</i>. He cried with frustration because he could
+not perform the simple exercise to perfection. He skipped through the
+book so close to complete failure that he hurled it across the room, and
+cried in anger because he had not the strength to throw the typewriter
+after it. Throw the machine? He had not the strength in his pinky to
+press the carriage-shift key!</p>
+
+<p>Part of his difficulty was the size of his hands, of course. But most of
+his trouble lay deep-seated in his recollection of his parents' fabulous
+machine. It would have made a typist of him in a single half-hour
+session, or so he thought.</p>
+
+<p>He had yet to learn about the vast gulf that lies between theory and
+practice.</p>
+
+<p>It took Jimmy several weeks of aimless fiddling before he realized that
+there was no easy short-cut. Then he went back to the <i>juj juj juj frf
+frf frf</i> routine and hated it just as much, but went on.</p>
+
+<p>He invented a kind of home-study "hooky" to break the monotony. He would
+run off a couple of pages of regular exercise, and then turn back to the
+hunt-and-peck system of typing to work on a story. He took a furtive glee
+in this; he felt that he was getting away with something. In mid-July,
+Jake caught him at it.</p>
+
+<p>"What's going on?" demanded Jake, waving the pages of manuscript copy.</p>
+
+<p>"Typing," said Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>Jake picked up the typing guidebook and waved it under Jimmy's nose.
+"Show me where it says you gotta type anything like, 'Captain Brandon
+struggled against his chains when he heard Lady Hamilton scream. The
+pirate's evil laugh rang through the ship. "Curse you&mdash;"'"</p>
+
+<p>Jake snorted.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;" said Jimmy faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"But nothing!" snapped Jake. "Stop the drivel and learn that thing! You
+think I let you keep the machine just to play games? We gotta find a way
+to make it pay off. Learn it good!"</p>
+
+<p>He stamped out, taking the manuscript with him. From that moment on,
+Jimmy's furtive career as an author went on only when Jake was either out
+for the evening or entertaining. In any case, he did not bother Jimmy
+further, evidently content to wait until Jimmy had "learned it good"
+before putting this new accomplishment to use. Nor did Jimmy bother him.
+It was a satisfactory arrangement for the time being. Jimmy hid his
+"work" under a pile of raw paper and completed it in late August. Then,
+with the brash assurance of youth, he packed and mailed his first
+finished manuscript to the editor of <i>Boy's Magazine</i>.</p>
+
+<p>His typing progressed more satisfactorily than he realized, even though
+he was still running off page after page of repetitious exercise,
+leavened now and then by a page of idiotic sentences the letters of
+which were restricted to the center of the typewriter keyboard. The
+practice, even the hunt-and-peck relaxation from discipline, exercised
+the small muscles. Increased strength brought increased accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>September rolled in, the streets emptied of school-aged children and the
+out-of-state car licenses diminished to a trickle. With the end of the
+carefree vacation days went the careless motorist.</p>
+
+<p>Jake, whose motives were no more altruistic than his intentions were
+legal, began to look for a means of disposing of Jimmy Holden at the
+greatest profit to himself. Jake stalled only because he hoped that the
+reward might be stepped up.</p>
+
+<p>But it was Jimmy's own operations that closed this chapter of his life.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIVE" id="CHAPTER_FIVE"></a>CHAPTER FIVE</h2>
+
+
+<p>Jimmy had less scout work to do and no school to attend; he was too small
+to help in the sorting of car parts and too valuable to be tossed out. He
+was in the way.</p>
+
+<p>So he was in Jake's office when the mail came. He brought the bundle to
+Jake's desk and sat on a box, sorting the circulars and catalogs from the
+first class. Halfway down the pile was a long envelope addressed to
+<i>Jimmy James</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped the rest with a little yelp. Jake eyed him quickly and
+snatched the letter out of Jimmy's hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey! That's mine!" said Jimmy. Jake shoved him away.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's writing you?" demanded Jake.</p>
+
+<p>"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up!" snapped Jake, unfolding the letter. "I read <i>all</i> the mail
+that comes here first."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut your mouth and your teeth'll stay in," said Jake flatly. He
+separated a green slip from the letter and held the two covered while he
+read. "Well, well," he said. "Our little Shakespeare!" With a disdainful
+grunt Jake tossed the letter to Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>Eagerly, Jimmy took the letter and read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Dear Mr. James:</p>
+
+<p>We regret the unconscionable length of time between your submission and
+this reply. However, the fact that this reply is favorable may be its
+own apology. We are enclosing a check for $20.00 with the following
+explanation:</p>
+
+<p>Our policy is to reject all work written in dialect. At the best we
+request the author to rewrite the piece in proper English and frame
+his effect by other means. Your little story is not dialect, nor is it
+bad literarily, the framework's being (as it is) a fairly good example
+of a small boy's relating in the first person one of his adventures,
+using for the first time his father's typewriter. But you went too far.
+I doubt that even a five-year-old would actually make as many
+typographical errors.</p>
+
+<p>However, we found the idea amusing, therefore our payment. One of our
+editors will work your manuscript into less-erratic typescript for
+eventual publication.</p>
+
+<p>Please continue to think of us in the future, but don't corn up your
+script with so many studied blunders.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sincerely,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Joseph Brandon, editor,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Boy's Magazine.<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Gee," breathed Jimmy, "a check!"</p>
+
+<p>Jake laughed roughly. "Shakespeare," he roared. "Don't corn up your
+stuff! You put too many errors in! Wow!"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's eyes began to burn. He had no defense against this sarcasm. He
+wanted praise for having accomplished something, instead of raucous
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote it," he said lamely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go away!" roared Jake.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy reached for the check.</p>
+
+<p>"Scram," said Jake, shutting his laughter off instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>Jake paused, then laughed again. "Okay, smart kid. Take it and spend it!"
+He handed the check to Jimmy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy took it quickly and left.</p>
+
+<p>He wanted to eye it happily, to gloat over it, to turn it over and over
+and to read it again and again; but he wanted to do it in private.</p>
+
+<p>He took it with him to the nearest bank, feeling its folded bulk and
+running a fingernail along the serrated edge.</p>
+
+<p>He re-read it in the bank, then went to a teller's window. "Can you cash
+this, please?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The teller turned it over. "It isn't endorsed."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't reach the desk to sign it," complained Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you an account here?" asked the teller politely.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Any identification?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no sir," said Jimmy thoughtfully. Not a shred of anything did he
+have to show who he was under either name.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this Jimmy James?" asked the teller.</p>
+
+<p>"Me. I am."</p>
+
+<p>The teller smiled. "And you wrote a short story that sold to <i>Boy's
+Magazine</i>?" he asked with a lifted eyebrow. "That's pretty good for a
+little guy like you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>The teller looked over Jimmy's head; Jimmy turned to look up at one of
+the bank's policemen. "Tom, what do you make of this?"</p>
+
+<p>The policeman shrugged. He stooped down to Jimmy's level. "Where did you
+get this check, young fellow?" he asked gently.</p>
+
+<p>"It came in the mail this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"You're Jimmy James?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir." Jimmy Holden had been called that for more than half a year;
+his assent was automatic.</p>
+
+<p>"How old are you, young man?" asked the policeman kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"Five and a half."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that a bit young to be writing stories?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy bit his lip. "I wrote it, though."</p>
+
+<p>The policeman looked up at the teller with a wink. "He can tell a good
+yarn," chuckled the policeman. "Shouldn't wonder if he could write one."</p>
+
+<p>The teller laughed and Jimmy's eyes burned again. "It's mine," he
+insisted.</p>
+
+<p>"If it's yours," said the policeman quietly, "we can settle it fast
+enough. Do your folks have an account here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmmm. That makes it tough."</p>
+
+<p>Brightly, Jimmy asked, "Can I open an account here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sure you can," said the policeman. "All you have to do is to bring
+your parents in."</p>
+
+<p>"But I want the money," wailed Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy James," explained the policeman with a slight frown to the teller,
+"we can't cash a check without positive identification. Do you know what
+positive identification means?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir. It means that you've got to be sure that this is me."</p>
+
+<p>"Right! Now, those are the rules. Now, of course, you don't look like
+the sort of young man who would tell a lie. I'll even bet your real
+name is Jimmy James, Jr. But you see, we have no proof, and our boss
+will be awful mad at us if we break the rules and cash this check without
+following the rules. The rules, Jimmy James, aren't to delay nice, honest
+people, but to stop people from making mistakes. Mistakes such as taking
+a little letter out of their father's mailbox. If we cashed that check,
+then it couldn't be put back in father's mailbox without anybody knowing
+about it. And that would be real bad."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's mine!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sonny, if that's yours, all you have to do is to have your folks come in
+and say so. Then we'll open an account for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir," said Jimmy in a voice that was thick with tears of frustration
+close to the surface. He turned away and left.</p>
+
+<p>Jake was still in the outside office of the Yard when Jimmy returned. The
+boy was crestfallen, frustrated, unhappy, and would not have returned at
+all if there had been another place where he was welcome. He expected
+ridicule from Jake, but Jake smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"No luck, kid?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy just shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Checks are tough, Jimmy. Give up, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"No? What then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can write a letter and sign it," said Jimmy, explaining how he had
+outfoxed the ticket seller.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't work with checks, Jimmy. For me now, if I was to be polite and
+dressed right they might cash a twenty if I showed up with my social
+security card, driver's license, identification card with photograph
+sealed in, and all that junk. But a kid hasn't got a chance. Look, Jimmy,
+I'm sorry for this morning. To-morrow morning we'll go over to my bank
+and I'll have them cash it for you. It's yours. You earned it and you
+keep it. Okay? Are we friends again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>Gravely they shook hands. "Watch the place, kid," said Jake. "I got to
+make a phone call."</p>
+
+<p>In the morning, Jake dressed for business and insisted that Jimmy put on
+his best to make a good impression. After breakfast, they set out. Jake
+parked in front of a granite building.</p>
+
+<p>"This isn't any bank," objected Jimmy. "This is a police station."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," responded Jake. "Here's where we get you an identification card.
+Don't you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Okay," said Jimmy dubiously.</p>
+
+<p>Inside the station there were a number of men in uniform and in plain
+clothing. Jake strode forward, holding Jimmy by one small hand. They
+approached the sergeant's desk and Jake lifted Jimmy up and seated him on
+one edge of the desk with his feet dangling.</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant looked at them with interest but without surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Sergeant," said Jake, "this is Jimmy James&mdash;as he calls himself when
+he's writing stories. Otherwise he is James Quincy Holden."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy went cold all over.</p>
+
+<p>Jake backed through the circle that was closing in; the hole he made was
+filled by Paul Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>It was not the first betrayal in Jimmy James's young life, but it was
+totally unexpected. He didn't know that the policeman from the bank had
+worried Jake; he didn't know that Jake had known all along who he was; he
+didn't know how fast Brennan had moved after the phone call from Jake.
+But his young mind leaped past the unknown facts to reach a certain, and
+correct, conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>He had been sold out.</p>
+
+<p>"Jimmy, Jimmy," came the old, pleading voice. "Why did you run away?
+Where have you been?"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan stepped forward and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Without
+a shadow of doubt," he said formally, "this is James Quincy Holden. I so
+identify him. And with no more ado, I hand you the reward." He reached
+into his inside pocket and drew out an envelope, handing it to Jake. "I
+have never parted with one thousand dollars so happily in my life."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy watched, unable to move. Brennan was busy and cheerful, the model
+of the man whose long-lost ward has been returned to him.</p>
+
+<p>"So, James, shall we go quietly or shall we have a scene?"</p>
+
+<p>Trapped and sullen, Jimmy Holden said nothing. The officers helped him
+down from the desk. He did not move. Brennan took him by a hand that was
+as limp as wet cloth. Brennan started for the door. The arm lifted until
+the link was taut; then, with slow, dragging steps, James Quincy Holden
+started toward home.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan said, "You understand me, don't you, Jimmy?"</p>
+
+<p>"You want my father's machine."</p>
+
+<p>"Only to help you, Jimmy. Can't you believe that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>Brennan drove his car with ease. A soft smile lurked around his lips. He
+went on, "You know what your father's machine will do for you, don't you,
+Jimmy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But have you ever attended school?"</p>
+
+<p>"No." But Jimmy remembered the long hours and hours of study and practice
+before he became proficient with his typewriter. For a moment he felt
+close to tears. It had been the only possession he truly owned, now it
+was gone. And with it was gone the author's first check. The thrill of
+that first check is far greater than Graduation or the First Job. It is
+approximately equal to the flush of pride that comes when the author's
+story hits print with his <span class="smcap">NAME</span> appended.</p>
+
+<p>But Jimmy's typewriter was gone, and his check was gone. Without a doubt
+the check would turn up cashed&mdash;through the operations of Jake Caslow.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan's voice cut into his thoughts. "You will attend school, Jimmy.
+You'll have to."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, now look, Jimmy. There are laws that say you must attend school.
+The only way those laws can be avoided is to make an appeal to the law
+itself, and have your legal guardian&mdash;myself&mdash;ask for the privilege of
+tutoring you at home. Well, I won't do it."</p>
+
+<p>He drove for a moment, thinking. "So you're going to attend school," he
+said, "and while you're there you're going to be careful not to disclose
+by any act or inference that you already know everything they can teach
+you. Otherwise they will ask some embarrassing questions. And the first
+thing that happens to you is that you will be put in a much harder place
+to escape from than our home, Jimmy. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir," the boy said sickly.</p>
+
+<p>"But," purred Uncle Paul Brennan, "you may find school very boring. If
+so, you have only to say the word&mdash;rebuild your father's machine&mdash;and go
+on with your career."</p>
+
+<p>"I w&mdash;" Jimmy began automatically, but his uncle stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't, no," he agreed. "Not now. In the meantime, then, you will
+live the life proper to your station&mdash;and your age. I won't deny you a
+single thing, Jimmy. Not a single thing that a five-year-old can want."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIX" id="CHAPTER_SIX"></a>CHAPTER SIX</h2>
+
+
+<p>Paul Brennan moved into the Holden house with Jimmy.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy had the run of the house&mdash;almost. Uncle Paul closed off the upper
+sitting room, which the late parents had converted into their laboratory.
+<i>That</i> was locked. But the rest of the house was free, and Jimmy was once
+more among the things he had never hoped to see again.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan's next step was to hire a middle-aged couple to take care of
+house and boy. Their name was Mitchell; they were childless and regretted
+it; they lavished on Jimmy the special love and care that comes only from
+childless child-lovers.</p>
+
+<p>Though Jimmy was wary to the point of paranoia, he discovered that he
+wanted for nothing. He was kept clean and his home kept tidy. He was fed
+well&mdash;not only in terms of nourishment, but in terms of what he liked.</p>
+
+<p>Then ... Jimmy began to notice changes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Huckleberry Finn</i> turned up missing. In its place on the shelf was a
+collection of Little Golden Books.</p>
+
+<p>His advanced Mecanno set was "broken"&mdash;so Mrs. Mitchell told him. Uncle
+Paul had accidentally crushed it. "But you'll like this better," she
+beamed, handing him a fresh new box from the toy store. It contained
+bright-colored modular blocks.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's parents had given him canvasboard and oil paints; now they were
+gone. Jimmy would have admitted he was no artist; but he didn't enjoy
+retrogressing to his uncle's selection&mdash;finger paints.</p>
+
+<p>His supply of drawing paper was not tampered with. But it was not
+replaced. When it was gone, Jimmy was presented with a blackboard and
+boxes of colored chalk.</p>
+
+<p>By Christmas every possession was gone&mdash;replaced&mdash;the new toys tailored
+to Jimmy's physical age. There was a Christmas tree, and under it a pile
+of gay bright boxes. Jimmy had hardly the heart to open them, for he knew
+what they would contain.</p>
+
+<p>He was right.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy had everything that would keep a five-year-old boy
+contented ... and not one iota more. He objected; his objections got him
+nowhere. Mrs. Mitchell was reproachful: Ingratitude, Jimmy! Mr. Mitchell
+was scornful: Maybe James would like to vote and smoke a pipe?</p>
+
+<p>And Paul Brennan was very clear. There was a way out of this, yes. Jimmy
+could have whatever he liked. There was just this one step that must be
+taken first; the machine must be put back together again.</p>
+
+<p>When it came time for Jimmy to start school he was absolutely delighted;
+nothing, nothing could be worse than this.</p>
+
+<p>At first it was a novel experience.</p>
+
+<p>He sat at a desk along with forty-seven other children of his size,
+neatly stacked in six aisles with eight desks to the tier. He did his
+best to copy their manners and to reproduce their halting speech and
+imperfect grammar. For the first couple of weeks he was not noticed.</p>
+
+<p>The teacher, with forty-eight young new minds to study, gave him his
+2.08% of her total time and attention. Jimmy Holden was not a deportment
+problem; his answers to the few questions she directed at him were
+correct. Therefore he needed less attention and got less; she spent her
+time on the loud, the unruly and those who lagged behind in education.</p>
+
+<p>Because his total acquaintance with children of his own age had been
+among the slum kids that hung around Jake Caslow's Place, Jimmy found his
+new companions an interesting bunch.</p>
+
+<p>He watched them, and he listened to them. He copied them and in two weeks
+Jimmy found them pitifully lacking and hopelessly misinformed. They could
+not remember at noon what they had been told at ten o'clock. They had
+difficulty in reading the simple pages of the First Reader.</p>
+
+<p>But he swallowed his pride and stumbled on and on, mimicking his friends
+and remaining generally unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>If written examinations were the rule in the First Grade, Jimmy would
+have been discovered on the first one. But with less than that 2% of the
+teacher's time directed at him, Jimmy's run of correct answers did not
+attract notice. His boredom and his lack of attention during daydreams
+made him seem quite normal.</p>
+
+<p>He began to keep score on his classmates on the fly-leaf of one of his
+books. Jimmy was a far harsher judge than the teacher. He marked them
+either wrong or right; he gave no credit for trying, or for their
+stumbling efforts to express their muddled ideas and incomplete grasp. He
+found their games fun at first, but quickly grew bored. When he tried to
+introduce a note of strategy they ignored him because they did not
+understand. They made rules as they went along and changed them as they
+saw fit. Then, instead of complying with their own rules, they pouted-up
+and sulked when they couldn't do as they wanted.</p>
+
+<p>But in the end it was Jimmy's lack of experience in acting that tripped
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Having kept score on his playmates' answers, Jimmy knew that some fairly
+high percentage of answers must inevitably be wrong. So he embarked upon
+a program of supplying a certain proportion of errors. He discovered that
+supplying a wrong answer that was consistent with the age of his
+contemporaries took too much of his intellect to keep his actions
+straight. He forgot to employ halting speech and childlike grammar. His
+errors were delivered in faultless grammar and excellent self-expression;
+his correct answers came out in the English of his companions;
+mispronounced, ill-composed, and badly delivered.</p>
+
+<p>The contrast was enough to attract even 2.08% of a teacher.</p>
+
+<p>During the third week of school, Jimmy was day-dreaming during class.
+Abruptly his teacher snapped, "James Holden, how much is seven times
+nine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sixty-three," replied Jimmy, completely automatic.</p>
+
+<p>"James," she said softly, "do you know the rest of your numbers?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy looked around like a trapped animal. His teacher waited him out
+until Jimmy, finding no escape, said, "Yes'm."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said with a bright smile. "It's nice to know that you do. Can
+you do the multiplication table?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's hear you."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy looked around. "No, Jimmy," said his teacher. "I want you to say
+it. Go ahead." And then as Jimmy hesitated still, she addressed the
+class. "This is important," she said. "Someday you will have to learn it,
+too. You will use it all through life and the earlier you learn it the
+better off you all will be. <i>Knowledge</i>," she quoted proudly, "<i>is
+power</i>! Now, Jimmy!"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy began with two-times-two and worked his way through the long table
+to the twelves. When he finished, his teacher appointed one of the
+better-behaved children to watch the class. "Jimmy," she said, "I'm going
+to see if we can't put you up in the next grade. You don't belong here.
+Come along."</p>
+
+<p>They went to the principal's office. "Mr. Whitworth," said Jimmy's
+teacher, "I have a young genius in my class."</p>
+
+<p>"A young genius, Miss Tilden?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. He already knows the multiplication table."</p>
+
+<p>"You do, James? Where did you learn it?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father taught me."</p>
+
+<p>Principal and teacher looked at each another. They said nothing but they
+were both recalling stories and rumors about the brilliance of his
+parents. The accident and death had not escaped notice.</p>
+
+<p>"What else did they teach you, James?" asked Mr. Whitworth. "To read and
+write, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"History?"</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy squirmed inwardly. He did not know how much to admit. "Some," he
+said noncommittally.</p>
+
+<p>"When did Columbus discover America?"</p>
+
+<p>"In Fourteen Ninety-Two."</p>
+
+<p>"Fine," said Mr. Whitworth with a broad smile. He looked at Miss Tilden.
+"You're right. Young James should be advanced." He looked down at Jimmy
+Holden. "James," he said, "we're going to place you in the Second Grade
+for a tryout. Unless we're wrong, you'll stay and go up with them."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy's entry into Second Grade brought a different attitude. He had
+entered school quietly just for the sake of getting away from Paul
+Brennan. Now he was beginning to form a plan. If he could go from First
+to Second in a matter of three weeks, then, by carefully disclosing his
+store of knowledge bit-by-bit at the proper moment, he might be able to
+go through school in a short time. Moreover, he had tasted the first
+fruits of recognition. He craved more.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere was born the quaint notion that getting through school would
+automatically make him an adult, with all attendant privileges.</p>
+
+<p>So Jimmy Holden dropped all pretense. His answers were as right as he
+could make them. He dropped the covering mimickry of childish speech
+and took personal pride in using grammar as good as that of his teacher.</p>
+
+<p>This got him nothing. The Second Grade teacher was of the "progressive"
+school; she firmly believed that everybody, having been created equal,
+had to stay that way. She pointedly avoided giving Jimmy any opportunity
+to show his capability.</p>
+
+<p>He bided his time with little grace.</p>
+
+<p>He found his opportunity during the visit of a school superintendent.
+During this session Jimmy hooted when one of his fellows said that
+Columbus proved the world was round.</p>
+
+<p>Angrily she demanded that Jimmy tell her who did prove it, and Jimmy
+Holden replied that he didn't know whether it was Pythagoras or one of
+his followers, but he did know that it was one of the few things that
+Aristotle ever got right. This touched her on a sore spot. She admired
+Aristotle and couldn't bear to hear the great man accused of error.</p>
+
+<p>She started baiting Jimmy with loaded questions and stopped when
+Jimmy stated that Napoleon Bonaparte was responsible for the invention
+of canned food, the adoption of the metric system, and the development
+of the semaphore telegraph. This stopped all proceedings until Jimmy
+himself found the references in the Britannica. That little feat of
+research-reference impressed the visiting superintendent. Jimmy Holden
+was jumped into Third Grade.</p>
+
+<p>Convinced that he was on the right trolley, Jimmy proceeded to plunge in
+with both feet. Third Grade Teacher helped. Within a week he was being
+called upon to aid the laggards. He stood out like a lighthouse; he was
+the one who could supply the right answers when the class was stumped.
+His teacher soon began to take a delight in belaboring the class for a
+minute before turning to Jimmy for the answer. Heaven forgive him, Jimmy
+enjoyed it. He began to hold back slyly, like a comedian building up the
+tension before a punch-line.</p>
+
+<p>His classmates began to call him "old know-it-all." Jimmy did not realize
+that it was their resentment speaking. He accepted it as deference to his
+superior knowledge. The fact that he was not a part of their playtime
+life did not bother him one iota. He knew very well that his size alone
+would cut him out of the rough and heavy games of his classmates; he did
+not know that he was cut out of their games because they disliked him.</p>
+
+<p>As time wore on, some of the rougher ones changed his nickname from
+"know-it-all" to "teacher's pet"; one of them used rougher language
+still. To this Jimmy replied in terms he'd learned from Jake Caslow's
+gutters. All that saved him from a beating was his size; even the ones
+who disliked him would not stand for the bully's beating up a smaller
+child.</p>
+
+<p>But in other ways they picked on him. Jimmy reasoned out his own
+relationship between intelligence and violence. He had yet to learn the
+psychology of vandalism&mdash;but he was experiencing it.</p>
+
+<p>Finding no enjoyment out of play periods, Jimmy took to staying in. The
+permissive school encouraged it; if Jimmy Holden preferred to tinker with
+a typewriter instead of playing noisy games, his teacher saw no wrong in
+it&mdash;for his Third Grade teacher was something of an intellectual herself.</p>
+
+<p>In April, one week after his sixth birthday, Jimmy Holden was jumped
+again.</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy entered Fourth Grade to find that his fame had gone before him; he
+was received with sullen glances and turned backs.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not care. For his birthday, he received a typewriter from Paul
+Brennan. Brennan never found out that the note suggesting it from Jimmy's
+Third Grade teacher had been written after Jimmy's prompting.</p>
+
+<p>So while other children played, Jimmy wrote.</p>
+
+<p>He was not immediately successful. His first several stories were
+returned; but eventually he drew a winner and a check. Armed with
+superior knowledge, Jimmy mailed it to a bank that was strong in
+advertising "mail-order" banking. With his first check he opened a
+pay-by-the-item, no-minimum-balance checking account.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually his batting average went up, but there were enough returned
+rejections to make Paul Brennan view Jimmy's literary effort with quiet
+amusement. Still, slowly and in secret, Jimmy built up his bank balance
+by twenties, fifties, an occasional hundred.</p>
+
+<p>For above everything, by now Jimmy knew that he could not go on through
+school as he'd planned.</p>
+
+<p>If his entry into Fourth Grade had been against scowls and resentment
+from his classmates, Fifth and Sixth would be more so. Eventually the day
+would come when he would be held back. He was already mingling with
+children far beyond his size. The same permissive school that graduated
+dolts so that their stupid personalities wouldn't be warped would keep
+him back by virtue of the same idiotic reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>He laid his plans well. He covered his absence from school one morning
+and thereby gained six free hours to start going about his own business
+before his absence could be noticed.</p>
+
+<p>This was his third escape. He prayed that it would be permanent.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="BOOK_TWO" id="BOOK_TWO"></a>BOOK TWO:</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HERMIT</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVEN" id="CHAPTER_SEVEN"></a>CHAPTER SEVEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>Seventy-five miles south of Chicago there is a whistle-stop called
+Shipmont. (No ship has ever been anywhere near it; neither has a
+mountain.) It lives because of a small college; the college, in turn,
+owes its maintenance to an installation of great interest to the Atomic
+Energy Commission.</p>
+
+<p>Shipmont is served by two trains a day&mdash;which stop only when there
+is a passenger to get on or off, which isn't often. These passengers,
+generally speaking, are oddballs carrying attach&eacute; cases or eager young
+men carrying miniature slide rules.</p>
+
+<p>But on this day came a woman and a little girl.</p>
+
+<p>Their total visible possessions were two battered suitcases and one
+battered trunk. The little girl was neatly dressed, in often-washed and
+mended clothing; she carried a small covered basket, and there were
+breadcrumbs visible on the lid. She looked bewildered, shy and
+frightened. She was.</p>
+
+<p>The mother was thirty, though there were lines of worry on her forehead
+and around her eyes that made her look older. She wore little makeup and
+her clothing had been bought for wear instead of for looks. She looked
+around, leaned absently down to pat the little girl and straightened as
+the station-master came slowly out.</p>
+
+<p>"Need anything, ma'am?" He was pleasant enough. Janet Bagley appreciated
+that; life had not been entirely pleasant for her for some years.</p>
+
+<p>"I need a taxicab, if there is one."</p>
+
+<p>"There is. I run it after the train gets in for them as ain't met. You're
+not goin' to the college?" He pronounced it "collitch."</p>
+
+<p>Janet Bagley shook her head and took a piece of paper from her bag. "Mr.
+Charles Maxwell, Rural Route Fifty-three, Martin's Hill Road," she read.
+Her daughter began to whimper.</p>
+
+<p>The station-master frowned. "Hum," he said, "that's the Herm&mdash;er, d'you
+know him?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley said: "I've never met him. What kind of a man is he?"</p>
+
+<p>That was the sort of question the station-master appreciated. His job was
+neither demanding nor exciting; an opportunity to talk was worth having.
+He said cheerfully, "Why, I don't rightly know, ma'am. Nobody's ever seen
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope. Nobody. Does everything by mail."</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness, what's the matter with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't rightly know, ma'am. Story is he was once a professor and got in
+some kind of big explosion. Burned the hide off'n his face and scarred up
+his hands something turrible, so he don't want to show himself. Rented
+the house by mail, pays his rent by mail. Orders stuff by mail. Mostly
+not real U-nited States Mail, y'know, because we don't mind dropping off
+a note to someone in town. I'm the local mailman, too. So when I find a
+note to Herby Wharton, the fellow that owns the general store, I drop it
+off. Margie Clark over at the bank says he writes. Gets checks from New
+York from publishing companies." The station-master looked around as if
+he were looking for Soviet spies. "He's a scientist, all right. He's
+doin' something important and hush-hush up there. Lots and lots of boxes
+and packin' cases I've delivered up there from places like Central
+Scientific and Labotory Supply Company. Must be a smart feller. You
+visitin' him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he hired me for housekeeper. By mail." Mrs. Bagley looked puzzled
+and concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Little Martha began to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"It'll be all right," said the station-master soothingly. "You keep your
+eye open," he said to Mrs. Bagley. "Iff'n you see anything out of line,
+you come right back and me and the missus will give you a lift. But he's
+all right. Nothin' goin' on up there that I know of. Fred Riordan&mdash;he's
+the sheriff&mdash;has watched the place for days and days and it's always
+quiet. No visitors. No nothin'. Know what I think? I think he's
+experimenting with something to take away the burn scars. That's whut
+I think. Well, hop in and I'll drive you out there."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it going to cost much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothin' this trip. We'll charge it to the U-nited States Mail. Got a
+package goin' out. Was waitin' for something else to go along with it,
+but you're here and we can count that. This way to the only taxicab
+service in Shipmont."</p>
+
+<p>The place looked deserted. It was a shabby old clapboard house; the
+architecture of the prosperous farmer of seventy-five years ago. The
+grounds were spacious but the space was filled with scrub weeds. A
+picket fence surrounded the weeds with uncertain security. The
+windows&mdash;those that could be seen, that is&mdash;were dirty enough to prevent
+seeing inside with clarity, and what transparency there was left was
+covered by curtains. The walk up the "lawn" was flagstone with crabgrass
+between the stones.</p>
+
+<p>The station-master unshipped the small trunk and stood it just inside the
+fence. He parked the suitcases beside it. "Never go any farther than
+this," he explained. "So far's I know, you're the first person to ever
+head up thet walk to the front door."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley rapped on the door. It opened almost instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm&mdash;" then Mrs. Bagley dropped her eyes to the proper level. To the lad
+who was standing there she said, "I'm Mrs. Bagley. Your father&mdash;a Mr.
+Charles Maxwell is expecting me."</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," said Jimmy Holden. "Mr. Maxwell&mdash;well, he isn't my father. He
+sent me to let you in."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley entered and dropped her suitcases in the front hall. Martha
+held back behind her mother's skirt. Jimmy closed the door and locked it
+carefully, but left the key in the keyhole with a gesture that Mrs.
+Bagley could not mistake. "Please come in here and sit down," said James
+Holden. "Relax a moment." He turned to look at the girl. He smiled at
+her, but she cowered behind her mother's skirt as if she wanted to bury
+her face but was afraid to lose sight of what was going on around her.</p>
+
+<p>"What's your name?" asked James.</p>
+
+<p>She retreated, hiding most of her face. Mrs. Bagley stroked her hair and
+said, "Now, Martha, come on. Tell the little boy your name."</p>
+
+<p>Purely as a matter of personal pride, James Holden objected to the
+"little boy" but he kept his peace because he knew that at eight years
+old he was still a little boy. In a soothing way, James said, "Come on
+out, Martha. I'll show you some girl-type toys we've got."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's head emerged slowly, "I'm Martha Bagley," she announced.</p>
+
+<p>"How old are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm seven."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm eight," stated James. "Come on."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked around. She saw that the dirt on the windows was all
+on the outside. The inside was clean. So was the room. So were the
+curtains. The room needed a dusting&mdash;a most thorough dusting. It had been
+given a haphazard lick-and-a-promise cleanup not too long ago, but the
+cleanup before that had been as desultory as the last, and without a
+doubt the one before and the one before that had been of the same sort of
+half-hearted cleaning. As a woman and a housekeeper, Mrs. Bagley found
+the room a bit strange.</p>
+
+<p>The furniture caught her eye first. A standard open bookcase, a low sofa,
+a very low cocktail-type table. The chair she stood beside was standard
+looking, so was the big easy chair opposite. Yet she felt large in the
+room despite its old-fashioned high ceiling. There were several low
+footstools in the room; ungraceful things that were obviously wooden
+boxes covered with padding and leatherette. The straight chair beside her
+had been lowered; the bottom rung between the legs was almost on the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>She realized why she felt big. The furniture in the room had all been cut
+down.</p>
+
+<p>She continued to look. The strangeness continued to bother her and she
+realized that there were no ash trays; there was none of the usual
+clutter of things that a family drops in their tracks. It was a room
+fashioned for a small person to live in but it wasn't lived-in.</p>
+
+<p>The lack of hard cleanliness did not bother hervery much. There had been
+an effort here, and the fact that this Charles Maxwell was hiring a
+housekeeper was in itself a statement that the gentleman knew that he
+needed one. It was odd, but it wasn't ominous.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her daughter gently and said, "Come on, Martha. Let's take a
+look at these girl-type toys."</p>
+
+<p>James led them through a short hallway, turned left at the first door,
+and then stood aside to give them a full view of the room. It was a
+playroom for a girl. It was cleaner than the living room, and as&mdash;well,
+untouched. It had been furnished with girl-toys that some catalog
+"recommended as suitable for a girl of seven."</p>
+
+<p>The profusion of toys overwhelmed little Martha. She stood just inside of
+the door with her eyes wide, glancing back and forth. She took one slow
+step forward, then another. Then she quickened. She moved through the
+room looking, then putting out a slow, hesitant hand to touch very
+gently. Tense, as if she were waiting for the warning not to touch,
+Martha finally caressed the hair of a baby doll.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley smiled. "I'll have a time prying her loose from here," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>James nodded his head. "Let her amuse herself for a bit," he said. "With
+Martha occupied, you can give your attention to a more delicate matter."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley forgot that she was addressing an eight-year-old boy. His
+manner and his speech bemused her. "Yes," she said. "I do want to get
+this settled with your mysterious Charles Maxwell. Do you expect him
+down, or shall I go upstairs&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"This may come as a shock, Mrs. Bagley, but Charles Maxwell isn't here."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't here?" she echoed, in a tone of voice that clearly indicated that
+she had heard the words but hadn't really grasped their full meaning. "He
+won't be gone long, will he?"</p>
+
+<p>James watched her covertly, then said in a matter-of-fact voice, "He left
+you a letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was called away on some urgent business."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please read the letter. It explains everything."</p>
+
+<p>He handed her an envelope addressed to "Mrs. Janet Bagley." She looked
+at it from both sides, in the womanlike process of trying to divine its
+contents instead of opening it. She looked at James, but James sat
+stolidly waiting. Mrs. Bagley was going to get no more information from
+him until she read that letter, and James was prepared to sit it out
+until she did. It placed Mrs. Bagley in the awkward position of having
+to decide what to do next. Then the muffled sound of little-girl crooning
+came from the distant room. That brought the realization that as odd as
+this household was, it was a <i>home</i>. Mrs. Bagley delayed no further. She
+opened the letter and read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>My Dear Mrs. Bagley:</p>
+
+<p>I deeply regret that I am not there to greet you, but it was not
+possible. However, please understand that insofar as I am concerned,
+you were hired and have been drawing your salary from the date that I
+forwarded railroad fare and traveling expenses. Any face-to-face
+meeting is no more than a pleasantry, a formal introduction. It must
+not be considered in any way connected with the thought of a "Final
+Interview" or the process of "Closing the Deal."</p>
+
+<p>Please carry on as if you had been in charge long before I departed,
+or&mdash;considering my hermitlike habits&mdash;the way you would have carried
+on if I had not departed, but instead was still upstairs and hard at
+work with most definite orders that I was not to be disturbed for
+anything less important than total, personal disaster.</p>
+
+<p>I can offer you a word of explanation about young James. You will find
+him extraordinarily competent for a youngster of eight years. Were he
+less competent, I might have delayed my departure long enough to pass
+him literally from my supervision to yours. However, James is quite
+capable of taking care of himself; this fact you will appreciate fully
+long before you and I meet face-to-face.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, remember that our letters and the other references
+acquaint us with one another far better than a few short hours of
+personal contact.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sincerely,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Charles Maxwell<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Well!" said Mrs. Bagley. "I don't know what to say."</p>
+
+<p>Jimmy smiled. "You don't have to say anything," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked at the youngster. "I don't think I like your Mr.
+Maxwell," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's practically shanghaied me here. He knows very well that I couldn't
+possibly leave you here all alone, no matter how I disliked the
+situation. He's practically forced me to stay."</p>
+
+<p>James suppressed a smile. He said, "Mrs. Bagley, the way the trains run
+in and out of Shipmont, you're stuck for an overnight stay in any case."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't seem to be perturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked at James carefully. His size; his physique was
+precisely that of the eight-year-old boy. There was nothing malformed nor
+out-of-proportion; yet he spoke with an adult air of confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"I am," she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Perturbed? You needn't be," he said. "You've got to remember that
+writers are an odd lot. They don't conform. They don't punch time-clocks.
+They boast of having written a novel in three weeks but they don't
+mention the fact that they sat around drinking beer for six months
+plotting it."</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning that Maxwell sees nothing wrong in attending to his own affairs
+and expecting you to attend to yours."</p>
+
+<p>"But what shall I do?"</p>
+
+<p>James smiled. "First, take a look around the house and satisfy yourself.
+You'll find the third floor shut off; the rooms up there are Maxwell's,
+and no one goes in but him. My bedroom is the big one in the front of the
+second floor. Pick yourself a room or a suite of rooms or move in all
+over the rest of the house. Build yourself a cup of tea and relax. Do as
+he says: Act as if you'd arrived before he took off, that you'd met and
+agreed verbally to do what you've already agreed to do by letter. Look at
+it from his point of view."</p>
+
+<p>"What is his point of view?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's a writer. He rented this house by mail. He banks by mail and shops
+by mail and makes his living by writing. Don't be surprised when he hires
+a housekeeper by mail and hands her the responsibility in writing. He
+lives by the written word."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley said, "In other words, the fact that he offered me a job in
+writing and I took it in writing&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Writing," said James Holden soberly, "was invented for the express
+purpose of recording an agreement between two men in a permanent form
+that could be read by other men. The whole world runs on the theory that
+no one turns a hand until names are signed to written contracts&mdash;and here
+you sit, not happy because you weren't contracted-for by a personal
+chit-chat and a handshake."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley was taken aback slightly by this rather pointed criticism.
+What hurt was the fact that, generally speaking, it was true and
+especially the way he put it. The young man was too blunt, too
+out-spokenly direct. Obviously he needed someone around the place who
+wasn't the self-centered writer-type. And, Mrs. Bagley admitted to
+herself, there certainly was no evidence of evil-doing here.</p>
+
+<p>No matter what, Charles Maxwell had neatly trapped her into staying by
+turning her own maternal responsibility against her.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get my bags," she said.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden took a deep breath. He'd won this hurdle, so far so good.
+Now for the next!</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley found life rather unhurried in the days that followed. She
+relaxed and tried to evaluate James Holden. To her unwarned mind, the boy
+was quite a puzzle.</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubt about his eight years, except that he did not whoop
+and holler with the aimlessness of the standard eight-year-old boy. His
+vocabulary was far ahead of the eight-year-old and his speech was in
+adult grammar rather than halting. It was, she supposed, due to his
+constant adult company; children denied their contemporaries for
+playmates often take on attitudes beyond their years. Still, it was a bit
+on the too-superior side to please her. It was as if he were the result
+of over-indulgent parents who'd committed the mistake of letting the
+child know that their whole universe revolved about him.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Maxwell's letters said that he was motherless, that he was not
+Maxwell's son. This indicated a probable history of broken homes and
+remarriages. Mrs. Bagley thought the problem over and gave it up. It
+was a home.</p>
+
+<p>Things went on. They started warily but smoothly at first with Mrs.
+Bagley asking almost incessantly whether Mr. Maxwell would approve of
+this or that and should she do this or the other and, phrased cleverly,
+indicated that she would take the word of young James for the time being
+but there would be evil sputterings in the fireplace if the programs
+approved by young James Holden were not wholly endorsed by Mr. Charles
+Maxwell.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the first week, supplies were beginning to run short and
+still there was no sign of any return of the missing Mr. Maxwell. With
+some misgiving, Mrs. Bagley broached the subject of shopping to James.
+The youngster favored Mrs. Bagley with another smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said calmly. "Just a minute." And he disappeared upstairs to
+fetch another envelope. Inside was a second letter which read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>My Dear Mrs. Bagley:</p>
+
+<p>Attached you will find letters addressed to several of the local
+merchants in Shipmont, explaining your status as my housekeeper and
+directing them to honor your purchases against my accounts. Believe me,
+they recognize my signature despite the fact that they might not
+recognize me! There should be no difficulty. I'd suggest, however, that
+you start a savings account at the local bank with the enclosed salary
+check. You have no idea how much weight the local banker carries in his
+character-reference of folks with a savings account.</p>
+
+<p>Otherwise, I trust things are pleasant.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sincerely,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Charles Maxwell.<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>"Things," she mused aloud, "are pleasant enough."</p>
+
+<p>James nodded. "Good," he said. "You're satisfied, then?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley smiled at him wistfully. "As they go," she said, "I'm
+satisfied. Lord knows, you're no great bother, James, and I'll be most
+happy to tell Mr. Maxwell so when he returns."</p>
+
+<p>James nodded. "You're not concerned over Maxwell, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>She sobered. "Yes," she said in a whisper. "Yes, I am. I'm afraid that
+he'll change things, that he'll not approve of Martha, or the way dinner
+is made, or my habits in dishwashing or bedmaking or marketing or
+something that will&mdash;well, put me right in the role of a paid
+chambermaid, a servant, a menial with no more to say about the running
+of the house, once he returns."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden hesitated, thought, then smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley," he said apologetically, "I've thrown you a lot of curves.
+I hope you won't mind one more."</p>
+
+<p>The woman frowned. James said hurriedly, "Oh, it's nothing bad, believe
+me. I mean&mdash;Well, you'll have to judge for yourself.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Mrs. Bagley," he said earnestly, "there isn't any Charles
+Maxwell."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Janet Bagley, with the look of a stricken animal, sat down heavily. There
+were two thoughts suddenly in her mind: <i>Now I've got to leave</i>, and,
+<i>But I can't leave</i>.</p>
+
+<p>She sat looking at the boy, trying to make sense of what he had said.
+Mrs. Bagley was a young woman, but she had lived a demanding and
+unrelenting life; her husband dead, her finances calamitous, a baby to
+feed and raise ... there had been enough trouble in her life and she
+sought no more.</p>
+
+<p>But she was also a woman of some strength of character.</p>
+
+<p>Janet Bagley had not been able to afford much joy, but when things were
+at their worst she had not wept. She had been calm. She had taken what
+inexpensive pleasures she could secure&mdash;the health of her daughter, the
+strength of her arms to earn a living, the cunning of her mind to make a
+dollar do the work of five. She had learned that there was no bargain
+that was not worth investigating; the shoddiest goods were worth owning
+at a price; the least attractive prospect had to be faced and understood,
+for any commodity becomes a bargain when the price is right. There was
+no room for laziness or indulgence in her life. There was also no room
+for panic.</p>
+
+<p>So Janet Bagley thought for a moment, and then said: "Tell me what you're
+talking about, James."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden said immediately: "I am Charles Maxwell. That is, 'Charles
+Maxwell' is a pen name. He has no other existence."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But it's true, Mrs. Bagley," the boy said earnestly. "I'm only eight
+years old, but I happen to be earning my own living&mdash;as a writer, under
+the name of, among others, Charles Maxwell. Perhaps you've looked up some
+of the 'Charles Maxwell' books? If so, you may have seen some of the book
+reviews that were quoted on the jackets&mdash;I remember one that said that
+Charles Maxwell writes as though he himself were a boy, with the
+education of an adult. Well, that's the fact of the case."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley said slowly, "But I did look Mr. Max&mdash;I mean, I did look you
+up. There was a complete biographical sketch in <i>Woman's Life</i>.
+Thirty-one years old, I remember."</p>
+
+<p>"I know. I wrote it. It too was fiction."</p>
+
+<p>"You wrote&mdash;but why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I was asked to write it," said James.</p>
+
+<p>"But, well&mdash;what I mean, is&mdash;Just who is Mr. Maxwell? The man at the
+station said something about a hermit, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The Hermit of Martin's Hill is a convenient character carefully prepared
+to explain what might have looked like a very odd household," said James
+Holden. "Charles Maxwell, the Hermit, does not exist except in the minds
+of the neighbors and the editors of several magazines, and of course, the
+readers of those pages."</p>
+
+<p>"But he wrote me himself." The bewildered woman paused.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, Mrs. Bagley. There's absolutely nothing illegal about a
+writer's using a pen name. Absolutely nothing. Some writers become so
+well-known by their pseudonym that they answer when someone calls them.
+So long as the writer isn't wanted by the F.B.I. for some heinous crime,
+and so long as he can unscramble the gobbledygook on Form 1040, stay out
+of trouble, pay his rent, and make his regular contributions to Social
+Security, nobody cares what name he uses."</p>
+
+<p>"But where are your parents? Have you no friends? No legal guardian? Who
+handles your business affairs?"</p>
+
+<p>James said in a flat tone of recital, "My parents are dead. What friends
+and family I have, want to turn me over to my legal guardian. My legal
+guardian is the murderer of my parents and the would-have-been murderer
+of me if I hadn't been lucky. Someday I shall prove it. And I handle my
+affairs myself, by mail, as you well know. I placed the advertisement,
+wrote the letters of reply, wrote those letters that answered specific
+questions and asked others, and I wrote the check that you cashed in
+order to buy your railroad ticket, Mrs. Bagley. No, don't worry. It's
+good."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley tried to digest all that and failed. She returned to the
+central point. "But you're a minor&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am," admitted James Holden. "But you accepted my checks, your bank
+accepted my checks, and they've been honored by the clearing houses. My
+own bank has been accepting them for a couple of years now. It will
+continue to be that way until something goes wrong and I'm found out. I'm
+taking every precaution that nothing goes wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Still&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley, look at me. I am precisely what I seem to be. I am a young
+male human being, eight years old, possessed of a good command of the
+English language and an education superior to the schooling of any
+high-school graduate. It is true that I am an infant in the eyes of the
+law, so I have not the right to hold the ear of the law long enough to
+explain my competence."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Listen a moment," insisted James. "You can't hope to hear it all in one
+short afternoon. It may take weeks before you fully understand."</p>
+
+<p>"You assume that I'll stay, then?"</p>
+
+<p>James smiled. Not the wide open, simple smile of youth but the knowing
+smile of someone pleased with the success of his own plans. "Mrs. Bagley,
+of the many replies to my advertisement, yours was selected because you
+are in a near-desperate position. My advertisement must have sounded
+tailor-made to fit your case; a young widow to work as resident
+housekeeper, child of preschool or early school age welcome. Well, Mrs.
+Bagley, your qualifications are tailor-made for me, too. You are in need,
+and I can give you what you need&mdash;a living salary, a home for you and
+your daughter, and for your daughter an education that will far transcend
+any that you could ever provide for her."</p>
+
+<p>"And how do you intend to make that come to pass?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley, at the present time there are only two people alive who
+know the answer to that question. I am one of them. The other is my
+so-called legal 'guardian' who would be most happy to guard me right out
+of my real secret. You will be the third person alive to know that my
+mother and father built a machine that produces the same deeply-inlaid
+memory-track of information as many months of learning-by-repetition.
+With that machine, I absorbed the information available to a high-school
+student before I was five. I am rebuilding that machine now from plans
+and specifications drilled into my brain by my father. When it is
+complete, I intend to become the best informed person in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"That isn't right," breathed Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it?" asked James seriously. "Isn't it right? Is it wrong, when at
+the present time it takes a man until he is almost thirty years old
+before he can say that his education is complete?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose you're right."</p>
+
+<p>James eyed Mrs. Bagley carefully. He said softly, "Mrs. Bagley, tell me,
+would you give Martha a college education if you had&mdash;or will you if you
+have at the time&mdash;the wherewithal to provide it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>"You have it here," said James. "So long as you stay to protect it."</p>
+
+<p>"But won't it make&mdash;?" her voice trailed away uncertainly.</p>
+
+<p>"A little intellectual monster out of her?" laughed the boy. "Maybe.
+Maybe I am, too. On the other hand it might make a brilliant woman out of
+her. She might be a doctor if she has the capacity of a brilliant doctor.
+My father's machine is no monster-maker, Mrs. Bagley. With it a person
+could memorize the Britannica. And from the Britannica that person would
+learn that there is much good in the world and also that there is rich
+reward for being a part of that capacity for good."</p>
+
+<p>"I seem to have been outmaneuvered," said Mrs. Bagley with a worried
+frown.</p>
+
+<p>James smiled. "Not at all," he said. "It was just a matter of finding
+someone who wanted desperately to have what I wanted to give, and of
+course overcoming the natural adult reluctance to admit that anybody
+my size and age can operate on grown-up terms."</p>
+
+<p>"You sound so sure of yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure of myself. And one of the more important things in life is to
+understand one's limitations."</p>
+
+<p>"But couldn't you convince them&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"One&mdash;you&mdash;I can convince. Maybe another, later. But if I tackle the
+great American public, I'm licked by statistics. My guess is that there
+is one brand-new United States citizen born every ten seconds. It takes
+me longer than ten seconds to convince someone, that I know what I'm
+talking about. But so long as I have an accepted adult out front, running
+the store, I don't have to do anything but sit backstage, run the hidden
+strings, and wait until my period of growth provides me with a stature
+that won't demand any explanation."</p>
+
+<p>From the playroom, Martha came running. "Mummy! Mummy!" she cried in a
+shrill voice filled with the strident tones of alarm, "Dolly's sick and
+I can't leave her!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley folded her daughter in her arms. "We won't leave," she said.
+"We're staying."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden nodded with satisfaction, but one thing he realized then and
+there: He simply had to rush the completion of his father's machine.</p>
+
+<p>He could not stand the simpering prattle of Martha Bagley's playgames.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHT" id="CHAPTER_EIGHT"></a>CHAPTER EIGHT</h2>
+
+
+<p>The arrival of Mrs. Bagley changed James Holden's way of life far more
+than he'd expected. His basic idea had been to free himself from the
+hours of dishwashing, bedmaking, dusting, cleaning and straightening
+and from the irking chore of planning his meals far enough ahead to
+obtain sustenance either through mail or carried note. He gave up his
+haphazard chores readily. Mrs. Bagley's menus often served him dishes
+that he wouldn't have given house-room; but he also enjoyed many meals
+that he could not or would not have taken the time to prepare.</p>
+
+<p>He did have some faint notion that being freed from the household toil
+would allow him sixteen or eighteen hours at the typewriter, but he was
+not greatly dismayed to find that this did not work.</p>
+
+<p>When he wrote himself out, he relaxed by reading, or sitting quietly
+planning his next piece. Even that did not fill his entire day. To take
+some advantage of his time, James began to indulge in talk-fests with
+Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>These were informative. He was learning from her how the outside world
+was run, from one who had no close association with his own former life.
+Mrs. Bagley was by no means well-informed on all sides of life, but she
+did have her opinions and her experiences and a fair idea of how things
+went on in her own level. And, of course, James had made this choice
+because of the girl. He wanted a companion of his own age. Regardless of
+what Mrs. Bagley really thought of this matter of rapid education, James
+proposed to use it on Martha. That would give him a companion of his own
+like, they would come closer to understanding one another than he could
+ever hope to find understanding elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>So he talked and played with Martha in his moments of relaxation. And he
+found her grasp of life completely unreal.</p>
+
+<p>James could not get through to her. He could not make her stop
+play-acting in everything that she did not ignore completely. It worried
+him.</p>
+
+<p>With the arrival of summer, James and Martha played outside in the fresh
+air. They made a few shopping excursions into town, walking the mile and
+more by taking their time, and returning with their shopping load in the
+station-master's taxicab mail car. But on these expeditions, James hung
+close to Martha lest her babbling prattle start an unwelcome line of
+thought. She never did it, but James was forever on edge.</p>
+
+<p>This source of possible danger drove him hard. The machine that was
+growing in a mare's-nest on the second floor began to evolve faster.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden's work was a strangely crude efficiency. The prototype had
+been built by his father bit by bit and step by step as its design
+demanded. Sections were added as needed, and other sections believed
+needed were abandoned as the research showed them unnecessary. Louis
+Holden had been a fine instrumentation engineer, but his first models
+were hay-wired in the breadboard form. James copied his father's
+work&mdash;including his father's casual breadboard style. And he added some
+inefficiencies of his own.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, James was not strong enough to lift the heavier assemblies
+into place. James parked the parts wherever they would sit.</p>
+
+<p>To Mrs. Bagley, the whole thing was bizarre and unreasonable. Given her
+opinion, with no other evidence, she would have rejected the idea at
+once. She simply did not understand anything of a technical nature.</p>
+
+<p>One day she bluntly asked him how he knew what he was doing.</p>
+
+<p>James grinned. "I really <i>don't</i> know what I'm doing," he admitted. "I'm
+only following some very explicit directions. If I knew the pure theory
+of my father's machine I could not design the instrumentation that would
+make it work. But I can build a reproduction of my father's machine from
+the directions."</p>
+
+<p>"How can that be?"</p>
+
+<p>James stopped working and sat on a packing case. "If you bought a
+lawn-mower," he said, "it might come neatly packed in a little box with
+all the parts nested in cardboard formers and all the little nuts and
+bolts packed in a bag. There would be a set of assembly directions,
+written in such a way as to explain to anybody who can read that Part A
+is fastened to Bracket B using Bolt C, Lockwasher D, and Nut E. My
+father's one and only recognition of the dangers of the unforeseeable
+future was to drill deep in my brain these directions. For instance," and
+he pointed to a boxed device, "that thing is an infra-low frequency
+amplifier. Now, I haven't much more than a faint glimmer of what the
+thing is and how it differs from a standard amplifier, but I know that it
+must be built precisely thus-and-so, and finally it must be fitted into
+the machine per instructions. Look, Mrs. Bagley." James picked up a
+recently-received package, swept a place clear on the packing case and
+dumped it out. It disgorged several paper bags of parts, some large
+plates and a box. He handed her a booklet. "Try it yourself," he said.
+"That's a piece of test equipment made in kit form by a commercial outfit
+in Michigan. Follow those directions and build it for me."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't know anything about this sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>"You can read," said James with a complete lack of respect. He turned
+back to his own work, leaving Mrs. Bagley leafing her way through the
+assembly manual.</p>
+
+<p>To the woman it was meaningless. But as she read, a secondary thought
+rose in her mind. James was building this devilish-looking nightmare, and
+he had every intention of using it on her daughter! She accepted without
+understanding the fact that James Holden's superior education had come of
+such a machine&mdash;but it had been a machine built by a competent mechanic.
+She stole a look at James. The anomaly puzzled her.</p>
+
+<p>When the lad talked, his size and even the thin boyish voice were negated
+by the intelligence of his words, the size of his vocabulary, the clarity
+of his statements. Now that he was silent, he became no more than an
+eight-year-old lad who could not possibly be doing anything constructive
+with this mad array of equipment. The messiness of the place merely made
+the madness of the whole program seem worse.</p>
+
+<p>But she turned back to her booklet. Maybe James was right. If she could
+assemble this doodad without knowing the first principle of its
+operation, without even knowing from the name what the thing did, then
+she might be willing to admit that&mdash;messy as it looked&mdash;the machine could
+be reconstructed.</p>
+
+<p>Trapped by her own interest, Mrs. Bagley pitched in.</p>
+
+<p>They took a week off to rearrange the place. They built wooden shelves to
+hold the parts in better order. These were by no means the work of a
+carpenter, for Mrs. Bagley's aim with a saw was haphazard, and her
+batting average with a hammer was about .470; but James lacked the
+strength, so the construction job was hers. Crude as it was, the place
+looked less like a junkshop when they were done. Work resumed on the
+assembly of the educator.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the writing suffered.</p>
+
+<p>The budget ran low. James was forced to abandon the project for his
+typewriter. He drove himself hard, fretting and worrying himself into a
+stew time after time. And then as August approached, Nature stepped in to
+add more disorder.</p>
+
+<p>James entered a "period of growth." In three weeks he gained two inches.</p>
+
+<p>His muscles, his bones and his nervous system ceased to coordinate. He
+became clumsy. His handwriting underwent a change, so severe that James
+had to practically forge his own signature of Charles Maxwell. To avoid
+trouble he stopped the practice of writing individual checks for the
+bills and transferred a block sum of money to an operating account in
+Mrs. Bagley's name.</p>
+
+<p>His fine regimen went to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>He embarked on a haphazard program of sleeping, eating and working at odd
+hours, and his appetite became positively voracious. He wanted what he
+wanted when he wanted it, even if it were the middle of the night. He
+pouted and groused when he didn't get it. In calmer moments he hated
+himself for these tantrums, but no amount of self-rationalization stopped
+them.</p>
+
+<p>During this period, James was by no means an efficient youngster. His
+writing suffered the ills of both his period of growth and his upset
+state of mind. His fingers failed to coordinate on his typewriter and his
+manuscript copy turned out rough, with strikeovers, xxx-outs, and gross
+mistakes. The pile of discarded paper massed higher than his finished
+copy until Mrs. Bagley took over and began to retype his rough script
+for him.</p>
+
+<p>His state of mind remained chaotic.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley began to treat him with special care. She served him warm
+milk and insisted that he rest. Finally she asked him why he drove
+himself so hard.</p>
+
+<p>"We are approaching the end of summer," he said, "and we are not
+prepared."</p>
+
+<p>"Prepared for what?"</p>
+
+<p>They were relaxing in the living room, James fretting and Mrs. Bagley
+seated, Martha Bagley asprawl on the floor turning the pages of a
+crayon-coloring book. "Look at us," he said. "I am a boy of eight, your
+daughter is a girl of seven. By careful dress and action I could pass for
+a child one year younger, but that would still make me seven. Last summer
+when I was seven, I passed for six."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley, there are laws about compulsory education. Sooner or later
+someone is going to get very curious about us."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you intend to do about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the problem," he said. "I don't really know. With a lot of
+concentrated effort I can probably enter school if I have to, and keep my
+education covered up. But Martha is another story."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see&mdash;?" Mrs. Bagley bit her lip.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't permit her to attend school," said James.</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't have advertised for a woman with a girl child!" said Mrs.
+Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not. But I wanted someone of my own age and size around so that
+we can grow together. I'm a bit of a misfit until I'm granted the right
+to use my education as I see fit."</p>
+
+<p>"And you hope to make Martha another misfit?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you care to put it that way," admitted James. "Someone has to start.
+Someday all kids will be educated with my machine and then there'll be no
+misfits."</p>
+
+<p>"But until then&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Bagley, I am not worried about what is going to happen next year. I
+am worried about what is going to happen next month."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley sat and watched him for a moment. This boy was worried, she
+could see that. But assuming that any part of his story was true&mdash;and it
+was impossible to doubt it&mdash;he had ample cause.</p>
+
+<p>The past years had given Mrs. Bagley a hard shell because it was useful
+for survival; to keep herself and her child alive she had had to be
+permanently alert for every threat. Clearly this was a threat. Martha was
+involved. Martha's future was, at the least, bound to be affected by what
+James did.</p>
+
+<p>And the ties of blood and habit made Martha's future the first
+consideration in Janet Bagley's thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>But not the only consideration; for there is an in-born trait in the
+human race which demands that any helpless child should be helped. James
+was hardly helpless; but he certainly was a child. It was easy to forget
+it, talking to him&mdash;until something came up that the child could not
+handle.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley sighed. In a different tone she asked, "What did you do last
+year?"</p>
+
+<p>"Played with Rags on the lawn," James said promptly. "A boy and his dog
+is a perfectly normal sight&mdash;in the summer. Then, when school opened, I
+stayed in the house as much as I could. When I had to go out I tried to
+make myself look younger. Short pants, dirty face. I don't think I could
+get away with it this year."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you're right," Mrs. Bagley admitted. "Well, suppose you could do
+what you wish this year? What would that be?"</p>
+
+<p>James said: "I want to get my machine working. Then I want to use it on
+Martha."</p>
+
+<p>"On Martha! But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>James said patiently: "It won't hurt her, Mrs. Bagley. There isn't any
+other way. The first thing she needs is a good command of English."</p>
+
+<p>"English?" Mrs. Bagley hesitated, and was lost. After all, what was wrong
+with the girl's learning proper speech?</p>
+
+<p>"Martha is a child both physically and intellectually. She has been
+talked to about 'right' and 'wrong' and she knows that 'telling the
+truth' is right, but she doesn't recognize that talking about fairies is
+a misstatement of the truth. Question her carefully about how we live,
+and you'll get a fair approximation of the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"So?"</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose someone asks Martha about the Hermit of Martin's Hill?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you fear?"</p>
+
+<p>"We might play upon her make-believe stronger than we have. She play-acts
+his existence very well. But suppose someone asks her what he eats, or
+where he gets his exercise, or some other personal question. She hasn't
+the command of logic to improvise a convincing background."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should anybody ask such personal questions?" asked Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>James said patiently: "To ask personal questions of an adult is 'prying'
+and is therefore considered improper and antisocial. To ask the same
+questions of a child is proper and social. It indicates a polite interest
+in the world of the child. You and I, Mrs. Bagley, have a complete
+picture of the Hermit all prepared, and with our education we can
+improvise plausible answers. I've hoped to finish my machine early enough
+to provide Martha with the ability to do the same."</p>
+
+<p>"So what can we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"About the only thing we can do is to hide," said James. "Luckily,
+most of the business is conducted out of this place by mail. Write
+letters to some boarding school situated a good many miles from here.
+Ask the usual routine questions about entering a seven-year-old girl
+and an eight-year-old boy for one semester. Robert Holmes, our
+postmaster-taxicab driver-station-master, reads everything that isn't
+sealed. He will read the addresses, and he will see replies and read
+their return address."</p>
+
+<p>"And then we'll pretend to send you and Martha to boarding school?"</p>
+
+<p>James nodded. "Confinement is going to be difficult, but in this climate
+the weather gets nasty early and that keeps people out of one another's
+hair."</p>
+
+<p>"But this station-master business&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"We've got to pull some wool over Robert's eyes," said James. "Somehow,
+we've got to make it entirely plausible. You've got to take Martha and me
+away and come back alone just as if we were in school."</p>
+
+<p>"We should have a car," said Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"A car is one piece of hardware that I could never justify," said James.
+"Nor," he chuckled, "buy from a mail-order house because I couldn't
+accept delivery. I bought furniture from Sears and had it delivered
+according to mailed instructions. But I figured it better to have the
+folks in Shipmont wondering why Charles Maxwell didn't own a car than to
+have them puzzling why he owned one that never was used, nor even moved.
+Besides, a car&mdash;costs&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley smiled with real satisfaction. "There," she said, "I think I
+can help. I can buy the car."</p>
+
+<p>James was startled. "But can you afford it?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley nodded seriously. "James," she said, "I've been scratching
+out an existence on hard terms and I've had to make sure of tomorrow.
+Even when things were worst, I tried to put something away&mdash;some weeks it
+was only a few pennies, sometimes nothing at all. But&mdash;well, I'm not
+afraid of tomorrow any more."</p>
+
+<p>James was oddly pleased. While he was trying to find a way to say it,
+Mrs. Bagley relieved him of the necessity. "It won't be a brand-new
+convertible," she warned. "But they tell me you can get something that
+runs for two or three hundred dollars. Tim Fisher has some that look
+about right in his garage&mdash;and besides," she said, clinching it, "it
+gives me a chance to give out a little more Maxwell and boarding-school
+propaganda."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_NINE" id="CHAPTER_NINE"></a>CHAPTER NINE</h2>
+
+
+<p>The letter was a masterpiece of dissembling. It suggested, without
+promising, that Charles Maxwell intended to send his young charge to
+boarding school along with his housekeeper's daughter. It asked the
+school's advice and explained the deformity that made Charles Maxwell a
+recluse. The reply could hardly have been better if they'd penned it
+themselves for the signature of the faculty advisor. It discussed the
+pros and cons of away-from-home schooling and went on at great length to
+discuss the attitude of children and their upbringing amid strange
+surroundings. It invited a long and inconclusive correspondence&mdash;just
+what James wanted.</p>
+
+<p>The supposed departure for school went off neatly, no one in the town of
+Shipmont was surprised when Mrs. Bagley turned up buying an automobile of
+several years' vintage because this was a community where everybody had
+one.</p>
+
+<p>The letters continued at the rate of one every two or three weeks. They
+were picked up by Mrs. Bagley who let it be known that these were
+progress reports. In reality, they were little tracts on the theory of
+child education. They kept up the correspondence for the information it
+contained, and also because Mrs. Bagley enjoyed this contact with an
+outer world that contained adults.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, James ended his spurt of growth and settled down. Work on his
+machine continued when he could afford to buy the parts, and his writing
+settled down into a comfortable channel once more. In his spare time
+James began to work on Martha's diction.</p>
+
+<p>Martha could not have been called a retarded child. Her trouble was lack
+of constant parental attention during her early years. With father gone
+and mother struggling to live, Martha had never overcome some of the
+babytalk-diction faults. There was still a trace of the omitted 'B' here
+and there. 'Y' was a difficult sound; the color of a lemon was "Lellow."
+Martha's English construction still bore marks of the baby. "Do you have
+to&mdash;" came out as "Does you has to&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>James Holden's father had struggled in just this way through his early
+experimental days, when he despaired of ever getting the infant James out
+of the baby-prattle stage. He could not force, he could not even coerce.
+All that his father could do was to watch quietly as baby James acquired
+the awareness of things. Then he could step in and supply the correct
+word-sound to name the object. In those early days the progress of James
+Holden was no greater than the progress of any other infant. Holden
+Senior followed the theory of ciphers; no cryptologist can start
+unravelling a secret message until he is aware of the fact that some
+hidden message exists. No infant can be taught a language until some
+awareness tells the tiny brain that there is some definite connection
+between sound and sight.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>For the next few weeks James worked with Martha on her speech, and hated
+it. So slow, so dreary! But it was necessary, he thought, to keep her
+from establishing any more permanent errors, so that when the machine was
+ready there would be at least a blank slate to write on, not one all
+scribbled over with mistakes.</p>
+
+<p>Time passed; the weather grew colder; the machine spread its scattered
+parts over his workroom.</p>
+
+<p>Janet Bagley knew that the machine was growing, but it had not occurred
+to her that it would be finished. She had grown accustomed to her life on
+Martin's Hill. By her standards, it was easy. She made three meals each
+day, cleaned the rooms, hung curtains, sewed clothing for Martha and
+herself, did the shopping and had time enough left over to take
+excursions in her little car and keep her daughter out of mischief. It
+was pleasant. It was more than pleasant, it was safe.</p>
+
+<p>And then the machine was finished.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley took a sandwich and a glass of milk to James and found him
+sitting on a chair, a heavy headset covering most of his skull, reading
+aloud from a textbook on electronic theory.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley stopped at the door, unaccountably startled.</p>
+
+<p>James looked up and shut off his work. "It's finished," he said with
+grave pride.</p>
+
+<p>"All of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, pondering, "the basic part. It works."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked at the scramble of equipment in the room as though it
+were an enemy. It didn't look finished. It didn't even look safe. But she
+trusted James, although she felt at that moment that she would grow old
+and die before she understood why and how any collection of apparatus
+could be functional and still be so untidy. "It&mdash;could teach me?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you had something you want to memorize."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to memorize some of the pet recipes from my cookbook."</p>
+
+<p>"Get it," directed James.</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated. "How does it work?" she wanted to know first.</p>
+
+<p>He countered with another question. "How do we memorize anything?"</p>
+
+<p>She thought. "Why, by repeating and repeating and rehearsing and
+rehearsing."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said James. "So this device does the repetition for you.
+Electromechanically."</p>
+
+<p>"But how?"</p>
+
+<p>James smiled wistfully. "I can give you only a thumbnail sketch," he
+said, "until I have had time to study the subjects that lead up to the
+final theory."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness," exclaimed Mrs. Bagley, "all I want is a brief idea. I
+wouldn't understand the principles at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, my mother, as a cerebral surgeon, knew the anatomy of the
+human brain. My father, as an instrument-maker, designed and built
+encephalographs. Together, they discovered that if the great waves of the
+brain were filtered down and the extremely minute waves that ride on top
+of them were amplified, the pattern of these superfine waves went through
+convolutions peculiar to certain thoughts. Continued research refined
+their discovery.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, the general theory is that the cells of the brain act sort of like
+a binary digital computer, with certain banks of cells operating to store
+sufficient bits of information to furnish a complete memory. In the
+process of memorization, individual cells become activated and linked by
+the constant repetition.</p>
+
+<p>"Second, the brain within the skull is a prisoner, connected to the
+'outside' by the five standard sensory channels of sight, sound, touch,
+taste, and smell. Stimulate a channel, and the result is a certain
+wave-shape of electrical impulse that enters the brain and&mdash;sort of like
+the key to a Yale lock&mdash;fits only one combination of cells. Or if no
+previous memory is there, it starts its own new collection of cells to
+linking and combining. When we repeat and repeat, we are deepening the
+groove, so to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Finally comes the Holden Machine. The helmet makes contact with the
+skull in those spots where the probes of the encephalograph are placed.
+When the brain is stimulated into thought, the brain waves are monitored
+and recorded, amplified, and then fed back to the same brain-spots. Not
+once, but multifold, like the vibration of a reed or violin string. The
+circuit that accepts signals, amplifies them, returns them to the same
+set of terminals, and causes them to be repeated several hundred times
+per millisecond without actually ringing or oscillating is the real
+research secret of the machine. My father's secret and now mine."</p>
+
+<p>"And how do we use it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You want to memorize a list of ingredients," said James. "So you will
+put this helmet on your head with the cookbook in your hands. You will
+turn on the machine when you have read the part you want to memorize just
+to be sure of your material. Then, with the machine running, you
+carefully read aloud the passage from your book. The vibrating amplifier
+in the machine monitors and records each electrical impulse, then
+furnishes it back to your brain as a successive series of repetitious
+vibrations, each identical in shape and magnitude, just as if you had
+actually read and re-read that list of stuff time and again."</p>
+
+<p>"And then I'll know it cold?"</p>
+
+<p>James shook his head. "Then you'll be about as confused as you've ever
+been. For several hours, none of it will make sense. You'll be thinking
+things like a 'cup of salt and a pinch of water,' or maybe, 'sugar three
+of mustard and two spoonthree teas.' And then in a few hours all of this
+mish-mash will settle itself down into the proper serial arrangement; it
+will fit the rest of your brain-memory-pattern comfortably."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. It has something to do with the same effect one gets out
+of studying. On Tuesday one can read a page of textbook and not grasp a
+word of it. Successive readings help only a little. Then in about a week
+it all becomes quite clear, just as if the brain had sorted it and filed
+it logically among the other bits of information. Well, what about that
+cookbook?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Bagley, with the air of someone agreeing to have a tooth
+pulled when it hasn't really started to hurt, "I'll get it."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James Holden allowed himself a few pleasant daydreams. The most
+satisfactory of all was one of himself pleading his own case before the
+black-robed Justices of the Supreme Court, demolishing his detractors
+with a flow of his brilliance and convincing them beyond any doubt that
+he did indeed have the right to walk alone. That there be no question of
+his intellect, James proposed to use his machine to educate himself to
+completion. He would be the supreme student of the arts and the sciences,
+of law, language, and literature. He would know history and the
+humanities, and the dreams and aims of the great philosophers and
+statesmen, and he would even be able to quote in their own terms the
+drives of the great dictators and some of the evil men so that he could
+draw and compare to show that he knew the difference between good and
+bad.</p>
+
+<p>But James Holden had no intention of sharing this limelight.</p>
+
+<p>His superb brilliance was to be compared to the average man's, not to
+another one like him. He had the head start. He intended to keep it until
+he had succeeded in compelling the whole world to accept him with the
+full status of a free adult.</p>
+
+<p>Then, under his guidance, he would permit the world-wide use of his
+machine.</p>
+
+<p>His loneliness had forced him to revise that dream by the addition of
+Martha Bagley; he needed a companion, contemporary, and foil. His mental
+playlet no longer closed with James Holden standing alone before the
+Bench. Now it ended with Martha saying proudly, "James, I knew you could
+do it."</p>
+
+<p>Martha Bagley's brilliance would not conflict with his. He could
+stay ahead of her forever. But he had no intention of allowing some
+experienced adult to partake of this program of enforced education. He
+was, therefore, going to find himself some manner or means of preventing
+Mrs. Bagley from running the gamut of all available information.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden evaluated all people in his own terms, he believed that
+everybody was just as eager for knowledge as he was.</p>
+
+<p>So he was surprised to find that Mrs. Bagley's desire for extended
+education only included such information as would make her own immediate
+personal problems easier. Mrs. Bagley was the first one of the mass of
+people James was destined to meet who not only did not know how or why
+things worked, but further had no intention whatsoever of finding out.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of trying to monopolize James Holden's machine, Mrs. Bagley was
+satisfied to learn a number of her pet recipes. After a day of thought
+she added her social security number, blood type, some birthdays, dates,
+a few telephone numbers and her multiplication tables. She announced that
+she was satisfied. It solved James Holden's problem&mdash;and stunned him
+completely.</p>
+
+<p>But James had very little time to worry about Mrs. Bagley's attitude. He
+found his hands full with Martha.</p>
+
+<p>Martha played fey. Her actions and attitude baffled James, and even
+confused her mother. There was no way of really determining whether the
+girl was scared to death of the machine itself, or whether she simply
+decided to be difficult. And she uttered the proper replies with all of
+the promptness&mdash;and intelligence&mdash;of a ventriloquist's dummy:</p>
+
+<p>"You don't want to be ignorant, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You want to be smart, like James, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You know the machine won't hurt, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let's try it just once, please?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>Back to the beginning again. Martha would agree to absolutely anything
+except the educator.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the argument to Mrs. Bagley, James sat down angrily with a book.
+He was so completely frustrated that he couldn't read, but he sat there
+leafing the pages slowly and making a determined show of not lifting his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley went on for another hour before she reached the end of her
+own patience. She stood up almost rigid with anger. James never knew how
+close Mrs. Bagley was to making use of a hairbrush on her daughter's
+bottom. But Mrs. Bagley also realized that Martha had to go into this
+process willing to cooperate. So, instead of physical punishment, she
+issued a dictum:</p>
+
+<p>"You'll go to your room and stay there until you're willing!"</p>
+
+<p>And at that point Martha ceased being stubborn and began playing games.</p>
+
+<p>She permitted herself to be led to the chair, and then went through a
+routine of skittishness, turning her head and squirming incessantly,
+which made it impossible for James to place the headset properly. This
+went on until he stalked away and sat down again. Immediately Martha sat
+like a statue. But as soon as James reached for the little screws that
+adjusted the electrodes, Martha started to giggle and squirm. He stalked
+away and sat through another session between Martha and her mother.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon James succeeded in getting her to the machine;
+Martha uttered a sentence without punctuating it with little giggles, but
+it came as elided babytalk.</p>
+
+<p>"Again," he commanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wan' to."</p>
+
+<p>"Again!" he snapped.</p>
+
+<p>Martha began to cry.</p>
+
+<p>That, to James, was the end. But Mrs. Bagley stepped forward with a
+commanding wave for James to vacate the premises and took over. James
+could not analyze her expression, but it did look as if it held relief.
+He left the room to them; a half hour later Mrs. Bagley called him back.</p>
+
+<p>"She's had it," said Mrs. Bagley. "Now you can start, I think."</p>
+
+<p>James looked dubious; but said, "Read this."</p>
+
+<p>"Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>Martha took a deep breath and said, nicely, "'<span class="smcap">A</span>' is the first
+letter of the English Alphabet."</p>
+
+<p>"Good." He pressed the button. "Again? Please?"</p>
+
+<p>Martha recited it nicely.</p>
+
+<p>"Fine," he said. "Now we'll look up 'Is' and go on from there."</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness," said Mrs. Bagley, "this is going to take months."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said James. "It just goes slowly at the start. Most of the
+definitions use the same words over and over again. Martha really knows
+most of these simple words, we've just got to be dead certain that her
+own definition of them agrees wholly and completely with ours. After a
+couple of hours of this minute detail, we'll be skipping over everything
+but new words. After all, she only has to work them over once, and as we
+find them, we'll mark them out of the book. Ready, Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't read it."</p>
+
+<p>James took the little dictionary. "Um," he said. "Hadn't occurred to me."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" asked Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"This thing says, Three-rd pers period sing periodic indic period of Be,'
+the last in heavy bold type. Can't have Martha talking in abbreviations,"
+he chuckled. He went to the typewriter and wrote it out fully. "Now read
+that," he directed.</p>
+
+<p>She did and again the process went through without a hitch. Slowly, but
+surely, they progressed for almost two hours before Martha rebelled.
+James stopped, satisfied with the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>But as time wore on into the late autumn, Martha slowly&mdash;oh, so
+slowly!&mdash;began to realize that there was importance to getting things
+right. She continued to tease. But she did her teasing before James
+closed the "Run" button.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TEN" id="CHAPTER_TEN"></a>CHAPTER TEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>Once James progressed Martha through the little dictionary, he began with
+a book of grammar. Again it started slowly; he had to spend quite a bit
+of time explaining to Martha that she did indeed know all of the terms
+used in the book of grammar because they'd all been defined by the
+dictionary, now she was going to learn how the terms and their
+definitions were used.</p>
+
+<p>James was on more familiar ground now. James, like Martha, had learned
+his first halting sentence structure by mimicking his parents, but he
+remembered the process of learning why and how sentences are constructed
+according to the rules, and how the rules are used rather than intuition
+in forming sentences.</p>
+
+<p>Grammar was a topic that could not be taken in snippets and bits. Whole
+paragraphs had to be read until Martha could read them without a halt or
+a mispronunciation, and then committed to memory with the "Run" button
+held down. At the best it was a boring process, even though it took only
+minutes instead of days. It was not conflicting, but it was confusing.
+It installed permanently certain solid blocks of information that were
+isolated; they stood alone until later blocks came in to connect them
+into a whole area.</p>
+
+<p>Each session was numbing. Martha could take no more than a couple of
+hours, after which her reading became foggy. She wanted a nap after each
+session and even after the nap she went around in a bemused state of
+mental dizziness.</p>
+
+<p>Life settled down once more in the House on Martin's Hill. James worked
+with the machine himself and laid out lessons to guide Martha. Then,
+finished for the day with education, James took to his typewriter while
+Martha had her nap. It filled the days of the boy and girl completely.</p>
+
+<p>This made an unexpected and pleasant change in Mrs. Bagley's routine. It
+had been a job to keep Martha occupied. Now that Martha was busy, Mrs.
+Bagley found time on her own hands; without interruption, her housework
+routine was completed quite early in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley had never made any great point of getting dressed for dinner.
+She accumulated a collection of house-frocks; printed cotton washables
+differing somewhat in color and cut but functionally identical. She wore
+them serially as they came from the row of hangers in her closet.</p>
+
+<p>Now she began to acquire some dressier things, wearing them even during
+her shopping trips.</p>
+
+<p>James paid little attention to this change in his housekeeper's routine,
+but he approved. Mrs. Bagley was also taking more pains with the 'do' of
+her hair, but the boy's notice was not detailed enough to take a
+part-by-section inventory of the whole. In fact, James gave the whole
+matter very little thought until Mrs. Bagley made a second change after
+her return from town, appearing for dinner in what James could only
+classify as a party dress.</p>
+
+<p>She asked, "James, do you mind if I go out this evening?"</p>
+
+<p>James, startled, shrugged and said, "No, I guess not."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll keep an ear out for Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>The need for watching a sleeping girl of seven and a half did not
+penetrate. "What's up?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It's been months since I saw a movie."</p>
+
+<p>James shrugged again, puzzled. "You saw the 'Bride of Frankenstein' last
+night on TV," he pointed out.</p>
+
+<p>"I first saw that old horror when I was about your age," she told him
+with a trace of disdain.</p>
+
+<p>"I liked it."</p>
+
+<p>"So did I at eight and a half. But tonight I'm going to see a <i>new</i>
+picture."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay," said James, wondering why anybody in their right mind would go
+out on a chilly night late in November just to see a moving picture when
+they could stay at home and watch one in comfort. "Have a good time."</p>
+
+<p>He expected Mrs. Bagley to take off in her car, but she did not. She
+waited until a brief <i>toot</i>! came from the road. Then, with a swirl of
+motion, she left.</p>
+
+<p>It took James Holden's limited experience some little time to identify
+the event with some similar scenes from books he'd read; even with him,
+reading about it was one world and seeing it happen was another thing
+entirely.</p>
+
+<p>For James Holden it opened a new area for contemplation. He would have to
+know something about this matter if he hoped to achieve his dreamed-of
+status as an adult.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Information about the relation between man and woman had not been
+included in the course of education devised by his father and mother.
+Therefore his physical age and his information on the delicate subject
+were approximately parallel.</p>
+
+<p>His personal evaluation of the subject was uncomplicated. At some age not
+much greater than his own, boys and girls conglomerated in a mass that
+milled around in a constant state of flux and motion, like individual
+atoms of gas compressed in a container. Meetings and encounters took
+place both singly and in groups until nearly everybody had been in touch
+with almost everybody else. Slowly the amorphous mass changed. Groups
+became attracted by mutual interests. Changes and exchanges took place,
+and then a pair-formation began to take place. The pair-formation went
+through its interchanges both with and without friction as the
+settling-down process proceeded. At times predictable by comparing it
+to the statistics of radioactivity, the pair-production resulted in
+permanent combination, which effectively removed this couple from free
+circulation.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden had no grasp or feeling for the great catalyst that causes
+this pair-production; he saw it only for its sheer mechanics. To him, the
+sensible way to go about this matter was to get there early and move
+fast, because one stands to make a better choice when there is a greater
+number of unattached specimens from which to choose. Those left over are
+likely to have flaws.</p>
+
+<p>And so he pondered, long after Martha had gone to bed.</p>
+
+<p>He was still up and waiting when he heard the car stop at the gate.
+He watched them come up the walk arm in arm, their stride slow and
+lingering. They paused for several moments on the doorstep, once there
+was a short, muted laugh. The snick of the key came next and they came
+into the hallway.</p>
+
+<p>"No, please don't come in," said Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;" replied the man.</p>
+
+<p>"But me no buts. It's late, Tim."</p>
+
+<p>Tim? Tim? That would probably be Timothy Fisher. He ran the local garage
+where Mrs. Bagley bought her car. James went on listening shamelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Late? Phooey. When is eleven-thirty late?"</p>
+
+<p>"When it's right now," she replied with a light laugh. "Now, Tim. It's
+been very&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There came a long silence.</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was throaty when the silence broke. "Now, will you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that way, silly," she said. "The door's behind you."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't the door I want," he chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"We're making enough noise to wake the dead," she complained.</p>
+
+<p>"Then let's stop talking," he told her.</p>
+
+<p>There was another long silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Now please go."</p>
+
+<p>"Can I come back tomorrow night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not tomorrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Friday?"</p>
+
+<p>"Saturday."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a date, then."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Now get along with you."</p>
+
+<p>"You're cruel and heartless, Janet," he complained. "Sending a man out in
+that cold and storm."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't storming, and you've a fine heater in that car of yours."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather have you."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you tell that to all the girls?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. Even Maggie the Washerwoman is better than an old car heater."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley chuckled throatily. "How is Maggie?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's fine."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean as a date."</p>
+
+<p>"Better than the car heater."</p>
+
+<p>"Tim, you're a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"When I was a kid," said Tim reflectively, "there used to be a female
+siren in the movies. Her pet line used to be 'Kiss me, my fool!' Theda
+Bara, I think. Before talkies. Now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Tim&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Another long silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Tim, you've simply <i>got</i> to go!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah, I know. You've convinced me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why aren't you going?"</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled. "Look, you've convinced me. I can't stay so I'll go,
+obviously. But now that we've covered this problem, let's drop the
+subject for a while, huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't spoil a fine evening, Tim."</p>
+
+<p>"Janet, what's with you, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, 'what's with me?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Just this. Somewhere up in the house is this oddball Maxwell who hides
+out all the time. He's either asleep or busy. Anyway, he isn't here. Do
+you have to report in, punch a time clock, tuck him in&mdash;or do you turn
+into a pumpkin at the stroke of twelve?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell is paying me wages to keep house for him. That's all. Part
+of my wages is my keep. But it doesn't entitle me to have full run of the
+house or to bring guests in at midnight for a two-hour good-night
+session."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to tell this bird a thing or two," said Tim Fisher sharply. "He
+can't keep you cooped up like&mdash;like&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody is keeping me cooped up," she said. "Like what?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"You said 'like&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"Skip it. What I meant is that you can't moulder, Janet. You've got to
+get out and meet people."</p>
+
+<p>"I've been out and I've met people. I've met you."</p>
+
+<p>"All to the good."</p>
+
+<p>"Fine. So you invited me out, and I went. It was fun. I liked it. You've
+asked me, and I've said that I'd like to do it again on Saturday. I've
+enjoyed being kissed, and I'll probably enjoy it again on Saturday. So&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd think you'd enjoy a lot of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Because my husband has been gone for five years?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, now Janet&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what you meant, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. You've got me wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Tim, stop it. You're spoiling a fine evening. You should have gone
+before it started to spoil. Now please put your smile on again and leave
+cheerfully. There's always Saturday&mdash;if you still want it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll call you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened once more and then closed. James took a deep breath, and
+then stole away quietly to his own room.</p>
+
+<p>By some instinct he knew that this was no time to intercept Mrs. Bagley
+with a lot of fool questions.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>To the surprise and puzzlement of young James Quincy Holden, Mr. Timothy
+Fisher telephoned early upon the following evening. He was greeted quite
+cordially by Mrs. Bagley. Their conversation was rambling and inane,
+especially when heard from one end only, and it took them almost ten
+minutes to confirm their Saturday night date. That came as another shock.</p>
+
+<p>Well, not quite. The explanation bothered him even more than the fact
+itself. As a further extension of his little mechanical mating process,
+James had to find a place for the like of Jake Caslow and the women Jake
+knew. None of them were classed in the desirable group, all of them were
+among the leftovers. But of course, since none of them were good enough
+for the 'good' people, they were good enough for one another, and that
+made it all right&mdash;for them.</p>
+
+<p>But Mrs. Bagley was not of their ilk. It was not right that she should be
+forced to take a leftover.</p>
+
+<p>And then it occurred to him that perhaps Mrs. Bagley was not really
+taking the leftover, Tim Fisher, but instead was using Tim Fisher's
+company as a means toward meeting a larger group, from which there might
+be a better specimen. So he bided his time, thinking deeply around the
+subject, about which he knew nothing whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>Saturday night was a repeat of Wednesday. They stayed out later, and upon
+their return they took possession of the living room for at least an hour
+before they started their routine about the going-home process. With
+minor variations in the dialog, and with longer and more frequent
+silences, it almost followed the Wednesday night script. The variation
+puzzled James even more. This session went according to program for a
+while until Tim Fisher admitted with regret that it was, indeed, time for
+him to depart. At which juncture Mrs. Bagley did not leap to her feet to
+accept his offer to do that which she had been asking him to do for a
+half hour. Mrs. Bagley compounded the affair by sighing deeply and
+agreeing with him that it was a shame that it was so late and that she,
+too, wished that he could stay a little longer. This, of course, put them
+precisely where they were a half hour earlier and they had to start the
+silly business all over again.</p>
+
+<p>They parted after a final fifteen-minute discussion at the front door.
+This discussion covered Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and finally came to
+agreement on Wednesday.</p>
+
+<p>And so James Holden went to bed that night fully convinced that in a town
+of approximately two thousand people&mdash;he did not count the two or three
+hundred A.E.C.-College group as part of the problem&mdash;there were entirely
+too few attractive leftovers from which Mrs. Bagley could choose.</p>
+
+<p>But as this association grew, it puzzled him even more. For in his
+understanding, any person forced to accept a second-rate choice does so
+with an air of resignation, but not with a cheerful smile, a sparkle in
+the eyes, and two hours of primping.</p>
+
+<p>James sought the answer in his books but they were the wrong volumes for
+reference of this subject. He considered the local Public Library only
+long enough to remember that it carried a few hundred books suitable for
+the A.E.C.-College crew and a thousand or so of second-hand culls donated
+by local citizens during cleanup campaigns. He resorted to buying books
+by mail through advertisements in newspapers and magazines and received a
+number of volumes of medical treatises, psychological texts, and a book
+on obstetrics that convinced him that baby-having was both rare and
+hazardous. He read <i>By Love Possessed</i> but he did not recognize the many
+forms of love portrayed by the author because the volume was not
+annotated with signs or provided with a road map, and he did not know
+it when he read about it.</p>
+
+<p>He went through the Kinsey books and absorbed a lot of data and graphs
+and figures on human behavior that meant nothing to him. James was not
+even interested in the incidence of homosexuality among college students
+as compared to religious groups, or in the comparison between premarital
+experience and level of education. He knew the words and what the words
+meant as defined in other words. But they were only words and did not
+touch him where he lived.</p>
+
+<p>So, because none of the texts bothered to explain why a woman says Yes,
+when she means No, nor why a woman will cling to a man's lapels and press
+herself against him and at the same time tell him he has to go home,
+James remained ignorant. He could have learned more from Lord Byron,
+Shelley, Keats, or Browning than from Kinsey, deLee, or the "Instructive
+book on Sex, forwarded under plain wrapper for $2.69 postpaid."</p>
+
+<p>Luckily for James, he did not study any of his material via the medium of
+his father's machine or it would have made him sick. For he was not yet
+capable of understanding the single subject upon which more words have
+been expended in saying less than any other subject since the dawn of
+history.</p>
+
+<p>His approach was academic, he could have been reading the definitive
+material on the life-cycle of the beetle insofar as any stir of his own
+blood was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>From his study he did identify a couple of items. Tim Fisher obviously
+desired extramarital relations with Mrs. Bagley&mdash;or was it premarital
+relations? Probably both. Logic said that Mrs. Bagley, having already
+been married to Martha's father, could hardly enter into <i>pre</i>marital
+relations, although Tim could, since he was a bachelor. But they wouldn't
+be <i>pre</i>marital with Tim unless he followed through and married Mrs.
+Bagley. And so they must be <i>extra</i>marital. But whatever they were
+called, the Book said that there was about as much on one side as on the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>With a mind mildly aware of the facts of life, distorted through the eyes
+of near-nine James Holden, he watched them and listened in.</p>
+
+<p>As for Mrs. Bagley, she did not know that she was providing part of James
+Holden's extraliterary education. She enjoyed the company of Tim Fisher.
+Hesitantly, she asked James if she could have Tim for dinner one evening,
+and was a bit surprised at his immediate assent. They planned the
+evening, cleaned the lower part of the house of every trace of its
+current occupancy, and James and Martha hied themselves upstairs. Dinner
+went with candlelight and charcoal-broiled steak&mdash;and a tray taken aloft
+for "Mr. Maxwell" was consumed by James and Martha. The evening went
+smoothly. They listened to music and danced, they sat and talked. And
+James listened.</p>
+
+<p>Tim was not the same man. He sat calm and comfortably on the low sofa
+with Mrs. Bagley's head on his shoulder, both of them pleasantly bemused
+by the dancing fireplace and with each other's company. He said, "Well,
+I'm glad this finally happened."</p>
+
+<p>"What happened?" she replied in a murmur.</p>
+
+<p>"Getting the invite for dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Might have been sooner, I suppose. Sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"What took you so long?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just being cautious, I guess."</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled. "Cautious?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh."</p>
+
+<p>Tim laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"What's so darned funny?"</p>
+
+<p>"Women."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we such a bunch of clowns?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not clowns, Janet. Just funny."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, genius. Explain that."</p>
+
+<p>"A woman is a lovely creature who sends a man away so that he can't do
+what she wants him to do most of all."</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh."</p>
+
+<p>"She feeds him full of rare steak until he wants to crawl off in a corner
+like the family mutt and go to sleep. Once she gets him in a somnolent
+state, she drapes herself tastefully on his shoulder and gets soft and
+warm and willing."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley laughed throatily. "Just start getting active," she warned,
+"and you'll see how fast I can beat a hasty retreat."</p>
+
+<p>"Janet, what <i>is</i> with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you hiding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hiding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, confound it, hiding!" he said, his voice turning hard. "Just who is
+this Charles Maxwell character, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tim, please&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His voice lowered again. "Janet," he said softly, "you're asking me to
+trust you, and at the same time you're not trusting me."</p>
+
+<p>"But I've nothing to hide."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, stop it. I'm no schoolboy, Janet. If you have nothing to hide, why
+are you acting as if you were sitting on the lid?"</p>
+
+<p>"I still don't know what you're talking about."</p>
+
+<p>"Your words say so, but your tone is the icy haughtiness that dares me,
+mere male that I am, to call your lie. I've a half-notion to stomp
+upstairs and confront your mysterious Maxwell&mdash;if he indeed exists."</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't. He'd&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He'd what? I've been in this house for hours day and night and now all
+evening. I've never heard a sound, not the creak of a floorboard, the
+slam of a door, the opening of a window, nor the distant gurgle of cool,
+clear water, gushing into plumbing. So you've been married. This I know.
+You have a daughter. This I accept. Your husband is dead. This happens to
+people every day; nice people, bad people, bright people, dull people.
+There was a young boy here last summer. Him I do not know, but you and
+your daughter I do know about. I've checked&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"How dare you check&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"I damn well dare check anything and anybody I happen to be personally
+interested in," he stormed. "As a potential bed partner I wouldn't give a
+hoot who you were or what you were. But before I go to the point of
+dividing the rest of my life on an exclusive contract, I have the right
+to know what I'm splitting it with."</p>
+
+<p>"You have no right&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Balderdash! I have as much right as anybody to look at the record. I
+grant you the same right to look up my family and my friends and the
+status of my bank account and my credit rating and my service record.
+Grant it? Hell, I couldn't stop you. Now, what's going on? Where is your
+daughter and where is that little boy? And where&mdash;if he exists&mdash;is this
+Charles Maxwell?"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James had heard enough. No matter which way this was going, it would end
+up wrong. He was proud of Mrs. Bagley's loyalty, but he knew that it was
+an increasing strain and could very well lead to complications that could
+not be explained away without the whole truth. He decided that the only
+thing to do was to put in his own oar and relieve Mrs. Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>He walked in, yawning. He stood between them, facing Tim Fisher. Behind
+him, Mrs. Bagley cried, "Now see&mdash;you've awakened him!"</p>
+
+<p>In a dry-throated voice, Tim said, "I thought he was away at school. Now,
+what's the story?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't her story to tell," said James. "It's mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Now see here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Fisher, you can't learn anything by talking incessantly."</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher took a step forward, his face dark, his intention to shake the
+truth out of somebody. James held up a hand. "Sit down a moment and
+listen," he ordered.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of James and the words that this child was uttering stopped Tim
+Fisher. Puzzled, he nodded dumbly, found a chair, and sat on the front
+edge of it, poised.</p>
+
+<p>"The whereabouts of Mr. Maxwell is his own business and none of yours.
+Your criticism is unfounded and your suspicions unworthy. But since you
+take the attitude that this is some of your business, we don't mind
+telling you that Mr. Maxwell is in New York on business."</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher eyed the youngster. "I thought you were away at school," he
+repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard you the first time," said James. "Obviously, I am not. Why I am
+not is Mr. Maxwell's business, not yours. And by insisting that something
+is wrong here and demanding the truth, you have placed Mrs. Bagley in the
+awkward position of having to make a decision that divides her loyalties.
+She has had the complete trust of Mr. Maxwell for almost a year and a
+half. Now, tell me, Mr. Fisher, to whom shall she remain loyal?"</p>
+
+<p>"That isn't the point&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is the point, Mr. Fisher. It is exactly the point. You're asking
+Mrs. Bagley to tell you the details of her employer's business, which is
+unethical."</p>
+
+<p>"How much have you heard?" demanded Fisher crossly.</p>
+
+<p>"Enough, at least to know what you've been hammering at."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you know that I've as much as said that there was some suspicion
+attached."</p>
+
+<p>"Suspicion of what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why aren't you in school?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's Mr. Maxwell's business."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me tell you, youngster, it is more than your Mr. Maxwell's business.
+There are laws about education and he's breaking them."</p>
+
+<p>James said patiently: "The law states that every child shall receive an
+adequate education. The precise wording I do not know, but it does
+provide for schooling outside of the state school system if the parent or
+guardian so prefers, and providing that such extraschool education is
+deemed adequate by the state. Can you say that I am not properly
+educated, Mr. Fisher?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you'd hardly expect me to be an expert on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'd hardly expect you to pass judgment, either," said James
+pointedly.</p>
+
+<p>"You're pretty&mdash;" Tim Fisher caught his tongue at the right moment. He
+felt his neck getting hot. It is hard enough to be told that you are
+off-base and that your behavior has been bad when an adult says the
+damning words. To hear the same words from a ten-year-old is unbearable.
+Right or wrong, the adult's position is to turn aside or shut the child
+up either by pulling rank or cuffing the young offender with an open
+hand. To have this upstart defend Mrs. Bagley, in whose presence he could
+hardly lash back, put Mr. Fisher in a very unhappy state of mind. He
+swallowed and then asked, lamely, "Why does he have to be so furtive?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is your definition of 'furtive'?" asked James calmly. "Do you
+employ the same term to describe the operations of that combination
+College-A.E.C. installation on the other side of town?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's secret&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Implying that atomic energy is secretly above-board, legal, and
+honorable, whereas Mr. Maxwell's&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But we know about atomic energy."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure we do," jeered James, and the sound of his immature near-treble
+voice made the jeer very close to an insult. "We know <i>all</i> about atomic
+energy. Was the Manhattan Project called 'furtive' until Hiroshima gave
+the story away?"</p>
+
+<p>"You're trying to put words in my mouth," objected Tim.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not. I'm merely trying to make you understand something
+important to everybody. You come in here and claim by the right of
+personal interest that we should be most willing to tell you our
+business. Then in the next breath you defend the installation over on the
+other side of town for their attitude in giving the bum's rush to people
+who try to ask questions about their business. Go read your Constitution,
+Mr. Fisher. It says there that I have as much right to defend my home
+against intruders as the A.E.C. has to defend their home against spies."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm not intruding."</p>
+
+<p>James nodded his head gently. "Not," he said, "until you make the grave
+error of equating personal privacy with culpable guilt."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean that."</p>
+
+<p>"You should learn to say what you mean," said James, "instead of trying
+to pry information out of someone who happens to be fond of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Now see here," said Tim Fisher, "I happen to be fond of her too, you
+know. Doesn't that give me some rights?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you expect to know all of her business if she were your wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose she were working in the A.E.C.-College?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that&mdash;er&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Would be different?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I talked this right around in its circle for a purpose," said James.
+"Stop and think for a moment. Let's discuss me. Mr. Fisher, where would
+you place me in school?"</p>
+
+<p>"Er&mdash;how old are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nine," said James. "In April."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm not sure&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. Do you suppose that I could sit in a classroom among my
+nine-year-old contemporaries very long without being found out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Er&mdash;no&mdash;I suppose not."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Fisher, how long do you think I could remain a secret if I attended
+high school, sitting at a specially installed desk in a class among
+teenagers twice my size?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not very long."</p>
+
+<p>"Then remember that some secrets are so big that you have to have armed
+guards to keep them secret, and others are so easy to conceal that all
+you need is a rambling old house and a plausible fa&ccedil;ade."</p>
+
+<p>"Why have you told me all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you have penetrated this far by your own effort, justified by
+your own personal emotions, and driven by an urge that is all-powerful if
+I am to believe the books I've read on the subject. You are told this
+much of the truth so that you won't go off half-cocked with a fine
+collection of rather dangerous untruths. Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm beginning to."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, whether Mrs. Bagley accepts your offer of marriage or not,
+remember one thing: If she were working for the A.E.C. you'd be proud of
+her, and you'd also be quite careful not to ask questions that would
+cause her embarrassment."</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher looked at Mrs. Bagley. "Well?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bagley looked bleak. "Please don't ask me until I've had a chance to
+discuss all of the angles with Mr. Maxwell, Tim."</p>
+
+<p>"Maxwell, again."</p>
+
+<p>"Tim," she said in a quiet voice, "remember&mdash;he's an employer, not an
+emotional involvement."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden looked at Tim Fisher. "And if you'll promise to keep this
+thing as close a secret as you would some information about atomic
+energy, I'll go to bed and let you settle your personal problems in
+private. Good night!"</p>
+
+<p>He left, reasonably satisfied that Tim Fisher would probably keep their
+secret for a time, at least. The hinted suggestion that this was as
+important a government project as the Atomic Energy Commission's works
+would prevent casual talk. There was also the slim likelihood that Tim
+Fisher might enjoy the position of being on the inside of a big secret,
+although this sort of inner superiority lacks true satisfaction. There
+was a more solid chance that Tim Fisher, being the ambitious man that he
+was, would keep their secret in the hope of acquiring for himself some
+of the superior knowledge and the advanced ability that went with it.</p>
+
+<p>But James was certain that the program that had worked so well with Mrs.
+Bagley would fail with Tim Fisher. James had nothing material to offer
+Tim. Tim was the kind of man who would insist upon his wife being a
+full-time wife, physically, emotionally, and intellectually.</p>
+
+<p>And James suddenly realized that Tim Fisher's own ambition and character
+would insist that Mrs. Bagley, with Martha, leave James Holden to take up
+residence in a home furnished by Tim Fisher upon the date and at time she
+became Mrs. Timothy Fisher.</p>
+
+<p>He was still thinking about the complications this would cause when he
+heard Tim leave. His clock said three-thirty.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James Holden's mechanical educator was a wonderful machine, but there
+were some aspects of knowledge that it was not equipped to impart. The
+glandular comprehension of love was one such; there were others. In all
+of his hours under the machine James had not learned how personalities
+change and grow.</p>
+
+<p>And yet there was a textbook case right before his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>In a few months, Janet Bagley had changed from a frightened and
+belligerent mother-animal to a cheerful young prospective wife. The
+importance of the change lay in the fact that it was not polar, nothing
+reversed; it was only that the emphasis passed gradually from the
+protection of the young to the development of Janet Bagley herself.</p>
+
+<p>James could not very well understand, though he tried, but he couldn't
+miss seeing it happen. It was worrisome. It threatened complications.</p>
+
+<p>There was quite a change that came with Tim Fisher's elevation in status
+from steady date to affianced husband, heightened by Tim Fisher's partial
+understanding of the situation at Martin's Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Then, having assumed the right to drop in as he pleased, he went on to
+assume more "rights" as Mrs. Bagley's fianc&eacute;. He brought in his friends
+from time to time. Not without warning, of course, for he understood the
+need for secrecy. When he brought friends it was after warning, and very
+frequently after he had helped them to remove the traces of juvenile
+occupancy from the lower part of the house.</p>
+
+<p>In one way, this took some of the pressure off. The opening of the
+"hermit's" house to the friends of the "hermit's" housekeeper's fianc&eacute;
+and friends was a pleasant evidence of good will; people stopped
+wondering, a little.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, James did not wholly approve. He contrasted this with
+what he remembered of his own home life. The guests who came to visit his
+mother and father were quiet and earnest. They indulged in animated
+discussions, argued points of deep reasoning, and in moments of
+relaxation they indulged in games that demanded skill and intellect.</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher's friends were noisy and boisterous. They mixed highballs.
+They danced to music played so loud that it made the house throb. They
+watched the fights on television and argued with more volume than logic.</p>
+
+<p>They were, to young James, a far cry from his parents' friends.</p>
+
+<p>But, as he couldn't do anything about it, he refused to worry about it.
+James Holden turned his thoughts forward and began to plan how he was
+going to face the culmination of this romance next September Fifteenth.
+He even suspected that there would probably be a number of knotty little
+problems that he now knew nothing about; he resolved to allow some
+thinking-time to cope with them when, as, and if.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the summer was coming closer.</p>
+
+<p>He prepared to make a visible show of having Mr. Charles Maxwell leave
+for a protracted summer travel. This would ease the growing problem of
+providing solid evidence of Maxwell's presence during the increasing
+frequency of Tim Fisher's visits and the widening circle of Mrs. Bagley's
+acquaintances in Shipmont. At the same time he and Martha would make a
+return from the Bolton School for Youth. This would allow them their
+freedom for the summer; for the first time James looked forward to it.
+Martha Bagley was progressing rapidly. This summer would see her over and
+done with the scatter-brain prattle that gave equal weight to fact or
+fancy. Her store of information was growing; she could be relied upon to
+maintain a fairly secure cover. Her logic was not to James Holden's
+complete satisfaction but she accepted most of his direction as necessary
+information to be acted upon now and reasoned later.</p>
+
+<p>In the solving of his immediate problems, James can be forgiven for
+putting Paul Brennan out of his mind.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ELEVEN" id="CHAPTER_ELEVEN"></a>CHAPTER ELEVEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>But Paul Brennan was still alive, and he had not forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>While James was, with astonishing success, building a life for himself in
+hiding, Brennan did everything he could to find him. That is to say, he
+did everything that&mdash;under the circumstances&mdash;he could afford to do.</p>
+
+<p>The thing was, the boy had got clean away, without a trace.</p>
+
+<p>When James escaped for the third, and very successful, time, Brennan was
+helpless. James had planned well. He had learned from his first two
+efforts. The first escape was a blind run toward a predictable objective;
+all right, that was a danger to be avoided. His second was entirely
+successful&mdash;until James created his own area of danger. Another lesson
+learned.</p>
+
+<p>The third was planned with as much care as Napoleon's deliverance from
+the island.</p>
+
+<p>James had started by choosing his time. He'd waited until Easter Week.
+He'd had a solid ten days during which he would be only one of countless
+thousands of children on the streets; there would be no slight suspicion
+because he was out when others were in.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James didn't go to school that day. That was common; children in the
+lower grades are often absent, and no one asks a question until they
+return, with the proper note from the parent. He was not missed anywhere
+until the school bus that should have dropped him off did not. This was
+an area of weakness that Brennan could not plug; he could hardly justify
+the effort of delivering and fetching the lad to and from school when the
+public school bus passed the Holden home. Brennan relied upon the
+Mitchells to see James upon the bus and to check him off when he
+returned. Whether James would have been missed earlier even with a
+personal delivery is problematical; certainly James would have had to
+concoct some other scheme to gain him his hours of free time.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, the first call to the school connected the Mitchells with a
+grumpy-voiced janitor who growled that teachers and principals had headed
+for their hills of freedom and wouldn't be back until Monday Week. It
+took some calling to locate a couple of James Holden's classmates who
+asserted that he hadn't been in school that day.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan knew at once what had happened, but he could not raise an
+immediate hue-and-cry. He fretted because of the Easter Week vacation; in
+any other time the sight of a school-aged boy free during school hours
+would have caused suspicion. During Easter Week vacation, every schoolboy
+would be free. James would also be protected by his size. A youngster
+walking alone is not suspect; his folks <i>must</i> be close by. The fact that
+it was "again" placed Paul Brennan in an undesirable position. This was
+not the youthful adventure that usually ends about three blocks from
+home. This was a repeat of the first absence during which James had been
+missing for months. People smile at the parents of the child who packs
+his little bag with a handkerchief and a candy bar to sally forth into
+the great big world, but it becomes another matter when the lad of six
+leaves home with every appearance of making it stick. So Brennan had to
+play it cozy, inviting newspaper reporters to the Holden home to display
+what he had to offer young James and giving them free rein to question
+Brennan's housekeeper and general factotum, the Mitchells. With
+honest-looking zeal, Paul Brennan succeeded in building up a picture that
+depicted James as ungrateful, hard to understand, wilful, and something
+of an intellectual brat.</p>
+
+<p>Then the authorities proceeded to throw out a fine-mesh dragnet. They
+questioned and cross-questioned bus drivers and railroad men. They made
+contact with the local airport even though its facilities were only used
+for a daisy-cutting feeder line. Posters were printed and sent to all
+truck lines for display to the truck drivers. The roadside diners were
+covered thoroughly. And knowing the boy's ability to talk convincingly,
+the authorities even went so far as to try the awesome project of making
+contact with passengers bound out-of-town with young male children in
+tow.</p>
+
+<p>Had James given them no previous experience to think about, he would have
+been merely considered a missing child and not a deliberate runaway.
+Then, instead of dragging down all of the known avenues of standard
+escape, the townspeople would have organized a tree-by-tree search of the
+fields and woods with hundreds of men walking hand in hand to inspect
+every square foot of the ground for either tracks or the child himself.
+But the <i>modus operandi</i> of young James Holden had been to apply sly
+touches such as writing letters and forging signatures of adults to
+cause the unquestioned sale of railroad tickets, or the unauthorized ride
+in the side-door Pullman.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, while the authorities were extending their circle of search
+based upon the velocity of modern transportation, James Holden was making
+his slow way across field and stream, guided by a Boy Scout compass and a
+U.S. Geodetic Survey map to keep him well out of the reach of roadway or
+town. With difficulty, but with dogged determination, he carried a light
+cot-blanket into which he had rolled four cans of pork and beans. He had
+a Boy Scout knife and a small pair of pliers to open it with. He had
+matches. He had the Boy Scout Handbook which was doubly useful; the pages
+devoted to woodsman's lore he kept for reference, the pages wasted on the
+qualifications for merit badges he used to start fires. He enjoyed
+sleeping in the open because it was spring and pleasantly warm, and
+because the Boy Scout Manual said that camping out was fun.</p>
+
+<p>A grown man with an objective can cover thirty or forty miles per day
+without tiring. James made it ten to fifteen. Thus, by the time the
+organized search petered out for lack of evidence and manpower&mdash;try
+asking one question of everybody within a hundred-mile radius&mdash;James was
+quietly making his way, free of care, like a hardy pioneer looking for a
+homestead site.</p>
+
+<p>The hint of kidnap went out early. The Federal Bureau of Investigation,
+of course, could not move until the waiting period was ended, but they
+did collect information and set up their organization ready to move
+into high speed at the instant of legal time. But then no ransom letter
+came; no evidence of the crime of kidnapping. This did not close the
+case; there were other cases on record where a child was stolen by adults
+for purposes other than ransom. It was not very likely that a child of
+six would be stolen by a neurotic adult to replace a lost infant, and
+Paul Brennan was personally convinced that James Holden had enough
+self-reliance to make such a kidnap attempt fail rather early in the
+game. He could hardly say so, nor could he suggest that James had indeed
+run away deliberately and skilfully, and with planned steps worthy of a
+much older person. He could only hint and urge the F.B.I. into any action
+that he could coerce them into taking; he did not care how or who brought
+James back just so long as the child was returned to his custody.</p>
+
+<p>Then as the days wore into weeks with no sign, the files were placed
+in the inactive drawer. Paul Brennan made contact with a few private
+agencies.</p>
+
+<p>He was stopped here, again, by another angle. The Holdens were by no
+means wealthy. Brennan could not justify the offer of some reward so
+large that people simply could not turn down the slim chance of
+collecting. If the missing one is heir to a couple of million dollars,
+the trustees can justify a reward of a good many thousand dollars for his
+return. The amount that Brennan was prepared to offer could not compel
+the services of a private agency on a full-time basis. The best and the
+most interested of the agencies took the case on a contingent basis; if
+something turned their way in the due course of their work they'd
+immediately take steps. Solving the case of a complete disappearance on
+the part of a child who virtually vanished into thin air would be good
+advertising, but their advertising budget would not allow them to put one
+man on the case without the first shred of evidence to point the way.</p>
+
+<p>If Paul Brennan had been above-board, he could have evoked a lot of
+interest. The search for a six-year-old boy with the educational
+development of a youth of about eighteen, informed through the services
+of an electromechanical device, would have fired public interest,
+Government intervention, and would also have justified Paul Brennan's
+depth of interest. But Paul Brennan could say nothing about the excellent
+training, he could only hint at James Holden's mental proficiency which
+was backed up by the boy's school record. As it was, Paul Brennan's
+most frightful nightmare was one where young James was spotted by some
+eagle-eyed detective and then in desperation&mdash;anything being better than
+an enforced return to Paul Brennan&mdash;James Holden pulled out all the stops
+and showed everybody precisely how well educated he really was.</p>
+
+<p>In his own affairs, Paul still had to make a living, which took up his
+time. As guardian and trustee of the Holden Estate, he was responsible to
+the State for his handling of James Holden's inheritance. The State takes
+a sensible view of the disbursements of the inheritance of a minor.
+Reasonable sums may be spent on items hardly deemed necessities to the
+average person, but the ceiling called "reasonable" is a flexible term
+and subject to close scrutiny by the State.</p>
+
+<p>In the long run it was Paul Brennan's own indefensible position that made
+it impossible to prosecute a proper search for the missing James Holden.
+Brennan suspected James of building up a bank account under some false
+name, but he could not saunter into banks and ask to examine their
+records without a Court order. Brennan knew that James had not taken off
+without preparation, but the examination of the stuff that James left
+behind was not very informative. There was a small blanket missing and
+Mrs. Mitchell said that it looked as though some cans had been removed
+from the stock but she could not be sure. And in a large collection of
+boy's stuff, one would not observe the absence of a Boy Scout knife and
+other trivia. Had a 100% inventory been available, the list of missing
+items would have pointed out James Holden's avenue of escape.</p>
+
+<p>The search for an adult would have included questioning of banks. No one
+knows whether such a questioning would have uncovered the bank-by-mail
+routine conducted under the name of Charles Maxwell. It is not a regular
+thing, but the receipt of a check drawn on a New York bank, issued by a
+publishing company, and endorsed to be paid to the account of so-and-so,
+accompanied by a request to open an account in that name might never be
+connected with the manipulations of a six-year-old genius, who was
+overtly just plain bright.</p>
+
+<p>And so Paul Brennan worried himself out of several pounds for fear
+that James would give himself away to the right people. He cursed the
+necessity of keeping up his daily work routine. The hue-and-cry he could
+not keep alive, but he knew that somewhere there was a young boy entirely
+capable of reconstructing the whole machine that Paul Brennan wanted so
+desperately that he had killed for it.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan was blocked cold. With the F.B.I. maintaining a hands-off
+attitude because there was no trace of any Federal crime involved, the
+case of James Holden was relegated to the missing-persons files. It
+became the official opinion that the lad had suffered some mishap and
+that it would only be a matter of time before his body was discovered.
+Paul Brennan could hardly prove them wrong without explaining the whole
+secret of James Holden's intelligence, competence, and the certainty that
+the young man would improve upon both as soon as he succeeded in
+rebuilding the Holden Electromechanical Educator.</p>
+
+<p>With the F.B.I. out of the picture, the local authorities waiting for the
+discovery of a small body, and the state authorities shelving the case
+except for the routine punch-card checks, official action died. Brennan's
+available reward money was not enough to buy a private agency's interest
+full-time.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan could not afford to tell anybody of his suspicion of James
+Holden's source of income, for the idea of a child's making a living by
+writing would be indefensible without full explanation. However, Paul
+Brennan resorted to reading of magazines edited for boys. Month after
+month he bought them and read them, comparing the styles of the many
+writers against the style of the manuscript copy left behind by James.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan naturally assumed that James would use a pen name. Writers often
+used pen names to conceal their own identity for any one of several
+reasons. A writer might use three or more pen names, each one identified
+with a known style of writing, or a certain subject or established
+character. But Paul Brennan did not know all there was to know about the
+pen-name business, such as an editor assigning a pen name to prevent the
+too-often appearance of some prolific writer, or conversely to make one
+writer's name seem exclusive with his magazine; nor could Brennan know
+that a writer's literary standing can be kept high by assigning a pen
+name to any second-rate material he may be so unfortunate as to turn out.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan read many stories written by James Holden under several
+names, including the name of Charles Maxwell, but Brennan's
+identification according to literary style was no better than if he had
+tossed a coin.</p>
+
+<p>And so, blocked by his own guilt and avarice from making use of the legal
+avenues of approach, Paul Brennan fumed and fretted away four long years
+while James Holden grew from six to ten years old, hiding under the guise
+of the Hermit of Martin's Hill and behind the pleasant adult fa&ccedil;ade of
+Mrs. Janet Bagley.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWELVE" id="CHAPTER_TWELVE"></a>CHAPTER TWELVE</h2>
+
+
+<p>If Paul Brennan found himself blocked in his efforts to find James Holden
+and the re-created Holden Educator, James himself was annoyed by one
+evident fact: Everything he did resulted in spreading the news of the
+machine itself.</p>
+
+<p>Had he been eighteen or so, he might have made out to his own taste. In
+the days of late teen-age, a youth can hold a job and rent a room, buy
+his own clothing and conduct himself to the limit of his ability. At ten
+he is suspect, because no one will permit him to paddle his own canoe. At
+a later age James could have rented a small apartment and built his
+machine alone. But starting as young as he did, he was forced to hide
+behind the cover of some adult, and he had picked Mrs. Bagley because he
+could control her both through her desire for security and the promise of
+a fine education for the daughter Martha Bagley.</p>
+
+<p>The daughter was a two-way necessity; she provided him with a
+contemporary companion and also gave him a lever to wield against the
+adult. A lone woman could have made her way without trouble. A lone woman
+with a girl-child is up against a rather horrifying problem of providing
+both support and parental care. He felt that he had done what he had to
+do, up to the point where Mrs. Bagley became involved with Tim Fisher or
+anybody else. This part of adulthood was not yet within his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>But there it was and here it is, and now there was Martha to complicate
+the picture. Had Mrs. Bagley been alone, she and Tim could go off and
+marry and then settle down in Timbuctoo if they wanted to. But not with
+Martha. She was in the same intellectual kettle of sardines as James. Her
+taste in education was by no means the same. She took to the mathematical
+subjects indifferently, absorbing them well enough&mdash;once she could be
+talked into spending the couple of hours that each day demanded&mdash;but
+without interest. Martha could rattle off quotations from literary
+masters, she could follow the score of most operas (her voice was a bit
+off-key but she knew what was going on) and she enjoyed all of the
+available information on keeping a house in order. Her eye and her mind
+were, as James Holden's, faster than her hand. She went through the same
+frustrations as he did, with different tools and in a different medium.
+The first offside snick of the scissors she knew to be bad before she
+tried the pattern for size, and the only way she could correct such
+defective work was to practice and practice until her muscles were
+trained enough to respond to the direction of her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Remove her now and place her in a school&mdash;even the most advanced
+school&mdash;and she would undergo the unhappy treatment that James had
+undergone these several years ago.</p>
+
+<p>And yet she could not be cut loose. Martha was as much a part of this
+very strange life as James was. So this meant that any revision in
+overall policy must necessarily include the addition of Tim Fisher and
+not the subtraction of Mrs. Bagley and Martha.</p>
+
+<p>"Charles Maxwell" had to go.</p>
+
+<p>James's problem had not changed. His machine must be kept a secret as
+long as he could. The machine was his, James Quincy Holden's property by
+every known and unwritten legal right of direct, single, uncluttered
+inheritance. The work of his parents had been stopped by their death, but
+it was by no means finished with the construction of the machine. To the
+contrary, the real work had only begun with the completion of the first
+working model. And whether he turned out to be a machine-made genius, an
+over-powered dolt, or an introverted monster it was still his own
+personal reason for being alive.</p>
+
+<p>He alone should reap the benefit or the sorrow, and had his parents lived
+they would have had their right to reap good or bad with him. Good or
+bad, had they lived, he would have received their protection.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, he had no protection whatsoever. Until he could have and hold
+the right to control his own property as he himself saw fit, he had to
+hide just as deep from the enemy who would steal it as he must hide from
+the friend who would administrate it as a property in escrow for his own
+good, since he as a minor was legally unable to walk a path both fitting
+and proper for his feet.</p>
+
+<p>So, the facts had to be concealed. Yet all he was buying was time.</p>
+
+<p>By careful juggling, he had already bought some. Months with Jake Caslow,
+a few months stolidly fighting the school, and two with the help of Mrs.
+Bagley and Martha. Then in these later months there had been more
+purchased time; time gained by the post-dated engagement and the
+procrastinated marriage, which was now running out.</p>
+
+<p>No matter what he did, it seemed that the result was a wider spread of
+knowledge about the Holden Electromechanical Educator.</p>
+
+<p>So with misgiving and yet unaware of any way or means to circumvent the
+necessity without doing more overall harm, James decided that Tim Fisher
+must be handed another piece of the secret. A plausible piece, with as
+much truth as he would accept for the time being. Maybe&mdash;hand Tim Fisher
+a bit with great gesture and he would not go prying for the whole?</p>
+
+<p>His chance came in mid-August. It was after dinner on an evening
+uncluttered with party or shower or the horde of just-dropped-in-friends
+of whom Tim Fisher had legion.</p>
+
+<p>Janet Bagley and Tim Fisher sat on the low divan in the living room
+half-facing each other. Apart, but just so far apart that they could
+touch with half a gesture, they were discussing the problem of domicile.
+They were also still quibbling mildly about the honeymoon. Tim Fisher
+wanted a short, noisy one. A ten-day stay in Hawaii, flying both ways,
+with a ten-hour stopover in Los Angeles on the way back. Janet Bagley
+wanted a long and lazy stay somewhere no closer than fifteen hundred
+miles to the nearest telephone, newspaper, mailbox, airline, bus stop, or
+highway. She'd take the 762-day rocket trip to Venus if they had one
+available. Tim was duly sympathetic to her desire to get away from her
+daily grind for as long a time as possible, but he also had a garage to
+run, and he was by no means incapable of pointing out the practical side
+of crass commercialism.</p>
+
+<p>But unlike the problem of the honeymoon, which Janet Bagley was willing
+to discuss on any terms for the pleasure of discussing it, the problem of
+domicile had been avoided&mdash;to the degree of being pointed.</p>
+
+<p>For Janet Bagley was still torn between two loyalties. Hers was not
+a lone loyalty to James Holden, there had been almost a complete
+association with the future of her daughter in the loyalty. She realized
+as well as James did, that Martha must not be wrested from this life and
+forced to live, forever an outcast, raised mentally above the level of
+her age and below the physical size of her mental development. Mrs.
+Bagley thought only of Martha's future; she gave little or no thought on
+the secondary part of the problem. But James knew that once Martha was
+separated from the establishment, she could not long conceal her advanced
+information, and revealing that would reveal its source.</p>
+
+<p>And so, as they talked together with soft voices, James Holden decided
+that he could best buy time by employing logic, finance, and good common
+sense. He walked into the living room and sat across the coffee table
+from them. He said, "You'll have to live here, you know."</p>
+
+<p>The abrupt statement stunned them both. Tim sat bolt upright and
+objected, "I'll see to it that we're properly housed, young fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"This isn't charity," replied James. "Nor the goodness of my little
+heart. It's a necessity."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?" demanded Tim crossly. "It's my life&mdash;and Janet's."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;Martha's life," added James.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't think I'm including her out, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but you're forgetting that she isn't to be popped here and there as
+the fancy hits you, either. She's much to be considered."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll consider her," snapped Tim. "She shall be my daughter. If she will,
+I'll have her use my name as well as my care and affection."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you will," agreed James. The quick gesture of Mrs. Bagley's
+hand towards Tim, and his equally swift caress in reply were noticed but
+not understood by James. "But you're not thinking deeply enough about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. You tell me all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Martha must stay here," said James. "Neither of you&mdash;nor Martha&mdash;have
+any idea of how stultifying it can be to be forced into school under the
+supervision of teachers who cannot understand, and among classmates
+whose grasp of any subject is no stronger than a feeble grope in the
+mental dawn."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe so. But that's no reason why we must run our life your way."</p>
+
+<p>"You're wrong, Mr. Fisher. Think a moment. Without hesitation, you will
+include the education of Martha Bagley along with the 'care and
+affection' you mentioned a moment ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>"This means, Mr. Fisher, that Martha, approaching ten years old,
+represents a responsibility of about seven more years prior to her
+graduation from high school and another four years of college&mdash;granting
+that Martha is a standard, normal, healthy young lady. Am I right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, since you are happy and willing to take on the responsibility of
+eleven years of care and affection and the expense of schooling the girl,
+you might as well take advantage of the possibilities here and figure on
+five years&mdash;or less. If we cannot give her the equal of a master's degree
+in three, I'm shooting in the dark. Make it five, and she'll have her
+doctor's degree&mdash;or at least it's equivalent. Does that make sense?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it does. But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No buts until we're finished. You'll recall the tales we told you about
+the necessity of hiding out. It must continue. During the school year we
+must not be visible to the general public."</p>
+
+<p>"But dammit, I don't want to set up my family in someone else's house,"
+objected Tim Fisher.</p>
+
+<p>"Buy this one," suggested James. "Then it will be yours. I'll stay on and
+pay rent on my section."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll&mdash;now wait a minute! What are you talking about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said, <i>'I'll pay rent on my section,'</i>" said James.</p>
+
+<p>"But this guy upstairs&mdash;" Tim took a long breath. "Let's get this
+straight," he said, "now that we're on the subject, what about Mr.
+Charles Maxwell?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can best quote," said James with a smile, "'Oh, what a tangled web we
+weave, when first we practice to deceive!'"</p>
+
+<p>"That's Shakespeare."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry. That's Sir Walter Scott. <i>The Lay of the Last Minstrel</i>. Canto
+Six, Stanza Seventeen. The fact of the matter is that we could go on
+compounding this lie, but it's time to stop it. Mr. Charles Maxwell
+does not exist."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hasn't it puzzled you that this hermit-type character that never puts a
+foot out of the house has been out and gone on some unstated vacation or
+business trip for most of the spring and summer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hadn't given it a thought," said Fisher with a fatuous look at Mrs.
+Bagley. She mooned back at him. For a moment they were lost in one
+another, giving proof to the idea that blinder than he who will not
+see is the fellow who has his eye on a woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Charles Maxwell does not exist except in the minds of his happy
+readers," said James. "He is a famous writer of boys' stories and known
+to a lot of people for that talent. Yet he is no more a real person
+than Lewis Carroll."</p>
+
+<p>"But Lewis Carroll did exist&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"As Charles L. Dodgson, a mathematician famous for his work in symbolic
+logic."</p>
+
+<p>"All right! Then who writes these stories? Who supports you&mdash;and this
+house?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do!"</p>
+
+<p>Tim blinked, looked around the room a bit wildly and then settled on
+Martha, looking at her helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's true, Tim," she said quietly. "It's crazy but it works. I've been
+living with it for years."</p>
+
+<p>Tim considered that for a full minute. "All right," he said shortly. "So
+it works. But why does any kid have to live for himself?" He eyed James.
+"Who's responsible for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Got an hour?" asked James with a smile. "Then listen&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At the end of James Holden's long explanation, Tim Fisher said, "Me&mdash;?
+Now, I need a drink!"</p>
+
+<p>James chuckled, "Alcoholic, of course&mdash;which is Pi to seven decimal
+places if you ever need it. Just count the letters."</p>
+
+<p>Over his glass, Tim eyed James thoughtfully. "So if this is true, James,
+just who owns that fabulous machine of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is mine, or ours."</p>
+
+<p>"You gave me to believe that it was a high-priority Government project,"
+he said accusingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry. But I would lie as glibly to God Himself if it became necessary
+to protect myself by falsehood. I'm sorry it isn't a Government project,
+but it's just as important a secret."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything as big as this <i>should</i> be the business of the Government."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps so. But it's mine to keep or to give, and it's mine to study."
+James was thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose that you can argue that
+anything as important as this should be handed over to the authorities
+immediately; that a large group of men dedicated to such a study can
+locate its difficulties and its pitfalls and failures far swifter than
+a single youth of eleven. Yet by the right of invention, a process
+protected by the Constitution of the United States and circumvented by
+some very odd rulings on the part of the Supreme Court, it is mine by
+inheritance, to reap the exclusive rewards for my family's work. Until
+I'm of an age when I am deemed capable of managing my own life, I'd be
+'protected' out of my rights if I handed this to anybody&mdash;including the
+Government. They'd start a commission full of bureaucrats who'd first
+use the machine to study how to best expand their own little empire,
+perpetuate themselves in office, and then they'd rule me out on the
+quaint theory that education is so important that it mustn't be wasted
+on the young."</p>
+
+<p>Tim Fisher smiled wryly. He turned to Janet Bagley. "How do you want it?"
+he asked her.</p>
+
+<p>"For Martha's sake, I want it his way," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Then that's the way we'll have it," said Tim Fisher. He eyed
+James somewhat ruefully. "You know, it's a funny thing. I've always
+thought this was a screwy set-up, and to be honest, I've always thought
+you were a pretty bumptious kid. I guess you had a good reason. Anyway, I
+should have known Janet wouldn't have played along with it unless she had
+a reason that was really helping somebody."</p>
+
+<p>James saw with relief that Tim had allied himself with the cause; he was,
+in fact, very glad to have someone knowledgeable and levelheaded in on
+the problem. Anyway he really liked Tim, and was happy to have the
+deception out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," he said awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>Tim laughed. "Hey, will this contraption of yours teach me how to adjust
+a set of tappets?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said James quickly. "It will teach you the theory of how to chop
+down a tree but it can't show you how to swing an axe. Or," he went on
+with a smile, "it will teach you how to be an efficient accountant&mdash;but
+you have to use your own money!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the house on Martin's Hill, everybody won. Tim Fisher objected at
+first to the idea of gallivanting off on a protracted honeymoon, leaving
+a nine-year-old daughter in the care of a ten-year-old boy. But
+Janet&mdash;now Mrs. Fisher&mdash;pointed out that James and Martha were both quite
+competent, and furthermore there was little to be said for a honeymoon
+encumbered with a little pitcher that had such big ears, to say nothing
+of a pair of extremely curious eyes and a rather loud voice. And
+furthermore, if we allow the woman's privilege of adding one furthermore
+on top of another, it had been a long, long time since Janet had enjoyed
+a child-free vacation. So she won. It was not Hawaii by air for a ten-day
+stay. It was Hawaii by ship with a sixty-day sojourn in a hotel that
+offered both seclusion and company to the guests' immediate preference.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden won more time. He felt that every hour was a victory. At
+times he despaired because time passed so crawlingly slow. All the wealth
+of his education could not diminish that odd sense of the time-factor
+that convinces all people that the length of the years diminish as age
+increases. Far from being a simple, amusing remark, the problem has been
+studied because it is universal. It is psychological, of course, and it
+is not hard to explain simply in terms of human experience plus the known
+fact that the human senses respond to the logarithm of the stimulus.</p>
+
+<p>With most people, time is reasonably important. We live by the clock, and
+we die by the clock, and before there were clocks there were candles
+marked in lengths and sand flowing through narrow orifices, water
+dripping into jars, and posts stuck in the ground with marks for the
+shadow to divide the day. The ancient ones related womanhood to the moon
+and understood that time was vital in the course of Life.</p>
+
+<p>With James, time was more important, perhaps, than to any other human
+being alive. He was fighting for time, always. His was not the immature
+desire of uneducated youth to become adult overnight for vague reasons.</p>
+
+<p>With James it was an honest evaluation of his precarious position. He
+had to hide until he was deemed capable of handling his own affairs,
+after which he could fight his own battles in his own way without the
+interference of the laws that are set up to protect the immature.</p>
+
+<p>With Tim Fisher and his brand-new bride out of the way, James took a deep
+breath at having leaped one more hurdle. Then he sat down to think.</p>
+
+<p>Obviously there is no great sea-change that takes place at the Stroke Of
+Midnight on the date of the person's 21st birthday; no magic wand is
+waved over his scalp to convert him in a moment of time from a puling
+infant to a mature adult. The growth of child to adult is as gradual as
+the increase of his stature, which varies from one child to the next.</p>
+
+<p>The fact remained that few people are confronted by the necessity of
+making a decision based upon the precise age of the subject. We usually
+cross this barrier with no trouble, taking on our rights and
+responsibilities as we find them necessary to our life. Only in probating
+an estate left by the demise of both parents in the presence of minor
+children does this legal matter of precise age become noticeable. Even
+then, the control exerted over the minor by the legal guardian diminishes
+by some obscure mathematical proportion that approaches zero as the minor
+approaches the legal age of maturity. Rare is the case of the reluctant
+guardian who jealously relinquishes the iron rule only after the proper
+litigation directs him to let go, render the accounting for audit, and
+turn over the keys to the treasury to the rightful heir.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden was the seldom case. James Holden needed a very adroit
+lawyer to tell him how and when his rights and privileges as a citizen
+could be granted, and under what circumstances. From the evidence already
+at hand, James saw loopholes available in the matter of the legal age of
+twenty-one. But he also knew that he could not approach a lawyer with
+questions without giving full explanation of every why and wherefore.</p>
+
+<p>So James Holden, already quite competent in the do-it-himself method of
+cutting his own ice, decided to study law. Without any forewarning of the
+monumental proportions of the task he faced, James started to acquire
+books on legal procedure and the law.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>With the return of Tim and Janet Fisher matters progressed well. Mrs.
+Fisher took over the running of the household; Tim continued his running
+of the garage and started to dicker for the purchase of the house on
+Martin's Hill. The "Hermit" who had returned before the wedding remained
+temporarily. With a long-drawn plan, Charles Maxwell would slowly fade
+out of sight. Already his absence during the summer was hinting as being
+a medical study; during the winter he would return to the distant
+hospital. Later he would leave completely cured to take up residence
+elsewhere. Beyond this they planned to play it by ear.</p>
+
+<p>James and Martha, freed from the housework routine, went deep into study.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas passed and spring came and in April, James marked his eleventh
+birthday.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN" id="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN"></a>CHAPTER THIRTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>One important item continued to elude James Holden. The Educator could
+not be made to work in "tandem." In less technical terms, the Educator
+was strictly an individual device, a one-man-dog. The wave forms that
+could be recorded were as individual as fingerprints and pore-patterns
+and iris markings. James could record a series of ideas or a few pages of
+information and play them back to himself. During the playback he could
+think in no other terms; he could not even correct, edit or improve the
+phrasing. It came back word for word with the faithful reproduction of
+absolute fidelity. Similarly, Martha could record a phase of information
+and she, too, underwent the same repetition when her recording was played
+back to her.</p>
+
+<p>But if Martha's recording were played through to James, utter confusion
+came. It was a whirling maze of colors and odors, sound, taste and touch.</p>
+
+<p>It spoiled some of James Holden's hopes; he sought the way to mass-use,
+his plan was to employ a teacher to digest the information and then via
+the Educator, impress the information upon many other brains each coupled
+to the machine. This would not work.</p>
+
+<p>He made an extra headset late in June and they tried it, sitting
+side-by-side and still it did not work. With Martha doing the reading,
+she got the full benefit of the machine and James emerged with a whirling
+head full of riotous colors and other sensations. At one point he hoped
+that they might learn some subject by sitting side-by-side and reading
+the text in unison, but from this they received the information horribly
+mingled with equal intensity of sensory noise.</p>
+
+<p>He did not abandon this hope completely. He merely put it aside as a
+problem that he was not ready to study yet. He would re-open the question
+when he knew more about the whole process. To know the whole process
+meant studying many fields of knowledge and combining them into a
+research of his own.</p>
+
+<p>And so James entered the summer months as he'd entered them before; Tim
+and Janet Fisher took off one day and returned the next afternoon with a
+great gay show of "bringing the children home for the summer."</p>
+
+<p>Even in this day of multi-billion-dollar budgets and farm surpluses that
+cost forty thousand dollars per hour for warehouse rental, twenty-five
+hundred dollars is still a tidy sum to dangle before the eyes of any
+individual. This was the reward offered by Paul Brennan for any
+information as to the whereabouts of James Quincy Holden.</p>
+
+<p>If Paul Brennan could have been honest, the information he could have
+supplied would have provided any of the better agencies with enough
+lead-material to track James Holden down in a time short enough to make
+the reward money worth the effort. Similarly, if James Holden's
+competence had been no greater than Brennan's scaled-down description,
+he could not have made his own way without being discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Bound by his own guilt, Brennan could only fret. Everything including
+time, was running against him.</p>
+
+<p>And as the years of James Holden's independence looked toward the sixth,
+Paul Brennan was willing to make a mental bet that the young man's
+education was deeper than ever.</p>
+
+<p>He would have won. James was close to his dream of making his play for an
+appearance in court and pleading for the law to recognize his competence
+to act as an adult. He abandoned all pretense; he no longer hid through
+the winter months, and he did not keep Martha under cover either. They
+went shopping with Mrs. Fisher now and then, and if any of the folks in
+Shipmont wondered about them, the fact that the children were in the care
+and keeping of responsible adults and were oh-so-quick on the uptake
+stopped anybody who might have made a fast call to the truant officer.</p>
+
+<p>Then in the spring of James Holden's twelfth year and the sixth of
+his freedom, he said to Tim Fisher. "How would you like to collect
+twenty-five hundred dollars?"</p>
+
+<p>Fisher grinned. "Who do you want killed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Seriously."</p>
+
+<p>"Who wouldn't?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right, drop the word to Paul Brennan and collect the reward."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you protect yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can quote Gladstone from one end to the other. I can cite every civil
+suit regarding the majority or minority problem that has any importance.
+If I fail, I'll skin out of there in a hurry on the next train. But I
+can't wait forever."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the gimmick, James?"</p>
+
+<p>"First, I am sick and tired of running and hiding, and I think I've got
+enough to prove my point and establish my rights. Second, there is a bit
+of cupidity here; the reward money is being offered out of my own
+inheritance so I feel that I should have some say in where it should go.
+Third, the fact that I steer it into the hands of someone I'd prefer to
+get it tickles my sense of humor. The trapper trapped; the bopper bopped;
+the sapper hoist by his own petard."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't fair to Martha, either. So the sooner we get this whole affair
+settled, the sooner we can start to move towards a reasonable way of
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay, but how are we going to work it? I can't very well turn up by
+myself, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"People would think I'm a heel."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them think so. They'll change their opinion once the whole truth is
+known." James smiled. "It'll also let you know who your true friends
+are."</p>
+
+<p>"Okay. Twenty-five hundred bucks and a chance at the last laugh sounds
+good. I'll talk it over with Janet."</p>
+
+<p>That night they buried Charles Maxwell, the Hermit of Martin's Hill.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="BOOK_THREE" id="BOOK_THREE"></a>BOOK THREE:</h2>
+
+<h3>THE REBEL</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN"></a>CHAPTER FOURTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>In his years of searching, Paul Brennan had followed eleven fruitless
+leads. It had cost him over thirteen hundred dollars and he was prepared
+to go on and on until he located James Holden, no matter how much it
+took. He fretted under two fears, one that James had indeed suffered a
+mishap, and the other that James might reveal his secret in a dramatic
+announcement, or be discovered by some force or agency that would place
+the whole process in hands that Paul Brennan could not reach.</p>
+
+<p>The registered letter from Tim Fisher culminated this six years of
+frantic search. Unlike the previous leads, this spoke with authority,
+named names, gave dates, and outlined sketchily but adequately the
+operations of the young man in very plausible prose. Then the letter went
+on in the manner of a man with his foot in a cleft stick; the writer did
+not approve of James Holden's operations since they involved his wife and
+newly-adopted daughter, but since wife and daughter were fond of James
+Holden, the writer could not make any overt move to rid his household of
+the interfering young man. Paul Brennan was asked to move with caution
+and in utter secrecy, even to sending the reward in cash to a special
+post-office box.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan's reaction was a disappointment to himself. He neither felt
+great relief nor the desire to exult. He found himself assaying his own
+calmness and wondering why he lacked emotion over this culmination of so
+many years of futile effort. He re-read the letter carefully to see if
+there were something hidden in the words that his subconscious had
+caught, but he found nothing that gave him any reason to believe that
+this letter was a false lead. It rang true; Brennan could understand Tim
+Fisher's stated reaction and the man's desire to collect. Brennan even
+suspected that Fisher might use the reward money for his own private
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until he read the letter for the third time that he saw the
+suggestion to move with caution and secrecy not as its stated request to
+protect the writer, but as an excellent advice for his own guidance.</p>
+
+<p>And then Paul Brennan realized that for six years he had been
+concentrating upon the single problem of having James Holden returned to
+his custody, and in that concentration he had lost sight of the more
+important problem of achieving his true purpose of gaining control of the
+Holden Educator. The letter had not been the end of a long quest, but
+just the signal to start.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan of course did not give a fig for the Holden Estate nor the
+welfare of James. His only interest was in the machine, and the secret of
+that machine was locked in the young man's mind and would stay that way
+unless James could be coerced into revealing it. The secret indubitably
+existed as hardware in the machine rebuilt in the house on Martin's Hill,
+but Brennan guessed that any sight of him would cause James to repeat his
+job of destruction. Brennan also envisioned a self-destructive device
+that would addle the heart of the machine at the touch of a button,
+perhaps booby-traps fitted like burglar alarms that would ruin the
+machine at the first touch of an untrained hand.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan's mind began to work. He must plan his moves carefully to acquire
+the machine by stealth. He toyed with the idea of murder and rejected it
+as too dangerous to chance a repeat, especially in view of the existence
+of the rebuilt machine.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan read the letter again. It gave him to think. James had obviously
+succeeded in keeping his secret by imparting it to a few people that he
+could either trust or bind to him, perhaps with the offer of education
+via the machine, which James and only James maintained in hiding could
+provide. Brennan could not estimate the extent of James Holden's
+knowledge but it was obvious that he was capable of some extremely
+intelligent planning. He was willing to grant the boy the likelihood of
+being the equal of a long and experienced campaigner, and the fact that
+James was in the favor of Tim Fisher's wife and daughter meant that the
+lad would be able to call upon them for additional advice. Brennan
+counted the daughter Martha in this planning program, most certainly
+James would have given the girl an extensive education, too. Everything
+added up, even to Tim Fisher's resentment.</p>
+
+<p>But there was not time to ponder over the efficiency of James Holden's
+operations. It was time for Paul Brennan to cope, and it seemed sensible
+to face the fact that Paul Brennan alone could not plot the illegal
+grab of the Holden Educator and at the same time masquerade as the
+deeply-concerned loving guardian. He could label James Holden's little
+group as an organization, and if he was to combat this organization he
+needed one himself.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan began to form a mental outline of his requirements. First he
+had to figure out the angle at which to make his attack. Once he knew the
+legal angle, then he could find ruthless men in the proper position of
+authority whose ambitions he could control. He regretted that the elder
+Holden had not allowed him to study civil and criminal law along with his
+courses in real estate and corporate law. As it was, Brennan was unsure
+of his legal rights, and he could not plan until he had researched the
+problem most thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>To his complete surprise, Paul Brennan discovered that there was no law
+that would stay an infant from picking up his marbles and leaving home.
+So long as the minor did not become a ward of responsibility of the
+State, his freedom was as inviolable as the freedom of any adult. The
+universal interest in missing-persons cases is overdrawn because of their
+dramatic appeal. In every case that comes to important notice, the
+missing person has left some important responsibilities that had to be
+satisfied. A person with no moral, legal, or ethical anchor has every
+right to pack his suitcase and catch the next conveyance for parts
+unknown. If he is found by the authorities after an appeal by friends or
+relatives, the missing party can tell the police that, Yes he did leave
+home and, No he isn't returning and, furthermore he does not wish his
+whereabouts made known; and all the authorities can report is that the
+missing one is hale, happy, and hearty and wants to stay missing.</p>
+
+<p>Under the law, a minor is a minor and there is no proposition that
+divides one degree of minority from another. Major decisions, such as
+voting, the signing of binding contracts of importance, the determination
+of a course of drastic medical treatment, are deemed to be matters that
+require mature judgment. The age for such decisions is arbitrarily set at
+age twenty-one. Acts such as driving a car, sawing a plank, or buying
+food and clothing are considered to be "skills" that do not require
+judgment and therefore the age of demarcation varies with the state and
+the state legislature's attitude.</p>
+
+<p>James was a minor; presumably he could repudiate contracts signed while a
+minor, at the time he reached the age of twenty-one. From a practical
+standpoint, however, anything that James contracted for was expendable
+and of vital necessity. He could not stop payment on a check for his
+rent, nor claim that he had not received proper payment for his stories
+and demand damages. Paul Brennan might possibly interfere with the smooth
+operation by squawking to the bank that Charles Maxwell was a phantom
+front for the minor child James Holden. And bankers, being bankers, might
+very well clog up the operation with a lot of questions. But there was
+the possibility that James Holden, operating through the agency of an
+adult, would switch his method. He could even go so far as to bring
+Brennan to lawsuit to have Brennan stopped from his interference. Child
+or not, James Holden had been running a checking account by mail for a
+number of years which could be used as evidence of his good faith and
+ability.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the position of James Holden was so solid that Brennan could only
+plead personal interest and personal responsibility in the case for
+securing a writ of habeas corpus to have the person of James Holden
+returned to his custody and protection. And this of itself was a bit on
+the dangerous side. A writ of habeas corpus will, by law, cause the
+delivery of the person to the right hands, but there is no part of the
+writ that can be used to guarantee that the person will remain
+thereafter. If Brennan tried to repeat this program, James Holden was
+very apt to suggest either the rather rare case of Barratry or
+Maintenance against Brennan. Barratry consists of the constant harassment
+of a citizen by the serial entry of lawsuit after lawsuit against him,
+each of which he must defend to the loss of time and money&mdash;and the tying
+up of courts and their officials. Maintenance is the re-opening of the
+same suit and its charges time after time in court after court. One need
+only be sure of the attitude of the plaintiff to strike back; if he is
+interested in heckling the defendant and this can be demonstrated in
+evidence, the heckler is a dead duck. Such a response would surely damage
+Paul Brennan's overt position as a responsible, interested, affectionate
+guardian of his best friends' orphaned child.</p>
+
+<p>Then to put the top on the bottle, James Holden had crossed state lines
+in his flight from home. This meant that the case was not the simple
+proposition of appearing before a local magistrate and filing an
+emotional appeal. It was interstate. It smacked of extradition, and James
+Holden had committed no crime in either state.</p>
+
+<p>To Paul Brennan's qualifications for his henchmen, he now added the need
+for flouting the law if the law could not be warped to fit his need.</p>
+
+<p>Finding a man with ambition, with a casual disregard for ethics, is not
+hard in political circles. Paul Brennan found his man in Frank Manison,
+a rising figure in the office of the District Attorney. Manison had
+gubernatorial ambitions, and he was politically sharp. He personally
+conducted only those cases that would give him ironclad publicity; he
+preferred to lower the boom on a lighter charge than chance an acquittal.
+Manison also had a fine feeling for anticipating public trends, a sense
+of the drama, and an understanding of public opinion.</p>
+
+<p>He granted Brennan a conference of ten minutes, and knowing from long
+experience that incoming information flows faster when it is not
+interrupted, he listened attentively, oiling and urging the flow by
+facial expressions of interest and by leaning forward attentively
+whenever a serious point was about to come forth. Brennan explained about
+James Holden, his superior education, and what it had enabled the lad to
+do. He explained the education not as a machine but as a "system of
+study" devised by James Holden's parents, feeling that it was better to
+leave a few stones lying flat and unturned for his own protection.
+Manison nodded at the end of the ten-minute time-limit, used his desk
+interphone to inform his secretary that he was not to be disturbed until
+further notice (which also told Paul Brennan that he was indeed
+interested) and then said:</p>
+
+<p>"You know you haven't a legal leg to stand on, Brennan."</p>
+
+<p>"So I find out. It seems incredible that there isn't any law set up to
+control the activity of a child."</p>
+
+<p>"Incredible? No, Brennan, not so. To now it hasn't been necessary. People
+just do not see the necessity of laws passed to prevent something that
+isn't being done anyway. The number of outmoded laws, ridiculous laws,
+and laws passed in the heat of public emotion are always a subject for
+public ridicule. If the state legislature were to pass a law stating that
+any child under fourteen may not leave home without the consent of his
+parents, every opposition newspaper in the state would howl about the
+waste of time and money spent on ridiculous legislation passed to govern
+activities that are already under excellent control. They would poll the
+state and point out that for so many million children under age fourteen,
+precisely zero of them have left home to set up their own housekeeping.
+One might just as well waste the taxpayer's money by passing a law that
+confirms the Universal Law of Gravity.</p>
+
+<p>"But that's neither here nor there," he said. "Your problem is to figure
+out some means of exerting the proper control over this intelligent
+infant."</p>
+
+<p>"My problem rises higher than that," said Brennan ruefully. "He dislikes
+me to the point of blind, unreasonable hatred. He believes that I am the
+party responsible for the death of his parents and furthermore that the
+act was deliberate. Tantamount to a charge of first-degree murder."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he made that statement recently?" asked Manison.</p>
+
+<p>"I would hardly know."</p>
+
+<p>"When last did you hear him say words to that effect?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the time, following the accidental death of his parents, James Holden
+ran off to the home of his grandparents. Puzzled and concerned, they
+called me as the child's guardian. I went there to bring him back to his
+home. I arrived the following morning and it was during that session that
+James Holden made the accusation."</p>
+
+<p>"And he has not made it since, to the best of your knowledge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I know of."</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly make anything out of that. Seven years ago. Not a formal charge,
+only a cry of rage, frustration, hysterical grief. The complaint of a
+five-year-old made under strain could hardly be considered slanderous.
+It is too bad that the child hasn't broken any laws. Your success in
+collecting him the first time was entirely due to the associations he'd
+made with this automobile thief&mdash;Caslow, you said his name was. We can't
+go back to that. The responsibility has been fixed, I presume, upon Jake
+Caslow in another state. Brennan, you've a real problem: How can you be
+sure that this James Holden will disclose his secret system of study even
+if we do succeed in cooking up some legal means of placing him and keep
+him in your custody?"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan considered, and came to the conclusion that now was the time to
+let another snibbet of information go. "The system of study consists of
+an electronic device, the exact nature of which I do not understand. The
+entire machine is large and cumbersome. In it, as a sort of 'heart,' is a
+special circuit. Without this special circuit the thing is no more than
+an expensive aggregation of delicate devices that could be used elsewhere
+in electronics. One such machine stands unused in the Holden Home because
+the central circuit was destroyed beyond repair or replacement by young
+James Holden. He destroyed it because he felt that this secret should
+remain his own, the intellectual inheritance from his parents. There is
+one other machine&mdash;undoubtedly in full function and employed daily&mdash;in
+the house on Martin's Hill under James Holden's personal supervision."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? How, may I ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was rebuilt by James Holden from plans, specifications, and
+information engraved on his brain by his parents through the use of their
+first machine. Unfortunately, I have every reason to believe that this
+new machine is so booby-trapped and tamper-protected that the first
+interference by someone other than James Holden will cause its
+destruction."</p>
+
+<p>"Um. It might be possible to impound this machine as a device of high
+interest to the State," mused Manison. "But if we start any proceeding
+as delicate as that, it will hit every newspaper in the country and our
+advantage will be lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Technically," said Paul Brennan, "you don't know that such a machine
+exists. But as soon as young Holden realizes that you know about his
+machine, he'll also know that you got the information from me." Brennan
+sat quietly and thought for a moment. "There's another distressing angle,
+too," he said at last. "I don't think that there is a soul on earth who
+knows how to run this machine but James Holden. Steal it or impound it or
+take it away legally, you've got to know how it runs. I doubt that we'd
+find a half-dozen people on the earth who'd willingly sit in a chair with
+a heavy headset on, connected to a devilish aggregation of electrical
+machinery purported to educate the victim, while a number of fumblers
+experimented with the dials and the knobs and the switches. No sir, some
+sort of pressure must be brought to bear upon the youngster."</p>
+
+<p>"Um. Perhaps civic pride? Might work. Point out to him that he is in
+control of a device that is essential to the security of the United
+States. That he is denying the children of this country the right to
+their extensive education. Et cetera?"</p>
+
+<p>"Could be. But how are you going to swing it, technically in ignorance of
+the existence of such a machine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Were I a member of the Congressional Committee on Education, I could
+investigate the matter of James Holden's apparent superiority of
+intellect."</p>
+
+<p>"And hit Page One of every newspaper in the country," sneered Brennan.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm not," snapped Manison angrily. "However, there is a way,
+perhaps several ways, once we find the first entering wedge. After all,
+Brennan, the existence of a method of accelerating the course of
+educational training is of the utmost importance to the future of not
+only the United States of America, but the entire human race. Once I can
+locate some plausible reason for asking James Holden the first question
+about anything, the remainder of any session can be so slanted as to
+bring into the open any secret knowledge he may have. We, to make the
+disclosure easier, shall hold any sessions in the strictest of secrecy.
+We can quite readily agree with James Holden's concern over the
+long-range effectiveness of his machine and state that secrecy is
+necessary lest headstrong factions take the plunge into something that
+could be very detrimental to the human race instead of beneficial.
+Frankly, Mr. Brennan," said Manison with a wry smile, "I should like to
+borrow that device for about a week myself. It might help me locate some
+of the little legal points that would help me." He sighed. "Yes," he said
+sadly, "I know the law, but no one man knows all of the finer points.
+Lord knows," he went on, "if the law were a simple matter of behaving as
+it states, we'd not have this tremendous burden. But the law is subject
+to interpretation and change and argument and precedent&mdash;Precedent? Um,
+here we may have an interesting angle, Brennan. I must look into it."</p>
+
+<p>"Precedent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. Any ruling that we were to make covering the right of a
+seven, eight, or nine year old to run his own life as he sees fit will be
+a ruling that establishes precedent."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, up to now there's no ruling about such a case; no child of ten has
+ever left home to live as he prefers. But this James Holden is apparently
+capable of doing just that&mdash;and any impartial judge deliberating such a
+case would find it difficult to justify a decision that placed the
+competent infant under the guardianship and protection of an adult who is
+less competent than the infant."</p>
+
+<p>Brennan's face turned dark. "You're saying that this Holden kid is
+smarter than I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down and stop sputtering," snapped Manison. "What were you doing at
+six years old, Brennan? Did you have the brains to leave home and protect
+yourself by cooking up the plausible front of a very interesting
+character such as the mythical Hermit of Martin's Hill? Were you writing
+boys' stories for a nationwide magazine of high circulation and
+accredited quality? Could you have planned your own dinner and prepared
+it, or would you have dined on chocolate bars washed down with strawberry
+pop? Stop acting indignant. Start thinking. If for no other reason than
+that we don't want to end up selling pencils on Halstead Street because
+we're not quite bright, we've got to lay our hands on that machine. We've
+got to lead, not follow. Yet at the present time I'll wager that your
+James Holden is going to give everybody concerned a very rough time. Now,
+let me figure out the angles and pull the wires. One thing that nobody
+can learn from any electronic machine is how to manipulate the component
+people that comprise a political machine. I'll be in touch with you,
+Brennan."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The ring at the door was Chief of Police Joseph Colling and another
+gentleman. Janet Fisher answered the door, "Good evening, Mr. Colling.
+Come in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Colling politely. "This is Mr. Frank Manison, from the
+office of the State Department of Justice."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh? Is something wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that we know of," replied Manison. "We're simply after some
+information. I apologize for calling at eight o'clock in the evening, but
+I wanted to catch you all under one roof. Is Mr. Fisher home? And the
+children?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes. We're all here." Janet stepped aside to let them enter the
+living room, and then called upstairs. Mr. Manison was introduced around
+and Tim Fisher said, cautiously, "What's the trouble here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No trouble that we know of," said Manison affably. "We're just after
+some information about the education of James Holden, a legal minor, who
+seems never to have been enrolled in any school."</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't mind," replied Tim Fisher, "I'll not answer anything
+without the advice of my attorney."</p>
+
+<p>Janet Fisher gasped.</p>
+
+<p>Tim turned with a smile. "Don't you like lawyers, honey?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't that. But isn't crying for a lawyer an admission of some sort?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure is," replied Tim Fisher. "It's an admission that I don't know all
+of my legal rights. If lawyers come to me because they don't know all
+there is to know about the guts of an automobile, I have every right to
+the same sort of consultation in reverse. Agree, James?"</p>
+
+<p>James Holden nodded. "The man who represents himself in court has a fool
+for a client," he said. "I think that's Daniel Webster, but I'm not
+certain. No matter; it's right. Call Mr. Waterman, and until he arrives
+we'll discuss the weather, the latest dope in high-altitude research, or
+nuclear physics."</p>
+
+<p>Frank Manison eyed the lad. "You're James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>Tim interrupted. "We're not answering <i>anything</i>," he warned.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't mind admitting my identity," said James. "I've committed no
+crime, I've broken no law. No one can point to a single act of mine that
+shows a shred of evidence to the effect that my intentions are not
+honorable. Sooner or later this whole affair had to come to a showdown,
+and I'm prepared to face it squarely."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Manison. "Now, without inviting comment, let me explain
+one important fact. The state reserves the right to record marriages,
+births, and deaths as a simple matter of vital statistics. We feel that
+we have every right to the compiling of the census, and we can justify
+our feeling. I am here because of some apparent irregularities, records
+of which we do not have. If these apparent irregularities can be
+explained to our satisfaction for the record, this meeting will be ended.
+Now, let's relax until your attorney arrives."</p>
+
+<p>"May I get you some coffee or a highball?" asked Janet Fisher.</p>
+
+<p>"Coffee, please," agreed Frank Manison. Chief Colling nodded quietly.
+They relaxed over coffee and small talk for a half hour. The arrival of
+Waterman, Tim Fisher's attorney, signalled the opening of the discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"First," said Manison, his pencil poised over a notebook, "Who lives here
+in permanent residence, and for how long?" He wrote rapidly as they told
+him. "The house is your property?" he asked Tim, and wrote again. "And
+you are paying a rental on certain rooms of this house?" he asked James,
+who nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you attend school?" he asked James.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get your education?"</p>
+
+<p>"By a special course in home study."</p>
+
+<p>"You understand that under the state laws that provide for the education
+of minor children, the curriculum must be approved by the state?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do."</p>
+
+<p>"And has it?"</p>
+
+<p>Waterman interrupted. "Just a moment, Mr. Manison. In what way must the
+curriculum be approved? Does the State study all textbooks and the manner
+in which each and every school presents them? Or does the State merely
+insist that the school child be taught certain subjects?"</p>
+
+<p>"The State merely insists that certain standards of education be
+observed."</p>
+
+<p>"In fact," added James, "the State does not even insist that the child
+<i>learn</i> the subjects, realizing that some children lack the intellect to
+be taught certain subjects completely and fully. Let's rather say that
+the State demands that school children be exposed to certain subjects in
+the hope that they 'take.' Am I not correct?"</p>
+
+<p>"I presume you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall answer your question. In my home study, I have indeed
+followed the approved curriculum by making use of the approved textbooks
+in their proper order. I am aware of the fact that this is not the same
+State, but if you will consult the record of my earlier years in
+attendance at a school selected by my legal guardian, you'll find that I
+passed from preschool grade to Fourth Grade in a matter of less than half
+a year, at the age of five-approaching-six. If this matter is subject to
+question, I'll submit to any course of extensive examination your
+educators care to prepare. The law regarding compulsory education in this
+state says that the minor child must attend school until either the age
+of eighteen, or until he has completed the standard eight years of
+grammar school and four years of high school. I shall then stipulate that
+the suggested examination be limited to the schooling of a high school
+graduate."</p>
+
+<p>"For the moment we'll pass this over. We may ask that you do prove your
+contention," said Manison.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't doubt that I can, do you?" asked James.</p>
+
+<p>Manison shook his head. "No, at this moment I have no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why do you bother asking?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am here for a rather odd reason," said Manison. "I've told you the
+reservations that the State holds, which justify my presence. Now, it is
+patently obvious that you are a very competent young man, James Holden.
+The matter of making your own way is difficult, as many adults can
+testify. To have contrived a means of covering up your youth, in addition
+to living a full and competent life, demonstrates an ability above and
+beyond the average. Now, the State is naturally interested in anything
+that smacks of acceleration of the educational period. Can you understand
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally. None but a dolt would avoid education."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you agree with our interest?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just a moment, James," said Waterman. "Let's put it that you understand
+their interest, but that you do not necessarily agree."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," said James.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must also understand that this 'course of study' by which you
+claim the equal of a high-school education at the age of ten or eleven
+(perhaps earlier) must be of high importance."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand that it might," agreed James.</p>
+
+<p>"Then will you explain why you have kept this a secret?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just a moment," said Waterman again. "James, would you say that your
+method of educating yourself is completely perfected?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not completely."</p>
+
+<p>"Not perfected?" asked Manison. "Yet you claim to have the education of a
+high-school graduate?"</p>
+
+<p>"I so claim," said James. "But I must also point out that I have acquired
+a lot of mish-mash in the course of this education. For instance, it is
+one thing to study English, its composition, spelling, vocabulary,
+construction, rules and regulations. One must learn these things if he is
+to be considered literate. In the course of such study, one also becomes
+acquainted with English literature. With literature it is enough to
+merely be acquainted with the subject. One need not know the works of
+Chaucer or Spenser intimately&mdash;unless one is preparing to specialize in
+the English literature of the writers of that era. Frankly, sir, I should
+hate to have my speech colored by the flowery phrases of that time, and
+the spelling of that day would flunk me out of First Grade if I made use
+of it. In simple words, I am still perfecting the method."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, James," went on Waterman, "have you ever entertained the idea of
+not releasing the details of your method?"</p>
+
+<p>"Occasionally," admitted James.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Until we know everything about it, we can not be certain that its
+ultimate effect will be wholly beneficial."</p>
+
+<p>"So, you see," said Waterman to Manison, "the intention is reasonable.
+Furthermore, we must point out that this system is indeed the invention
+created by the labor and study of the parents of James Holden, and as
+such it is a valuable property retained by James Holden as his own by the
+right of inheritance. The patent laws of the United States are clear, it
+is the many conflicting rulings that have weakened the system. The law
+itself is contained in the Constitution of the United States, which
+provides for the establishment of a Patent Office as a means to encourage
+inventors by granting them the exclusive right to the benefits of their
+labor for a reasonable period of time&mdash;namely seventeen years with
+provision for a second period under renewal."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why doesn't he make use of it?" demanded Manison.</p>
+
+<p>"Because the process, like so many another process, can be copied and
+used by individuals without payment, and because there hasn't been a
+patent suit upheld for about forty years, with the possible exception
+of Major Armstrong's suit against the Radio Corporation of America,
+settled in Armstrong's favor after about twenty-five years of expensive
+litigation. A secret is no longer a secret these days, once it has been
+written on a piece of paper and called to the attention of a few million
+people across the country."</p>
+
+<p>"You realize that anything that will give an extensive education at an
+early age is vital to the security of the country."</p>
+
+<p>"We recognize that responsibility, sir," said Waterman quietly. "We also
+recognize that in the hands of unscrupulous men, the system could be
+misused. We also realize its dangers, and we are trying to avoid them
+before we make the announcement. We are very much aware of the important,
+although unfortunate, fact that James Holden, as a minor, can have his
+rights abridged. Normally honest men, interested in the protection of
+youth, could easily prevent him from using his own methods, thus
+depriving him of the benefits that are legally his. This could be
+done under the guise of protection, and the result would be the
+super-education of the protectors&mdash;whose improving intellectual
+competence would only teach them more and better reasons for depriving
+the young man of his rights. James Holden has a secret, and he has a
+right to keep that secret, and his only protection is for him to continue
+to keep that secret inviolate. It was his parents' determination not to
+release this process upon the world until they were certain of the
+results. James is a living example of their effort; they conceived him
+for the express purpose of providing a virgin mind to educate by their
+methods, so that no outside interference would becloud their results. If
+this can be construed as the illegal experimentation on animals under the
+anti-vivisection laws, or cruelty to children, it was their act, not his.
+Is that clear?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is clear," replied Manison. "We may be back for more discussion on
+this point. I'm really after information, not conducting a case, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you have your information."</p>
+
+<p>"Not entirely. We've another point to consider, Mr. Waterman. It is
+admittedly a delicate point. It is the matter of legal precedent.
+Granting everything you say is true&mdash;and I'll grant that hypothetically
+for the purpose of this argument&mdash;let's assume that James Holden
+ultimately finds his process suitable for public use. Now, happily to
+this date James had not broken any laws. He is an honorable individual.
+Let's now suppose that in the near future, someone becomes educated by
+his process and at the age of twelve or so decided to make use of his
+advanced intelligence in nefarious work?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Let's suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you tell me who is responsible for the person of James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is responsible unto himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Not under the existing laws," said Manison. "Let's consider James just
+as we know him now. Who says, 'go ahead,' if he has an attack of acute
+appendicitis?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the absence of someone to take the personal responsibility," said
+James quietly, "the attending doctor would toss his coin to see whether
+his Oath of Hippocrates was stronger than his fear of legal reprisals.
+It's been done before. But let's get to the point, Mr. Manison. What do
+you have in mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"You've rather pointedly demonstrated your preference to live here rather
+than with your legally-appointed guardian."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, young man, I suggest that we get this matter settled legally. You
+are not living under the supervision of your guardian, but you are indeed
+living under the auspices of people who are not recognized by law as
+holding the responsibility for you."</p>
+
+<p>"So far there's been no cause for complaint."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's keep it that way," smiled Manison. "I'll ask you to accept a writ
+of habeas corpus, directing you to show just cause why you should not be
+returned to the custody of your guardian."</p>
+
+<p>"And what good will that do?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you can show just cause," said Manison, "the Court will follow
+established precedent and appoint Mr. and Mrs. Fisher as your responsible
+legal guardians&mdash;if that is your desire."</p>
+
+<p>"Can this be done?" asked Mrs. Fisher.</p>
+
+<p>"It's been done before, time and again. The State is concerned primarily
+with the welfare of the child; children have been legally removed from
+natural but unsuitable parents, you know." He looked distressed for a
+moment and then went on, "The will of the deceased is respected, but the
+law recognizes that it is the living with which it must be primarily
+concerned, that mistakes can be made, and that such errors in judgment
+must be rectified in the name of the public weal."</p>
+
+<p>"I've been&mdash;" started James but Attorney Waterman interrupted him:</p>
+
+<p>"We'll accept the service of your writ, Mr. Manison." And to James after
+the man had departed: "Never give the opposition an inkling of what you
+have in mind&mdash;and always treat anybody who is not in your retainer as
+opposition."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN"></a>CHAPTER FIFTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>The case of Brennan vs. Holden opened in the emptied court room of Judge
+Norman L. Carter, with a couple of bored members of the press wishing
+they were elsewhere. For the first two hours, it was no more than
+formalized outlining of the whole situation.</p>
+
+<p>The plaintiff identified himself, testified that he was indeed the legal
+guardian of the minor James Quincy Holden, entered a transcript of the
+will in evidence, and then went on to make his case. He had provided
+a home atmosphere that was, to the best of his knowledge, the type of
+home atmosphere that would have been highly pleasing to the deceased
+parents&mdash;especially in view of the fact that this home was one and the
+same house as theirs and that little had been changed. He was supported
+by the Mitchells. It all went off in the slow, cumbersome dry phraseology
+of the legal profession and the sum and substance of two hours of
+back-and-forth question-and-answer was to establish the fact that Paul
+Brennan had provided a suitable home for the minor, James Quincy Holden,
+and that the minor James Quincy Holden had refused to live in it and had
+indeed demonstrated his objections by repeatedly absenting himself
+wilfully and with premeditation.</p>
+
+<p>The next half hour covered a blow-by-blow account of Paul Brennan's
+efforts to have the minor restored to him. The attorneys for both sides
+were alert. Brennan's counsel did not even object when Waterman paved the
+way to show why James Holden wanted his freedom by asking Brennan:</p>
+
+<p>"Were you aware that James Holden was a child of exceptional intellect?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And you've testified that when you moved into the Holden home, you found
+things as the Holdens had provided them for their child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"In your opinion, were these surroundings suitable for James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were far too advanced for a child of five."</p>
+
+<p>"I asked specifically about James Holden."</p>
+
+<p>"James Holden was five years old."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman eyed Brennan with some surprise, then cast a glance at Frank
+Manison, who sat at ease, calmly watching and listening with no sign of
+objection. Waterman turned back to Brennan and said, "Let's take one more
+turn around Robin Hood's Barn, Mr. Brennan. First, James Holden was an
+exceptional child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And the nature of his toys and furnishings?"</p>
+
+<p>"In my opinion, too advanced for a child of five."</p>
+
+<p>"But were they suitable for James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"James Holden was a child of five."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman faced Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "I submit that the
+witness is evasive. Will you direct him to respond to my direct question
+with a direct answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"The witness will answer the question properly," said Judge Carter with
+a slight frown of puzzlement, "unless counsel for the witness has some
+plausible objection?"'</p>
+
+<p>"No objection," said Manison.</p>
+
+<p>"Please repeat or rephrase your question," suggested Judge Carter.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Brennan," said Waterman, "you've testified that James was an
+exceptional child, advanced beyond his years. You've testified that the
+home and surroundings provided by James Holden's parents reflected this
+fact. Now tell me, were the toys, surroundings, and the home suitable for
+James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"In my opinion, no."</p>
+
+<p>"And subsequently you replaced them with stuff you believed more suitable
+for a child of five, is that it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I did, and you are correct."</p>
+
+<p>"To which he objected?"</p>
+
+<p>"To which James Holden objected."</p>
+
+<p>"And what was your response to his objection?"</p>
+
+<p>"I overruled his objection."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon what grounds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the grounds that the education and the experience of an adult
+carries more wisdom than the desires of a child."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Brennan, please listen carefully. During the months following
+your guardianship, you successively removed the books that James Holden
+was fond of reading, replaced his advanced Meccano set with a set of
+modular blocks, exchanged his oil-painting equipment for a child's
+coloring books and standard crayolas, and in general you removed
+everything interesting to a child with known superiority of intellect?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"And your purpose in opening this hearing was to convince this Court that
+James Holden should be returned by legal procedure to such surroundings?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is."</p>
+
+<p>"No more questions," said Waterman. He sat down and rubbed his forehead
+with the palm of his right hand, trying to think.</p>
+
+<p>Manison said, "I have one question to ask of Janet Fisher, known formerly
+as Mrs. Bagley."</p>
+
+<p>Janet Fisher was sworn and properly identified.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mrs. Fisher, prior to your marriage to Mr. Fisher and during your
+sojourn with James Holden in the House on Martin's Hill, did you
+supervise the activities of James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Manison. He turned to Waterman and waved him to any
+cross-questioning.</p>
+
+<p>Still puzzled, Waterman asked, "Mrs. Fisher, who did supervise the House
+on Martin's Hill?"</p>
+
+<p>"James Holden."</p>
+
+<p>"During those years, Mrs. Fisher, did James Holden at any time conduct
+himself in any other manner but the actions of an honest citizen? I mean,
+did he perform or suggest the performance of any illegal act to your
+knowledge?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, he did not."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman turned to Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "it seems quite
+apparent to me that the plaintiff in this case has given more testimony
+to support the contentions of my client than they have to support their
+own case. Will the Court honor a petition that the case be dismissed?"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Norman L. Carter smiled slightly. "This is irregular," he said.
+"You should wait for that petition until the plaintiff's counsel has
+closed his case, you know." He looked at Frank Manison. "Any objection?"</p>
+
+<p>Manison said, "Your Honor, I have permitted my client to be shown in this
+questionable light for no other purpose than to bring out the fact that
+any man can make a mistake in the eyes of other men when in reality he
+was doing precisely what he thought to be the best thing to do for
+himself and for the people within his responsibility. The man who raises
+his child to be a roustabout is wrong in the eyes of his neighbor who is
+raising his child to be a scientist, and vice versa. We'll accept the
+fact that James Holden's mind is superior. We'll point out that there
+have been many cases of precocious children or child geniuses who make a
+strong mark in their early years and drop into oblivion by the time
+they're twenty. Now, consider James Holden, sitting there discussing
+something with his attorney&mdash;I have no doubt in the world that he could
+conjugate Latin verbs, discuss the effect of the Fall of Rome on Western
+Civilization, and probably compute the orbit of an artificial satellite.
+But can James Holden fly a kite or shoot a marble? Has he ever had the
+fun of sliding into third base, or whittling on a peg, or any of the
+other enjoyable trivia of boyhood? Has he&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"One moment," said Judge Carter. "Let's not have an impassioned oration,
+counsel. What is your point?"</p>
+
+<p>"James Holden has a legal guardian, appointed by law at the express will
+of his parents. Headstrong, he has seen fit to leave that protection. He
+is fighting now to remain away from that protection. I can presume that
+James Holden would prefer to remain in the company of the Fishers where,
+according to Mrs. Fisher, he was not responsible to her whatsoever, but
+rather ran the show himself. I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't make that presumption," said Judge Carter. "Strike it from the
+record."</p>
+
+<p>"I apologize," said Manison. "But I object to dismissing this case until
+we find out just what James Holden has in mind for his future."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll hold Counsel Waterman's petition in abeyance until the point you
+mention is in the record," said Judge Carter. "Counsel, are you
+finished?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Manison. "I'll rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Waterman?"</p>
+
+<p>Waterman said, "Your Honor, we've been directed to show just cause why
+James Holden should not be returned to the protection of his legal
+guardian. Counsel has implied that James Holden desires to be placed in
+the legal custody of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher. This is a pardonable error
+whether it stands in the record or not. The fact is that James Holden
+does not need protection, nor does he want protection. To the contrary,
+James Holden petitions this Court to declare him legally competent so
+that he may conduct his own affairs with the rights, privileges, and
+indeed, even the <i>risks</i> taken by the status of adult.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll point out that the rules and laws that govern the control and
+protection of minor children were passed by benevolent legislators to
+prevent exploitation, cruelty, and deprivation of the child's life by
+men who would take advantage of his immaturity. However we have here a
+young man of twelve who has shown his competence to deal with the adult
+world by actual practice. Therefore it is our contention that protective
+laws are not only unnecessary, but undesirable because they restrict the
+individual from his desire to live a full and fruitful life.</p>
+
+<p>"To prove our contention beyond any doubt, I'll ask that James Holden be
+sworn in as my first witness."</p>
+
+<p>Frank Manison said, "I object, Your Honor. James Holden is a minor and
+not qualified under law to give creditable testimony as a witness."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman turned upon Manison angrily. "You really mean that you object to
+my case <i>per se</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"That, too," replied Manison easily.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor, I take exception! It is my purpose to place James Holden on
+the witness stand, and there to show this Court and all the world that he
+is of honorable mind, properly prepared to assume the rights of an adult.
+We not only propose to show that he acted honorably, we shall show that
+James Holden consulted the law to be sure that whatever he did was not
+illegal."</p>
+
+<p>"Or," added Manison, "was it so that he would know how close to the limit
+he could go without stepping over the line?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor," asked Waterman, "can't we have your indulgence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I object! The child is a minor."</p>
+
+<p>"I accept the statement!" stormed Waterman. "And I say that we intend to
+prove that this minor is qualified to act as an adult."</p>
+
+<p>"And," sneered Manison, "I'll guess that one of your later arguments will
+be that Judge Carter, having accepted this minor as qualified to deliver
+sworn testimony, has already granted the first premise of your argument."</p>
+
+<p>"I say that James Holden has indeed shown his competence already by
+actually doing it!"</p>
+
+<p>"While hiding under a false fa&ccedil;ade!"</p>
+
+<p>"A fa&ccedil;ade forced upon him by the restrictive laws that he is petitioning
+the Court to set aside in his case so that he need hide no longer."</p>
+
+<p>Frank Manison said, "Your Honor, how shall the case of James Holden be
+determined for the next eight or ten years if we do grant James Holden
+this legal right to conduct his own affairs as an adult? That we must
+abridge the laws regarding compulsory education is evident. James Holden
+is twelve years and five months old. Shall he be granted the right to
+enter a tavern to buy a drink? Will his request for a license to marry be
+honored? May he enter the polling place and cast his vote? The contention
+of counsel that the creation of Charles Maxwell was a physical necessity
+is acceptable. But what happens without 'Maxwell'? Must we prepare a card
+of identity for James Holden, stating his legal status, and renew it
+every year like an automobile license because the youth will grow in
+stature, add to his weight, and ultimately grow a beard? Must we enter on
+this identification card the fact that he is legally competent to sign
+contracts, rent a house, write checks, and make his own decision about
+the course of dangerous medical treatment&mdash;or shall we list those items
+that he is not permitted to do such as drinking in a public place, cast
+his vote, or marry? This State permits a youth to drive an automobile at
+the age of sixteen, this act being considered a skill rather than an act
+that requires judgment. Shall James Holden be permitted to drive an
+automobile even though he can not reach the foot pedals from any position
+where he can see through the windshield?"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter sat quietly. He said calmly, "Let the record show that I
+recognize the irregularity of this procedure and that I permit it only
+because of the unique aspects of this case. Were there a Jury, I would
+dismiss them until this verbal exchange of views and personalities has
+subsided.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he went on, "I will not allow James Holden to take the witness
+stand as a qualified witness to prove that he is a qualified witness.
+I am sure that he can display his own competence with a flow of academic
+brilliance, or his attorney would not have tried to place him upon the
+stand where such a display could have been demonstrated. Of more
+importance to the Court and to the State is an equitable disposition
+of the responsibility to and over James Quincy Holden."</p>
+
+<p>Judge Norman L. Carter leaned forward and looked from Frank Manison to
+James Holden, and then to Attorney Waterman.</p>
+
+<p>"We must face some awkward facts," he said. "If I rule that he be
+returned to Mr. Brennan, he will probably remain no longer than he finds
+it convenient, at which point he will behave just as if this Court had
+never convened. Am I not correct, Mr. Manison?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor, you are correct. However, as a member of the Department of
+Justice of this State, I suggest that you place the responsibility in my
+hands. As an Officer of the Court, my interest would be to the best
+interest of the State rather than based upon experience, choice, or
+opinion as to what is better for a five-year-old or a child prodigy. In
+other words, I would exert the control that the young man needed. At the
+same time I would not make the mistakes that were made by Mr. Brennan's
+personal opinion of how a child should be reared."</p>
+
+<p>Waterman shouted, "I object, Your Honor. I object&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan leaped to his feet and cried, "Manison, you can't freeze me
+out&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>James Holden shrilled, "I won't! I won't!"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter eyed them one by one, staring them into silence. Finally he
+looked at Janet Fisher and said, "May I also presume that you would be
+happy to resume your association with James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded and said, "I'd be glad to," in a sincere voice. Tim Fisher
+nodded his agreement.</p>
+
+<p>Brennan whirled upon them and snarled. "My reward money&mdash;" but he was
+shoved down in his seat with a heavy hand by Frank Manison who snapped,
+"Your money bought what it was offered for. So now shut up, you utter
+imbecile!"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Norman L. Carter cleared his throat and said, "This great concern
+over the welfare of James Holden is touching. We have Mr. Brennan already
+twice a loser and yet willing to try it for three times. We have Mr. and
+Mrs. Fisher who are not dismayed at the possibility of having their home
+occupied by a headstrong youth whose actions they cannot control. We find
+one of the ambitious members of the District Attorney's Office offering
+to take on an additional responsibility&mdash;all, of course, in the name of
+the State and the welfare of James Holden. Finally we have James Holden
+who wants no part of the word 'protection' and claims the ability to run
+his own life.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it strikes me that assigning the responsibility for this young
+man's welfare is by no means the reason why you all are present, and it
+similarly occurs to me that the young man's welfare is of considerably
+less importance than the very interesting question of how and why this
+young man has achieved so much."</p>
+
+<p>With a thoughtful expression, Judge Carter said, "James Holden, how did
+you acquire this magnificent education at the tender age of twelve-plus?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I object!" cried Frank Manison. "The minor is not qualified to give
+testimony."</p>
+
+<p>"Objection overruled. This is not testimony. I have every right in the
+world to seek out as much information from whatever source I may select;
+and I have the additional right to inspect the information I receive to
+pass upon its competence and relevance. Sit down, counsel!"</p>
+
+<p>Manison sat grumpily and Judge Carter eyed James again, and James took a
+full breath. This was the moment he had been waiting for.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, James. Answer my question. Where did you come by your knowledge?"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James Holden stood up. This was the question that had to arise; he was
+only surprised it had taken so long.</p>
+
+<p>He said calmly: "Your Honor, you may not ask that question."</p>
+
+<p>"I may not?" asked Judge Carter with a lift of his eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"No sir. You may not."</p>
+
+<p>"And just why may I not?"</p>
+
+<p>"If this were a criminal case, and if you could establish that some of my
+knowledge were guilty knowledge, you could then demand that I reveal the
+source of my guilty knowledge and under what circumstance it was
+obtained. If I refused to disclose my source, I could then be held in
+contempt of court or charged with being an accessory to the corpus of the
+crime. However, this is a court hearing to establish whether or not I am
+competent under law to manage my own affairs. How I achieve my mental
+competence is not under question. Let us say that it is a process that is
+my secret by the right of inheritance from my parents and as such it is
+valuable to me so long as I can demand payment for its use."</p>
+
+<p>"This information may have a bearing on my ruling."</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor, the acquisition of knowledge or information <i>per se</i> is
+concomitant with growing up. I can and will demonstrate that I have the
+equivalent of the schooling necessary to satisfy both this Court and the
+State Board of Education. I will state that my education has been
+acquired by concentration and application in home study, and that I admit
+to attendance at no school. I will provide you or anybody else with a
+list of the books from which I have gleaned my education. But whether I
+practice Yoga, Dianetics, or write the lines on a sugarcoated pill and
+swallow it is my trade secret. It can not be extracted from me by any
+process of the law because no illegality exists."</p>
+
+<p>"And what if I rule that you are not competent under the law, or withhold
+judgment until I have had an opportunity to investigate these ways and
+means of acquiring an accelerated education?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll then go on record as asking you to disbar yourself from this
+hearing on the grounds that you are not an impartial judge of the justice
+in my case."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon what grounds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the grounds that you are personally interested in being provided
+with a process whereby you may acquire an advanced education yourself."</p>
+
+<p>The judge looked at James thoughtfully for a moment. "And if I point out
+that any such process is of extreme interest to the State and to the
+Union itself, and as such must be disclosed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall point out that your ruling is based upon a personal opinion
+because you don't know anything about the process. If I am ruled a legal
+minor you cannot punish me for not telling you my secrets, and if I am
+ruled legally competent, I am entitled to my own decision."</p>
+
+<p>"You are within your rights," admitted Judge Carter with some interest.
+"I shall not make such a demand. But I now ask you if this process of
+yours is both safe and simple."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is properly used with some good judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"Now listen to me carefully," said Judge Carter. "Is it not true that
+your difficulties in school, your inability to get along with your
+classmates, and your having to hide while you toiled for your livelihood
+in secret&mdash;these are due to this extensive education brought about
+through your secret process?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must agree, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You must agree," interrupted Judge Carter. "Yet knowing these unpleasant
+things did not deter you from placing, or trying to place, the daughter
+of your housekeeper in the same unhappy state. In other words, you hoped
+to make an intellectual misfit out of her, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;now see here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You see here! Did you or did you not aid in the education of Martha
+Bagley, now Martha Fisher?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I did, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Was that good judgment, James Holden?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's wrong with higher education?" demanded James angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, if it's acquired properly."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now listen again. If I were to rule in your favor, would Martha Fisher
+be the next bratling in a long and everlasting line of infant supermen
+applying to this and that and the other Court to have their legal
+majority ruled, each of them pointing to your case as having established
+precedence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no way of predicting the future, sir. What may happen in the
+future really has no bearing in evidence here."</p>
+
+<p>"Granted that it does not. But I am not going to establish a dangerous
+precedent that will end with doctors qualified to practice surgery before
+they are big enough to swing a stethoscope or attorneys that plead a case
+before they are out of short pants. I am going to recess this case
+indefinitely with a partial ruling. First, until this process of yours
+comes under official study, I am declaring you, James Holden, to be a
+Ward of this State, under the jurisdiction of this Court. You will have
+the legal competence to act in matters of skill, including the signing of
+documents and instruments necessary to your continued good health. In all
+matters that require mature judgment, you will report to this Court and
+all such questions shall be rendered after proper deliberation either in
+open session or in chambers, depending upon the Court's opinion of their
+importance. The court stenographer will now strike all of the testimony
+given by James Holden from the record."</p>
+
+<p>"I object!" exploded Brennan's attorney, rising swiftly and with one hand
+pressing Brennan down to prevent him from rising also.</p>
+
+<p>"All objections are overruled. The new Ward of the State will meet with
+me in my chambers at once. Court is adjourned."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The session was stormy but brief. Holden objected to everything, but the
+voice of Judge Carter was loud and his stature was large; they overrode
+James Holden and compelled his attention.</p>
+
+<p>"We're out of the court," snapped Judge Carter. "We no longer need
+observe the niceties of court etiquette, so now shut up and listen!
+Holden, you are involved in a thing that is explosively dangerous. You
+claim it to be a secret, but your secret is slowly leaking out of your
+control. You asked for your legal competence to be ruled. Fine, but if I
+allowed that, every statement made by you about your education would be
+in court record and your so-called secret that much more widespread. How
+long do you think it would have been before millions of people howled at
+your door? Some of them yelping for help and some of them bitterly
+objecting to tampering with the immature brain? You'd be accused of
+brainwashing, of making monsters, of depriving children of their heritage
+of happiness&mdash;and in the same ungodly howl there would be voices as
+loudly damning you for not tossing your process into their laps. And
+there would be a number trying to get to you on the sly so that they
+could get a head start over the rest.</p>
+
+<p>"You want your competence affirmed legally? James, you have not the
+stature nor the voice to fight them off. Even now, your little secret is
+in danger and you'll probably have to bribe a few wiseacres with a touch
+of accelerated knowledge to keep them from spilling the whole story, even
+though I've ruled your testimony incompetent and immaterial and stricken
+from the record. Now, we'll study this system of yours under controlled
+conditions as your parents wanted, and we'll have professional help and
+educated advice, and both you and your process shall be under the
+protection of my Court, and when the time comes you shall receive the
+kudos and benefits from it. Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. Now, as my first order, you go back to Shipmont and pack your
+gear. You'll report to my home as soon as you've made all the
+arrangements. There'll be no more hiding out and playing your little
+process in secret either from Paul Brennan&mdash;yes, I know that you believe
+that he was somehow instrumental in the death of your parents but have no
+shred of evidence that would stand in court&mdash;or the rest of the world. Is
+that, and everything else I've said in private, very clear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. Now, be off with you. And do not hesitate to call upon me if there
+is any interference whatsoever."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIXTEEN" id="CHAPTER_SIXTEEN"></a>CHAPTER SIXTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>Judge Carter insisted and won his point that James Holden accept
+residence in his home.</p>
+
+<p>He did not turn a hair when the trucks of equipment arrived from the
+house on Martin's Hill; he already had room for it in the cellar. He
+cheerfully allowed James the right to set it up and test it out. He
+respected James Holden's absolute insistence that no one be permitted to
+touch the special circuit that was the heart of the entire machine. Judge
+Carter also counter-requested&mdash;and enforced the request&mdash;that he be
+allowed to try the machinery out. He took a simple reading course in
+higher mathematics, after discovering that Holden's machine would not
+teach him how to play the violin. (Judge Carter already played the
+violin&mdash;but badly.)</p>
+
+<p>Later, the judge committed to memory the entire book of Bartlett's Famous
+Quotations despite the objection of young Holden that he was cluttering
+up his memory with a lot of useless material. The Judge learned (as James
+had learned earlier) that the proper way to store such information in the
+memory was to read the book with the machine turned in "stand-by" until
+some section was encountered that was of interest. Using this method, the
+judge picked and pecked at the Holy Bible, a number of documents that
+looked like important governmental records, and a few books in modern
+history.</p>
+
+<p>Then there came other men. First was a Professor Harold White from the
+State Board of Education who came to study both Holden and Holden's
+machinery and what it did. Next came a Dr. Persons who said very little
+but made diagrams and histograms and graphs which he studied. The third
+was a rather cheerful fellow called Jack Cowling who was more interested
+in James Holden's personal feelings than he was in the machine. He
+studied many subjects superficially and watched the behavior of young
+Holden as Holden himself studied subjects recommended by Professor White.</p>
+
+<p>White had a huge blackboard installed on the cellar wall opposite the
+machine, and he proceeded to fill the board with block outlines filled
+with crabbed writing and odd-looking symbols. The whole was meaningless
+to James Holden; it looked like the organization chart of a large
+corporation but it contained no names or titles. The arrival of each new
+visitor caused changes in the block diagram.</p>
+
+<p>These arrivals went at their project with stop watches and slide rules.
+They calibrated themselves and James with the cold-blooded attitude of
+racetrack touts clocking their favorite horses. Where James had simply
+taken what he wanted or what he could at any single sitting, then let
+it settle in his mind before taking another dose of unpremeditated
+magnitude, these fellows ascertained the best effectiveness of each
+application to each of them. They tried taking long terms under the
+machine and then they measured the time it took for the installed
+information to sink in and settle into usable shape. Then they tried
+shorter and shorter sittings and measured the correspondingly shorter
+settling times. They found out that no two men were alike, nor were any
+two subjects. They discovered that a man with an extensive education
+already could take a larger sitting and have the new information
+available for mental use in a shorter settling time than a man whose
+education had been sketchy or incomplete.</p>
+
+<p>They brought in men who had either little or no mathematics and gave them
+courses in advanced subjects. Afterwards they provided the foundation
+mathematics and they calibrated and measured the time it took for the
+higher subject to be understood as it aligned its information to the
+whole. Men came with crude English and bluntly read the dictionary and
+the proper rules of grammar and they were checked to see if their early
+bad-speech habits were corrected, and to what degree the Holden machine
+could be made to help repair the damage of a lifelong ingrained set of
+errors. They sent some of these boys through comparison dictionaries in
+foreign tongues and then had their language checked by specialists who
+were truly polylingual. There were some who spoke fluent English but no
+other tongue; these progressed into German with a German-to-English
+comparison dictionary, and then into French via a German-to-French
+comparison and were finally checked out in French by French-speaking
+examiners.</p>
+
+<p>And Professor White's block diagram grew complex, and Dr. Persons's
+histograms filled pages and pages of his broad notebooks.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time that James Holden had ever seen a team of
+researchers plow into a problem, running a cold and icy scientific
+investigation to ascertain precisely how much cause produced how much
+effect. Holden, who had taken what he wanted or needed as the time came,
+began to understand the desirability of full and careful programming. The
+whole affair intrigued him and interested him. He plunged in with a will
+and gave them all the help he could.</p>
+
+<p>He had no time to be bored, and he did not mark the passage of time until
+he arrived at his thirteenth birthday.</p>
+
+<p>Then one night shortly after his birthday, James Holden discovered women
+indirectly. He had his first erotic dream.</p>
+
+<p>We shall not go into the details of this midnight introduction to the
+arrival of manhood, for the simple reason that if we dwell on the
+subject, someone is certain to attempt a dream-analysis and come up with
+some flanged-up character-study or personality-quirk that really has
+nothing to do with the mind or body of James Holden. The truth is that
+his erotic dream was pleasantly stirring, but not entirely satisfactory.
+It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last very long. It awakened him
+to the realization that knowledge is not the end-all of life, and that a
+full understanding of the words, the medical terms, and the biology
+involved did not tell him a thing about this primary drive of all life.</p>
+
+<p>His total grasp of even the sideline issues was still dim. He came to a
+partial understanding of why Jake Caslow had entertained late visitors of
+the opposite sex, but he still could not quite see the reason why Jake
+kept the collection of calendar photographs and paintings hung up around
+the place. Crude jokes and rude talk heard long years before and dimly
+remembered did not have much connection with the subject. To James
+Holden, a "tomato" was still a vegetable, although he knew that some
+botanists were willing to argue that the tomato was really a fruit.</p>
+
+<p>For many days he watched Judge Carter and his wife with a critical
+curiosity that their childless life had never known before. James found
+that they did not act as if something new and strangely thrilling had
+just hit the known universe. He felt that they should know about it.
+Despite the fact that he knew everything that his textbooks could tell
+him about sex and copulation he still had the quaint notion that the
+reason why Judge Carter and his wife were childless was because they had
+not yet gotten around to Doing It. He made no attempt to correlate this
+oddity with its opposite in Jake Caslow's ladies of the night who seemed
+to go on their merry way without conceiving.</p>
+
+<p>He remembered the joking parry-and-thrust of that midnight talk between
+Tim Fisher and Janet Bagley but it made no sense to him still. But as he
+pondered the multitude of puzzlements, some of the answers fell partly
+into place just as some of the matching pieces of a jigsaw puzzle may lie
+close to one another when they are dumped out of the box. Very dimly
+James began to realize that this sort of thing was not New, but to the
+contrary it had been going on for a long, long time. So long in fact that
+neither Tim Fisher nor Janet Bagley had found it necessary to state
+desire and raise objection respectively in simple clear sentences
+containing subject, verb, and object. This much came to him and it
+bothered him even more, now that he understood that they were bandying
+their meanings lightly over a subject so vital, so important, so&mdash;so
+completely personal.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in that oddly irrational corner of his brain that neither knowledge
+nor information had been adequate to rationalize nor had experience
+arrived to supply the explanation, James Holden's limited but growing
+comprehension arrived at a conclusion that was reasonable within its
+limited framework. Judge Carter and his wife occupied separate bedrooms
+and had therefore never Done It. Conversely, Tim and Janet Fisher from
+their midnight discussion obviously Knew What It Was All About. James
+wondered whether they had Done It yet, and he also wondered whether he
+could tell by listening to their discussions and conversations now that
+they'd been married at least long enough to have Tried It.</p>
+
+<p>With a brand new and very interesting subject to study, James lost
+interest in the program of concentrated research. James Holden found that
+all he had to do to arrange a trip to Shipmont was to state his desire to
+go and the length of his visit. The judge deemed both reasonable, Mrs.
+Carter packed James a bag, and off he went.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The house on Martin's Hill was about the same, with some improvement such
+as a coat of paint and some needed repair work. The grounds had been
+worked over, but it was going to take a number of years of concentrated
+gardening to de-weed the tangled lawn and to cut the undergrowth in the
+thin woodsy back area where James had played in concealment.</p>
+
+<p>But the air inside was changed. Janet, as Mrs. Bagley, had been as close
+to James Holden as any substitute mother could have been. Now she seemed
+preoccupied and too busy with her own life to act more than pleasantly
+polite. He could have been visiting the home of a friend instead of
+returning to the domicile he had created, in which he had provided her
+with a home&mdash;for herself and a frightened little girl. She asked him how
+he had been and what he was doing, but he felt that this was more a
+matter of taking up time than real interest. He had the feeling that
+somewhere deep inside, her soul was biting its fingernails. She spoke of
+Martha with pride and hope, she asked how Judge Carter was making out and
+whether Martha would be able to finish her schooling via Holden's
+machine.</p>
+
+<p>James believed this was her problem. Martha had been educated far beyond
+her years. She could no more enter school now than he could; unwittingly
+he'd made Martha a misfit, too. So James tried to explain that part of
+the study undertaken in Judge Carter's program had been the question of
+what to do about Martha.</p>
+
+<p>The professionals studying the case did not know yet whether Martha would
+remain ahead of her age group, or whether to let her loaf it out until
+her age group caught up with her, or whether to give Martha everything
+she could take as fast as she could take it. This would make a female
+counterpart of James Holden to study.</p>
+
+<p>But knowing that there were a number of very brilliant scientists,
+educators, and psychologists working on Martha's problem did not cheer up
+Mrs. Janet Fisher as much as James thought it should. Yet as he watched
+her, he could not say that Tim Fisher's wife was <i>unhappy</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Tim, on the other hand, looked fine. James watched them together as
+critically curious as he'd been in watching the Judge and Mrs. Carter.
+Tim was gentle with his wife, tender, polite, and more than willing to
+wait on her. From their talk and chit-chat, James could detect nothing.
+There were still elisions, questions answered with a half-phrase,
+comments added with a disconnected word and replied in another word
+that&mdash;in cold print&mdash;would appear to have no bearing on the original
+subject. This sort of thing told James nothing. Judge Carter and his wife
+did the same; if there were any difference to be noted it was only in the
+basic subject materials. The judge and his wife were inclined more toward
+discussions of political questions and judicial problems, whereas Tim and
+Janet Fisher were more interested in music, movies, and the general trend
+of the automobile repair business; or more to the point, whether to
+expand the present facility in Shipmont, to open another branch
+elsewhere, or to sell out to buy a really big operation in some sizable
+city.</p>
+
+<p>James saw a change in Martha, too. It had been months since he came back
+home to supervise the removal of his belongings. Now Martha had filled
+out. She was dressed in a shirt-and-skirt instead of the little jumper
+dresses James remembered. Martha's hair was lightly wavy instead of
+trimmed short, and she was wearing a very faint touch of color on her
+lips. She wore tiny slippers with heels just a trifle higher than the
+altitude recommended for a girl close to thirteen.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately they fell into animated chatter of their own, just as they
+always had. There was a barrier between the pair of them and Martha's
+mother and stepfather&mdash;slightly higher than the usual barrier erected
+between children and their adults because of their educational adventures
+together. They had covered reams and volumes together. Martha's mother
+was interested in Holden's machine only when something specific came to
+her attention that she did not wish to forget such as a recipe or a
+pattern, and one very extensive course that enabled her to add a column
+of three-digit numbers by the whole lines instead of taking each column
+digit by digit. Tim Fisher himself had deeper interests, but nearly all
+of them directed at making Tim Fisher a better manager of the automobile
+repair business. There had been some discussion of the possibility that
+Tim Fisher might memorize some subject such as the names of all baseball
+players and their yearly and lifetime scoring, fielding, and playing
+averages, training for him to go as a contestant on one of the big money
+giveaway shows. This never came to pass; Tim Fisher did not have any
+spectacular qualities about him that would land him an invitation. So
+Tim's work with Holden's machine had been straightforward studies in
+mechanics and bookkeeping and business management&mdash;plus a fine repertoire
+of bawdy songs he had rung in on the sly and subsequently used at
+parties.</p>
+
+<p>James and Martha had taken all they wanted of education and available
+information, sometimes with plan and the guidance of schoolbooks and
+sometimes simply because they found the subject of interest. In the past
+they'd had discussions of problems in understanding; they'd talked of
+things that parents and elders would have considered utterly impossible
+to discuss with young minds. With this communion of interests, they fell
+back into their former pattern of first joining the general conversation
+politely and then gradually confining their remarks to one another until
+there were two conversations going on at the same time, one between
+James and Martha and another between Janet and Tim. Again, the vocal
+interference and cross-talk became too high, and it was Tim and Janet who
+left the living room to mix a couple of highballs and start dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The chatter continued, but now with a growing strain on the part of young
+James Holden.</p>
+
+<p>He wanted to switch to a more personal topic of conversation but he did
+not know how to accomplish this feat. There was plenty of interest but it
+was more clinical than passionate; he was not stirred to yearning, he
+felt no overwhelming desire to hold Martha's hand nor to feel the
+softness of her face, yet there was a stirring urge to make some form of
+contact. But he had no idea of how to steer the conversation towards
+personal lines that might lead into something that would justify a
+gesture towards her. It began to work on him. The original clinical urge
+to touch her just to see what reaction would obtain changed into a
+personal urge that grew higher as he found that he could not kick the
+conversational ball in that direction. The idea of putting an arm about
+her waist as he had seen men embrace their girls on television was a
+pleasing thought; he wanted to find out if kissing was as much fun as it
+was made up to be.</p>
+
+<p>But instead of offering him any encouragement, or even giving him a
+chance to start shifting the conversation, Martha went prattling on and
+on and on about a book she'd read recently.</p>
+
+<p>It did not occur to James Holden that Martha Bagley might entertain the
+idea of physical contact of some mild sort on an experimental basis. He
+did not even consider the possibility that he might <i>start</i> her thinking
+about it. So instead of closing the distance between them like a gentle
+wolf, watching with sly calculation to ascertain whether her response was
+positive, negative, or completely neutral, he sat like a post and fretted
+inwardly because he couldn't control the direction of their conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately, of course, Martha ran out of comment on her book and then
+there fell a deadly silence because James couldn't dredge up another
+lively subject. Desperately, he searched through his mind for an opening.
+There was none. The bright patter between male and female characters in
+books he'd smuggled started off on too high a level on both sides. Books
+that were written adequately for his understanding of this problem signed
+off with the trite explanation that they lived happily ever afterwards
+but did not say a darned thing about how they went about it. The slightly
+lurid books that he'd bought, delivered in plain wrappers, gave some very
+illuminating descriptions of the art or act, but the affair opened with
+the scene all set and the principal characters both ready, willing, and
+able. There was no conversational road map that showed the way that led
+two people from a calm and unemotional discussion into an area that might
+lead to something entirely else.</p>
+
+<p>In silence, James Holden sat there sinking deeper and deeper into his own
+misery.</p>
+
+<p>The more he thought about it, the farther he found himself from his
+desire. Later in the process, he knew, came a big barrier called
+"stealing a kiss," and James with his literal mind provided this game
+with an aggressor, a defender, and the final extraction by coercion or
+violence of the first osculatory contact. If the objective could be
+carried off without the defense repulsing the advance, the rest was
+supposed to come with less trouble. But here he was floundering before he
+began, let alone approaching the barrier that must be an even bigger
+problem.</p>
+
+<p>Briefly he wished that it were Christmas, because at Christmas people
+hung up mistletoe. Mistletoe would not only provide an opening by
+custom and tradition, it also cut through this verbal morass of trying
+to lead up to the subject by the quick process of supplying the subject
+itself. But it was a long time before Christmas. James abandoned that
+ill-conceived idea and went on sinking deep and feeling miserable.</p>
+
+<p>Then Martha's mother took James out of his misery by coming in to
+announce dinner. Regretfully, James sighed for his lost moments and
+helplessness, then got to his feet and held out a hand for Martha.</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand in his and allowed him to lift her to her feet by
+pulling. The first contact did not stir him at all, though it was warm
+and pleasant. Once the pulling pressure was off, he continued to hold
+Martha's hand, tentatively and experimentally.</p>
+
+<p>Then Janet Fisher showered shards of ice with a light laugh. "You two can
+stand there holding hands," she said. "But I'm going to eat it while it's
+on the table."</p>
+
+<p>James Holden's hand opened with the swiftness of a reflex action, almost
+as fast as the wink of an eye at the flash of light or the body's jump at
+the crack of sound. Martha's hand did not drop because she, too, was
+holding his and did not let go abruptly. She giggled, gave his hand a
+little squeeze and said, "Let's go. I'm hungry too."</p>
+
+<p>None of which solved James Holden's problem. But during dinner his
+personal problem slipped aside because he discovered another slight
+change in Janet Fisher's attitude. He puzzled over it quietly, but
+managed to eat without any apparent preoccupation. Dinner took about a
+half hour, after which they spent another fifteen minutes over coffee,
+with Janet refusing her second cup. She disappeared at the first shuffle
+of a foot under the table, while James and Martha resumed their years-old
+chore of clearing the table and tackling the dishwashing problem.</p>
+
+<p>Alone in the kitchen, James asked Martha, "What's with your mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, what's with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's changed, somehow."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way?"</p>
+
+<p>"She seems sort of inner-thoughtful. Cheerful enough but as if
+something's bothering her that she can't stop."</p>
+
+<p>"That all?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he went on. "She hiked upstairs like a shot right after dinner was
+over. Tim raced after her. And she said no to coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that. She's just a little upset in the middle."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's pregnant."</p>
+
+<p>"Pregnant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. Can't you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never occurred to me to look."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's so," said Martha, scouring a coffee cup with an exaggerated
+flourish. "And I'm going to have a half-sibling."</p>
+
+<p>"But look&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't <i>you</i> go getting upset," said Martha. "It's a natural process
+that's been going on for hundreds of thousands of years, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for months," said Martha. "It just happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Too bad she's unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"She's very happy. Both of them wanted it."</p>
+
+<p>James considered this. He had never come across Voltaire's observation
+that marriage is responsible for the population because it provides the
+maximum opportunity with the maximum temptation. But it was beginning to
+filter slowly into his brain that the ways and means were always
+available and there was neither custom, tradition, nor biology that
+dictated a waiting period or a time limit. It was a matter of choice, and
+when two people want their baby, and have no reason for not having their
+baby, it is silly to wait.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did they wait so long if they both want it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," replied Martha in a matter-of-fact voice, "they've been working at
+it right along."</p>
+
+<p>James thought some more. He'd come to see if he could detect any
+difference between the behavior of Judge and Mrs. Carter, and the
+behavior of Tim and Janet Fisher. He saw little, other than the standard
+differences that could be accounted for by age and temperament. Tim and
+Janet did not really act as if they'd Discovered Something New. Tim, he
+knew, was a bit more sweet and tender to Janet than he'd been before, but
+there was nothing startling in his behavior. If there were any difference
+as compared to their original antics, James knew that it was undoubtedly
+due to the fact that they didn't have to stand lollygagging in the
+hallway for two hours while Janet half-heartedly insisted that Tim go
+home. He went on to consider his original theory that the Carters were
+childless because they occupied separate bedrooms; by some sort of
+deduction he came to the conclusion that he was right, because Tim and
+Janet Fisher were making a baby and they slept in the same bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>He went on in a whirl; maybe the Carters didn't want children, but it was
+more likely that they too had tried but it hadn't happened.</p>
+
+<p>And then it came to him suddenly that here he was in the kitchen alone
+with Martha Bagley, discussing the very delicate subject. But he was
+actually no closer to his problem of becoming a participant than he'd
+been an hour ago in the living room. It was one thing to daydream the
+suggestion when you can also daydream the affirmative response, but it
+was another matter when the response was completely out of your control.
+James was not old enough in the ways of the world to even consider
+outright asking; even if he had considered it, he did not know how to
+ask.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The evening went slowly. Janet and Tim returned about the time the
+dishwashing process was complete. Janet proposed a hand of bridge; Tim
+suggested poker, James voted for pinochle, and Martha wanted to toss a
+coin between canasta or gin rummy. They settled it by dealing a shuffled
+deck face upward until the ace of hearts landed in front of Janet,
+whereupon they played bridge until about eleven o'clock. It was
+interesting bridge; James and Martha had studied bridge columns and books
+for recreation; against them were aligned Tim and Janet, who played with
+the card sense developed over years of practice. The youngsters knew the
+theories, their bidding was as precise as bridge bidding could be made
+with value-numbering, honor-counting, response-value addition, and all
+of the other systems. They understood all of the coups and end plays
+complete with classic examples. But having all of the theory engraved on
+their brains did not temporarily imprint the location of every card
+already played, whereas Tim and Janet counted their played cards
+automatically and made up in play what they missed in stratagem.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven, Janet announced that she was tired, Tim joined her; James
+turned on the television set and he and Martha watched a ten-year-old
+movie for an hour. Finally Martha yawned.</p>
+
+<p>And James, still floundering, mentally meandered back to his wish that it
+were Christmas so that mistletoe would provide a traditional gesture of
+affection, and came up with a new and novel idea that he expressed in a
+voice that almost trembled:</p>
+
+<p>"Tired, Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why don't I kiss you good night and send you off to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, if you want to."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;just&mdash;well, everybody does it."</p>
+
+<p>She sat near him on the low divan, looking him full in the face but
+making no move, no gesture, no change in her expression. He looked at her
+and realized that he was not sure of how to take hold of her, how to
+reach for her, how to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>She said, "Well, go ahead."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as I get good and ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we going to sit here all night?"</p>
+
+<p>In its own way, it reminded James of the equally un-brilliant
+conversation between Janet and Tim on the homecoming after their first
+date. He chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"What's so funny?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," he said in a slightly strained voice. "I'm thinking that here
+we sit like a couple of kids that don't know what it's all about."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Martha, "aren't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said reluctantly, "I guess we are. But darn it, Martha, how
+does a guy grow up? How does a guy learn these things?" His voice was
+plaintive, it galled him to admit that for all of his knowledge and his
+competence, he was still just a bit more than a child emotionally.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," she said in a voice as plaintive as his. "I wouldn't know
+where to look to find it. I've tried. All I know," she said with a
+quickening voice, "is that somewhere between now and then I'll learn how
+to toss talk back and forth the way they do."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said glumly.</p>
+
+<p>"James," said Martha brightly, "we should be somewhat better than a pair
+of kids who don't know what it's all about, shouldn't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what bothers me," he admitted. "We're neither of us stupid. Lord
+knows we've plenty of education between us, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"James, how did we get that education?"</p>
+
+<p>"Through my father's machine."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't understand. What I mean is that no matter how we got our
+education, we had to learn, didn't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes. In a&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, let's not get involved in another philosophical argument. Let's run
+this one right on through to the end. Why are we sitting here fumbling?
+Because we haven't yet learned how to behave like adults."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so. But it strikes me that anything should be&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"James, for goodness' sake. Here we are, the two people in the whole
+world who have studied everything we know together, and when we hit
+something we can't study&mdash;you want to go home and kiss your old machine,"
+she finished with a remarkable lack of serial logic. She laughed
+nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"What's so darned funny?" he demanded sourly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she said, "you're afraid to kiss me because you don't know how, and
+I'm afraid to let you because I don't know how, and so we're talking away
+a golden opportunity to find out. James," she said seriously, "if you
+fumble a bit, I won't know the difference because I'm no smarter than you
+are."</p>
+
+<p>She leaned forward holding her face up, her lips puckered forward in
+a tight little rosebud. She closed her eyes and waited. Gingerly and
+hesitantly he leaned forward and met her lips with a pucker of his own.
+It was a light contact, warm, and ended quickly with a characteristic
+smack that seemed to echo through the silent house. It had all of the
+emotional charge of a mother-in-law's peck, but it served its purpose
+admirably. They both opened their eyes and looked at one another from
+four inches of distance. Then they tried it again and their second was a
+little longer and a little warmer and a little closer, and it ended with
+less of the noise of opening a fruit jar.</p>
+
+<p>Martha moved over close beside him and put her head on his shoulder;
+James responded by putting an arm around her, and together they tried to
+assemble themselves in the comfortably affectionate position seen in
+movies and on television. It didn't quite work that way. There seemed to
+be too many arms and legs and sharp corners for comfort, or when they
+found a contortion that did not create interferences with limb or corner,
+it was a strain on the spine or a twist in the neck. After a few minutes
+of this coeducational wrestling they decided almost without effort to
+return to the original routine of kissing. By more luck than good
+management they succeeded in an embrace that placed no strain and which
+met them almost face to face. They puckered again and made contact, then
+pressure came and spread out the pair of tightly pursed rosebuds. Martha
+moved once to get her nose free of his cheek for a breath of air.</p>
+
+<p>At the rate they were going, they might have hit paydirt this time, but
+just at the point where James should have relaxed to enjoy the long kiss
+he began to worry: There is something planned and final about the quick
+smacking kiss, but how does one gracefully terminate the long-term,
+high-pressure jobs? So instead of enjoying himself, James planned and
+discarded plans until he decided that the way he'd do it would be to
+exert a short, heavy pressure and then cease with the same action as in
+the quick-smack variety.</p>
+
+<p>It worked fine, but as he opened his eyes to look at her, she was there
+with her eyes still closed and her lips still ready. He took a deep
+breath and plunged in again. Having determined how to start, James was
+now going to experiment with endings.</p>
+
+<p>They came up for air successfully again, and then spent some time
+wriggling around into another position. The figure-fitting went easier
+this time, after threshing around through three or four near-comforts
+they came to rest in a pleasantly natural position and James Holden
+became nervously aware of the fact that his right hand was cupped over
+a soft roundness that filled his palm almost perfectly. He wondered
+whether to remove it quickly to let her know that this intimacy wasn't
+intentional; slowly so that (maybe, he hoped) she wouldn't realize that
+it had been there; or to leave it there because it felt pleasant. While
+he was wondering, Martha moved around because she could not twist her
+neck all the way around like an owl, and she wanted to see him. The move
+solved his problem but presented the equally great problem of how he
+would try it again.</p>
+
+<p>James allowed a small portion of his brain to think about this, and put
+the rest of his mind at ease by kissing her again. Halfway through, he
+felt warm moistness as her lips parted slightly, then the tip of her
+tongue darted forward between his lips to quest against his tongue in a
+caress so fleeting that it was withdrawn before he could react&mdash;and James
+reacted by jerking his head back faster than if he had been clubbed in
+the face. He was still tingling with the shock, a pleasant shock but none
+the less a shock, when Martha giggled lightly.</p>
+
+<p>He bubbled and blurted, "Wha&mdash;whu&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>She told him nervously, "I've been wanting to try that ever since I read
+it in a book."</p>
+
+<p>He shivered. "What book?" he demanded in almost a quaver.</p>
+
+<p>"A paperback of Tim's. Mother calls them, Tim's sex and slay stories."
+Martha giggled again. "You jumped."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure did. I was surprised. Do it again."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you like it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I didn't have time to find out."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh."</p>
+
+<p>He kissed her again and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally he moved
+back an inch and said, "What's the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think we should. Maybe we ought to wait until we're older."</p>
+
+<p>"Not fair," he complained. "You had all the warning."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you like it?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it gave me the most tickly tingle."</p>
+
+<p>"And all I got was a sort of mild electric shock. Come on."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, I'll do it to you."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Just once."</p>
+
+<p>Leaping to the end of this midnight research, there are three primary
+ways of concluding, namely: 1, physical satisfaction; 2, physical
+exhaustion; and 3, interruption. We need not go into sub-classifications
+or argue the point. James and Martha were not emotionally ready to
+conclude with mutual defloration. Ultimately they fell asleep on the
+divan with their arms around each other. They weren't interrupted;
+they awoke as the first flush of daylight brightened the sky, and with
+one more rather chaste kiss, they parted to fall into the deep slumber of
+complete physical and emotional exhaustion.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN" id="CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN"></a>CHAPTER SEVENTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>James Holden's ride home on the train gave him a chance to think, alone
+and isolated from all but superficial interruptions. He felt that he was
+quite the bright young man.</p>
+
+<p>He noticed with surreptitious pride that folks no longer eyed him with
+sly, amused, knowing smiles whenever he opened a newspaper. Perhaps some
+of their amusement had been the sight of a youngster struggling with a
+full-spread page, employing arms that did not quite make the span. But
+most of all he hated the condescending tolerance; their everlasting
+attitude that everything he did was "cute" like the little girl who
+decked herself out in mother's clothing from high heels and brassiere
+to evening gown, costume jewelry, and a fumbled smear of makeup.</p>
+
+<p>That was over. He'd made it to a couple of months over fourteen, he'd
+finally reached a stature large enough so that he did not have to prove
+his right to buy a railroad ticket, nor climb on the suitcase bar so that
+he could peer over the counter. Newsdealers let him alone to pick his own
+fare instead of trying to "save his money" by shoving Mickey Mouse at him
+and putting his own choice back on its pile.</p>
+
+<p>He had not succeeded in gaining his legal freedom, but as Ward of the
+State under Judge Carter he had other interesting expectations that he
+might not have stumbled upon. Carter had connections; there was talk of
+James' entering a comprehensive examination at some university, where the
+examining board, forearmed with the truth about his education, would test
+James to ascertain his true level of comprehension. He could of course
+collect his bachelor's degree once he complied with the required work
+of term papers written to demonstrate that his information could be
+interwoven into the formation of an opinion, or reflection, or view
+of some topic. Master's degrees and doctor's degrees required the
+presentation of some original area of study, competence in his chosen
+field, and the development of some facet of the field that had not been
+touched before. These would require more work, but could be handled in
+time.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, he felt that he was in pretty good shape. There were a couple
+of sticky problems, still. He wanted Paul Brennan to get his comeuppance,
+but he knew that there was no evidence available to support his story
+about the slaughter of his parents. It galled him to realize that
+cold-blooded, premeditated murder for personal profit and avarice could
+go undetected. But until there could be proffered some material evidence,
+Brennan's word was as good as his in any court. So Brennan was getting
+away with it.</p>
+
+<p>The other little item was his own independence. He wanted it. That he
+might continue living with Judge Carter had no bearing. No matter how
+benevolent the tyranny, James wanted no part of it. In fighting for his
+freedom, James Holden's foot had slipped. He'd used his father's machine
+on Martha, and that was a legal error.</p>
+
+<p>Martha? James was not really sorry he'd slipped. Error or not, he'd made
+of her the only person in the world who understood his problem wholly and
+sympathetically. Otherwise he would be completely alone.</p>
+
+<p>Oh yes, he felt that he was quite the bright young man. He was coming
+along fine and getting somewhere. His very pleasant experiences in the
+house on Martin's Hill had raised him from a boy to a young man; he was
+now able to grasp the appreciation of the Big Drive, to understand some
+of the reasons why adults acted in the way that they did. He hadn't
+managed another late session of sofa with Martha, but there had been
+little incidental meetings in the hallway or in the kitchen with the
+exchange of kisses, and they'd boldly kissed goodbye at the railroad
+station under her mother's smile.</p>
+
+<p>He could not know Janet Fisher's mind, of course. Janet, mother to a girl
+entering young womanhood, worried about all of the things that such a
+mother worries about and added a couple of things that no other mother
+ever had. She could hardly slip her daughter a smooth version of the
+birds and the bees and people when she knew full well that Martha had
+gone through a yard or so of books on the subject that covered everything
+from the advanced medical to the lurid expos&eacute; and from the salacious to
+the ribald. Janet could only hope that her daughter valued her chastity
+according to convention despite the natural human curiosity which in
+Martha would be multiplied by the girl's advanced education. Janet knew
+that young people were marrying younger and younger as the years went on;
+she saw young James Holden no longer as a rather odd youngster with
+abilities beyond his age. She saw him now as the potential mate for
+Martha. And when they embraced and kissed at the station, Janet did not
+realize that she was accepting this salute as the natural act of two
+sub-adults, rather than a pair of precocious kids.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, James Holden felt very good. Now he had a girl. He had
+acquired one more of the many attitudes of the Age of Maturity.</p>
+
+<p>So James settled down to read his newspaper, and on page three he saw a
+photograph and an article that attracted his attention. The photograph
+was of a girl no more than seven years old holding a baby at least a year
+old. Beside them was a boy of about nine. In the background was a
+miserable hovel made of crude lumber and patched windows. This couple and
+their baby had been discovered by a geological survey outfit living in
+the backwoods hills. Relief, aid, and help were being rushed, and the
+legislature was considering ways and means of their schooling. Neither
+of them could read or write.</p>
+
+<p>James read the article, and his first thought was to proffer his help.
+Aid and enlightenment they needed, and they needed it quickly. And then
+he stopped immediately because he could do nothing to educate them unless
+they already possessed the ability to read.</p>
+
+<p>His second thought was one of dismay. His exultation came down with a
+dull thud. Within seconds he realized that the acquisition of a girl was
+no evidence of his competent maturity. The couple photographed were human
+beings, but intellectually they were no more than animals with a slight
+edge in vocabulary. It made James Holden sick at heart to read the
+article and to realize that such filth and ignorance could still go on.
+But it took a shock of such violence to make James realize that clams,
+guppies, worms, fleas, cats, dogs, and the great whales reproduced their
+kind; intellect, education and mature competence under law had nothing to
+do with the process whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>And while his heart was still unhappy, he turned to page four and read an
+open editorial that discussed the chances of The Educational Party in the
+coming Election Year.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James blinked.</p>
+
+<p>"Splinter" parties, the editorial said, seldom succeeded in gaining a
+primary objective. They only succeeded in drawing votes from the other
+major parties, in splitting the total ballot, and dividing public
+opinion. On the other hand, they did provide a useful political
+weathervane for the major parties to watch most carefully. If the
+splinter party succeeded in capturing a large vote, it was an indication
+that the People found their program favorable and upon such evidence it
+behooved the major parties to mend their political fences&mdash;or to relocate
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Education, said the editorial, was a primary issue and had been one
+for years. There had been experimenting with education ever since
+the Industrial Revolution uncovered the fact, in about 1900, that
+backbreaking physical toil was going to be replaced by educated workers
+operating machinery.</p>
+
+<p>Then the editorial quoted Judge Norman L. Carter:</p>
+
+<p>"'For many years,' said Judge Carter, 'we have deplored the situation
+whereby a doctor or a physicist is not considered fully educated until he
+has reached his middle or even late twenties. Yet instead of speeding up
+the curriculum in the early school years, we have introduced such
+important studies as social graces, baton twirling, interpretive painting
+and dancing, and a lot of other fiddle-faddle which graduates students
+who cannot spell, nor read a book, nor count above ten without taking off
+their shoes. Perhaps such studies are necessary to make sound citizens
+and graceful companions. I shall not contest the point. However, I
+contend that a sound and basic schooling should be included&mdash;and when I
+so contend I am told by our great educators that the day is not long
+enough nor the years great enough to accomplish this very necessary end.</p>
+
+<p>"'Gentlemen, we leaders of The Education Party propose to accomplish
+precisely that which they said cannot be done!'"</p>
+
+<p>The editorial closed with the terse suggestion: Educator&mdash;Educate
+thyself!</p>
+
+<p>James Holden sat stunned.</p>
+
+<p><i>What was Judge Carter doing?</i></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>James Holden arrived to find the home of Judge Norman L. Carter an upset
+madhouse. He was stopped at the front door by a secretary at a small desk
+whose purpose was to screen the visitors and to log them in and out in
+addition to being decorative. Above her left breast was a large enamelled
+button, red on top, white in the middle as a broad stripe from left to
+right, and blue below. Across the white stripe was printed CARTER in
+bold, black letters. From in back of the pin depended two broad silk
+ribbons that cascaded forward over the stuffing in her brassiere and hung
+free until they disappeared behind the edge of the desk. She eyed James
+with curiosity. "Young man, if you're looking for throwaways for your
+civics class, you'll have to wait until we're better organized&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>James eyed her with cold distaste. "I am James Quincy Holden," he told
+her, "and you have neither the authority nor the agility necessary to
+prevent my entrance."</p>
+
+<p>"You are&mdash;I what?"</p>
+
+<p>"I live here," he told her flatly. "Or didn't they provide you with this
+tidbit of vital statistic?"</p>
+
+<p>Wheels rotated behind the girl's eyes somewhere, and memory cells linked
+into comprehension. "Oh!&mdash;You're James."</p>
+
+<p>"I said that first," he replied. "Where's Judge Carter?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's in conference and cannot be disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"Your objection is overruled. I shall disturb him as soon as I find out
+precisely what has been going on."</p>
+
+<p>He went on in through the short hallway and found audible confusion. Men
+in groups of two to four stood in corners talking in bedlam. There was a
+layer of blue smoke above their heads that broke into skirls as various
+individuals left one group to join another. Through this vocal mob scene
+James went veering from left to right to avoid the groupings. He stood
+with polite insolence directly in front of two men sitting on the stairs
+until they made room for his passage&mdash;still talking as he went between
+them. In his room, three were sitting on the bed and the chair holding
+glasses and, of course, smoking like the rest. James dropped his
+overnight bag on a low stand and headed for his bathroom. One of the men
+caught sight of him and said, "Hey kid, scram!"</p>
+
+<p>James looked at the man coldly. "You happen to be using my bedroom. You
+should be asking my permission to do so, or perhaps apologizing for not
+having asked me before you moved in. I have no intention of leaving."</p>
+
+<p>"Get the likes of him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, Pete. This is the Holden kid."</p>
+
+<p>"The little genius, huh?"</p>
+
+<p>James said, "I am no genius. I do happen to have an education that
+provides me with the right to criticize your social behavior. I will
+neither be insulted nor patronized."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to him, will you!"</p>
+
+<p>James turned and with the supreme gesture of contempt, he left the door
+open.</p>
+
+<p>He wound his way through the place to Judge Carter's study and home
+office, strode towards it with purpose and reached for the doorknob. A
+voice halted him: "Hey kid, you can't go in there!"</p>
+
+<p>Turning to face the new voice, James said calmly,</p>
+
+<p>"You mean 'may not' which implies that I have asked your permission. Your
+statement is incorrect as phrased and erroneous when corrected."</p>
+
+<p>He turned the knob and entered. Judge Carter sat at his desk with two
+men; their discussion ceased with the sound of the doorknob. The judge
+looked up in annoyance. "Hello, James. You shouldn't have come in here.
+We're busy. I'll let you know when I'm free."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better make time for me right now," said James angrily. "I'd like
+to know what's going on here."</p>
+
+<p>"This much I'll tell you quickly. We're planning a political campaign.
+Now, please&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know you're planning a political campaign," replied James. "But if
+you're proposing to campaign on the platform of a reform in education,
+I suggest that you educate your henchmen in the rudimentary elements of
+polite speech and gentle behavior. I dislike being ordered out of my room
+by usurpers who have the temerity to address me as 'hey kid'."</p>
+
+<p>"Relax, James. I'll send them out later."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd suggest that you tell them off," snapped James. He turned on his
+heel and left, heading for the cellar. In the workshop he found Professor
+White and Jack Cowling presiding over the machine. In the chair with the
+headset on sat the crowning insult of all:</p>
+
+<p>Paul Brennan leafing through a heavy sheaf of papers, reading and
+intoning the words of political oratory.</p>
+
+<p>Unable to lick them, Brennan had joined them&mdash;or, wondered young Holden,
+was Judge Norman L. Carter paying for Brennan's silence with some plum of
+political patronage?</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>As he stood there, the years of persecution rose strong in the mind of
+James Holden. Brennan, the man who'd got away with murder and would
+continue to get away with it because there was no shred of evidence, no
+witness, nothing but James Holden's knowledge of Brennan's actions when
+he'd thought himself unseen in his calloused treatment of James Holden's
+dying mother; Brennan's critical inspection of the smashed body of his
+father, coldly checking the dead flesh to be sure beyond doubt; the cruel
+search about the scene of the 'accident' for James himself&mdash;interrupted
+only by the arrival of a Samaritan, whose name was never known to James
+Holden. In James rose the violent resentment of the years, the certain
+knowledge that any act of revenge upon Paul Brennan would be viewed as
+cold-blooded premeditated murder without cause or motive.</p>
+
+<p>And then came the angry knowledge that simple slaughter was too good for
+Paul Brennan. He was not a dog to be quickly released from misery by a
+merciful death. Paul Brennan should suffer until he cried for death as a
+blessed release from daily living.</p>
+
+<p>James Holden, angry, silently, unseen by the preoccupied workers,
+stole across the room to the main switch-panel, flipped up a small
+half-concealed cover, and flipped a small button.</p>
+
+<p>There came a sharp <i>Crack</i>! that shattered the silence and
+re-echoed again and again through the room. The panel that held the
+repeater-circuit of the Holden Educator bulged outward; jets of smoke
+lanced out of broken metal, bulged corners, holes and skirled into little
+clouds that drifted upward&mdash;trailing a flowing billow of thick, black,
+pungent smoke that reached the low ceiling and spread outward, fanwise,
+obscuring the ceiling like a low-lying nimbus.</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of the report, the man in the chair jumped as if he'd been
+stabbed where he sat.</p>
+
+<p>"Ouyeowwww!" yowled Brennan in a pitiful ululation. He fell forward from
+the chair, asprawl on wobbly hands and knees, on elbows and knees as he
+tried to press away the torrent of agony that hammered back and forth
+from temple to temple. James watched Brennan with cold detachment,
+Professor White and Jack Cowling looked on in paralyzed horror. Slowly,
+oh, so slowly, Paul Brennan managed to squirm around until he was sitting
+on the floor still cradling his head between his hands.</p>
+
+<p>James said, "I'm afraid that you're going to have a rough time whenever
+you hear the word 'entrenched'." And then, as Brennan made no response,
+James Holden went on, "Or were you by chance reading the word
+'pedagogue'?"</p>
+
+<p>At the word, Brennan howled again; the pain was too much for him and he
+toppled sidewise to writhe in kicking agony.</p>
+
+<p>James smiled coldly, "I'm sorry that you weren't reading the word 'the'.
+The English language uses more of them than the word 'pedagogue'."</p>
+
+<p>With remarkable effort, Brennan struggled to his feet; he lurched toward
+James. "I'll teach you, you little&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pedagogue?" asked James.</p>
+
+<p>The shock rocked Brennan right to the floor again.</p>
+
+<p>"Better sit there and think," said James coldly. "You come within a dozen
+yards of me and I'll say&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No! Don't!" screamed Paul Brennan. "Not again!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now," asked James, "what's going on here?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was memorizing a political speech," said Jack Cowling. "What did you
+do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I merely fixed my machine so that it will not be used again."</p>
+
+<p>"But you shouldn't have done that!"</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't have been using it for this purpose," replied James. "It
+wasn't intended to further political ambitions."</p>
+
+<p>"But Judge Carter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Judge Carter doesn't own it," said James. "I do."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure that Judge Carter can explain everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him so. Then add that if he'd bothered to give me the time of day,
+I'd be less angry. He's not to be interrupted, is he? I'm ordered out of
+my room, am I? Well, go tell the judge that his political campaign has
+been stopped by a fourteen-year-old boy who knows which button to push!
+I'll wait here."</p>
+
+<p>Professor White took off; Jack Cowling smiled crookedly and shook his
+head at James. "You're a rash young man," he said. "What did you do to
+Brennan, here?"</p>
+
+<p>James pointed at the smoke curling up out of the panel. "I put in a
+destructive charge to addle the circuit as a preventive measure against
+capture or use by unauthorized persons," he replied. "So I pushed the
+button just as Brennan was trying to memorize the word&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" cried Brennan in a pleading scream.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean he's going to throw a fit every time he hears the word&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No! No! Can't anybody talk without saying&mdash;Ouwwouooo!"</p>
+
+<p>"Interesting," commented James. "It seems to start as soon as the
+fore-reading part of his mind predicts that the word may be next, or
+when he thinks about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that Brennan is going to be like the guy who could win the
+world if he sat on the top of a hill for one hour and did not think of
+the word 'Swordfish'? Except that he'll be out of pain so long as he
+doesn't think of the word&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thing I'm interested in is that maybe our orator here doesn't know the
+definition thoroughly. Tell me, dear 'Uncle' Paul, does the word
+'teacher' give&mdash;Sorry. I was just experimenting. Wasn't as bad as&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Gritting his teeth and wincing with pain, Brennan said, "Stop it!
+Even the word 'sch-(wince)-ool' hurts like&mdash;" He thought for a
+moment and then went on with his voice rising to a pitiful
+howl of agony at the end: "Even the name 'Miss Adams' gives
+me a fleeting headache all over my body, and Miss Adams was
+on&mdash;ly&mdash;my&mdash;third&mdash;growww&mdash;school&mdash;Owuuuuoooo&mdash;teach&mdash;earrrrrrr&mdash;Owwww!"</p>
+
+<p>Brennan collapsed in his chair just as Judge Carter came in with his
+white mane flying and hot fire in his attitude. "What goes on here?" he
+stormed at James.</p>
+
+<p>"I stopped your campaign."</p>
+
+<p>"Now see here, you young&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter stopped abruptly, took a deep breath and calmed himself with
+a visible effort to control his rage. "James," he said in a quieter
+voice, "Can you repair the damage quickly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;but I won't."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because one of the things my father taught me was the danger of allowing
+this machine to fall into the hands of ruthless men with political
+ambition."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am a ruthless man with political ambition?"</p>
+
+<p>James nodded. "Under the guise of studying me and my machine," he said,
+"you've been using it to train speakers, and to educate ward-heelers.
+You've been building a political machine by buying delegates. Not with
+money, of course, because that is illegal. With knowledge, and because
+knowledge, education, and information are intangibles and no legality
+has been established, and this is all very legal."</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter smiled distantly. "It is bad to elevate the mind of the
+average ward-heeler? To provide the smalltime politician with a fine
+grasp of the National Problem and how his little local problems fit into
+the big picture? Is this making a better world, or isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's making a political machine that can't be defeated."</p>
+
+<p>"Think not? What makes you think it can't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pedagogue!" said James.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeowwww!"</p>
+
+<p>The judge whirled to look at Brennan. "What was&mdash;that?" asked the judge.</p>
+
+<p>James explained what had happened, then: "I've mentioned hazards. This is
+what would happen if a fuse blew in the middle of a course. Maybe he can
+be trained out of it, and maybe not. You'll have to try, of course. But
+think of what would happen if you and your political machine put these
+things into schools and fixed them to make a voltage twitch or something
+while the student was reading the word 'republican'. You'd end up with a
+single-party system."</p>
+
+<p>"And get myself assassinated by a group of righteously irate citizens,"
+said Judge Carter. "Which I would very warmly deserve. On the other hand,
+suppose we 'treated' people to feel anguish at thoughts of murder or
+killing, theft, treason, and other forms of human deviltry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now that might be a fine idea."</p>
+
+<p>"It would not," said Judge Carter flatly. James Holden's eyes widened,
+and he started to say something but the judge held up his hand, fingers
+outspread, and began to tick off his points finger by finger as he went
+on: "Where would we be in the case of enemy attack? Could our policemen
+aim their guns at a vicious criminal if they were conditioned against
+killing? Could our butchers operate; must our housewives live among a
+horde of flies? Theft? Well, it's harder to justify, James, but it would
+change the game of baseball as in 'stealing a base' or it would ruin the
+game of love as in 'stealing a kiss'. It would ruin the mystery-story
+field for millions of people who really haven't any inclination to go out
+and rob, steal, or kill. Treason? Our very revered Declaration of
+Independence is an article of Treason in the eyes of King George Third;
+it wouldn't be very hard to draw a charge of treason against a man who
+complained about the way the Government is being run. Now, one more
+angle, James. The threat or fear of punishment hasn't deterred any
+potential felon so far as anybody knows. And I hold the odd belief that
+if we removed the quart of mixed felony, chicanery, falsehood, and
+underhandedness from the human makeup, on that day the human race could
+step down to take its place alongside of the cow, just one step ahead of
+the worm.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you accuse me of holding political ambition. I plead guilty of the
+charge and demand to be shown by my accuser just what is undesirable
+about ambition, be it political or otherwise. Have you no ambition? Of
+course you have. Ambition drove your folks to create this machine and
+ambition drove you to the fight for your freedom. Ambition is the
+catalyst that lifts a man above his fellows and then lifts them also.
+There is a sort of tradition in this country that a man must not openly
+seek the office of the Presidency. I consider this downright silly. I
+have announced my candidacy, and I intend to campaign for it as hard as
+I can. I propose to make the problem of <i>education</i> the most important
+argument that has ever come up in a presidential campaign. I believe that
+I shall win because I shall promise to provide this accelerated education
+for everybody who wants it."</p>
+
+<p>"And to do this you've used my machine," objected James.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you intend to keep it for yourself?" snapped Judge Carter.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And when did you intend to release it?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as I could handle it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, fine!" jeered the judge sourly. "Now, let me orate on that subject
+for a moment and then we'll get to the real meat of this argument. James,
+there is no way of delivering this machine to the public without
+delivering it to them through the hands of a capable Government agency.
+If you try to release it as an individual you'll be swamped with cries of
+anger and pleas for special consideration. The reactionaries will shout
+that we're moving too fast and the progressives will complain that we
+aren't moving fast enough. Teachers' organizations will say that we're
+throwing teachers out of jobs, and little petty politicians will try to
+slip their political plug into the daily course in Civics. Start your
+company and within a week some Madison Avenue advertising agency will be
+offering you several million dollars to let them convince people that
+Hickory-Chickory Coffee is the only stuff they can pour down their gullet
+without causing stomach pains, acid system, jittery nerves, sleepless
+nights, flat feet, upset glands, and so on and on and on. Announce it;
+the next day you'll have so many foreign spies in your bailiwick that
+you'll have to hire a stadium to hold them. You'll be ducking
+intercontinental ballistic missiles because there are people who would
+kill the dog in order to get rid of the fleas. You'll start the biggest
+war this planet has ever seen and it will go on long after you are killed
+and your father's secret is lost&mdash;and after the fallout has died off,
+we'll have another scientific race to recreate it. And don't think that
+it can't be rediscovered by determined scientists who know that such a
+thing as the Holden Electromechanical Educator is a reality."</p>
+
+<p>"And how do you propose to prevent this war?"</p>
+
+<p>"By broadcasting the secret as soon as we can; let the British and the
+French and the Russians and the Germans and all the rest build it and
+use it as wisely as they can program it. Which, by the way, James,
+brings us right back to James Quincy Holden, Martha Bagley, and the
+immediate future."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. James, tell me after deliberation, at what point in your life did
+you first believe that you had the competence to enter the adult world in
+freedom to do as you believed right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Um, about five or six, as I recall."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think now about those days?"</p>
+
+<p>James shrugged. "I got along."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't very well, was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I was under a handicap, you know. I had to hide out."</p>
+
+<p>"And now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I had legal ruling, I wouldn't have to hide."</p>
+
+<p>"Think you know everything you need to know to enter this adult world?"</p>
+
+<p>"No man stops learning," parried James. "I think I know enough to start."</p>
+
+<p>"James, no matter what you say, there is a very important but intangible
+thing called 'judgment'. You have part of it, but not by far enough.
+You've been studying the laws about ages and rights, James, but you've
+missed a couple of them because you've been looking for evidence
+favorable to your own argument. First, to become a duly elected member of
+the House of Representatives, a man must be at least twenty-five years of
+age. To be a Senator, he must be at least thirty. To be President, one
+must be at least thirty-five. Have you any idea why the framers of the
+Constitution of the United States placed such restrictions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose it had to do with judgment?" replied James reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"That&mdash;and <i>experience</i>. Experience in knowing people, in understanding
+that there might be another side to any question, in realizing that you
+must not approach every problem from your own purely personal point of
+view nor expect it to be solved to your own private satisfaction or to
+your benefit. Now, let's step off a distance and take a good look at
+James Quincy Holden and see where he lacks the necessary ingredients."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, tell me," said James, sourly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I intend to. Let's take the statistics first. You're four-feet
+eleven-inches tall, you weigh one-hundred and three pounds, and you're a
+few weeks over fourteen. I suppose you know that you've still got one
+more spurt of growth, sometimes known as the post-puberty-growth. You'll
+probably put on another foot in the next couple of years, spread out a
+bit across the shoulders, and that fuzz on your face will become a
+collection of bristles. I suppose you think that any man in this room can
+handle you simply because we're all larger than you are? Possibly true,
+and one of the reasons why we can't give you a ticket and let you
+proclaim yourself an adult. You can't carry the weight. But this isn't
+all. Your muscles and your bones aren't yet in equilibrium. I could find
+a man of age thirty who weighed one-oh-three and stood four-eleven. He
+could pick you up and spin you like a top on his forefinger just because
+his bones match his muscles nicely, and his nervous system and brain have
+had experience in driving the body he's living in."</p>
+
+<p>"Could be, but what has all this to do with me? It does not affect the
+fact that I've been getting along in life."</p>
+
+<p>"You get along. It isn't enough to 'get along.' You've got to have
+judgment. You claim judgment, but still you realize that you can't handle
+your own machine. You can't even come to an equitable choice in selecting
+some agency to handle your machine. You can't decide upon a good outlet.
+You believe that proclaiming your legal competence will provide you with
+some mysterious protection against the wolves and thieves and ruthless
+men with political ambition&mdash;that this ruling will permit you to keep it
+to yourself until you decide that it is time to release it. You still
+want to hide. You want to use it until you are so far above and beyond
+the rest of the world that they can't catch up, once you give it to
+everybody. You now object to my plans and programs, still not knowing
+whether I intend to use it for good or for evil&mdash;and juvenile that you
+are, it must be good or evil and cannot be an in-between shade of gray.
+Men are heroes or villains to <i>you</i>; but <i>I</i> must say with some
+reluctance that the biggest crooks that ever held public office still
+passed laws that were beneficial to their people. There is the area in
+which you lack judgment, James. There and in your blindness."</p>
+
+<p>"Blindness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Blindness," repeated Judge Carter. "As Mark Twain once said, 'When I was
+seventeen, I was ashamed at the ignorance of my father, but by the time I
+was twenty-one I was amazed to discover how much the old man had learned
+in four short years!' Confound it, James, you don't yet realize that
+there are a lot of things in life that you can't even know about until
+you've lived through them. You're blind here, even though your life has
+been a solid case of encounter with unexpected experiences, one after the
+other as you grew. Oh, you're smart enough to know that you've got to top
+the next hill as soon as you've climbed this one, but you're not smart
+enough to realize that the next hill merely hides the one beyond, and
+that there are still higher hills beyond that stretching to the end of
+the road for you&mdash;and that when you've finally reached the end of your
+own road there will be more distant hills to climb for the folks that
+follow you.</p>
+
+<p>"You've a fine education, and it's helped you tremendously. But you've
+loused up your own life and the life of Martha Bagley. You two are a pair
+of outcasts, and you'll be outcasts until about ten years from now when
+your body will have caught up with your mind so that you can join your
+contemporaries without being regarded as a pair of intellectual freaks."</p>
+
+<p>"And what should I have done?" demanded James Holden angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it, again. You do not now realize that there isn't anything
+you could have done, nor is there anything you can do now. That's why I'm
+taking over and I'm going to do it for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!" snapped Judge Carter. "We'll let them have their courses in baton
+twirling and social grace and civic improvement and etiquette&mdash;and at the
+same time we'll give them history and mathematics and spelling and
+graduate them from 'high' school at the age of twelve or fourteen,
+introduce an intermediary school for languages and customs of other
+countries and in universal law and international affairs and economics,
+where our bookkeepers will learn science and scientists will understand
+commercial law; our lawyers will know business and our businessmen will
+be taught politics. After that we'll start them in college and run them
+as high as they can go, and our doctors will no longer go sour from the
+moment they leave school at thirty-five to hang out their shingle.</p>
+
+<p>"As for you, James Holden, you and Martha Bagley will attend this
+preparatory school as soon as we can set it up. There will be no more of
+this argument about being as competent as an adult, because we oldsters
+will still be the chiefs and you kids will be the Indians. Have I made
+myself clear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir. But how about Brennan?"</p>
+
+<p>Judge Carter looked at the unhappy man. "You still want revenge? Won't he
+be punished enough just hearing the word 'pedagogue'?"</p>
+
+<p>"For the love of&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't blaspheme," snapped the judge. "You'd hang if James could bring
+a shred of evidence, and I'd help him if I could." He turned to James
+Holden. "Now," he asked, "will you repair your machine?"</p>
+
+<p>"And if I say No?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you stand the pressure of a whole world angered because you've
+denied them their right to an education?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not." He looked at Brennan, at Professor White and at Jack
+Cowling. "If I've got to trust somebody," he said reluctantly, "I suppose
+it might as well be you."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="BOOK_FOUR" id="BOOK_FOUR"></a>BOOK FOUR:</h2>
+
+<h3>THE NEW MATURITY</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN" id="CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN"></a>CHAPTER EIGHTEEN</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is the campus of Holden Preparatory Academy.</p>
+
+<p>It is spring, but many another spring must pass before the ambitious ivy
+climbs to smother the gray granite walls, before the stripling trees grow
+stately, before the lawn is sturdy enough to withstand the crab grass and
+the students. Anecdote and apocrypha have yet to evolve into hallowed
+tradition. The walks ways are bare of bronze plaques because there are no
+illustrious alumni to honor; Holden Preparatory has yet to graduate its
+first class.</p>
+
+<p>It is youth, a lusty infant whose latent power is already great enough
+to move the world. As it rises, the world rises with it for the whole
+consists of all its parts; no man moves alone.</p>
+
+<p>The movement has its supporters and its enemies, and between them lies a
+vast apathy of folks who simply don't give a damn. It supporters deplore
+the dolts and the sluggards who either cannot or will not be educated.
+Its enemies see it as a danger to their comfortable position of eminence
+and claim bitterly that the honored degree of doctor is being degraded.
+They refuse to see that it is not the degradation of the standard but
+rather the exaltation of the norm. Comfortable, they lazily object to the
+necessity of rising with the norm to keep their position. Nor do they
+realize that the ones who will be assaulting their fortress will
+themselves be fighting still stronger youth one day when the mistakes are
+corrected and the program streamlined through experience.</p>
+
+<p>On the virgin lawn, in a spot that will someday lie in the shade of a
+great oak, a group of students sit, sprawl, lie. The oldest of them is
+sixteen, and it is true that not one of them has any reverence for
+college degrees, because the entrance requirements demand the scholastic
+level of bachelor in the arts, the sciences, in language and literature.
+The mark of their progress is not stated in grades, but rather in the
+number of supplementary degrees for which they qualify. The honors of
+their graduation are noted by the number of doctorates they acquire.
+Their goal is the title of Scholar, without which they may not attend
+college for their ultimate education.</p>
+
+<p>But they do not have the "look of eagles" nor do they act as if they felt
+some divine purpose fill their lives. They do not lead the pack in an
+easy lope, for who holds rank when admirals meet? They are not dedicated
+nor single-minded; if their jokes and pranks start on a higher or lower
+plane, it is just because they have better minds than their forebears at
+the same time.</p>
+
+<p>On the fringe of this group, an olive-skinned Brazilian co-ed asks:
+"Where's Martha?"</p>
+
+<p>John Philips looks up from a diagram of fieldmatrics he's been using to
+lay out a football play. "She's lending moral support to Holden. He's
+sweating out his scholar's impromptu this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should he be stewing?"</p>
+
+<p>John Philips smiles knowingly. "Tony Dirk put the triple-whammy on him.
+Gimmicked up the random-choice selector in the Regent's office. Herr von
+James is discoursing on the subjects of Medicine, Astronomy, and
+Psychology&mdash;that is if Dirk knows his stuff."</p>
+
+<p>Tony Dirk looks down from his study of a fluffy cloud. "Anybody care to
+hazard some loose change on my ability?"</p>
+
+<p>"But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," replies Philips, "we figure that the first graduating class could
+use a professional <i>Astrologer</i>! We'll be the first in history to have
+one&mdash;if M'sieu Holden can tie Medicine, Astronomy, and Psychology into
+something cogent in his impromptu."</p>
+
+<p>It is a strange tongue they are using, probably the first birth-pains of
+a truly universal language. By some tacit agreement, personal questions
+are voiced in French, the reply in Spanish. Impersonal questions are
+Italian and the response in Portuguese. Anything of a scientific nature
+must be in German; law, language, or literature in English; art in
+Japanese; music in Greek; medicine in Latin; agriculture in Czech.
+Anything laudatory in Mandarin, derogatory in Sanskrit&mdash;and <i>ad libitum</i>
+at any point for any subject.</p>
+
+<p>Anita Lowes has been trying to attract the attention of John Philips from
+his diagram long enough to invite her to the Spring Festival by reciting
+a low-voiced string of nuclear equations carefully compounded to make
+them sound naughty unless they're properly identified with full
+attention. She looks up and says, "What if he doesn't make the
+connection?"</p>
+
+<p>Philips replies, "Well, if he can prove to that tough bunch that there
+is no possible advance in learning through a combination of Astronomy,
+Medicine, and Psychology, he'll make it on that basis. It's just as
+important to close a door as it is to open one, you know. But it's one
+rough deal to prove negation. Maybe we'll have James the Holden on our
+hands for another semester. Martha will like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Talking about me?"</p>
+
+<p>There is a rolling motion, sort of like a bushel of fish trying to leap
+back into the sea. The newcomer is Martha Fisher. At fifteen, her eyes
+are bright, and her features are beginning to soften into the beginning
+of a beauty that will deepen with maturity.</p>
+
+<p>"James," says Tony Dirk. "We figured you'd like to have him around
+another four months. So we gimmicked him."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean that test-trio?" chuckles Martha.</p>
+
+<p>"How's he doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I left, he was wriggling his way through probability math, showing
+the relationship between his three subjects and the solution for random
+choice figures which may or may not be shaded by known or not-known
+agency. He's covered Mason's History of Superstition and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Superstition?" asks a Japanese.</p>
+
+<p>Martha nods. "He claimed superstition is based upon fear and faith, and
+he feared that someone had tampered with his random choice of subjects,
+and he had faith that it was one of his buddies. So&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Martha is interrupted by a shout. The years have done well by James
+Holden, too. He is a lithe sixteen. It is a long time since he formed his
+little theory of human pair-production and it is almost as long since
+he thought of it last. If he reconsiders it now, he does not recognize
+his part in it because everything looks different from within the circle.
+His world, like the organization of the Universe, is made up of schools
+containing classes of groups of clusters of sets of associations created
+by combinations and permutations of individuals.</p>
+
+<p>"I made it!" he says.</p>
+
+<p>James has his problems. Big ones. Shall he go to Harvard alone, or shall
+he go to coeducational California with the hope that Martha will follow
+him? Then there was the fun awaiting him at Heidelberg, the historic
+background of Pisa, the vigorous routine at Tokyo. As a Scholar, he has
+contributed original research in four or five fields to attain
+doctorates, now he is to pick a few allied fields, combine certain phases
+of them, and work for his Specific. It is James Holden's determination to
+prove that the son is worthy of the parents for which his school is
+named.</p>
+
+<p>But there is high competition. At Carter tech-prep, a girl is struggling
+to arrange a Periodic Chart of the Nucleons. At Maxwell, one of his
+contemporaries will contend that the human spleen acts as an ion-exchange
+organ to rid the human body of radioactive minerals, and he will someday
+die trying to prove it. His own classmate Tony Dirk will organize a
+weather-control program, and John Philips will write six lines of odd
+symbols that will be called the Inertiogravitic Equations.</p>
+
+<p>Their children will reach the distant stars, and their children's
+children will, humanlike, cross the vast chasm that lies between one
+swirl of matter and the other before they have barely touched their home
+galaxy.</p>
+
+<p>No man is an island, near or far on Earth as it is across the glowing
+clusters of galaxies&mdash;nay, as it may be in Heaven itself.</p>
+
+<p>The motto is cut deep in the granite over the doorway to Holden Hall:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">You yourself</span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">must light the faggots</span><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">that you have brought</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth R, by George Oliver Smith
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOURTH R ***
+
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diff --git a/old/20060616-18602.txt b/old/20060616-18602.txt
new file mode 100644
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth R, by George Oliver Smith
+
+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: The Fourth R
+
+Author: George Oliver Smith
+
+Release Date: June 16, 2006 [EBook #18602]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOURTH R ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            THE FOURTH "R"
+
+                         By George O. Smith
+
+
+
+
+Published by
+DELL PUBLISHING CO., INC.
+1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
+New York, New York 10017
+
+Copyright 1959, by George O. Smith
+All rights reserved. For information contact:
+Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
+
+Printed in the United States of America.
+
+First Dell printing--April 1979
+
+[Transcribers note: This is a rule 6 clearance. A copyright renewal has
+not been found.]
+
+
+
+
+BOOK ONE:
+
+FUTURE IMPROMPTU
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+
+James Quincy Holden was five years old.
+
+His fifth birthday was not celebrated by the usual horde of noisy, hungry
+kids running wild in the afternoon. It started at seven, with cocktails.
+They were served by his host, Paul Brennan, to the celebrants, the boy's
+father and mother. The guest of honor sipped ginger ale and nibbled at
+canapes while he was presented with his gifts: A volume of Kipling's
+_Jungle Tales_, a Spitz Junior Planetarium, and a build-it-yourself kit
+containing parts for a geiger counter and an assortment of radioactive
+minerals to identify. Dinner was served at eight, the menu selected by
+Jimmy Holden--with the exception of the birthday cake and its five proud
+little candles which came as an anticipated surprise from his "Uncle"
+Paul Brennan.
+
+After dinner, they listened to some music chosen by the boy, and the
+evening wound up with three rubbers of bridge. The boy won.
+
+They left Paul Brennan's apartment just after eleven o'clock. Jimmy
+Holden was tired and pleasantly stuffed with good food. But he was
+stimulated by the party. So, instead of dropping off to sleep, he sat
+comfortably wedged between his father and mother, quietly lost in his own
+thoughts until the car was well out of town.
+
+Then he said, "Dad, why did you make that sacrifice bid on the last
+hand?" Father and son had been partners.
+
+"You're not concerned about losing the rubber, are you?" It had been the
+only rubber Jimmy lost.
+
+"No. It's only a game," said Jimmy. "I'm just trying to understand."
+
+His father gave an amused groan. "It has to do with the laws of
+probability and the theory of games," he said.
+
+The boy shook his head. "Bridge," he said thoughtfully, "consists of
+creating a logical process of play out of a random distribution of
+values, doesn't it?"
+
+"Yes, if you admit that your definition is a gross oversimplification. It
+would hardly be a game if everything could be calculated beforehand."
+
+"But what's missing?"
+
+"In any game there is the element of a calculated risk."
+
+Jimmy Holden was silent for a half-mile thinking that one over. "How," he
+asked slowly, "can a risk be calculated?"
+
+His father laughed. "In fine, it can't. Too much depends upon the
+personality of the individual."
+
+"Seems to me," said Jimmy, "that there's not much point in making a bid
+against a distribution of values known to be superior. You couldn't hope
+to make it; Mother and Uncle Paul had the cards."
+
+His father laughed again. "After a few more courses in higher
+mathematics, James, you'll begin to realize that some of the highest
+mathematics is aimed at predicting the unpredictable, or trying to lower
+the entropy of random behavior--"
+
+Jimmy Holden's mother chuckled. "Now explain entropy," she said. "James,
+what your father has been failing to explain is really not subject to
+simple analysis. Who knows why any man will hazard his hard-earned money
+on the orientation of a pair of dice? No amount of education nor academic
+study will explain what drives a man. Deep inside, I suppose it is the
+same force that drives everybody. One man with four spades will take a
+chance to see if he can make five, and another man with directorships in
+three corporations will strive to make it four."
+
+Jimmy's father chuckled. "Some families with one infant will try to make
+it two--"
+
+"Not on your life!"
+
+"--And some others are satisfied with what they've got," finished Jimmy
+Holden's father. "James, some men will avoid seeing what has to be done;
+some men will see it and do it and do no more; and a few men will see
+what has to be done, do it, and then look to the next inevitable problem
+created by their own act--"
+
+A blinding flash of light cut a swath across the road, dazzling them.
+Around the curve ahead, a car careened wide over the white line. His
+mother reached for him, his father fought the wheel to avoid the crash.
+Jimmy Holden both heard and felt the sharp _Bang!_ as the right front
+tire went. The steering wheel snapped through his father's hands by half
+a turn. There was a splintering crash as the car shattered its way
+through the retaining fence, then came a fleeting moment of breathless
+silence as if the entire universe had stopped still for a heartbeat.
+
+Chaos! His mother's automatic scream, his father's oath, and the rending
+crash split the silence at once. The car bucked and flipped, the doors
+were slammed open and ripped off against a tree that went down. The car
+leaped in a skew turn and began to roll and roll, shedding metal and
+humans as it racketed down the ravine.
+
+Jimmy felt himself thrown free in a tumbleturn that ended in a heavy
+thud.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When breath and awareness returned, he was lying in a depression filled
+with soft rotting leaves.
+
+He was dazed beyond hurt. The initial shock and bewilderment oozed out of
+him, leaving him with a feeling of outrage, and a most peculiar sensation
+of being a spectator rather than an important part of the violent drama.
+It held an air of unreality, like a dream that the near-conscious sleeper
+recognizes as a dream and lives through it because he lacks the conscious
+will to direct it.
+
+Strangely, it was as if there were three or more of him all thinking
+different things at the same time. He wanted his mother badly enough to
+cry. Another part of him said that she would certainly be at his side if
+she were able. Then a third section of his confused mind pointed out that
+if she did not come to him, it was because she herself was hurt deeply
+and couldn't.
+
+A more coldly logical portion of his mind was urging him to get up and
+_do_ something about it. They had passed a telephone booth on the
+highway; lying there whimpering wasn't doing anybody any good. This
+logical part of his confused mind did not supply the dime for the
+telephone slot nor the means of scaling the heights needed to insert
+the dime in the adult-altitude machine.
+
+Whether the dazzle of mental activity was serial or simultaneous isn't
+important. The fact is that it was completely disorganized as to plan
+or program, it leaped from one subject to another until he heard the
+scrabble and scratch of someone climbing down the side of the ravine.
+
+Any noise meant help. With relief, Jimmy tried to call out.
+
+But with this arrival of help, afterfright claimed him. His mouth
+worked silently before a dead-dry throat and his muscles twitched in
+uncontrolled nervousness; he made neither sound nor motion. Again he
+watched with the unreal feeling of being a remote spectator. A cone of
+light from a flashlight darted about and it gradually seeped into Jimmy's
+shocked senses that this was a new arrival, picking his way through the
+tangle of brush, following the trail of ruin from the broken guard rail
+to the smashed car below.
+
+The newcomer paused. The light darted forward to fall upon a crumpled
+mass of cloth.
+
+With a toe, the stranger probed at crushed ribs. A pitifully feeble
+moan came from the broken rag doll that lay on the ground. The searcher
+knelt with his light close to peer into the bloody face, and,
+unbelieving, Jimmy Holden heard the voice of his mother straining
+to speak, "Paul--I--we--"
+
+The voice died in a gurgle.
+
+The man with the flashlight tested the flaccid neck by bending the head
+to one side and back sharply. He ended this inspection by letting the
+head fall back to the moist earth. It landed with a thud of finality.
+
+The cold brutality of this stranger's treatment of his mother shocked
+Jimmy Holden into frantic outrage. The frozen cry for help changed into
+protesting anger; no one should be treated that--
+
+"One!" muttered the stranger flatly.
+
+Jimmy's burst of protest died in his throat and he watched, fascinated,
+as the stranger's light moved in a sweep forward to stop a second time.
+"And there's number two!" The callous horror was repeated. Hypnotically,
+Jimmy Holden watched the stranger test the temples and wrists and try a
+hand under his father's heart. He watched the stranger make a detailed
+inspection of the long slash that laid open the entire left abdomen and
+he saw the red that seeped but did not flow.
+
+"That's that!" said the stranger with an air of finality. "Now--" and he
+stood up to swing his flashlight in widening circles, searching the area
+carefully.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jimmy Holden did not sicken. He went cold. He froze as the dancing
+flashlight passed over his head, and relaxed partially when it moved
+away in a series of little jumps pausing to give a steady light for
+close inspection. The light swung around and centered on the smashed
+automobile. It was upside down, a ruin with one wheel still turning idly.
+
+The stranger went to it, and knelt to peer inside. He pried ripped metal
+away to get a clear sight into the crushed interior. He went flat on his
+stomach and tried to penetrate the area between the crumpled car-top and
+the bruised ground, and he wormed his way in a circle all around the car,
+examining the wreck minutely.
+
+The sound of a distant automobile engine became audible, and the
+searching man mumbled a curse. With haste he scrambled to his feet and
+made a quick inspection of the one wabbly-turning wheel. He stripped a
+few shards of rubber away, picked at something in the bent metal rim, and
+put whatever he found in his pocket. When his hand came from the pocket
+it held a packet of paper matches. With an ear cocked at the road above
+and the sound of the approaching car growing louder, the stranger struck
+one match and touched it to the deck of matches. Then with a callous
+gesture he tossed the flaring pack into a pool of spilled gasoline. The
+fuel went up in a blunt _whoosh_!
+
+The dancing flames revealed the face of Jimmy Holden's "Uncle" Paul
+Brennan, his features in a mask that Jimmy Holden had never seen before.
+
+With the determined air of one who knows that still another piece lies
+hidden, Paul Brennan started to beat back and forth across the trail of
+ruin. His light swept the ground like the brush of a painter, missing no
+spot. Slowly and deliberately he went, paying no attention to the
+creeping tongues of flame that crept along damp trails of spilled
+gasoline.
+
+Jimmy Holden felt helplessly alone.
+
+For "Uncle" Paul Brennan was the laughing uncle, the golden uncle; his
+godfather; the bringer of delightful gifts and the teller of fabulous
+stories. Classmate of his father and admirer of his mother, a friend to
+be trusted as he trusted his father and mother, as they trusted Paul
+Brennan. Jimmy Holden did not and could not understand, but he could feel
+the presence of menace. And so with the instinct of any trapped animal,
+he curled inward upon himself and cringed.
+
+Education and information failed. Jimmy Holden had been told and told and
+instructed, and the words had been graven deep in his mind by the same
+fabulous machine that his father used to teach him his grammar and his
+vocabulary and his arithmetic and the horde of other things that made
+Jimmy Holden what he was: "If anything happens to us, you must turn to
+Paul Brennan!"
+
+But nothing in his wealth of extraordinary knowledge covered the way to
+safety when the trusted friend turned fiend.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Shaken by the awful knowledge that all of his props had been kicked out
+from under him, now at last Jimmy Holden whimpered in helpless fright.
+Brennan turned towards the sound and began to beat his way through the
+underbrush.
+
+Jimmy Holden saw him coming. It was like one of those dreams he'd had
+where he was unable to move, his muscles frozen, as some unknown horror
+stalked him. It could only end in a terrifying fall through cold space
+towards a tremendous lurch against the bedsprings that brought little
+comfort until his pounding heart came back to normal. But this was no
+dream; it was a known horror that stalked him, and it could not end as
+a dream ends. It was reality.
+
+The horror was a close friend turned animal, and the end was more
+horrible because Jimmy Holden, like all other five-year-olds, had
+absolutely no understanding nor accurate grasp of the concept called
+_death_. He continued to whimper even though he realized that his fright
+was pointing him out to his enemy. And yet he had no real grasp of the
+concept _enemy_. He knew about pain; he had been hurt. But only by falls,
+simple misadventures, the needles of inoculation administered by his
+surgeon mother, a paddling for mischief by his engineer father.
+
+But whatever unknown fate was coming was going to be worse than "hurt."
+It was frightful.
+
+Then fate, assisted by Brennan's own act of trying to obliterate any
+possible evidence by fire, attracted a savior. The approaching car
+stopped on the road above and a voice called out, "Hello, down there!"
+
+Brennan could not refuse to answer; his own car was in plain sight by the
+shattered retaining fence. He growled under his breath, but he called
+back, "Hello, the road! Go get the police!"
+
+"Can we help?"
+
+"Beyond help!" cried Brennan. "I'm all right. Get the cops!"
+
+The car door slammed before it took off. Then came the unmistakable
+sounds of another man climbing down the ravine. A second flashlight swung
+here and there until the newcomer faced Brennan in the little circle of
+light.
+
+"What happened?" asked the uninvited volunteer.
+
+Brennan, whatever his thoughts, said in a voice filled with standard
+concern: "Blowout. Then everything went blooey."
+
+"Anyone--I mean how many--?"
+
+"Two dead," said Brennan, and then added because he had to, "and a little
+boy lost."
+
+The stranger eyed the flames and shuddered. "In there?"
+
+"Parents were tossed out. Boy's missing."
+
+"Bad," said the stranger. "God, what a mess. Know 'em?"
+
+"Holdens. Folks that live in the big old house on the hill. My best
+friend and his wife. I was following them home," lied Brennan glibly.
+"C'mon let's see if we can find the kid. What about the police?"
+
+"Sent my wife. Telephone down the road."
+
+Paul Brennan's reply carried no sound of disappointment over being
+interrupted. "Okay. Let's take a look. You take it that way, and I'll
+cover this side."
+
+The little-boy mind did not need its extensive education to understand
+that Paul Brennan needed no more than a few seconds of unobserved
+activity, after which he could announce the discovery of the third death
+in a voice cracked with false grief.
+
+Animal instinct took over where intelligence failed. The same force that
+caused Jimmy Holden to curl within himself now caused him to relax; help
+that could be trusted was now at hand. The muscles of his throat relaxed.
+He whimpered. The icy paralysis left his arms and legs; he kicked and
+flailed. And finally his nervous system succeeded in making their contact
+with his brain; the nerves carried the pain of his bumps and scratches,
+and Jimmy Holden began to hurt. His stifled whimper broke into a
+shuddering cry, which swiftly turned into sobbing hysteria.
+
+He went out of control. Nothing, not even violence, would shake him back
+until his accumulation of shock upon shock had been washed away in tears.
+
+The sound attracted both men. Side by side they beat through the
+underbrush. They reached for him and Jimmy turned toward the stranger.
+The man picked the lad out of the bed of soft rotting leaves, cradled him
+and stroked his head. Jimmy wrapped his small arms around the stranger's
+neck and held on for life.
+
+"I'll take him," said Brennan, reaching out.
+
+Jimmy's clutch on the stranger tightened.
+
+"You won't pry him loose easily," chuckled the man. "I know. I've got a
+couple of these myself."
+
+Brennan shrugged. "I thought perhaps--"
+
+"Forget it," said the stranger. "Kid's had trouble. I'll carry him to the
+road, you take him from there."
+
+"Okay."
+
+Getting up the ravine was a job of work for the man who carried Jimmy
+Holden. Brennan gave a hand, aided with a lift, broke down brush, and
+offered to take Jimmy now and again. Jimmy only clung tighter, and the
+stranger waved Brennan away with a quick shake of his head.
+
+By the time they reached the road, sirens were wailing on the road up
+the hill. Police, firemen, and an ambulance swarmed over the scene. The
+firemen went to work on the flaming car with practiced efficiency; the
+police clustered around Paul Brennan and extracted from him a story that
+had enough truth in it to sound completely convincing. The doctors from
+the ambulance took charge of Jimmy Holden. Lacking any other accident
+victim, they went to work on him with everything they could do.
+
+They gave him mild sedation, wrapped him in a warm blanket, and put him
+to bed on the cot in the ambulance with two of them watching over him. In
+the presence of so many solicitous strangers, Jimmy's shock and fright
+diminished. The sedation took hold. He dropped off in a light doze that
+grew less fitful as time went on. By the time the official accident
+report program was over, Jimmy Holden was fast asleep and resting
+comfortably.
+
+He did not hear Paul Brennan's suggestion that Jimmy go home with him,
+to Paul Brennan's personal physician, nor did Jimmy hear the ambulance
+attendants turn away Brennan's suggestion with hard-headed medical
+opinion. Brennan could hardly argue with the fact that an accident victim
+would be better off in a hospital under close observation. Shock demanded
+it, and there was the hidden possibility of internal injury or concussion
+to consider.
+
+So Jimmy Holden awoke with his accident ten hours behind him, and the
+good sleep had completed the standard recuperative powers of the healthy
+child. He looked around, collecting himself, and then remembered the
+accident. He cringed a bit and took another look and identified his
+surroundings as some sort of a children's ward or dormitory.
+
+He was in a crib.
+
+He sat up angrily and rattled the gate of the crib. Putting James Quincy
+Holden in a baby's crib was an insult.
+
+He stopped, because the noise echoed through the room and one of the
+younger patients stirred in sleep and moaned. Jimmy Holden sat back and
+remembered. The vacuum that was to follow the loss of his parents was not
+yet in evidence. They were gone and the knowledge made him unhappy, but
+he was not cognizant of the real meaning or emotion of grief. With almost
+the same feeling of loss he thought of the _Jungle Book_ he would never
+read and the Spitz Planetarium he would never see casting its little star
+images on his bedroom ceiling. Burned and ruined, with the atomic energy
+kit--and he had hoped that he could use the kit to tease his father into
+giving him some education in radioactivity. He was old enough to learn--
+
+Learn--?
+
+_No more, now that his father and mother were dead._
+
+Some of the real meaning of his loss came to him then, and the growing
+knowledge that this first shocking loss meant the ultimate loss of
+everything was beginning to sink in.
+
+He broke down and cried in the misery of his loss and his helplessness;
+ultimately his emotion began to cry itself out, and he began to feel
+resentment against his position. The animal desire to bite back at
+anything that moved did not last long, it focused properly upon the
+person of his tormentor. Then for a time, Jimmy Holden's imagination
+indulged in a series of little vignettes in which he scored his victory
+over Paul Brennan. These little playlets went through their own
+evolution, starting with physical victory reminiscent of his
+Jack-and-the-Beanstalk days to a more advanced triumph of watching Paul
+Brennan led away in handcuffs whilst the District Attorney scanned the
+sheaf of indisputable evidence provided by James Quincy Holden.
+
+Somewhere along about this point in his fantasy, a breath of the
+practical entered, and Jimmy began to consider the more sensible problem
+of what sort of information this sheaf of evidence would contain.
+
+Still identifying himself with the books he knew, Jimmy Holden had
+progressed from the fairy story--where the villain was evil for no more
+motive than to provide menace to the hero--to his more advanced books,
+where the villain did his evil deeds for the logical motive of personal
+gain.
+
+Well, what had Paul Brennan to gain?
+
+Money, for one thing--he would be executor of the Holden Estate. But
+there wasn't enough to justify killing. Revenge? For what? Jealousy? For
+whom? Hate? Envy? Jimmy Holden glossed the words quickly, for they were
+no more than words that carried definitions that did not really explain
+them. He could read with the facility of an adult, but a book written for
+a sophisticated audience went over his head.
+
+No, there was only one possible thing of appreciable value; the one thing
+that Paul Brennan hoped to gain was the device over which they had worked
+through all the long years to perfect: The Holden Electromechanical
+Educator! Brennan wanted it badly enough to murder for its possession!
+
+And with a mind and ingenuity far beyond his years, Jimmy Holden knew
+that he alone was the most active operator in this vicious drama. It was
+not without shock that he realized that he himself could still be killed
+to gain possession of his fabulous machine. For only with all _three_
+Holdens dead could Paul Brennan take full and unquestioned possession.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With daylight clarity he knew what he had to do. In a single act of
+destruction he could simultaneously foil Paul Brennan's plan and ensure
+his own life.
+
+Permanently installed in Jimmy Holden's brain by the machine itself were
+the full details of how to recreate it. Indelibly he knew each wire and
+link, lever and coil, section by section and piece by piece. It was
+incomprehensible information, about in the same way that the printing
+press "knows" the context of its metal plate. Step by step he could
+rebuild it once he had the means of procuring the parts, and it would
+work even though he had not the foggiest notion (now) of what the various
+parts did.
+
+So if the delicate heart of his father's machine were utterly destroyed,
+Paul Brennan would be extremely careful about preserving the life of
+James Quincy Holden.
+
+He considered his position and what he knew:
+
+Physically, he was a five-year-old. He stood forty-one inches tall and
+weighed thirty-nine pounds. A machinist's hammer was a two-handed tool
+and a five-pound sack of sugar was a burden. Doorknobs and latches were a
+problem in manipulation. The negotiation of a swinging door was a feat of
+muscular engineering. Electric light switches were placed at a tiptoe
+reach because, naturally, everything in the adult world is designed by
+the adults for the convenience of adults. This makes it difficult for the
+child who has no adult to do his bidding.
+
+Intellectually, Jimmy Holden was something else.
+
+Reverting to a curriculum considered sound prior to Mr. Dewey's
+often-questionable and more often misused programs of schooling, Jimmy's
+parents had trained and educated their young man quite well in the
+primary informations of fact. He read with facility and spoke with a fine
+vocabulary--although no amount of intellectual training could make his
+voice change until his glands did. His knowledge of history, geography
+and literature were good, because he'd used them to study reading. He was
+well into plane geometry and had a smattering of algebra, and there had
+been a pause due to a parental argument as to the advisability of his
+memorizing a table of six-place logarithms via the Holden machine.
+
+Extra-curricularly, Jimmy Holden had acquired snippets, bits, and
+wholesale chunks of a number of the arts and sciences and other
+aggregations of information both pertinent and trivial for one reason
+or another. As an instance, he had absorbed an entire bridge book by
+Charles Goren just to provide a fourth to sit in with his parents and
+Paul Brennan.
+
+Consequently, James Holden had in data the education of a boy of about
+sixteen, and in other respects, much more.
+
+He escaped from the hospital simply because no one ever thought that a
+five-year-old boy would have enough get-up-and-go to climb out of his
+crib, rummage a nearby closet, dress himself, and then calmly walk out.
+The clothing of a cocky teen-ager would have been impounded and his
+behavior watched.
+
+They did not miss him for hours. He went, taking the little
+identification card from its frame at the foot of his bed--and that
+ruined the correlation between tag and patient.
+
+By the time an overworked nurse stopped to think and finally asked,
+"Kitty, are you taking care of the little boy in Bed 6 over in 219?" and
+received the answer, "No, aren't you?" Jimmy Holden was trudging up the
+hill towards his home. Another hour went by with the two worried nurses
+surreptitiously searching the rest of the hospital in the simple hope
+that he had wandered away and could be restored before it came to the
+attention of the officials. By the time they gave up and called in other
+nurses (who helped them in their anxiety to conceal) Jimmy was entering
+his home.
+
+Each succeeding level of authority was loath to report the truth to the
+next higher up.
+
+By the time the general manager of the hospital forced himself to call
+Paul Brennan, Jimmy Holden was demolishing the last broken bits of
+disassembled subassemblies he had smashed from the heart-circuit of the
+Holden Electromechanical Educator. He was most thorough. Broken glass
+went into the refuse buckets, bent metal was buried in the garden,
+inflammables were incinerated, and meltables and fusibles slagged down in
+ashes that held glass, bottle, and empty tin-can in an unrecognizable
+mass. He left a gaping hole in the machine that Brennan could not
+fill--nor could any living man fill it now but James Quincy Holden.
+
+And only when this destruction was complete did Jimmy Holden first begin
+to understand his father's statement about the few men who see what has
+to be done, do it, _and then_ look to the next inevitable problem created
+by their own act.
+
+It was late afternoon by the time Jimmy had his next moves figured out.
+He left the home he'd grown up in, the home of his parents, of his own
+babyhood. He'd wandered through it for the last time, touching this and
+saying goodbye to that. He was certain that he would never see his things
+again, nor the house itself, but the real vacuum of his loss hadn't yet
+started to form. The concepts of "never" and "forever" were merely words
+that had no real impact.
+
+So was the word "Farewell."
+
+But once his words were said, Jimmy Holden made his small but confident
+way to the window of a railroad ticket agent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+
+You are a ticket agent, settled in the routine of your job. From nine to
+five-thirty, five days a week, you see one face after another. There are
+cheerful faces, sullen faces, faces that breathe garlic, whiskey, chewing
+gum, toothpaste and tobacco fumes. Old faces, young faces, dull faces,
+scarred faces, clear faces, plain faces and faces so plastered with
+makeup that their nature can't be seen at all. They bark place-names at
+you, or ask pleasantly about the cost of round-trip versus one-way
+tickets to Chicago or East Burlap. You deal with them and then you wait
+for the next.
+
+Then one afternoon, about four o'clock, a face barely visible over the
+edge of the marble counter looks up at you with a boy's cheerful freckled
+smile. You have to stand up in order to see him. You smile, and he grins
+at you. Among his belongings is a little leather suitcase, kid's size,
+but not a toy. He is standing on it. Under his arm is a collection of
+comic books, in one small fist is the remains of a candy bar and in the
+other the string of a floating balloon.
+
+"Well, young man, where to? Paris? London? Maybe Mars?"
+
+"No, sir," comes the piping voice, "Roun-tree."
+
+"Roundtree? Yes, I've heard of that metropolis," you reply. You look over
+his head, there aren't any other customers in line behind him so you
+don't mind passing the time of day. "Round-trip or one-way?"
+
+"One-way," comes the quick reply.
+
+This brings you to a slow stop. He does not giggle nor prattle, nor
+launch into a long and involved explanation with halting, dependent
+clauses. This one knows what he wants and how to ask for it. Quite a
+little man!
+
+"How old are you, young fellow?"
+
+"I was five years old yesterday."
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"I'm James Holden."
+
+The name does not ring any bells--because the morning newspaper is
+purchased for its comic strips, the bridge column, the crossword puzzle,
+and the latest dope on love-nest slayings, peccadilloes of the famous,
+the cheesecake photo of the inevitable actress-leaving-for-somewhere, and
+the full page photograph of the latest death-on-the-highway debacle. You
+look at the picture but you don't read the names in the caption, so you
+don't recognize the name, and you haven't been out of your little cage
+since lunchtime and Jimmy Holden was not missing then. So you go on:
+
+"So you're going to go to Roundtree."
+
+"Yessir."
+
+"That costs a lot of money, young Mister Holden."
+
+"Yessir." Then this young man hands you an envelope; the cover says,
+typewritten: _Ticket Clerk, Midland Railroad_.
+
+A bit puzzled, you open the envelope and find a five-dollar bill folded
+in a sheet of manuscript paper. The note says:
+
+  Ticket Clerk
+  Midland Railroad
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  This will introduce my son, James Holden. As a birthday present, I am
+  sending him for a visit to his grandparents in Roundtree, and to make
+  the adventure complete, he will travel alone. Pass the word along to
+  keep an eye on him but don't step in unless he gets into trouble. Ask
+  the dining car steward to see that he eats dinner on something better
+  than candy bars.
+
+  Otherwise, he is to believe that he is making this trip completely on
+  his own.
+
+  Sincerely, Louis Holden.
+
+  PS: Divide the change from this five dollars among you as tips. L.H.
+
+And so you look down at young Mister Holden and get a feeling of
+vicarious pleasure. You stamp his ticket and hand it to him with a
+gesture. You point out the train-gate he is to go through, and you tell
+him that he is to sit in the third railroad car. As he leaves, you pick
+up the telephone and call the station-master, the conductor, and since
+you can't get the dining-car steward directly, you charge the conductor
+with passing the word along.
+
+Then you divide the change. Of the two-fifty, you extract a dollar,
+feeling that the Senior Holden is a cheapskate. You slip the other buck
+and a half into an envelope, ready for the conductor's hand. He'll think
+Holden Senior is more of a cheapskate, and by the time he extracts his
+cut, the dining car steward will _know_ that Holden Senior is a
+cheapskate. But--
+
+Then a face appears at your window and barks, "Holyoke, Mass.," and your
+normal day falls back into shape.
+
+The response of the people you tell about it varies all the way from
+outrage that anybody would let a kid of five go alone on such a dangerous
+mission to loud bragging that he, too, once went on such a journey, at
+four and a half, and didn't need a note.
+
+But Jimmy Holden is gone from your window, and you won't know for at
+least another day that you've been suckered by a note painstakingly
+typewritten, letter by letter, by a five-year-old boy who has a most
+remarkable vocabulary.
+
+Jimmy's trip to Roundtree was without incident. Actually, it was easy
+once he had hurdled the ticket-seller with his forged note and the
+five-dollar bill from the cashbox in his father's desk. His error in not
+making it a ten was minor; a larger tip would not have provided him with
+better service, because the train crew were happy to keep an eye on the
+adventurous youngster for his own small sake. Their mild resentment
+against the small tip was directed against the boy's father, not the
+young passenger himself.
+
+He had one problem. The train was hardly out of the station before
+everybody on it knew that there was a five-year-old making a trip all
+by himself. Of course, he was not to be bothered, but everybody wanted
+to talk to him, to ask him how he was, to chatter endlessly at him.
+Jimmy did not want to talk. His experience in addressing adults was
+exasperating. That he spoke lucid English instead of babygab did not
+compel a rational response. Those who heard him speak made over him
+with the same effusive superiority that they used in applauding a
+golden-haired tot in high heels and a strapless evening gown sitting
+on a piano and singing, _Why Was I Born?_ in a piping, uncertain-toned
+voice. It infuriated him.
+
+So he immersed himself in his comic books. He gave his name politely
+every five minutes for the first fifty miles. He turned down offers of
+candy with, "Mommy says I mustn't before supper." And when dinnertime
+came he allowed himself to be escorted through the train by the
+conductor, because Jimmy knew that he couldn't handle the doors without
+help.
+
+The steward placed a menu in front of him, and then asked carefully, "How
+much money do you want to spend, young man?"
+
+Jimmy had the contents of his father's cashbox pinned to the inside of
+his shirt, and a five-dollar bill folded in a snap-top purse with some
+change in his shirt pocket. He could add with the best of them, but he
+did not want any more attention than he was absolutely forced to attract.
+So he fished out the snap-top purse and opened it to show the steward his
+five-dollar bill. The steward relaxed; he'd had a moment of apprehension
+that Holden Senior might have slipped the kid a half-dollar for dinner.
+(The steward had received a quarter for his share of the original
+two-fifty.)
+
+Jimmy looked at the "Child's Dinner" menu and pointed out a plate: lamb
+chop and mashed potatoes. After that, dinner progressed without incident.
+Jimmy topped it off with a dish of ice cream.
+
+The steward made change. Jimmy watched him carefully, and then said,
+"Daddy says I'm supposed to give you a tip. How much?"
+
+The steward looked down, wondering how he could explain the standard
+dining car tip of fifteen or twenty percent of the bill. He took a
+swallow of air and picked out a quarter. "This will do nicely," he said
+and went off thankful that all people do not ask waiters how much they
+think they deserve for the service rendered.
+
+Thus Jimmy Holden arrived in Roundtree and was observed and convoyed--but
+not bothered--off the train.
+
+It is deplorable that adults are not as friendly and helpful to one
+another as they are to children; it might make for a more pleasant world.
+As Jimmy walked along the station platform at Roundtree, one of his
+former fellow-passengers walked beside him. "Where are you going, young
+man? Someone going to meet you, of course?"
+
+"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I'm supposed to take a cab--"
+
+"I'm going your way, why not ride along with me?"
+
+"Sure it's all right?"
+
+"Sure thing. Come along." Jimmy never knew that this man felt good for a
+week after he'd done his good turn for the year.
+
+His grandfather opened the door and looked down at him in complete
+surprise. "Why, Jimmy! What are you doing here? Who brought--"
+
+His grandmother interrupted, "Come in! Come in! Don't just stand there
+with the door open!"
+
+Grandfather closed the door firmly, grandmother knelt and folded Jimmy
+in her arms and crooned over him, "You poor darling. You brave little
+fellow. Donald," she said firmly to her husband, "go get a glass of warm
+milk and some cookies." She led Jimmy to the old-fashioned parlor and
+seated him on the sofa. "Now, Jimmy, you relax a moment and then you can
+tell me what happened."
+
+Jimmy sighed and looked around. The house was old, and comfortably
+sturdy. It gave him a sense of refuge, of having reached a safe haven at
+last. The house was over-warm, and there was a musty smell of over-aged
+furniture, old leather, and the pungence of mothballs. It seemed to
+generate a feeling of firm stability. Even the slightly stale air--there
+probably hadn't been a wide open window since the storm sashes were
+installed last autumn--provided a locked-in feeling that conversely meant
+that the world was locked out.
+
+Grandfather brought in the glass of warmed milk and a plate of cookies.
+He sat down and asked, "What happened, Jimmy?"
+
+"My mother and father are--"
+
+"You eat your cookies and drink your milk," ordered his grandmother. "We
+know. That Mr. Brennan sent us a telegram."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was slightly more than twenty-four hours since Jimmy Holden had blown
+out the five proud candles on his birthday cake and begun to open his
+fine presents. Now it all came back with a rush, and when it came back,
+nothing could stop it.
+
+Jimmy never knew how very like a little boy of five he sounded that
+night. His speech was clear enough, but his troubled mind was too full
+to take the time to form his headlong thoughts into proper sentences.
+He could not pause to collect his thoughts into any chronology, so it
+came out going back and forth all in a single line, punctuated only by
+necessary pauses for the intake of breath. He was close to tears before
+he was halfway through, and by the time he came to the end he stopped in
+a sob and broke out crying.
+
+His grandfather said, "Jimmy, aren't you exaggerating? Mr. Brennan isn't
+that sort of a man."
+
+"He is too!" exploded Jimmy through his tears. "I saw him!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Donald, this is no time to start cross-examining a child." She crossed
+the room and lifted him onto her lap; she stroked his head and held his
+cheek against her shoulder. His open crying subsided into deep sobs; from
+somewhere she found a handkerchief and made him blow his nose--once,
+twice, and then a deep thrice. "Get me a warm washcloth," she told her
+husband, and with it she wiped away his tears. The warmth soothed Jimmy
+more.
+
+"Now," she said firmly, "before we go into this any more we'll have a
+good night's sleep."
+
+The featherbed was soft and cozy. Like protecting mother-wings, it folded
+Jimmy into its bosom, and the warm softness drew out of Jimmy whatever
+remained of his stamina. Tonight he slept of weariness and exhaustion,
+not of the sedation given last night. Here he felt at home, and it was
+good.
+
+And as tomorrows always had, tomorrow would take care of itself.
+
+Jimmy Holden's father and mother first met over an operating table,
+dressed in the white sterility that leaves only the eyes visible. She
+wielded the trephine that laid the patient's brain bare, he kept track of
+the patient's life by observing the squiggles on the roll of graph paper
+that emerged from his encephalograph. She knew nothing of the craft of
+the delicate instrument-creator, and he knew even less of the craft of
+surgery. There had been a near-argument during the cleaning-up session
+after the operation; the near-argument ended when they both realized that
+neither of them understood a word of what the other was saying. So the
+near-argument became an animated discussion, the general meaning of
+which became clear: Brain surgeons should know more about the intricacies
+of electromechanics, and the designers of delicate, precision
+instrumentation should know more about the mass of human gray matter they
+were trying to measure.
+
+They pooled their intellects and plunged into the problem of creating an
+encephalograph that would record the infinitesimal irregularities that
+were superimposed upon the great waves. Their operation became large;
+they bought the old structure on top of the hill and moved in, bag and
+baggage. They cohabited but did not live together for almost a year;
+Paul Brennan finally pointed out that Organized Society might permit a
+couple of geniuses to become research hermits, but Organized Society
+still took a dim view of cohabitation without a license. Besides, such
+messy arrangements always cluttered up the legal clarity of chattels,
+titles, and estates.
+
+They married in a quiet ceremony about two years prior to the date that
+Louis Holden first identified the fine-line wave-shapes that went with
+determined ideas. When he recorded them and played them back, his brain
+re-traced its original line of thought, and he could not even make a
+mental revision of the way his thoughts were arranged. For two years
+Louis and Laura Holden picked their way slowly through this field;
+stumped at one point for several months because the machine was strictly
+a personal proposition. Recorded by one of them, the playback was clear
+to that one, but to the other it was wild gibberish--an inexplicable
+tangle of noise and colored shapes, odors and tastes both pleasant and
+nasty, and mingled sensations. It was five years after their marriage
+before they found success by engraving information in the brain by
+sitting, connected to the machine, and reading aloud, word for word, the
+information that they wanted.
+
+It went by rote, as they had learned in childhood. It was the tiresome
+repetition of going over and over and over the lines of a poem or the
+numbers of the multiplication table until the pathway was a deeply
+trodden furrow in the brain. Forever imprinted, it was retained until
+death. Knowledge is stored by rote.
+
+To accomplish this end, Louis Holden succeeded in violating all of the
+theories of instrumentation by developing a circuit that acted as a sort
+of reverberation chamber which returned the wave-shape played into it
+back to the same terminals without interference, and this single circuit
+became the very heart of the Holden Electromechanical Educator.
+
+With success under way, the Holdens needed an intellectual guinea pig, a
+virgin mind, an empty store-house to fill with knowledge. They planned a
+twenty-year program of research, to end by handing their machine to the
+world complete with its product and instructions for its use and a list
+of pitfalls to avoid.
+
+The conception of James Quincy Holden was a most carefully-planned
+parenthood. It was not accomplished without love or passion. Love had
+come quietly, locking them together physically as they had been bonded
+intellectually. The passion had been deliberately provoked during the
+proper moment of Laura Holden's cycle of ovulation. This scientific
+approach to procreation was no experiment, it was the foregone-conclusive
+act to produce a component absolutely necessary for the completion of
+their long program of research. They happily left to Nature's Choice the
+one factor they could not control, and planned to accept an infant of
+either sex with equal welcome. They loved their little boy as they loved
+one another, rejoiced with him, despaired with him, and made their own
+way with success and mistake, and succeeded in bringing Jimmy to five
+years of age quite normal except for his education.
+
+Now, proficiency in brain surgery does not come at an early age, nor does
+world-wide fame in the field of delicate instrumentation. Jimmy's parents
+were over forty-five on the date of his birth.
+
+Jimmy's grandparents were, then, understandably aged seventy-eight and
+eighty-one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The old couple had seen their life, and they knew it for what it was.
+They arose each morning and faced the day knowing that there would be no
+new problem, only recurrence of some problem long solved. Theirs was a
+comfortable routine, long gone was their spirit of adventure, the
+pleasant notions of trying something a new and different way. At their
+age, they were content to take the easiest and the simplest way of doing
+what they thought to be Right. Furthermore, they had lived long enough to
+know that no equitable decision can be made by listening to only one side
+of any argument.
+
+While young Jimmy was polishing off a platter of scrambled eggs the
+following morning, Paul Brennan arrived. Jimmy's fork stopped in midair
+at the sound of Brennan's voice in the parlor.
+
+"You called him," he said accusingly.
+
+Grandmother Holden said, "He's your legal guardian, James."
+
+"But--I don't--can't--"
+
+"Now, James, your father and mother knew best."
+
+"But they didn't know about Paul Brennan. I won't go!"
+
+"You must."
+
+"I won't!"
+
+"James," said Grandmother Holden quietly, "you can't stay here."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"We're not prepared to keep you."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+Grandmother Holden despaired. How could she make this youngster
+understand that eighty is not an age at which to embark upon the process
+of raising a five-year-old to maturity?
+
+From the other room, Paul Brennan was explaining his side as he'd given
+it to the police. "--Forgot the land option that had to be signed. So I
+took off after them and drove fast enough to catch up. I was only a
+couple of hundred yards behind when it happened."
+
+"He's a liar!" cried Jimmy Holden.
+
+"That's not a nice thing to say."
+
+"It's true!"
+
+"Jimmy!" came the reproachful tone.
+
+"It's true!" he cried.
+
+His grandfather and Paul Brennan came into the kitchen. "Ah, Jimmy,"
+said Paul in a soothing voice, "why did you run off? You had everybody
+worried."
+
+"You did! You lie! You--"
+
+"James!" snapped his grandfather. "Stop that talk at once!"
+
+"Be easy with him, Mr. Holden. He's upset. Jimmy, let's get this settled
+right now. What did I do and how do I lie?"
+
+"Oh, please Mr. Brennan," said his grandmother. "This isn't necessary."
+
+"Oh, but it is. It is very important. As the legal guardian of young
+James, I can't have him harboring some suspicion as deep as this. Come
+on, Jimmy. Let's talk it out right now. What did I do and how am I
+lying?"
+
+"You weren't behind. You forced us off the road."
+
+"How could he, young man?" demanded Grandfather Holden.
+
+"I don't know, but he did."
+
+"Wait a moment, sir," said Brennan quietly. "It isn't going to be enough
+to force him into agreement. He's got to see the truth for itself, of his
+own construction from the facts. Now, Jimmy, where was I when you left my
+apartment?"
+
+"You--you were there."
+
+"And didn't I say--"
+
+"One moment," said Grandfather Holden. "Don't lead the witness."
+
+"Sorry. James, what did I do?"
+
+"You--" then a long pause.
+
+"Come on, Jimmy."
+
+"You shook hands with my father."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then you--kissed my mother on the cheek."
+
+"And then, again?"
+
+"And then you carried my birthday presents down and put them in the car."
+
+"Now, Jimmy, how does your father drive? Fast or slow?"
+
+"Fast."
+
+"So now, young man, you tell me how I could go back up to my apartment,
+get my coat and hat, get my car out of the garage, and race to the top of
+that hill so that I could turn around and come at you around that curve?
+Just tell me that, young man."
+
+"I--don't know--how you did it."
+
+"It doesn't make sense, does it?"
+
+"--No--"
+
+"Jimmy, I'm trying to help you. Your father and I were fraternity
+brothers in college. I was best man at your parents' wedding. I am your
+godfather. Your folks were taken away from both of us--and I'm hoping to
+take care of you as if you were mine." He turned to Jimmy's grandparents.
+"I wish to God that I could find the driver of that other car. He didn't
+hit anybody, but he's as guilty of a hit-and-run offence as the man who
+does. If I ever find him, I'll have him in jail until he rots!"
+
+"Jimmy," pleaded his grandmother, "can't you see? Mr. Brennan is only
+trying to help. Why would he do the evil thing you say he did?"
+
+"Because--" and Jimmy started to cry. The utter futility of trying to
+make people believe was too much to bear.
+
+"Jimmy, please stop it and be a man," said Brennan. He put a hand on
+Jimmy's shoulder. Jimmy flung it aside with a quick twist and a turn.
+"Please, Jimmy," pleaded Brennan. Jimmy left his chair and buried his
+face in a corner of the wall.
+
+"Jimmy, believe me," pleaded Brennan. "I'm going to take you to live in
+your old house, among your own things. I can't replace your folks, but I
+can try to be as close to your father as I know how. I'll see you through
+everything, just as your mother and father want me to."
+
+"No!" exploded Jimmy through a burst of tears.
+
+Grandfather Holden grunted. "This is getting close to the tantrum stage,"
+he said. "And the only way to deal with a tantrum is to apply the flat of
+the hand to the round of the bottom."
+
+"Please," smiled Brennan. "He's a pretty shaken youngster. He's
+emotionally hurt and frightened, and he wants to strike out and hurt
+something back."
+
+"I think he's done enough of that," said Grandfather Holden. "When Louis
+tossed one of these fits of temper where he wouldn't listen to any
+reason, we did as we saw fit anyway and let him kick and scream until
+he got tired of the noise he made."
+
+"Let's not be rough," pleaded Jimmy's grandmother. "He's just a little
+boy, you know."
+
+"If he weren't so little he'd have better sense," snapped Grandfather.
+
+"James," said Paul Brennan quietly, "do you see you're making trouble for
+your grandparents? Haven't we enough trouble as it is? Now, young man,
+for the last time, will you walk or will you be carried? Whichever,
+Jimmy, we're going back home!"
+
+James Holden gave up. "I'll go," he said bitterly, "but I hate you."
+
+"He'll be all right," promised Brennan. "I swear it!"
+
+"Please, Jimmy, be good for Mr. Brennan," pleaded his grandmother. "After
+all, it's for your own good." Jimmy turned away, bewildered, hurt and
+silent. He stubbornly refused to say goodbye to his grandparents.
+
+He was trapped in the world of grown-ups that believed a lying adult
+before they would even consider the truth of a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+
+The drive home was a bitter experience. Jimmy was sullen, and very quiet.
+He refused to answer any question and he made no reply to any statement.
+Paul Brennan kept up a running chatter of pleasantries, of promises and
+plans for their future, and just enough grief to make it sound honest.
+Had Paul Brennan actually been as honest as his honeyed tones said he
+was, no one could have continued to accuse him. But no one is more
+difficult to fool than a child--even a normal child. Paul Brennan's
+protestations simply made Jimmy Holden bitter.
+
+He sat silent and unhappy in the far corner of the front seat all the way
+home. In his mind was a nameless threat, a dread of what would come once
+they were inside--either inside of Paul Brennan's apartment or inside of
+his own home--with the door locked against the outside world.
+
+But when they arrived, Paul Brennan continued his sympathetic attitude.
+To Jimmy it was sheer hypocrisy; he was not experienced enough to know
+that a person can commit an act and then convince himself that he hadn't.
+
+"Jimmy," said Brennan softly, "I have not the faintest notion of
+punishment. None whatsoever. You ruined your father's great invention.
+You did that because you thought it was right. Someday when you change
+your mind and come to believe in me, I'll ask you to replace it because I
+know you can. But understand me, young man, I shall not ask you until you
+make the first suggestion yourself!"
+
+Jimmy remained silent.
+
+"One more thing," said Brennan firmly. "Don't try that stunt with the
+letter to the station agent again. It won't work twice. Not in this town
+nor any other for a long, long time. I've made a sort of family-news item
+out of it which hit a lot of daily papers. It'll also be in the company
+papers of all the railroads and buslines, how Mr. What's-his-name at the
+Midland Railroad got suckered by a five-year-old running away from home.
+Understand?"
+
+Jimmy understood but made no sign.
+
+"Then in September we'll start you in school," said Brennan.
+
+This statement made no impression upon young James Holden whatsoever. He
+had no intention of enduring this smothering by overkindness any longer
+than it took him to figure out how to run away, and where to run to. It
+was going to be a difficult thing. Cruel treatment, torture, physical
+harm were one thing; this act of being a deeply-concerned guardian was
+something else. A twisted arm he could complain about, a bruise he could
+show, the scars of lashing would give credence to his tale. But who would
+listen to any complaint about too much kindness?
+
+Six months of this sort of treatment and Jimmy Holden himself would begin
+to believe that his parents were monsters, coldly stuffing information in
+the head of an infant instead of letting him grow through a normal
+childhood. A year, and Jimmy Holden would be re-creating his father's
+reverberation circuit out of sheer gratitude. He'd be cajoled into
+signing his own death-warrant.
+
+But where can a five-year-old hide? There was no appeal to the forces of
+law and order. They would merely pop him into a squad car and deliver him
+to his guardian.
+
+Law and order were out. His only chance was to lose himself in some gray
+hinterland where there were so many of his own age that no one could keep
+track of them all. Whether he would succeed was questionable. But until
+he tried, he wouldn't know, and Jimmy was desperate enough to try
+anything.
+
+He attended the funeral services with Paul Brennan. But while the pastor
+was invoking Our Heavenly Father to accept the loving parents of orphaned
+James, James the son left the side of his "Uncle" Paul Brennan, who knelt
+in false piety with his eyes closed.
+
+Jimmy Holden had with him only his clothing and what was left of the wad
+of paper money from his father's cashbox still pinned to the inside of
+his shirt.
+
+This time Jimmy did not ride in style. Burlap sacks covered him when
+night fell; they dirtied his clothing and the bottom of the freight car
+scuffed his shoes. For eighteen hours he hid in the jolting darkness, not
+knowing and caring less where he was going, so long as it was away!
+
+He was hungry and thirsty by the time the train first began to slow down.
+It was morning--somewhere. Jimmy looked furtively out of the slit at the
+edge of the door to see that the train was passing through a region of
+cottages dusted black by smoke, through areas of warehouse and factory,
+through squalor and filth and slum; and vacant lots where the spread of
+the blight area had been so fast that the outward improvement had not
+time to build. Eventually the scene changed to solid areas of railroad
+track, and the trains parked there thickened until he could no longer
+see the city through them.
+
+Ultimately the train stopped long enough for Jimmy to squeeze out through
+the slit at the edge of the door.
+
+The train went on and Jimmy was alone in the middle of some huge city.
+He walked the noisome sidewalk trying to decide what he should do next.
+Food was of high importance, but how could he get it without attracting
+attention to himself? He did not know. But finally he reasoned that a
+hot dog wagon would probably take cash from a youngster without asking
+embarrassing questions, so long as the cash wasn't anything larger than
+a five-dollar bill.
+
+He entered the next one he came to. It was dirty; the windows held
+several years' accumulation of cooking grease, but the aroma was terrific
+to a young animal who'd been without food since yesterday afternoon.
+
+The counterman did not like kids, but he put away his dislike at the
+sight of Jimmy's money. He grunted when Jimmy requested a dog, tossed one
+on the grill and went back to reading his newspaper until some inner
+sense told him it was cooked. Jimmy finished it still hungry and asked
+for another. He finished a third and washed down the whole mass with a
+tall glass of highly watered orange juice. The counterman took his money
+and was very careful about making the right change; if this dirty kid had
+swiped the five-spot, it could be the counterman's problem of explaining
+to someone why he had overcharged. Jimmy's intelligence told him that
+countermen in a joint like this didn't expect tips, so he saved himself
+that hurdle. He left the place with a stomach full of food that only the
+indestructible stomach of a five-year-old could handle and now, fed and
+reasonably content, Jimmy began to seek his next point of contact.
+
+He had never been in a big city before. The sheer number of human beings
+that crowded the streets surpassed his expectations. The traffic was not
+personally terrifying, but it was so thick that Jimmy Holden wondered how
+people drove without colliding. He knew about traffic lights and walked
+with the green, staying out of trouble. He saw groups of small children
+playing in the streets and in the empty lots. Those not much older than
+himself were attending school.
+
+He paused to watch a group of children his own age trying to play
+baseball with a ragged tennis ball and the handle from a broom. It was a
+helter-skelter game that made no pattern but provided a lot of fun and
+screaming. He was quite bothered by a quarrel that came up; two of his
+own age went at one another with tiny fists flying, using words that
+Jimmy hadn't learned from his father's machine.
+
+He wondered how he might join them in their game. But they paid him no
+attention, so he didn't try.
+
+At lunchtime Jimmy consumed another collection of hot dogs. He continued
+to meander aimlessly through the city until schooltime ended, then he saw
+the streets and vacant lots fill with older children playing games with
+more pattern to them. It was a new world he watched, a world that had not
+been a part of his education. The information he owned was that of the
+school curriculum; it held nothing of the daily business of growing up.
+He knew the general rules of big-league baseball, but the kid-business of
+stickball did not register.
+
+He was at a complete loss. It was sheer chance and his own tremendous
+curiosity that led him to the edge of a small group that were busily
+engaged in the odd process of trying to jack up the front of a car.
+
+It wasn't a very good jack; it should have had the weight of a full adult
+against the handle. The kids strained and put their weight on the jack,
+but the handle wouldn't budge though their feet were off the ground.
+
+Here was the place where academic information would be useful--and the
+chance for an "in." Jimmy shoved himself into the small group and said,
+"Get a longer handle."
+
+They turned on him suspiciously.
+
+"Whatcha know about it?" demanded one, shoving his chin out.
+
+"Get a longer handle," repeated Jimmy. "Go ahead, get one."
+
+"G'wan--"
+
+"Wait, Moe. Maybe--"
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"I'm Jimmy."
+
+"Jimmy who?"
+
+"Jimmy--James." Academic information came up again. "Jimmy. Like the
+jimmy you use on a window."
+
+"Jimmy James. Any relation to Jesse James?"
+
+James Quincy Holden now told his first whopper. "I," he said, "am his
+grandson."
+
+The one called Moe turned to one of the younger ones. "Get a longer
+handle," he said.
+
+While the younger one went for something to use as a longer handle, Moe
+invited Jimmy to sit on the curb. "Cigarette?" invited Moe.
+
+"I don't smoke," said Jimmy.
+
+"Sissy?"
+
+Adolescent-age information looking out through five-year-old eyes assayed
+Moe. Moe was about eight, maybe even nine; taller than Jimmy but no
+heavier. He had a longer reach, which was an advantage that Jimmy did not
+care to hazard. There was no sure way to establish physical superiority;
+Jimmy was uncertain whether any show of intellect would be welcome.
+
+"No," he said. "I'm no sissy. I don't like 'em."
+
+Moe lit a cigarette and smoked with much gesturing and flickings of ashes
+and spitting at a spot on the pavement. He was finished when the younger
+one came back with a length of water pipe that would fit over the handle
+of the jack.
+
+The car went up with ease. Then came the business of removing the hubcap
+and the struggle to loose the lugbolts. Jimmy again suggested the
+application of the length of pipe. The wheel came off.
+
+"C'mon, Jimmy," said Moe. "We'll cut you in."
+
+"Sure," nodded Jimmy Holden, willing to see what came next so long as it
+did not have anything to do with Paul Brennan. Moe trundled the car wheel
+down the street, steering it with practiced hands. A block down and a
+block around that corner, a man with a three-day growth of whiskers
+stopped a truck with a very dirty license plate. Moe stopped and the
+man jumped out of the truck long enough to heave the tire and wheel into
+the back.
+
+The man gave Moe a handful of change which Moe distributed among the
+little gang. Then he got in the truck beside the driver and waved for
+Jimmy to come along.
+
+"What's that for?" demanded the driver.
+
+"He's a smarty pants," said Moe. "A real good one."
+
+"Who're you?"
+
+"Jimmy--James."
+
+"What'cha do, kid?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Moe, what did this kid sell you?"
+
+"You and your rusty jacks," grunted Moe. "Jimmy James here told us how to
+put a long hunk of pipe on the handle."
+
+"Jimmy James, who taught you about leverage?" demanded the driver
+suspiciously.
+
+Jimmy Holden believed that he was in the presence of an educated man.
+"Archimedes," he said solemnly, giving it the proper pronunciation.
+
+The driver said to Moe, "Think he's all right?"
+
+"He's smart enough."
+
+"Who're your parents, kid?"
+
+Jimmy Holden realized that this was a fine time to tell the truth, but
+properly diluted to taste. "My folks are dead," he said.
+
+"Who you staying with?"
+
+"No one."
+
+The driver of the truck eyed him cautiously for a moment. "You escaped
+from an orphan asylum?"
+
+"Uh-huh," lied Jimmy.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Ain't saying."
+
+"Wise, huh?"
+
+"Don't want to get sent back," said Jimmy.
+
+"Got a flop?"
+
+"Flop?"
+
+"Place to sleep for the night."
+
+"No."
+
+"Where'd you sleep last night?"
+
+"Boxcar."
+
+"Bindlestiff, huh?" roared the man with laughter.
+
+"No, sir," said Jimmy. "I've no bindle."
+
+The man's roar of laughter stopped abruptly. "You're a pretty wise kid,"
+he said thoughtfully.
+
+"I told y' so," said Moe.
+
+"Shut up," snapped the man. "Kid, do you want a flop for the night?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"Okay. You're in."
+
+"What's your name?" asked Jimmy.
+
+"You call me Jake. Short for Jacob. Er--here's the place."
+
+The "Place" had no other name. It was a junkyard. In it were car parts,
+wrecks with parts undamaged, whole motors rusting in the air, axles,
+wheels, differential assemblies and transmissions from a thousand cars of
+a thousand different parentages. Hubcaps abounded in piles sorted to size
+and shape. Jake drove the little pickup truck into an open shed. The tire
+and wheel came from the back and went immediately into place on a
+complicated gadget. In a couple of minutes, the tire was off the wheel
+and the inner tube was out of the casing. Wheel, casing, and inner tube
+all went into three separate storage piles.
+
+Not only a junkyard, but a stripper's paradise. Bring a hot car in here
+and in a few hours no one could find it. Its separated parts would be
+sold piece by piece and week by week as second-hand replacements.
+
+Jake said, "Dollar-fifty."
+
+"Two," said Moe.
+
+"One seventy-five."
+
+"Two."
+
+"Go find it and put it back."
+
+"Gimme the buck-six," grunted Moe. "Pretty cheap for a good shoe, a
+wheel, and a sausage."
+
+"Bring it in alone next time, and I'll slip you two-fifty. That gang you
+use costs, too. Now scram, Jimmy James and I got business to talk over."
+
+"He taking over?"
+
+"Don't talk stupid. I need a spotter. You're too old, Moe. And if he's
+any good, you gotta promotion coming."
+
+"And if he ain't?"
+
+"Don't come back!"
+
+Moe eyed Jimmy Holden. "Make it good--Jimmy." There was malice in Moe's
+face.
+
+Jake looked down at Jimmy Holden. With precisely the same experienced
+technique he used to estimate the value of a car loaded with road dirt,
+rust, and collision-smashed fenders, Jake stripped the child of the
+dirty clothing, the scuffed shoes, the mussed hair, and saw through to
+the value beneath. Its price was one thousand dollars, offered with no
+questions asked for information that would lead to the return of one
+James Quincy Holden to his legal guardian.
+
+It wasn't magic on Jake's part. Paul Brennan had instantly offered a
+reward. And Jake made it his business to keep aware of such matters.
+
+How soon, wondered Jake, might the ante be raised to two Gee? Five? And
+in the meantime, if things panned, Jimmy could be useful as a spotter.
+
+"You afraid of that Moe punk, Jimmy?"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Good, but keep an eye on him. He'd sell his mother for fifty cents clear
+profit--seventy-five if he had to split the deal. Now, kid, do you know
+anything about spotting?"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Hungry?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"All right. Come on in and we'll eat. Do you like Mulligan?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"Good. You and me are going to get along."
+
+Inside of the squalid shack, Jake had a cozy set-up. The filth that he
+encouraged out in the junkyard was not tolerated inside his shack. The
+dividing line was halfway across the edge of the door; the inside was as
+clean, neat, and shining as the outside was squalid.
+
+"You'll sleep here," said Jake, waving towards a small bedroom with a
+single twin bunk. "You'll make yer own bed and take a shower every
+night--or out! Understand?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"Good. Now, let's have chow, and I'll tell you about this spotting
+business. You help me, and I'll help you. One blab and back you go to
+where you came from. Get it?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+And so, while the police of a dozen cities were scouring their beats for
+a homeless, frightened five-year-old, Jimmy Holden slept in a comfortable
+bed in a clean room, absolutely disguised by an exterior that looked like
+an abandoned manure shed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+
+Jimmy discovered that he was admirably suited to the business of
+spotting. The "job turnover" was high because the spotter must be young
+enough to be allowed the freedom of the preschool age, yet be mature
+enough to follow orders.
+
+The job consisted of meandering through the streets of the city, in
+the aimless patterns of youth, while keeping an eye open for parked
+automobiles with the ignition keys still in their locks.
+
+Only a very young child can go whooping through the streets bumping
+pedestrians, running wildly, or walking from car to car twiggling each
+door handle and peering inside as if he were imitating a door-to-door
+salesman, occasionally making a minor excursion in one shop door and out
+the other.
+
+He takes little risk. He merely spots the target. He reports that there
+is such-and-such a car parked so-and-so, after which he goes on to spot
+the next target. The rest of the business is up to the men who do the
+actual stealing.
+
+Jimmy's job-training program took only one morning. That same afternoon
+he went to work for Jake's crew.
+
+Jake's experience with kids had been no more than so-so promising. He
+used them because they were better than nothing. He did not expect them
+to stay long; they were gobbled up by the rules of compulsory education
+just about the age when they could be counted upon to follow orders.
+
+He felt about the same with Jimmy Holden; the "missing person" report
+stated that one of the most prominent factors in the lad's positive
+identification was his high quality of speech and his superior
+intelligence. (This far Paul Brennan had to go, and he had divulged
+the information with great reluctance.)
+
+But though Jake needed a preschool child with intelligence, he did not
+realize the height of Jimmy Holden's.
+
+It was obvious to Jimmy on the second day that Jake's crew was not taking
+advantage of every car spotted. One of them had been a "natural" to
+Jimmy's way of thinking. He asked Jake about it: "Why didn't you take the
+sea-green Ford in front of the corner store?"
+
+"Too risky."
+
+"Risky?"
+
+Jake nodded. "Spotting isn't risky, Jimmy. But picking the car up is.
+There is a very dangerous time when the driver is a sitting duck. From
+the moment he opens the car door he is in danger. Sitting in the chance
+of getting caught, he must start the car, move it out of the parking
+space into traffic, and get under way and gone before he is safe."
+
+"But the sea-green Ford was sitting there with its engine running!"
+
+"Meaning," nodded Jake, "that the driver pulled in and made a fast dash
+into the store for a newspaper or a pack of cigarettes."
+
+"I understand. Your man could get caught. Or," added Jimmy thoughtfully,
+"the owner might even take his car away before we got there."
+
+Jake nodded. This one was going to make it easy for him.
+
+As the days wore on, Jimmy became more selective. He saw no point in
+reporting a car that wasn't going to be used. An easy mark wedged between
+two other cars couldn't be removed with ease. A car parked in front of a
+parking meter with a red flag was dangerous, it meant that the time was
+up and the driver should be getting nervous about it. A man who came
+shopping along the street to find a meter with some time left by the
+former driver was obviously looking for a quick-stop place--whereas the
+man who fed the meter to its limit was a much better bet.
+
+Jake, thankful for what Fate had brought him, now added refinements of
+education. Cars parked in front of supermarkets weren't safe; the owner
+might be standing just inside the big plate glass window. The car parked
+hurriedly just before the opening of business was likely to be a good bet
+because people are careless about details when they are hurrying to punch
+the old time clock.
+
+Jake even closed down his operations during the calculated danger
+periods, but he made sure to tell Jimmy Holden why.
+
+From school-closing to dinnertime Jimmy was allowed to do as he pleased.
+He found it hard to enjoy playing with his contemporaries, and Jake's
+explanation about dangerous times warned Jimmy against joining Moe and
+his little crew of thieves. Jimmy would have enjoyed helping in the
+stripping yard, but he had not the heft for it. They gave him little
+messy jobs to do that grimed his hands and made Jake's stern rule of
+cleanliness hard to achieve. Jimmy found it easier to avoid such jobs
+than to scrub his skin raw.
+
+One activity he found to his ability was the cooking business.
+
+Jake was a stew-man, a soup-man, a slum-gullion man. The fellows who
+roamed in and out of Jake's Place dipped their plate of slum from the
+pot and their chunk of bread from the loaf and talked all through this
+never-started and never-ended lunch. With the delicacy of his "inside"
+life, Jake knew the value of herbs and spices and he was a hard
+taskmaster. But inevitably, Jimmy learned the routine of brewing a bucket
+of slum that suited Jake's taste, after which Jimmy was now and then
+permitted to take on the more demanding job of cooking the steaks and
+chops that made their final evening meal.
+
+Jimmy applied himself well, for the knowledge was going to be handy. More
+important, it kept him from the jobs that grimed his hands.
+
+He sought other pursuits, but Jake had never had a resident spotter
+before and the play-facilities provided were few. Jimmy took to
+reading--necessarily, the books that Jake read, that is, approximately
+equal parts of science fiction and girlie-girlie books. The science
+fiction he enjoyed; but he was not able to understand why he wasn't
+interested in the girlie books. So Jimmy read. Jake even went out of his
+way to find more science fiction for the lad.
+
+Ultimately, Jimmy located a potential source of pleasure.
+
+He spotted a car with a portable typewriter on the back seat. The car was
+locked and therefore no target, but it stirred his fancy. Thereafter he
+added a contingent requirement to his spotting. A car with a typewriter
+was more desirable than one without.
+
+Jimmy went on to further astound Jake by making a list of what the
+customers were buying. After that he concentrated on spotting those cars
+that would provide the fastest sale for their parts.
+
+It was only a matter of time; Jimmy spotted a car with a portable
+typewriter. It was not as safe a take as his others, but he reported it.
+Jake's driver picked it up and got it out in a squeak; the car itself
+turned up to be no great find.
+
+Jimmy claimed the typewriter at once.
+
+Jake objected: "No dice, Jimmy."
+
+"I want it, Jake."
+
+"Look, kid, I can sell it for twenty."
+
+"But I want it."
+
+Jake eyed Jimmy thoughtfully, and he saw two things. One was a
+thousand-dollar reward standing before him. The other was a row of prison
+bars.
+
+Jake could only collect one and avoid the other by being very sure that
+Jimmy Holden remained grateful to Jake for Jake's shelter and protection.
+
+He laughed roughly. "All right, Jimmy," he said. "You lift it and you can
+have it."
+
+Jimmy struggled with the typewriter, and succeeded only because it was a
+new one made of the titanium-magnesium-aluminum alloys. It hung between
+his little knees, almost--but not quite--touching the ground.
+
+"You have it," said Jake. He lifted it lightly and carried it into the
+boy's little bedroom.
+
+Jimmy started after dinner. He picked out the letters with the same
+painful search he'd used in typing his getaway letter. He made the
+same mistakes he'd made before. It had taken him almost an hour and
+nearly fifty sheets of paper to compose that first note without an
+error; that was no way to run a railroad; now Jimmy was determined
+to learn the proper operation of this machine. But finally the jagged
+tack-tack--pause--tack-tack got on Jake's nerves.
+
+Jake came in angrily. "You're wasting paper," he snapped. He eyed Jimmy
+thoughtfully. "How come with your education you don't know how to type?"
+
+"My father wouldn't let me."
+
+"Seems your father wouldn't let you do anything."
+
+"He said that I couldn't learn until I was old enough to learn properly.
+He said I must not get into the habit of using the hunt-and-peck system,
+or I'd never get out of it."
+
+"So what are you doing now?"
+
+"My father is dead."
+
+"And anything he said before doesn't count any more?"
+
+"He promised me that he'd start teaching me as soon as my hands were big
+enough," said Jimmy soberly. "But he isn't here any more. So I've got to
+learn my own way."
+
+Jake reflected. Jimmy was a superior spotter. He was also a potential
+danger; the other kids played it as a game and didn't really realize what
+they were doing. This one knew precisely what he was doing, knew that it
+was wrong, and had the lucidity of speech to explain in full detail. It
+was a good idea to keep him content.
+
+"If you'll stop that tap-tapping for tonight," promised Jake, "I'll get
+you a book tomorrow. Is it a deal?"
+
+"You will?"
+
+"I will if you'll follow it."
+
+"Sure thing."
+
+"And," said Jake, pushing his advantage, "you'll do it with the door
+closed so's I can hear this TV set."
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+Jake kept his word.
+
+On the following afternoon, not only was Jimmy presented with one of the
+standard learn-it-yourself books on touch-typing, but Jake also contrived
+a sturdy desk out of one old packing case and a miniature chair out of
+another. Both articles of home-brewed furniture Jake insisted upon having
+painted before he permitted them inside his odd dwelling, and that
+delayed Jimmy one more day.
+
+But it was only one more day; and then a new era of experience began for
+Jimmy.
+
+It would be nice to report that he went at it with determination,
+self-discipline, and system, following instructions to the letter and
+emerging a first-rate typist.
+
+Sorry. Jimmy hated every minute of it. He galled at the pages and pages
+of _juj juj juj frf frf frf_. He cried with frustration because he could
+not perform the simple exercise to perfection. He skipped through the
+book so close to complete failure that he hurled it across the room, and
+cried in anger because he had not the strength to throw the typewriter
+after it. Throw the machine? He had not the strength in his pinky to
+press the carriage-shift key!
+
+Part of his difficulty was the size of his hands, of course. But most of
+his trouble lay deep-seated in his recollection of his parents' fabulous
+machine. It would have made a typist of him in a single half-hour
+session, or so he thought.
+
+He had yet to learn about the vast gulf that lies between theory and
+practice.
+
+It took Jimmy several weeks of aimless fiddling before he realized that
+there was no easy short-cut. Then he went back to the _juj juj juj frf
+frf frf_ routine and hated it just as much, but went on.
+
+He invented a kind of home-study "hooky" to break the monotony. He would
+run off a couple of pages of regular exercise, and then turn back to the
+hunt-and-peck system of typing to work on a story. He took a furtive glee
+in this; he felt that he was getting away with something. In mid-July,
+Jake caught him at it.
+
+"What's going on?" demanded Jake, waving the pages of manuscript copy.
+
+"Typing," said Jimmy.
+
+Jake picked up the typing guidebook and waved it under Jimmy's nose.
+"Show me where it says you gotta type anything like, 'Captain Brandon
+struggled against his chains when he heard Lady Hamilton scream. The
+pirate's evil laugh rang through the ship. "Curse you--"'"
+
+Jake snorted.
+
+"But--" said Jimmy faintly.
+
+"But nothing!" snapped Jake. "Stop the drivel and learn that thing! You
+think I let you keep the machine just to play games? We gotta find a way
+to make it pay off. Learn it good!"
+
+He stamped out, taking the manuscript with him. From that moment on,
+Jimmy's furtive career as an author went on only when Jake was either out
+for the evening or entertaining. In any case, he did not bother Jimmy
+further, evidently content to wait until Jimmy had "learned it good"
+before putting this new accomplishment to use. Nor did Jimmy bother him.
+It was a satisfactory arrangement for the time being. Jimmy hid his
+"work" under a pile of raw paper and completed it in late August. Then,
+with the brash assurance of youth, he packed and mailed his first
+finished manuscript to the editor of _Boy's Magazine_.
+
+His typing progressed more satisfactorily than he realized, even though
+he was still running off page after page of repetitious exercise,
+leavened now and then by a page of idiotic sentences the letters of
+which were restricted to the center of the typewriter keyboard. The
+practice, even the hunt-and-peck relaxation from discipline, exercised
+the small muscles. Increased strength brought increased accuracy.
+
+September rolled in, the streets emptied of school-aged children and the
+out-of-state car licenses diminished to a trickle. With the end of the
+carefree vacation days went the careless motorist.
+
+Jake, whose motives were no more altruistic than his intentions were
+legal, began to look for a means of disposing of Jimmy Holden at the
+greatest profit to himself. Jake stalled only because he hoped that the
+reward might be stepped up.
+
+But it was Jimmy's own operations that closed this chapter of his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+
+Jimmy had less scout work to do and no school to attend; he was too small
+to help in the sorting of car parts and too valuable to be tossed out. He
+was in the way.
+
+So he was in Jake's office when the mail came. He brought the bundle to
+Jake's desk and sat on a box, sorting the circulars and catalogs from the
+first class. Halfway down the pile was a long envelope addressed to
+_Jimmy James_.
+
+He dropped the rest with a little yelp. Jake eyed him quickly and
+snatched the letter out of Jimmy's hands.
+
+"Hey! That's mine!" said Jimmy. Jake shoved him away.
+
+"Who's writing you?" demanded Jake.
+
+"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.
+
+"Shut up!" snapped Jake, unfolding the letter. "I read _all_ the mail
+that comes here first."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Shut your mouth and your teeth'll stay in," said Jake flatly. He
+separated a green slip from the letter and held the two covered while he
+read. "Well, well," he said. "Our little Shakespeare!" With a disdainful
+grunt Jake tossed the letter to Jimmy.
+
+Eagerly, Jimmy took the letter and read:
+
+  Dear Mr. James:
+
+  We regret the unconscionable length of time between your submission and
+  this reply. However, the fact that this reply is favorable may be its
+  own apology. We are enclosing a check for $20.00 with the following
+  explanation:
+
+  Our policy is to reject all work written in dialect. At the best we
+  request the author to rewrite the piece in proper English and frame
+  his effect by other means. Your little story is not dialect, nor is it
+  bad literarily, the framework's being (as it is) a fairly good example
+  of a small boy's relating in the first person one of his adventures,
+  using for the first time his father's typewriter. But you went too far.
+  I doubt that even a five-year-old would actually make as many
+  typographical errors.
+
+  However, we found the idea amusing, therefore our payment. One of our
+  editors will work your manuscript into less-erratic typescript for
+  eventual publication.
+
+  Please continue to think of us in the future, but don't corn up your
+  script with so many studied blunders.
+
+  Sincerely,
+  Joseph Brandon, editor,
+  Boy's Magazine.
+
+"Gee," breathed Jimmy, "a check!"
+
+Jake laughed roughly. "Shakespeare," he roared. "Don't corn up your
+stuff! You put too many errors in! Wow!"
+
+Jimmy's eyes began to burn. He had no defense against this sarcasm. He
+wanted praise for having accomplished something, instead of raucous
+laughter.
+
+"I wrote it," he said lamely.
+
+"Oh, go away!" roared Jake.
+
+Jimmy reached for the check.
+
+"Scram," said Jake, shutting his laughter off instantly.
+
+"It's mine!" cried Jimmy.
+
+Jake paused, then laughed again. "Okay, smart kid. Take it and spend it!"
+He handed the check to Jimmy Holden.
+
+Jimmy took it quickly and left.
+
+He wanted to eye it happily, to gloat over it, to turn it over and over
+and to read it again and again; but he wanted to do it in private.
+
+He took it with him to the nearest bank, feeling its folded bulk and
+running a fingernail along the serrated edge.
+
+He re-read it in the bank, then went to a teller's window. "Can you cash
+this, please?" he asked.
+
+The teller turned it over. "It isn't endorsed."
+
+"I can't reach the desk to sign it," complained Jimmy.
+
+"Have you an account here?" asked the teller politely.
+
+"Well, no sir."
+
+"Any identification?"
+
+"No--no sir," said Jimmy thoughtfully. Not a shred of anything did he
+have to show who he was under either name.
+
+"Who is this Jimmy James?" asked the teller.
+
+"Me. I am."
+
+The teller smiled. "And you wrote a short story that sold to _Boy's
+Magazine_?" he asked with a lifted eyebrow. "That's pretty good for a
+little guy like you."
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+The teller looked over Jimmy's head; Jimmy turned to look up at one of
+the bank's policemen. "Tom, what do you make of this?"
+
+The policeman shrugged. He stooped down to Jimmy's level. "Where did you
+get this check, young fellow?" he asked gently.
+
+"It came in the mail this morning."
+
+"You're Jimmy James?"
+
+"Yes sir." Jimmy Holden had been called that for more than half a year;
+his assent was automatic.
+
+"How old are you, young man?" asked the policeman kindly.
+
+"Five and a half."
+
+"Isn't that a bit young to be writing stories?"
+
+Jimmy bit his lip. "I wrote it, though."
+
+The policeman looked up at the teller with a wink. "He can tell a good
+yarn," chuckled the policeman. "Shouldn't wonder if he could write one."
+
+The teller laughed and Jimmy's eyes burned again. "It's mine," he
+insisted.
+
+"If it's yours," said the policeman quietly, "we can settle it fast
+enough. Do your folks have an account here?"
+
+"No sir."
+
+"Hmmm. That makes it tough."
+
+Brightly, Jimmy asked, "Can I open an account here?"
+
+"Why, sure you can," said the policeman. "All you have to do is to bring
+your parents in."
+
+"But I want the money," wailed Jimmy.
+
+"Jimmy James," explained the policeman with a slight frown to the teller,
+"we can't cash a check without positive identification. Do you know what
+positive identification means?"
+
+"Yes sir. It means that you've got to be sure that this is me."
+
+"Right! Now, those are the rules. Now, of course, you don't look like
+the sort of young man who would tell a lie. I'll even bet your real
+name is Jimmy James, Jr. But you see, we have no proof, and our boss
+will be awful mad at us if we break the rules and cash this check without
+following the rules. The rules, Jimmy James, aren't to delay nice, honest
+people, but to stop people from making mistakes. Mistakes such as taking
+a little letter out of their father's mailbox. If we cashed that check,
+then it couldn't be put back in father's mailbox without anybody knowing
+about it. And that would be real bad."
+
+"But it's mine!"
+
+"Sonny, if that's yours, all you have to do is to have your folks come in
+and say so. Then we'll open an account for you."
+
+"Yes sir," said Jimmy in a voice that was thick with tears of frustration
+close to the surface. He turned away and left.
+
+Jake was still in the outside office of the Yard when Jimmy returned. The
+boy was crestfallen, frustrated, unhappy, and would not have returned at
+all if there had been another place where he was welcome. He expected
+ridicule from Jake, but Jake smiled.
+
+"No luck, kid?"
+
+Jimmy just shook his head.
+
+"Checks are tough, Jimmy. Give up, now?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"No? What then?"
+
+"I can write a letter and sign it," said Jimmy, explaining how he had
+outfoxed the ticket seller.
+
+"Won't work with checks, Jimmy. For me now, if I was to be polite and
+dressed right they might cash a twenty if I showed up with my social
+security card, driver's license, identification card with photograph
+sealed in, and all that junk. But a kid hasn't got a chance. Look, Jimmy,
+I'm sorry for this morning. To-morrow morning we'll go over to my bank
+and I'll have them cash it for you. It's yours. You earned it and you
+keep it. Okay? Are we friends again?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+Gravely they shook hands. "Watch the place, kid," said Jake. "I got to
+make a phone call."
+
+In the morning, Jake dressed for business and insisted that Jimmy put on
+his best to make a good impression. After breakfast, they set out. Jake
+parked in front of a granite building.
+
+"This isn't any bank," objected Jimmy. "This is a police station."
+
+"Sure," responded Jake. "Here's where we get you an identification card.
+Don't you know?"
+
+"Okay," said Jimmy dubiously.
+
+Inside the station there were a number of men in uniform and in plain
+clothing. Jake strode forward, holding Jimmy by one small hand. They
+approached the sergeant's desk and Jake lifted Jimmy up and seated him on
+one edge of the desk with his feet dangling.
+
+The sergeant looked at them with interest but without surprise.
+
+"Sergeant," said Jake, "this is Jimmy James--as he calls himself when
+he's writing stories. Otherwise he is James Quincy Holden."
+
+Jimmy went cold all over.
+
+Jake backed through the circle that was closing in; the hole he made was
+filled by Paul Brennan.
+
+It was not the first betrayal in Jimmy James's young life, but it was
+totally unexpected. He didn't know that the policeman from the bank had
+worried Jake; he didn't know that Jake had known all along who he was; he
+didn't know how fast Brennan had moved after the phone call from Jake.
+But his young mind leaped past the unknown facts to reach a certain, and
+correct, conclusion.
+
+He had been sold out.
+
+"Jimmy, Jimmy," came the old, pleading voice. "Why did you run away?
+Where have you been?"
+
+Brennan stepped forward and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Without
+a shadow of doubt," he said formally, "this is James Quincy Holden. I so
+identify him. And with no more ado, I hand you the reward." He reached
+into his inside pocket and drew out an envelope, handing it to Jake. "I
+have never parted with one thousand dollars so happily in my life."
+
+Jimmy watched, unable to move. Brennan was busy and cheerful, the model
+of the man whose long-lost ward has been returned to him.
+
+"So, James, shall we go quietly or shall we have a scene?"
+
+Trapped and sullen, Jimmy Holden said nothing. The officers helped him
+down from the desk. He did not move. Brennan took him by a hand that was
+as limp as wet cloth. Brennan started for the door. The arm lifted until
+the link was taut; then, with slow, dragging steps, James Quincy Holden
+started toward home.
+
+Brennan said, "You understand me, don't you, Jimmy?"
+
+"You want my father's machine."
+
+"Only to help you, Jimmy. Can't you believe that?"
+
+"No."
+
+Brennan drove his car with ease. A soft smile lurked around his lips. He
+went on, "You know what your father's machine will do for you, don't you,
+Jimmy?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But have you ever attended school?"
+
+"No." But Jimmy remembered the long hours and hours of study and practice
+before he became proficient with his typewriter. For a moment he felt
+close to tears. It had been the only possession he truly owned, now it
+was gone. And with it was gone the author's first check. The thrill of
+that first check is far greater than Graduation or the First Job. It is
+approximately equal to the flush of pride that comes when the author's
+story hits print with his NAME appended.
+
+But Jimmy's typewriter was gone, and his check was gone. Without a doubt
+the check would turn up cashed--through the operations of Jake Caslow.
+
+Brennan's voice cut into his thoughts. "You will attend school, Jimmy.
+You'll have to."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Oh, now look, Jimmy. There are laws that say you must attend school.
+The only way those laws can be avoided is to make an appeal to the law
+itself, and have your legal guardian--myself--ask for the privilege of
+tutoring you at home. Well, I won't do it."
+
+He drove for a moment, thinking. "So you're going to attend school," he
+said, "and while you're there you're going to be careful not to disclose
+by any act or inference that you already know everything they can teach
+you. Otherwise they will ask some embarrassing questions. And the first
+thing that happens to you is that you will be put in a much harder place
+to escape from than our home, Jimmy. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes sir," the boy said sickly.
+
+"But," purred Uncle Paul Brennan, "you may find school very boring. If
+so, you have only to say the word--rebuild your father's machine--and go
+on with your career."
+
+"I w--" Jimmy began automatically, but his uncle stopped him.
+
+"You won't, no," he agreed. "Not now. In the meantime, then, you will
+live the life proper to your station--and your age. I won't deny you a
+single thing, Jimmy. Not a single thing that a five-year-old can want."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+
+Paul Brennan moved into the Holden house with Jimmy.
+
+Jimmy had the run of the house--almost. Uncle Paul closed off the upper
+sitting room, which the late parents had converted into their laboratory.
+_That_ was locked. But the rest of the house was free, and Jimmy was once
+more among the things he had never hoped to see again.
+
+Brennan's next step was to hire a middle-aged couple to take care of
+house and boy. Their name was Mitchell; they were childless and regretted
+it; they lavished on Jimmy the special love and care that comes only from
+childless child-lovers.
+
+Though Jimmy was wary to the point of paranoia, he discovered that he
+wanted for nothing. He was kept clean and his home kept tidy. He was fed
+well--not only in terms of nourishment, but in terms of what he liked.
+
+Then ... Jimmy began to notice changes.
+
+_Huckleberry Finn_ turned up missing. In its place on the shelf was a
+collection of Little Golden Books.
+
+His advanced Mecanno set was "broken"--so Mrs. Mitchell told him. Uncle
+Paul had accidentally crushed it. "But you'll like this better," she
+beamed, handing him a fresh new box from the toy store. It contained
+bright-colored modular blocks.
+
+Jimmy's parents had given him canvasboard and oil paints; now they were
+gone. Jimmy would have admitted he was no artist; but he didn't enjoy
+retrogressing to his uncle's selection--finger paints.
+
+His supply of drawing paper was not tampered with. But it was not
+replaced. When it was gone, Jimmy was presented with a blackboard and
+boxes of colored chalk.
+
+By Christmas every possession was gone--replaced--the new toys tailored
+to Jimmy's physical age. There was a Christmas tree, and under it a pile
+of gay bright boxes. Jimmy had hardly the heart to open them, for he knew
+what they would contain.
+
+He was right.
+
+Jimmy had everything that would keep a five-year-old boy
+contented ... and not one iota more. He objected; his objections got him
+nowhere. Mrs. Mitchell was reproachful: Ingratitude, Jimmy! Mr. Mitchell
+was scornful: Maybe James would like to vote and smoke a pipe?
+
+And Paul Brennan was very clear. There was a way out of this, yes. Jimmy
+could have whatever he liked. There was just this one step that must be
+taken first; the machine must be put back together again.
+
+When it came time for Jimmy to start school he was absolutely delighted;
+nothing, nothing could be worse than this.
+
+At first it was a novel experience.
+
+He sat at a desk along with forty-seven other children of his size,
+neatly stacked in six aisles with eight desks to the tier. He did his
+best to copy their manners and to reproduce their halting speech and
+imperfect grammar. For the first couple of weeks he was not noticed.
+
+The teacher, with forty-eight young new minds to study, gave him his
+2.08% of her total time and attention. Jimmy Holden was not a deportment
+problem; his answers to the few questions she directed at him were
+correct. Therefore he needed less attention and got less; she spent her
+time on the loud, the unruly and those who lagged behind in education.
+
+Because his total acquaintance with children of his own age had been
+among the slum kids that hung around Jake Caslow's Place, Jimmy found his
+new companions an interesting bunch.
+
+He watched them, and he listened to them. He copied them and in two weeks
+Jimmy found them pitifully lacking and hopelessly misinformed. They could
+not remember at noon what they had been told at ten o'clock. They had
+difficulty in reading the simple pages of the First Reader.
+
+But he swallowed his pride and stumbled on and on, mimicking his friends
+and remaining generally unnoticed.
+
+If written examinations were the rule in the First Grade, Jimmy would
+have been discovered on the first one. But with less than that 2% of the
+teacher's time directed at him, Jimmy's run of correct answers did not
+attract notice. His boredom and his lack of attention during daydreams
+made him seem quite normal.
+
+He began to keep score on his classmates on the fly-leaf of one of his
+books. Jimmy was a far harsher judge than the teacher. He marked them
+either wrong or right; he gave no credit for trying, or for their
+stumbling efforts to express their muddled ideas and incomplete grasp. He
+found their games fun at first, but quickly grew bored. When he tried to
+introduce a note of strategy they ignored him because they did not
+understand. They made rules as they went along and changed them as they
+saw fit. Then, instead of complying with their own rules, they pouted-up
+and sulked when they couldn't do as they wanted.
+
+But in the end it was Jimmy's lack of experience in acting that tripped
+him.
+
+Having kept score on his playmates' answers, Jimmy knew that some fairly
+high percentage of answers must inevitably be wrong. So he embarked upon
+a program of supplying a certain proportion of errors. He discovered that
+supplying a wrong answer that was consistent with the age of his
+contemporaries took too much of his intellect to keep his actions
+straight. He forgot to employ halting speech and childlike grammar. His
+errors were delivered in faultless grammar and excellent self-expression;
+his correct answers came out in the English of his companions;
+mispronounced, ill-composed, and badly delivered.
+
+The contrast was enough to attract even 2.08% of a teacher.
+
+During the third week of school, Jimmy was day-dreaming during class.
+Abruptly his teacher snapped, "James Holden, how much is seven times
+nine?"
+
+"Sixty-three," replied Jimmy, completely automatic.
+
+"James," she said softly, "do you know the rest of your numbers?"
+
+Jimmy looked around like a trapped animal. His teacher waited him out
+until Jimmy, finding no escape, said, "Yes'm."
+
+"Well," she said with a bright smile. "It's nice to know that you do. Can
+you do the multiplication table?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Let's hear you."
+
+Jimmy looked around. "No, Jimmy," said his teacher. "I want you to say
+it. Go ahead." And then as Jimmy hesitated still, she addressed the
+class. "This is important," she said. "Someday you will have to learn it,
+too. You will use it all through life and the earlier you learn it the
+better off you all will be. _Knowledge_," she quoted proudly, "_is
+power_! Now, Jimmy!"
+
+Jimmy began with two-times-two and worked his way through the long table
+to the twelves. When he finished, his teacher appointed one of the
+better-behaved children to watch the class. "Jimmy," she said, "I'm going
+to see if we can't put you up in the next grade. You don't belong here.
+Come along."
+
+They went to the principal's office. "Mr. Whitworth," said Jimmy's
+teacher, "I have a young genius in my class."
+
+"A young genius, Miss Tilden?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. He already knows the multiplication table."
+
+"You do, James? Where did you learn it?"
+
+"My father taught me."
+
+Principal and teacher looked at each another. They said nothing but they
+were both recalling stories and rumors about the brilliance of his
+parents. The accident and death had not escaped notice.
+
+"What else did they teach you, James?" asked Mr. Whitworth. "To read and
+write, of course?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"History?"
+
+Jimmy squirmed inwardly. He did not know how much to admit. "Some," he
+said noncommittally.
+
+"When did Columbus discover America?"
+
+"In Fourteen Ninety-Two."
+
+"Fine," said Mr. Whitworth with a broad smile. He looked at Miss Tilden.
+"You're right. Young James should be advanced." He looked down at Jimmy
+Holden. "James," he said, "we're going to place you in the Second Grade
+for a tryout. Unless we're wrong, you'll stay and go up with them."
+
+Jimmy's entry into Second Grade brought a different attitude. He had
+entered school quietly just for the sake of getting away from Paul
+Brennan. Now he was beginning to form a plan. If he could go from First
+to Second in a matter of three weeks, then, by carefully disclosing his
+store of knowledge bit-by-bit at the proper moment, he might be able to
+go through school in a short time. Moreover, he had tasted the first
+fruits of recognition. He craved more.
+
+Somewhere was born the quaint notion that getting through school would
+automatically make him an adult, with all attendant privileges.
+
+So Jimmy Holden dropped all pretense. His answers were as right as he
+could make them. He dropped the covering mimickry of childish speech
+and took personal pride in using grammar as good as that of his teacher.
+
+This got him nothing. The Second Grade teacher was of the "progressive"
+school; she firmly believed that everybody, having been created equal,
+had to stay that way. She pointedly avoided giving Jimmy any opportunity
+to show his capability.
+
+He bided his time with little grace.
+
+He found his opportunity during the visit of a school superintendent.
+During this session Jimmy hooted when one of his fellows said that
+Columbus proved the world was round.
+
+Angrily she demanded that Jimmy tell her who did prove it, and Jimmy
+Holden replied that he didn't know whether it was Pythagoras or one of
+his followers, but he did know that it was one of the few things that
+Aristotle ever got right. This touched her on a sore spot. She admired
+Aristotle and couldn't bear to hear the great man accused of error.
+
+She started baiting Jimmy with loaded questions and stopped when
+Jimmy stated that Napoleon Bonaparte was responsible for the invention
+of canned food, the adoption of the metric system, and the development
+of the semaphore telegraph. This stopped all proceedings until Jimmy
+himself found the references in the Britannica. That little feat of
+research-reference impressed the visiting superintendent. Jimmy Holden
+was jumped into Third Grade.
+
+Convinced that he was on the right trolley, Jimmy proceeded to plunge in
+with both feet. Third Grade Teacher helped. Within a week he was being
+called upon to aid the laggards. He stood out like a lighthouse; he was
+the one who could supply the right answers when the class was stumped.
+His teacher soon began to take a delight in belaboring the class for a
+minute before turning to Jimmy for the answer. Heaven forgive him, Jimmy
+enjoyed it. He began to hold back slyly, like a comedian building up the
+tension before a punch-line.
+
+His classmates began to call him "old know-it-all." Jimmy did not realize
+that it was their resentment speaking. He accepted it as deference to his
+superior knowledge. The fact that he was not a part of their playtime
+life did not bother him one iota. He knew very well that his size alone
+would cut him out of the rough and heavy games of his classmates; he did
+not know that he was cut out of their games because they disliked him.
+
+As time wore on, some of the rougher ones changed his nickname from
+"know-it-all" to "teacher's pet"; one of them used rougher language
+still. To this Jimmy replied in terms he'd learned from Jake Caslow's
+gutters. All that saved him from a beating was his size; even the ones
+who disliked him would not stand for the bully's beating up a smaller
+child.
+
+But in other ways they picked on him. Jimmy reasoned out his own
+relationship between intelligence and violence. He had yet to learn the
+psychology of vandalism--but he was experiencing it.
+
+Finding no enjoyment out of play periods, Jimmy took to staying in. The
+permissive school encouraged it; if Jimmy Holden preferred to tinker with
+a typewriter instead of playing noisy games, his teacher saw no wrong in
+it--for his Third Grade teacher was something of an intellectual herself.
+
+In April, one week after his sixth birthday, Jimmy Holden was jumped
+again.
+
+Jimmy entered Fourth Grade to find that his fame had gone before him; he
+was received with sullen glances and turned backs.
+
+But he did not care. For his birthday, he received a typewriter from Paul
+Brennan. Brennan never found out that the note suggesting it from Jimmy's
+Third Grade teacher had been written after Jimmy's prompting.
+
+So while other children played, Jimmy wrote.
+
+He was not immediately successful. His first several stories were
+returned; but eventually he drew a winner and a check. Armed with
+superior knowledge, Jimmy mailed it to a bank that was strong in
+advertising "mail-order" banking. With his first check he opened a
+pay-by-the-item, no-minimum-balance checking account.
+
+Gradually his batting average went up, but there were enough returned
+rejections to make Paul Brennan view Jimmy's literary effort with quiet
+amusement. Still, slowly and in secret, Jimmy built up his bank balance
+by twenties, fifties, an occasional hundred.
+
+For above everything, by now Jimmy knew that he could not go on through
+school as he'd planned.
+
+If his entry into Fourth Grade had been against scowls and resentment
+from his classmates, Fifth and Sixth would be more so. Eventually the day
+would come when he would be held back. He was already mingling with
+children far beyond his size. The same permissive school that graduated
+dolts so that their stupid personalities wouldn't be warped would keep
+him back by virtue of the same idiotic reasoning.
+
+He laid his plans well. He covered his absence from school one morning
+and thereby gained six free hours to start going about his own business
+before his absence could be noticed.
+
+This was his third escape. He prayed that it would be permanent.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK TWO:
+
+THE HERMIT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+
+Seventy-five miles south of Chicago there is a whistle-stop called
+Shipmont. (No ship has ever been anywhere near it; neither has a
+mountain.) It lives because of a small college; the college, in turn,
+owes its maintenance to an installation of great interest to the Atomic
+Energy Commission.
+
+Shipmont is served by two trains a day--which stop only when there
+is a passenger to get on or off, which isn't often. These passengers,
+generally speaking, are oddballs carrying attache cases or eager young
+men carrying miniature slide rules.
+
+But on this day came a woman and a little girl.
+
+Their total visible possessions were two battered suitcases and one
+battered trunk. The little girl was neatly dressed, in often-washed and
+mended clothing; she carried a small covered basket, and there were
+breadcrumbs visible on the lid. She looked bewildered, shy and
+frightened. She was.
+
+The mother was thirty, though there were lines of worry on her forehead
+and around her eyes that made her look older. She wore little makeup and
+her clothing had been bought for wear instead of for looks. She looked
+around, leaned absently down to pat the little girl and straightened as
+the station-master came slowly out.
+
+"Need anything, ma'am?" He was pleasant enough. Janet Bagley appreciated
+that; life had not been entirely pleasant for her for some years.
+
+"I need a taxicab, if there is one."
+
+"There is. I run it after the train gets in for them as ain't met. You're
+not goin' to the college?" He pronounced it "collitch."
+
+Janet Bagley shook her head and took a piece of paper from her bag. "Mr.
+Charles Maxwell, Rural Route Fifty-three, Martin's Hill Road," she read.
+Her daughter began to whimper.
+
+The station-master frowned. "Hum," he said, "that's the Herm--er, d'you
+know him?"
+
+Mrs. Bagley said: "I've never met him. What kind of a man is he?"
+
+That was the sort of question the station-master appreciated. His job was
+neither demanding nor exciting; an opportunity to talk was worth having.
+He said cheerfully, "Why, I don't rightly know, ma'am. Nobody's ever seen
+him."
+
+"Nobody?"
+
+"Nope. Nobody. Does everything by mail."
+
+"My goodness, what's the matter with him?"
+
+"Don't rightly know, ma'am. Story is he was once a professor and got in
+some kind of big explosion. Burned the hide off'n his face and scarred up
+his hands something turrible, so he don't want to show himself. Rented
+the house by mail, pays his rent by mail. Orders stuff by mail. Mostly
+not real U-nited States Mail, y'know, because we don't mind dropping off
+a note to someone in town. I'm the local mailman, too. So when I find a
+note to Herby Wharton, the fellow that owns the general store, I drop it
+off. Margie Clark over at the bank says he writes. Gets checks from New
+York from publishing companies." The station-master looked around as if
+he were looking for Soviet spies. "He's a scientist, all right. He's
+doin' something important and hush-hush up there. Lots and lots of boxes
+and packin' cases I've delivered up there from places like Central
+Scientific and Labotory Supply Company. Must be a smart feller. You
+visitin' him?"
+
+"Well, he hired me for housekeeper. By mail." Mrs. Bagley looked puzzled
+and concerned.
+
+Little Martha began to cry.
+
+"It'll be all right," said the station-master soothingly. "You keep your
+eye open," he said to Mrs. Bagley. "Iff'n you see anything out of line,
+you come right back and me and the missus will give you a lift. But he's
+all right. Nothin' goin' on up there that I know of. Fred Riordan--he's
+the sheriff--has watched the place for days and days and it's always
+quiet. No visitors. No nothin'. Know what I think? I think he's
+experimenting with something to take away the burn scars. That's whut
+I think. Well, hop in and I'll drive you out there."
+
+"Is it going to cost much?"
+
+"Nothin' this trip. We'll charge it to the U-nited States Mail. Got a
+package goin' out. Was waitin' for something else to go along with it,
+but you're here and we can count that. This way to the only taxicab
+service in Shipmont."
+
+The place looked deserted. It was a shabby old clapboard house; the
+architecture of the prosperous farmer of seventy-five years ago. The
+grounds were spacious but the space was filled with scrub weeds. A
+picket fence surrounded the weeds with uncertain security. The
+windows--those that could be seen, that is--were dirty enough to prevent
+seeing inside with clarity, and what transparency there was left was
+covered by curtains. The walk up the "lawn" was flagstone with crabgrass
+between the stones.
+
+The station-master unshipped the small trunk and stood it just inside the
+fence. He parked the suitcases beside it. "Never go any farther than
+this," he explained. "So far's I know, you're the first person to ever
+head up thet walk to the front door."
+
+Mrs. Bagley rapped on the door. It opened almost instantly.
+
+"I'm--" then Mrs. Bagley dropped her eyes to the proper level. To the lad
+who was standing there she said, "I'm Mrs. Bagley. Your father--a Mr.
+Charles Maxwell is expecting me."
+
+"Come in," said Jimmy Holden. "Mr. Maxwell--well, he isn't my father. He
+sent me to let you in."
+
+Mrs. Bagley entered and dropped her suitcases in the front hall. Martha
+held back behind her mother's skirt. Jimmy closed the door and locked it
+carefully, but left the key in the keyhole with a gesture that Mrs.
+Bagley could not mistake. "Please come in here and sit down," said James
+Holden. "Relax a moment." He turned to look at the girl. He smiled at
+her, but she cowered behind her mother's skirt as if she wanted to bury
+her face but was afraid to lose sight of what was going on around her.
+
+"What's your name?" asked James.
+
+She retreated, hiding most of her face. Mrs. Bagley stroked her hair and
+said, "Now, Martha, come on. Tell the little boy your name."
+
+Purely as a matter of personal pride, James Holden objected to the
+"little boy" but he kept his peace because he knew that at eight years
+old he was still a little boy. In a soothing way, James said, "Come on
+out, Martha. I'll show you some girl-type toys we've got."
+
+The girl's head emerged slowly, "I'm Martha Bagley," she announced.
+
+"How old are you?"
+
+"I'm seven."
+
+"I'm eight," stated James. "Come on."
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked around. She saw that the dirt on the windows was all
+on the outside. The inside was clean. So was the room. So were the
+curtains. The room needed a dusting--a most thorough dusting. It had been
+given a haphazard lick-and-a-promise cleanup not too long ago, but the
+cleanup before that had been as desultory as the last, and without a
+doubt the one before and the one before that had been of the same sort of
+half-hearted cleaning. As a woman and a housekeeper, Mrs. Bagley found
+the room a bit strange.
+
+The furniture caught her eye first. A standard open bookcase, a low sofa,
+a very low cocktail-type table. The chair she stood beside was standard
+looking, so was the big easy chair opposite. Yet she felt large in the
+room despite its old-fashioned high ceiling. There were several low
+footstools in the room; ungraceful things that were obviously wooden
+boxes covered with padding and leatherette. The straight chair beside her
+had been lowered; the bottom rung between the legs was almost on the
+floor.
+
+She realized why she felt big. The furniture in the room had all been cut
+down.
+
+She continued to look. The strangeness continued to bother her and she
+realized that there were no ash trays; there was none of the usual
+clutter of things that a family drops in their tracks. It was a room
+fashioned for a small person to live in but it wasn't lived-in.
+
+The lack of hard cleanliness did not bother hervery much. There had been
+an effort here, and the fact that this Charles Maxwell was hiring a
+housekeeper was in itself a statement that the gentleman knew that he
+needed one. It was odd, but it wasn't ominous.
+
+She shook her daughter gently and said, "Come on, Martha. Let's take a
+look at these girl-type toys."
+
+James led them through a short hallway, turned left at the first door,
+and then stood aside to give them a full view of the room. It was a
+playroom for a girl. It was cleaner than the living room, and as--well,
+untouched. It had been furnished with girl-toys that some catalog
+"recommended as suitable for a girl of seven."
+
+The profusion of toys overwhelmed little Martha. She stood just inside of
+the door with her eyes wide, glancing back and forth. She took one slow
+step forward, then another. Then she quickened. She moved through the
+room looking, then putting out a slow, hesitant hand to touch very
+gently. Tense, as if she were waiting for the warning not to touch,
+Martha finally caressed the hair of a baby doll.
+
+Mrs. Bagley smiled. "I'll have a time prying her loose from here," she
+said.
+
+James nodded his head. "Let her amuse herself for a bit," he said. "With
+Martha occupied, you can give your attention to a more delicate matter."
+
+Mrs. Bagley forgot that she was addressing an eight-year-old boy. His
+manner and his speech bemused her. "Yes," she said. "I do want to get
+this settled with your mysterious Charles Maxwell. Do you expect him
+down, or shall I go upstairs--?"
+
+"This may come as a shock, Mrs. Bagley, but Charles Maxwell isn't here."
+
+"Isn't here?" she echoed, in a tone of voice that clearly indicated that
+she had heard the words but hadn't really grasped their full meaning. "He
+won't be gone long, will he?"
+
+James watched her covertly, then said in a matter-of-fact voice, "He left
+you a letter."
+
+"Letter?"
+
+"He was called away on some urgent business."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Please read the letter. It explains everything."
+
+He handed her an envelope addressed to "Mrs. Janet Bagley." She looked
+at it from both sides, in the womanlike process of trying to divine its
+contents instead of opening it. She looked at James, but James sat
+stolidly waiting. Mrs. Bagley was going to get no more information from
+him until she read that letter, and James was prepared to sit it out
+until she did. It placed Mrs. Bagley in the awkward position of having
+to decide what to do next. Then the muffled sound of little-girl crooning
+came from the distant room. That brought the realization that as odd as
+this household was, it was a _home_. Mrs. Bagley delayed no further. She
+opened the letter and read:
+
+  My Dear Mrs. Bagley:
+
+  I deeply regret that I am not there to greet you, but it was not
+  possible. However, please understand that insofar as I am concerned,
+  you were hired and have been drawing your salary from the date that I
+  forwarded railroad fare and traveling expenses. Any face-to-face
+  meeting is no more than a pleasantry, a formal introduction. It must
+  not be considered in any way connected with the thought of a "Final
+  Interview" or the process of "Closing the Deal."
+
+  Please carry on as if you had been in charge long before I departed,
+  or--considering my hermitlike habits--the way you would have carried
+  on if I had not departed, but instead was still upstairs and hard at
+  work with most definite orders that I was not to be disturbed for
+  anything less important than total, personal disaster.
+
+  I can offer you a word of explanation about young James. You will find
+  him extraordinarily competent for a youngster of eight years. Were he
+  less competent, I might have delayed my departure long enough to pass
+  him literally from my supervision to yours. However, James is quite
+  capable of taking care of himself; this fact you will appreciate fully
+  long before you and I meet face-to-face.
+
+  In the meantime, remember that our letters and the other references
+  acquaint us with one another far better than a few short hours of
+  personal contact.
+
+  Sincerely,
+  Charles Maxwell
+
+"Well!" said Mrs. Bagley. "I don't know what to say."
+
+Jimmy smiled. "You don't have to say anything," he said.
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked at the youngster. "I don't think I like your Mr.
+Maxwell," she said.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"He's practically shanghaied me here. He knows very well that I couldn't
+possibly leave you here all alone, no matter how I disliked the
+situation. He's practically forced me to stay."
+
+James suppressed a smile. He said, "Mrs. Bagley, the way the trains run
+in and out of Shipmont, you're stuck for an overnight stay in any case."
+
+"You don't seem to be perturbed."
+
+"I'm not," he said.
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked at James carefully. His size; his physique was
+precisely that of the eight-year-old boy. There was nothing malformed nor
+out-of-proportion; yet he spoke with an adult air of confidence.
+
+"I am," she admitted.
+
+"Perturbed? You needn't be," he said. "You've got to remember that
+writers are an odd lot. They don't conform. They don't punch time-clocks.
+They boast of having written a novel in three weeks but they don't
+mention the fact that they sat around drinking beer for six months
+plotting it."
+
+"Meaning what?"
+
+"Meaning that Maxwell sees nothing wrong in attending to his own affairs
+and expecting you to attend to yours."
+
+"But what shall I do?"
+
+James smiled. "First, take a look around the house and satisfy yourself.
+You'll find the third floor shut off; the rooms up there are Maxwell's,
+and no one goes in but him. My bedroom is the big one in the front of the
+second floor. Pick yourself a room or a suite of rooms or move in all
+over the rest of the house. Build yourself a cup of tea and relax. Do as
+he says: Act as if you'd arrived before he took off, that you'd met and
+agreed verbally to do what you've already agreed to do by letter. Look at
+it from his point of view."
+
+"What is his point of view?"
+
+"He's a writer. He rented this house by mail. He banks by mail and shops
+by mail and makes his living by writing. Don't be surprised when he hires
+a housekeeper by mail and hands her the responsibility in writing. He
+lives by the written word."
+
+Mrs. Bagley said, "In other words, the fact that he offered me a job in
+writing and I took it in writing--?"
+
+"Writing," said James Holden soberly, "was invented for the express
+purpose of recording an agreement between two men in a permanent form
+that could be read by other men. The whole world runs on the theory that
+no one turns a hand until names are signed to written contracts--and here
+you sit, not happy because you weren't contracted-for by a personal
+chit-chat and a handshake."
+
+Mrs. Bagley was taken aback slightly by this rather pointed criticism.
+What hurt was the fact that, generally speaking, it was true and
+especially the way he put it. The young man was too blunt, too
+out-spokenly direct. Obviously he needed someone around the place who
+wasn't the self-centered writer-type. And, Mrs. Bagley admitted to
+herself, there certainly was no evidence of evil-doing here.
+
+No matter what, Charles Maxwell had neatly trapped her into staying by
+turning her own maternal responsibility against her.
+
+"I'll get my bags," she said.
+
+James Holden took a deep breath. He'd won this hurdle, so far so good.
+Now for the next!
+
+Mrs. Bagley found life rather unhurried in the days that followed. She
+relaxed and tried to evaluate James Holden. To her unwarned mind, the boy
+was quite a puzzle.
+
+There was no doubt about his eight years, except that he did not whoop
+and holler with the aimlessness of the standard eight-year-old boy. His
+vocabulary was far ahead of the eight-year-old and his speech was in
+adult grammar rather than halting. It was, she supposed, due to his
+constant adult company; children denied their contemporaries for
+playmates often take on attitudes beyond their years. Still, it was a bit
+on the too-superior side to please her. It was as if he were the result
+of over-indulgent parents who'd committed the mistake of letting the
+child know that their whole universe revolved about him.
+
+Yet Maxwell's letters said that he was motherless, that he was not
+Maxwell's son. This indicated a probable history of broken homes and
+remarriages. Mrs. Bagley thought the problem over and gave it up. It
+was a home.
+
+Things went on. They started warily but smoothly at first with Mrs.
+Bagley asking almost incessantly whether Mr. Maxwell would approve of
+this or that and should she do this or the other and, phrased cleverly,
+indicated that she would take the word of young James for the time being
+but there would be evil sputterings in the fireplace if the programs
+approved by young James Holden were not wholly endorsed by Mr. Charles
+Maxwell.
+
+At the end of the first week, supplies were beginning to run short and
+still there was no sign of any return of the missing Mr. Maxwell. With
+some misgiving, Mrs. Bagley broached the subject of shopping to James.
+The youngster favored Mrs. Bagley with another smile.
+
+"Yes," he said calmly. "Just a minute." And he disappeared upstairs to
+fetch another envelope. Inside was a second letter which read:
+
+  My Dear Mrs. Bagley:
+
+  Attached you will find letters addressed to several of the local
+  merchants in Shipmont, explaining your status as my housekeeper and
+  directing them to honor your purchases against my accounts. Believe me,
+  they recognize my signature despite the fact that they might not
+  recognize me! There should be no difficulty. I'd suggest, however, that
+  you start a savings account at the local bank with the enclosed salary
+  check. You have no idea how much weight the local banker carries in his
+  character-reference of folks with a savings account.
+
+  Otherwise, I trust things are pleasant.
+
+  Sincerely,
+  Charles Maxwell.
+
+"Things," she mused aloud, "are pleasant enough."
+
+James nodded. "Good," he said. "You're satisfied, then?"
+
+Mrs. Bagley smiled at him wistfully. "As they go," she said, "I'm
+satisfied. Lord knows, you're no great bother, James, and I'll be most
+happy to tell Mr. Maxwell so when he returns."
+
+James nodded. "You're not concerned over Maxwell, are you?"
+
+She sobered. "Yes," she said in a whisper. "Yes, I am. I'm afraid that
+he'll change things, that he'll not approve of Martha, or the way dinner
+is made, or my habits in dishwashing or bedmaking or marketing or
+something that will--well, put me right in the role of a paid
+chambermaid, a servant, a menial with no more to say about the running
+of the house, once he returns."
+
+James Holden hesitated, thought, then smiled.
+
+"Mrs. Bagley," he said apologetically, "I've thrown you a lot of curves.
+I hope you won't mind one more."
+
+The woman frowned. James said hurriedly, "Oh, it's nothing bad, believe
+me. I mean--Well, you'll have to judge for yourself.
+
+"You see, Mrs. Bagley," he said earnestly, "there isn't any Charles
+Maxwell."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Janet Bagley, with the look of a stricken animal, sat down heavily. There
+were two thoughts suddenly in her mind: _Now I've got to leave_, and,
+_But I can't leave_.
+
+She sat looking at the boy, trying to make sense of what he had said.
+Mrs. Bagley was a young woman, but she had lived a demanding and
+unrelenting life; her husband dead, her finances calamitous, a baby to
+feed and raise ... there had been enough trouble in her life and she
+sought no more.
+
+But she was also a woman of some strength of character.
+
+Janet Bagley had not been able to afford much joy, but when things were
+at their worst she had not wept. She had been calm. She had taken what
+inexpensive pleasures she could secure--the health of her daughter, the
+strength of her arms to earn a living, the cunning of her mind to make a
+dollar do the work of five. She had learned that there was no bargain
+that was not worth investigating; the shoddiest goods were worth owning
+at a price; the least attractive prospect had to be faced and understood,
+for any commodity becomes a bargain when the price is right. There was
+no room for laziness or indulgence in her life. There was also no room
+for panic.
+
+So Janet Bagley thought for a moment, and then said: "Tell me what you're
+talking about, James."
+
+James Holden said immediately: "I am Charles Maxwell. That is, 'Charles
+Maxwell' is a pen name. He has no other existence."
+
+"But--"
+
+"But it's true, Mrs. Bagley," the boy said earnestly. "I'm only eight
+years old, but I happen to be earning my own living--as a writer, under
+the name of, among others, Charles Maxwell. Perhaps you've looked up some
+of the 'Charles Maxwell' books? If so, you may have seen some of the book
+reviews that were quoted on the jackets--I remember one that said that
+Charles Maxwell writes as though he himself were a boy, with the
+education of an adult. Well, that's the fact of the case."
+
+Mrs. Bagley said slowly, "But I did look Mr. Max--I mean, I did look you
+up. There was a complete biographical sketch in _Woman's Life_.
+Thirty-one years old, I remember."
+
+"I know. I wrote it. It too was fiction."
+
+"You wrote--but why?"
+
+"Because I was asked to write it," said James.
+
+"But, well--what I mean, is--Just who is Mr. Maxwell? The man at the
+station said something about a hermit, but--"
+
+"The Hermit of Martin's Hill is a convenient character carefully prepared
+to explain what might have looked like a very odd household," said James
+Holden. "Charles Maxwell, the Hermit, does not exist except in the minds
+of the neighbors and the editors of several magazines, and of course, the
+readers of those pages."
+
+"But he wrote me himself." The bewildered woman paused.
+
+"That's right, Mrs. Bagley. There's absolutely nothing illegal about a
+writer's using a pen name. Absolutely nothing. Some writers become so
+well-known by their pseudonym that they answer when someone calls them.
+So long as the writer isn't wanted by the F.B.I. for some heinous crime,
+and so long as he can unscramble the gobbledygook on Form 1040, stay out
+of trouble, pay his rent, and make his regular contributions to Social
+Security, nobody cares what name he uses."
+
+"But where are your parents? Have you no friends? No legal guardian? Who
+handles your business affairs?"
+
+James said in a flat tone of recital, "My parents are dead. What friends
+and family I have, want to turn me over to my legal guardian. My legal
+guardian is the murderer of my parents and the would-have-been murderer
+of me if I hadn't been lucky. Someday I shall prove it. And I handle my
+affairs myself, by mail, as you well know. I placed the advertisement,
+wrote the letters of reply, wrote those letters that answered specific
+questions and asked others, and I wrote the check that you cashed in
+order to buy your railroad ticket, Mrs. Bagley. No, don't worry. It's
+good."
+
+Mrs. Bagley tried to digest all that and failed. She returned to the
+central point. "But you're a minor--"
+
+"I am," admitted James Holden. "But you accepted my checks, your bank
+accepted my checks, and they've been honored by the clearing houses. My
+own bank has been accepting them for a couple of years now. It will
+continue to be that way until something goes wrong and I'm found out. I'm
+taking every precaution that nothing goes wrong."
+
+"Still--"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, look at me. I am precisely what I seem to be. I am a young
+male human being, eight years old, possessed of a good command of the
+English language and an education superior to the schooling of any
+high-school graduate. It is true that I am an infant in the eyes of the
+law, so I have not the right to hold the ear of the law long enough to
+explain my competence."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Listen a moment," insisted James. "You can't hope to hear it all in one
+short afternoon. It may take weeks before you fully understand."
+
+"You assume that I'll stay, then?"
+
+James smiled. Not the wide open, simple smile of youth but the knowing
+smile of someone pleased with the success of his own plans. "Mrs. Bagley,
+of the many replies to my advertisement, yours was selected because you
+are in a near-desperate position. My advertisement must have sounded
+tailor-made to fit your case; a young widow to work as resident
+housekeeper, child of preschool or early school age welcome. Well, Mrs.
+Bagley, your qualifications are tailor-made for me, too. You are in need,
+and I can give you what you need--a living salary, a home for you and
+your daughter, and for your daughter an education that will far transcend
+any that you could ever provide for her."
+
+"And how do you intend to make that come to pass?"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, at the present time there are only two people alive who
+know the answer to that question. I am one of them. The other is my
+so-called legal 'guardian' who would be most happy to guard me right out
+of my real secret. You will be the third person alive to know that my
+mother and father built a machine that produces the same deeply-inlaid
+memory-track of information as many months of learning-by-repetition.
+With that machine, I absorbed the information available to a high-school
+student before I was five. I am rebuilding that machine now from plans
+and specifications drilled into my brain by my father. When it is
+complete, I intend to become the best informed person in the world."
+
+"That isn't right," breathed Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"Isn't it?" asked James seriously. "Isn't it right? Is it wrong, when at
+the present time it takes a man until he is almost thirty years old
+before he can say that his education is complete?"
+
+"Well, I suppose you're right."
+
+James eyed Mrs. Bagley carefully. He said softly, "Mrs. Bagley, tell me,
+would you give Martha a college education if you had--or will you if you
+have at the time--the wherewithal to provide it?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"You have it here," said James. "So long as you stay to protect it."
+
+"But won't it make--?" her voice trailed away uncertainly.
+
+"A little intellectual monster out of her?" laughed the boy. "Maybe.
+Maybe I am, too. On the other hand it might make a brilliant woman out of
+her. She might be a doctor if she has the capacity of a brilliant doctor.
+My father's machine is no monster-maker, Mrs. Bagley. With it a person
+could memorize the Britannica. And from the Britannica that person would
+learn that there is much good in the world and also that there is rich
+reward for being a part of that capacity for good."
+
+"I seem to have been outmaneuvered," said Mrs. Bagley with a worried
+frown.
+
+James smiled. "Not at all," he said. "It was just a matter of finding
+someone who wanted desperately to have what I wanted to give, and of
+course overcoming the natural adult reluctance to admit that anybody
+my size and age can operate on grown-up terms."
+
+"You sound so sure of yourself."
+
+"I am sure of myself. And one of the more important things in life is to
+understand one's limitations."
+
+"But couldn't you convince them--?"
+
+"One--you--I can convince. Maybe another, later. But if I tackle the
+great American public, I'm licked by statistics. My guess is that there
+is one brand-new United States citizen born every ten seconds. It takes
+me longer than ten seconds to convince someone, that I know what I'm
+talking about. But so long as I have an accepted adult out front, running
+the store, I don't have to do anything but sit backstage, run the hidden
+strings, and wait until my period of growth provides me with a stature
+that won't demand any explanation."
+
+From the playroom, Martha came running. "Mummy! Mummy!" she cried in a
+shrill voice filled with the strident tones of alarm, "Dolly's sick and
+I can't leave her!"
+
+Mrs. Bagley folded her daughter in her arms. "We won't leave," she said.
+"We're staying."
+
+James Holden nodded with satisfaction, but one thing he realized then and
+there: He simply had to rush the completion of his father's machine.
+
+He could not stand the simpering prattle of Martha Bagley's playgames.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+
+The arrival of Mrs. Bagley changed James Holden's way of life far more
+than he'd expected. His basic idea had been to free himself from the
+hours of dishwashing, bedmaking, dusting, cleaning and straightening
+and from the irking chore of planning his meals far enough ahead to
+obtain sustenance either through mail or carried note. He gave up his
+haphazard chores readily. Mrs. Bagley's menus often served him dishes
+that he wouldn't have given house-room; but he also enjoyed many meals
+that he could not or would not have taken the time to prepare.
+
+He did have some faint notion that being freed from the household toil
+would allow him sixteen or eighteen hours at the typewriter, but he was
+not greatly dismayed to find that this did not work.
+
+When he wrote himself out, he relaxed by reading, or sitting quietly
+planning his next piece. Even that did not fill his entire day. To take
+some advantage of his time, James began to indulge in talk-fests with
+Mrs. Bagley.
+
+These were informative. He was learning from her how the outside world
+was run, from one who had no close association with his own former life.
+Mrs. Bagley was by no means well-informed on all sides of life, but she
+did have her opinions and her experiences and a fair idea of how things
+went on in her own level. And, of course, James had made this choice
+because of the girl. He wanted a companion of his own age. Regardless of
+what Mrs. Bagley really thought of this matter of rapid education, James
+proposed to use it on Martha. That would give him a companion of his own
+like, they would come closer to understanding one another than he could
+ever hope to find understanding elsewhere.
+
+So he talked and played with Martha in his moments of relaxation. And he
+found her grasp of life completely unreal.
+
+James could not get through to her. He could not make her stop
+play-acting in everything that she did not ignore completely. It worried
+him.
+
+With the arrival of summer, James and Martha played outside in the fresh
+air. They made a few shopping excursions into town, walking the mile and
+more by taking their time, and returning with their shopping load in the
+station-master's taxicab mail car. But on these expeditions, James hung
+close to Martha lest her babbling prattle start an unwelcome line of
+thought. She never did it, but James was forever on edge.
+
+This source of possible danger drove him hard. The machine that was
+growing in a mare's-nest on the second floor began to evolve faster.
+
+James Holden's work was a strangely crude efficiency. The prototype had
+been built by his father bit by bit and step by step as its design
+demanded. Sections were added as needed, and other sections believed
+needed were abandoned as the research showed them unnecessary. Louis
+Holden had been a fine instrumentation engineer, but his first models
+were hay-wired in the breadboard form. James copied his father's
+work--including his father's casual breadboard style. And he added some
+inefficiencies of his own.
+
+Furthermore, James was not strong enough to lift the heavier assemblies
+into place. James parked the parts wherever they would sit.
+
+To Mrs. Bagley, the whole thing was bizarre and unreasonable. Given her
+opinion, with no other evidence, she would have rejected the idea at
+once. She simply did not understand anything of a technical nature.
+
+One day she bluntly asked him how he knew what he was doing.
+
+James grinned. "I really _don't_ know what I'm doing," he admitted. "I'm
+only following some very explicit directions. If I knew the pure theory
+of my father's machine I could not design the instrumentation that would
+make it work. But I can build a reproduction of my father's machine from
+the directions."
+
+"How can that be?"
+
+James stopped working and sat on a packing case. "If you bought a
+lawn-mower," he said, "it might come neatly packed in a little box with
+all the parts nested in cardboard formers and all the little nuts and
+bolts packed in a bag. There would be a set of assembly directions,
+written in such a way as to explain to anybody who can read that Part A
+is fastened to Bracket B using Bolt C, Lockwasher D, and Nut E. My
+father's one and only recognition of the dangers of the unforeseeable
+future was to drill deep in my brain these directions. For instance," and
+he pointed to a boxed device, "that thing is an infra-low frequency
+amplifier. Now, I haven't much more than a faint glimmer of what the
+thing is and how it differs from a standard amplifier, but I know that it
+must be built precisely thus-and-so, and finally it must be fitted into
+the machine per instructions. Look, Mrs. Bagley." James picked up a
+recently-received package, swept a place clear on the packing case and
+dumped it out. It disgorged several paper bags of parts, some large
+plates and a box. He handed her a booklet. "Try it yourself," he said.
+"That's a piece of test equipment made in kit form by a commercial outfit
+in Michigan. Follow those directions and build it for me."
+
+"But I don't know anything about this sort of thing."
+
+"You can read," said James with a complete lack of respect. He turned
+back to his own work, leaving Mrs. Bagley leafing her way through the
+assembly manual.
+
+To the woman it was meaningless. But as she read, a secondary thought
+rose in her mind. James was building this devilish-looking nightmare, and
+he had every intention of using it on her daughter! She accepted without
+understanding the fact that James Holden's superior education had come of
+such a machine--but it had been a machine built by a competent mechanic.
+She stole a look at James. The anomaly puzzled her.
+
+When the lad talked, his size and even the thin boyish voice were negated
+by the intelligence of his words, the size of his vocabulary, the clarity
+of his statements. Now that he was silent, he became no more than an
+eight-year-old lad who could not possibly be doing anything constructive
+with this mad array of equipment. The messiness of the place merely made
+the madness of the whole program seem worse.
+
+But she turned back to her booklet. Maybe James was right. If she could
+assemble this doodad without knowing the first principle of its
+operation, without even knowing from the name what the thing did, then
+she might be willing to admit that--messy as it looked--the machine could
+be reconstructed.
+
+Trapped by her own interest, Mrs. Bagley pitched in.
+
+They took a week off to rearrange the place. They built wooden shelves to
+hold the parts in better order. These were by no means the work of a
+carpenter, for Mrs. Bagley's aim with a saw was haphazard, and her
+batting average with a hammer was about .470; but James lacked the
+strength, so the construction job was hers. Crude as it was, the place
+looked less like a junkshop when they were done. Work resumed on the
+assembly of the educator.
+
+Of course the writing suffered.
+
+The budget ran low. James was forced to abandon the project for his
+typewriter. He drove himself hard, fretting and worrying himself into a
+stew time after time. And then as August approached, Nature stepped in to
+add more disorder.
+
+James entered a "period of growth." In three weeks he gained two inches.
+
+His muscles, his bones and his nervous system ceased to coordinate. He
+became clumsy. His handwriting underwent a change, so severe that James
+had to practically forge his own signature of Charles Maxwell. To avoid
+trouble he stopped the practice of writing individual checks for the
+bills and transferred a block sum of money to an operating account in
+Mrs. Bagley's name.
+
+His fine regimen went to pieces.
+
+He embarked on a haphazard program of sleeping, eating and working at odd
+hours, and his appetite became positively voracious. He wanted what he
+wanted when he wanted it, even if it were the middle of the night. He
+pouted and groused when he didn't get it. In calmer moments he hated
+himself for these tantrums, but no amount of self-rationalization stopped
+them.
+
+During this period, James was by no means an efficient youngster. His
+writing suffered the ills of both his period of growth and his upset
+state of mind. His fingers failed to coordinate on his typewriter and his
+manuscript copy turned out rough, with strikeovers, xxx-outs, and gross
+mistakes. The pile of discarded paper massed higher than his finished
+copy until Mrs. Bagley took over and began to retype his rough script
+for him.
+
+His state of mind remained chaotic.
+
+Mrs. Bagley began to treat him with special care. She served him warm
+milk and insisted that he rest. Finally she asked him why he drove
+himself so hard.
+
+"We are approaching the end of summer," he said, "and we are not
+prepared."
+
+"Prepared for what?"
+
+They were relaxing in the living room, James fretting and Mrs. Bagley
+seated, Martha Bagley asprawl on the floor turning the pages of a
+crayon-coloring book. "Look at us," he said. "I am a boy of eight, your
+daughter is a girl of seven. By careful dress and action I could pass for
+a child one year younger, but that would still make me seven. Last summer
+when I was seven, I passed for six."
+
+"Yes, but--?"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, there are laws about compulsory education. Sooner or later
+someone is going to get very curious about us."
+
+"What do you intend to do about it?"
+
+"That's the problem," he said. "I don't really know. With a lot of
+concentrated effort I can probably enter school if I have to, and keep my
+education covered up. But Martha is another story."
+
+"I don't see--?" Mrs. Bagley bit her lip.
+
+"We can't permit her to attend school," said James.
+
+"You shouldn't have advertised for a woman with a girl child!" said Mrs.
+Bagley.
+
+"Perhaps not. But I wanted someone of my own age and size around so that
+we can grow together. I'm a bit of a misfit until I'm granted the right
+to use my education as I see fit."
+
+"And you hope to make Martha another misfit?"
+
+"If you care to put it that way," admitted James. "Someone has to start.
+Someday all kids will be educated with my machine and then there'll be no
+misfits."
+
+"But until then--?"
+
+"Mrs. Bagley, I am not worried about what is going to happen next year. I
+am worried about what is going to happen next month."
+
+Mrs. Bagley sat and watched him for a moment. This boy was worried, she
+could see that. But assuming that any part of his story was true--and it
+was impossible to doubt it--he had ample cause.
+
+The past years had given Mrs. Bagley a hard shell because it was useful
+for survival; to keep herself and her child alive she had had to be
+permanently alert for every threat. Clearly this was a threat. Martha was
+involved. Martha's future was, at the least, bound to be affected by what
+James did.
+
+And the ties of blood and habit made Martha's future the first
+consideration in Janet Bagley's thoughts.
+
+But not the only consideration; for there is an in-born trait in the
+human race which demands that any helpless child should be helped. James
+was hardly helpless; but he certainly was a child. It was easy to forget
+it, talking to him--until something came up that the child could not
+handle.
+
+Mrs. Bagley sighed. In a different tone she asked, "What did you do last
+year?"
+
+"Played with Rags on the lawn," James said promptly. "A boy and his dog
+is a perfectly normal sight--in the summer. Then, when school opened, I
+stayed in the house as much as I could. When I had to go out I tried to
+make myself look younger. Short pants, dirty face. I don't think I could
+get away with it this year."
+
+"I think you're right," Mrs. Bagley admitted. "Well, suppose you could do
+what you wish this year? What would that be?"
+
+James said: "I want to get my machine working. Then I want to use it on
+Martha."
+
+"On Martha! But--"
+
+James said patiently: "It won't hurt her, Mrs. Bagley. There isn't any
+other way. The first thing she needs is a good command of English."
+
+"English?" Mrs. Bagley hesitated, and was lost. After all, what was wrong
+with the girl's learning proper speech?
+
+"Martha is a child both physically and intellectually. She has been
+talked to about 'right' and 'wrong' and she knows that 'telling the
+truth' is right, but she doesn't recognize that talking about fairies is
+a misstatement of the truth. Question her carefully about how we live,
+and you'll get a fair approximation of the truth."
+
+"So?"
+
+"But suppose someone asks Martha about the Hermit of Martin's Hill?"
+
+"What do you fear?"
+
+"We might play upon her make-believe stronger than we have. She play-acts
+his existence very well. But suppose someone asks her what he eats, or
+where he gets his exercise, or some other personal question. She hasn't
+the command of logic to improvise a convincing background."
+
+"But why should anybody ask such personal questions?" asked Mrs. Bagley.
+
+James said patiently: "To ask personal questions of an adult is 'prying'
+and is therefore considered improper and antisocial. To ask the same
+questions of a child is proper and social. It indicates a polite interest
+in the world of the child. You and I, Mrs. Bagley, have a complete
+picture of the Hermit all prepared, and with our education we can
+improvise plausible answers. I've hoped to finish my machine early enough
+to provide Martha with the ability to do the same."
+
+"So what can we do?"
+
+"About the only thing we can do is to hide," said James. "Luckily,
+most of the business is conducted out of this place by mail. Write
+letters to some boarding school situated a good many miles from here.
+Ask the usual routine questions about entering a seven-year-old girl
+and an eight-year-old boy for one semester. Robert Holmes, our
+postmaster-taxicab driver-station-master, reads everything that isn't
+sealed. He will read the addresses, and he will see replies and read
+their return address."
+
+"And then we'll pretend to send you and Martha to boarding school?"
+
+James nodded. "Confinement is going to be difficult, but in this climate
+the weather gets nasty early and that keeps people out of one another's
+hair."
+
+"But this station-master business--?"
+
+"We've got to pull some wool over Robert's eyes," said James. "Somehow,
+we've got to make it entirely plausible. You've got to take Martha and me
+away and come back alone just as if we were in school."
+
+"We should have a car," said Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"A car is one piece of hardware that I could never justify," said James.
+"Nor," he chuckled, "buy from a mail-order house because I couldn't
+accept delivery. I bought furniture from Sears and had it delivered
+according to mailed instructions. But I figured it better to have the
+folks in Shipmont wondering why Charles Maxwell didn't own a car than to
+have them puzzling why he owned one that never was used, nor even moved.
+Besides, a car--costs--"
+
+Mrs. Bagley smiled with real satisfaction. "There," she said, "I think I
+can help. I can buy the car."
+
+James was startled. "But can you afford it?"
+
+Mrs. Bagley nodded seriously. "James," she said, "I've been scratching
+out an existence on hard terms and I've had to make sure of tomorrow.
+Even when things were worst, I tried to put something away--some weeks it
+was only a few pennies, sometimes nothing at all. But--well, I'm not
+afraid of tomorrow any more."
+
+James was oddly pleased. While he was trying to find a way to say it,
+Mrs. Bagley relieved him of the necessity. "It won't be a brand-new
+convertible," she warned. "But they tell me you can get something that
+runs for two or three hundred dollars. Tim Fisher has some that look
+about right in his garage--and besides," she said, clinching it, "it
+gives me a chance to give out a little more Maxwell and boarding-school
+propaganda."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+
+The letter was a masterpiece of dissembling. It suggested, without
+promising, that Charles Maxwell intended to send his young charge to
+boarding school along with his housekeeper's daughter. It asked the
+school's advice and explained the deformity that made Charles Maxwell a
+recluse. The reply could hardly have been better if they'd penned it
+themselves for the signature of the faculty advisor. It discussed the
+pros and cons of away-from-home schooling and went on at great length to
+discuss the attitude of children and their upbringing amid strange
+surroundings. It invited a long and inconclusive correspondence--just
+what James wanted.
+
+The supposed departure for school went off neatly, no one in the town of
+Shipmont was surprised when Mrs. Bagley turned up buying an automobile of
+several years' vintage because this was a community where everybody had
+one.
+
+The letters continued at the rate of one every two or three weeks. They
+were picked up by Mrs. Bagley who let it be known that these were
+progress reports. In reality, they were little tracts on the theory of
+child education. They kept up the correspondence for the information it
+contained, and also because Mrs. Bagley enjoyed this contact with an
+outer world that contained adults.
+
+Meanwhile, James ended his spurt of growth and settled down. Work on his
+machine continued when he could afford to buy the parts, and his writing
+settled down into a comfortable channel once more. In his spare time
+James began to work on Martha's diction.
+
+Martha could not have been called a retarded child. Her trouble was lack
+of constant parental attention during her early years. With father gone
+and mother struggling to live, Martha had never overcome some of the
+babytalk-diction faults. There was still a trace of the omitted 'B' here
+and there. 'Y' was a difficult sound; the color of a lemon was "Lellow."
+Martha's English construction still bore marks of the baby. "Do you have
+to--" came out as "Does you has to--?"
+
+James Holden's father had struggled in just this way through his early
+experimental days, when he despaired of ever getting the infant James out
+of the baby-prattle stage. He could not force, he could not even coerce.
+All that his father could do was to watch quietly as baby James acquired
+the awareness of things. Then he could step in and supply the correct
+word-sound to name the object. In those early days the progress of James
+Holden was no greater than the progress of any other infant. Holden
+Senior followed the theory of ciphers; no cryptologist can start
+unravelling a secret message until he is aware of the fact that some
+hidden message exists. No infant can be taught a language until some
+awareness tells the tiny brain that there is some definite connection
+between sound and sight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For the next few weeks James worked with Martha on her speech, and hated
+it. So slow, so dreary! But it was necessary, he thought, to keep her
+from establishing any more permanent errors, so that when the machine was
+ready there would be at least a blank slate to write on, not one all
+scribbled over with mistakes.
+
+Time passed; the weather grew colder; the machine spread its scattered
+parts over his workroom.
+
+Janet Bagley knew that the machine was growing, but it had not occurred
+to her that it would be finished. She had grown accustomed to her life on
+Martin's Hill. By her standards, it was easy. She made three meals each
+day, cleaned the rooms, hung curtains, sewed clothing for Martha and
+herself, did the shopping and had time enough left over to take
+excursions in her little car and keep her daughter out of mischief. It
+was pleasant. It was more than pleasant, it was safe.
+
+And then the machine was finished.
+
+Mrs. Bagley took a sandwich and a glass of milk to James and found him
+sitting on a chair, a heavy headset covering most of his skull, reading
+aloud from a textbook on electronic theory.
+
+Mrs. Bagley stopped at the door, unaccountably startled.
+
+James looked up and shut off his work. "It's finished," he said with
+grave pride.
+
+"All of it?"
+
+"Well," he said, pondering, "the basic part. It works."
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked at the scramble of equipment in the room as though it
+were an enemy. It didn't look finished. It didn't even look safe. But she
+trusted James, although she felt at that moment that she would grow old
+and die before she understood why and how any collection of apparatus
+could be functional and still be so untidy. "It--could teach me?"
+
+"If you had something you want to memorize."
+
+"I'd like to memorize some of the pet recipes from my cookbook."
+
+"Get it," directed James.
+
+She hesitated. "How does it work?" she wanted to know first.
+
+He countered with another question. "How do we memorize anything?"
+
+She thought. "Why, by repeating and repeating and rehearsing and
+rehearsing."
+
+"Yes," said James. "So this device does the repetition for you.
+Electromechanically."
+
+"But how?"
+
+James smiled wistfully. "I can give you only a thumbnail sketch," he
+said, "until I have had time to study the subjects that lead up to the
+final theory."
+
+"Goodness," exclaimed Mrs. Bagley, "all I want is a brief idea. I
+wouldn't understand the principles at all."
+
+"Well, then, my mother, as a cerebral surgeon, knew the anatomy of the
+human brain. My father, as an instrument-maker, designed and built
+encephalographs. Together, they discovered that if the great waves of the
+brain were filtered down and the extremely minute waves that ride on top
+of them were amplified, the pattern of these superfine waves went through
+convolutions peculiar to certain thoughts. Continued research refined
+their discovery.
+
+"Now, the general theory is that the cells of the brain act sort of like
+a binary digital computer, with certain banks of cells operating to store
+sufficient bits of information to furnish a complete memory. In the
+process of memorization, individual cells become activated and linked by
+the constant repetition.
+
+"Second, the brain within the skull is a prisoner, connected to the
+'outside' by the five standard sensory channels of sight, sound, touch,
+taste, and smell. Stimulate a channel, and the result is a certain
+wave-shape of electrical impulse that enters the brain and--sort of like
+the key to a Yale lock--fits only one combination of cells. Or if no
+previous memory is there, it starts its own new collection of cells to
+linking and combining. When we repeat and repeat, we are deepening the
+groove, so to speak.
+
+"Finally comes the Holden Machine. The helmet makes contact with the
+skull in those spots where the probes of the encephalograph are placed.
+When the brain is stimulated into thought, the brain waves are monitored
+and recorded, amplified, and then fed back to the same brain-spots. Not
+once, but multifold, like the vibration of a reed or violin string. The
+circuit that accepts signals, amplifies them, returns them to the same
+set of terminals, and causes them to be repeated several hundred times
+per millisecond without actually ringing or oscillating is the real
+research secret of the machine. My father's secret and now mine."
+
+"And how do we use it?"
+
+"You want to memorize a list of ingredients," said James. "So you will
+put this helmet on your head with the cookbook in your hands. You will
+turn on the machine when you have read the part you want to memorize just
+to be sure of your material. Then, with the machine running, you
+carefully read aloud the passage from your book. The vibrating amplifier
+in the machine monitors and records each electrical impulse, then
+furnishes it back to your brain as a successive series of repetitious
+vibrations, each identical in shape and magnitude, just as if you had
+actually read and re-read that list of stuff time and again."
+
+"And then I'll know it cold?"
+
+James shook his head. "Then you'll be about as confused as you've ever
+been. For several hours, none of it will make sense. You'll be thinking
+things like a 'cup of salt and a pinch of water,' or maybe, 'sugar three
+of mustard and two spoonthree teas.' And then in a few hours all of this
+mish-mash will settle itself down into the proper serial arrangement; it
+will fit the rest of your brain-memory-pattern comfortably."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I don't know. It has something to do with the same effect one gets out
+of studying. On Tuesday one can read a page of textbook and not grasp a
+word of it. Successive readings help only a little. Then in about a week
+it all becomes quite clear, just as if the brain had sorted it and filed
+it logically among the other bits of information. Well, what about that
+cookbook?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Bagley, with the air of someone agreeing to have a tooth
+pulled when it hasn't really started to hurt, "I'll get it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden allowed himself a few pleasant daydreams. The most
+satisfactory of all was one of himself pleading his own case before the
+black-robed Justices of the Supreme Court, demolishing his detractors
+with a flow of his brilliance and convincing them beyond any doubt that
+he did indeed have the right to walk alone. That there be no question of
+his intellect, James proposed to use his machine to educate himself to
+completion. He would be the supreme student of the arts and the sciences,
+of law, language, and literature. He would know history and the
+humanities, and the dreams and aims of the great philosophers and
+statesmen, and he would even be able to quote in their own terms the
+drives of the great dictators and some of the evil men so that he could
+draw and compare to show that he knew the difference between good and
+bad.
+
+But James Holden had no intention of sharing this limelight.
+
+His superb brilliance was to be compared to the average man's, not to
+another one like him. He had the head start. He intended to keep it until
+he had succeeded in compelling the whole world to accept him with the
+full status of a free adult.
+
+Then, under his guidance, he would permit the world-wide use of his
+machine.
+
+His loneliness had forced him to revise that dream by the addition of
+Martha Bagley; he needed a companion, contemporary, and foil. His mental
+playlet no longer closed with James Holden standing alone before the
+Bench. Now it ended with Martha saying proudly, "James, I knew you could
+do it."
+
+Martha Bagley's brilliance would not conflict with his. He could
+stay ahead of her forever. But he had no intention of allowing some
+experienced adult to partake of this program of enforced education. He
+was, therefore, going to find himself some manner or means of preventing
+Mrs. Bagley from running the gamut of all available information.
+
+James Holden evaluated all people in his own terms, he believed that
+everybody was just as eager for knowledge as he was.
+
+So he was surprised to find that Mrs. Bagley's desire for extended
+education only included such information as would make her own immediate
+personal problems easier. Mrs. Bagley was the first one of the mass of
+people James was destined to meet who not only did not know how or why
+things worked, but further had no intention whatsoever of finding out.
+
+Instead of trying to monopolize James Holden's machine, Mrs. Bagley was
+satisfied to learn a number of her pet recipes. After a day of thought
+she added her social security number, blood type, some birthdays, dates,
+a few telephone numbers and her multiplication tables. She announced that
+she was satisfied. It solved James Holden's problem--and stunned him
+completely.
+
+But James had very little time to worry about Mrs. Bagley's attitude. He
+found his hands full with Martha.
+
+Martha played fey. Her actions and attitude baffled James, and even
+confused her mother. There was no way of really determining whether the
+girl was scared to death of the machine itself, or whether she simply
+decided to be difficult. And she uttered the proper replies with all of
+the promptness--and intelligence--of a ventriloquist's dummy:
+
+"You don't want to be ignorant, do you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You want to be smart, like James, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You know the machine won't hurt, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then let's try it just once, please?"
+
+"No."
+
+Back to the beginning again. Martha would agree to absolutely anything
+except the educator.
+
+Leaving the argument to Mrs. Bagley, James sat down angrily with a book.
+He was so completely frustrated that he couldn't read, but he sat there
+leafing the pages slowly and making a determined show of not lifting his
+head.
+
+Mrs. Bagley went on for another hour before she reached the end of her
+own patience. She stood up almost rigid with anger. James never knew how
+close Mrs. Bagley was to making use of a hairbrush on her daughter's
+bottom. But Mrs. Bagley also realized that Martha had to go into this
+process willing to cooperate. So, instead of physical punishment, she
+issued a dictum:
+
+"You'll go to your room and stay there until you're willing!"
+
+And at that point Martha ceased being stubborn and began playing games.
+
+She permitted herself to be led to the chair, and then went through a
+routine of skittishness, turning her head and squirming incessantly,
+which made it impossible for James to place the headset properly. This
+went on until he stalked away and sat down again. Immediately Martha sat
+like a statue. But as soon as James reached for the little screws that
+adjusted the electrodes, Martha started to giggle and squirm. He stalked
+away and sat through another session between Martha and her mother.
+
+Late in the afternoon James succeeded in getting her to the machine;
+Martha uttered a sentence without punctuating it with little giggles, but
+it came as elided babytalk.
+
+"Again," he commanded.
+
+"I don't wan' to."
+
+"Again!" he snapped.
+
+Martha began to cry.
+
+That, to James, was the end. But Mrs. Bagley stepped forward with a
+commanding wave for James to vacate the premises and took over. James
+could not analyze her expression, but it did look as if it held relief.
+He left the room to them; a half hour later Mrs. Bagley called him back.
+
+"She's had it," said Mrs. Bagley. "Now you can start, I think."
+
+James looked dubious; but said, "Read this."
+
+"Martha?"
+
+Martha took a deep breath and said, nicely, "'A' is the first
+letter of the English Alphabet."
+
+"Good." He pressed the button. "Again? Please?"
+
+Martha recited it nicely.
+
+"Fine," he said. "Now we'll look up 'Is' and go on from there."
+
+"My goodness," said Mrs. Bagley, "this is going to take months."
+
+"Not at all," said James. "It just goes slowly at the start. Most of the
+definitions use the same words over and over again. Martha really knows
+most of these simple words, we've just got to be dead certain that her
+own definition of them agrees wholly and completely with ours. After a
+couple of hours of this minute detail, we'll be skipping over everything
+but new words. After all, she only has to work them over once, and as we
+find them, we'll mark them out of the book. Ready, Martha?"
+
+"Can't read it."
+
+James took the little dictionary. "Um," he said. "Hadn't occurred to me."
+
+"What?" asked Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"This thing says, Three-rd pers period sing periodic indic period of Be,'
+the last in heavy bold type. Can't have Martha talking in abbreviations,"
+he chuckled. He went to the typewriter and wrote it out fully. "Now read
+that," he directed.
+
+She did and again the process went through without a hitch. Slowly, but
+surely, they progressed for almost two hours before Martha rebelled.
+James stopped, satisfied with the beginning.
+
+But as time wore on into the late autumn, Martha slowly--oh, so
+slowly!--began to realize that there was importance to getting things
+right. She continued to tease. But she did her teasing before James
+closed the "Run" button.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+
+Once James progressed Martha through the little dictionary, he began with
+a book of grammar. Again it started slowly; he had to spend quite a bit
+of time explaining to Martha that she did indeed know all of the terms
+used in the book of grammar because they'd all been defined by the
+dictionary, now she was going to learn how the terms and their
+definitions were used.
+
+James was on more familiar ground now. James, like Martha, had learned
+his first halting sentence structure by mimicking his parents, but he
+remembered the process of learning why and how sentences are constructed
+according to the rules, and how the rules are used rather than intuition
+in forming sentences.
+
+Grammar was a topic that could not be taken in snippets and bits. Whole
+paragraphs had to be read until Martha could read them without a halt or
+a mispronunciation, and then committed to memory with the "Run" button
+held down. At the best it was a boring process, even though it took only
+minutes instead of days. It was not conflicting, but it was confusing.
+It installed permanently certain solid blocks of information that were
+isolated; they stood alone until later blocks came in to connect them
+into a whole area.
+
+Each session was numbing. Martha could take no more than a couple of
+hours, after which her reading became foggy. She wanted a nap after each
+session and even after the nap she went around in a bemused state of
+mental dizziness.
+
+Life settled down once more in the House on Martin's Hill. James worked
+with the machine himself and laid out lessons to guide Martha. Then,
+finished for the day with education, James took to his typewriter while
+Martha had her nap. It filled the days of the boy and girl completely.
+
+This made an unexpected and pleasant change in Mrs. Bagley's routine. It
+had been a job to keep Martha occupied. Now that Martha was busy, Mrs.
+Bagley found time on her own hands; without interruption, her housework
+routine was completed quite early in the afternoon.
+
+Mrs. Bagley had never made any great point of getting dressed for dinner.
+She accumulated a collection of house-frocks; printed cotton washables
+differing somewhat in color and cut but functionally identical. She wore
+them serially as they came from the row of hangers in her closet.
+
+Now she began to acquire some dressier things, wearing them even during
+her shopping trips.
+
+James paid little attention to this change in his housekeeper's routine,
+but he approved. Mrs. Bagley was also taking more pains with the 'do' of
+her hair, but the boy's notice was not detailed enough to take a
+part-by-section inventory of the whole. In fact, James gave the whole
+matter very little thought until Mrs. Bagley made a second change after
+her return from town, appearing for dinner in what James could only
+classify as a party dress.
+
+She asked, "James, do you mind if I go out this evening?"
+
+James, startled, shrugged and said, "No, I guess not."
+
+"You'll keep an ear out for Martha?"
+
+The need for watching a sleeping girl of seven and a half did not
+penetrate. "What's up?" he asked.
+
+"It's been months since I saw a movie."
+
+James shrugged again, puzzled. "You saw the 'Bride of Frankenstein' last
+night on TV," he pointed out.
+
+"I first saw that old horror when I was about your age," she told him
+with a trace of disdain.
+
+"I liked it."
+
+"So did I at eight and a half. But tonight I'm going to see a _new_
+picture."
+
+"Okay," said James, wondering why anybody in their right mind would go
+out on a chilly night late in November just to see a moving picture when
+they could stay at home and watch one in comfort. "Have a good time."
+
+He expected Mrs. Bagley to take off in her car, but she did not. She
+waited until a brief _toot_! came from the road. Then, with a swirl of
+motion, she left.
+
+It took James Holden's limited experience some little time to identify
+the event with some similar scenes from books he'd read; even with him,
+reading about it was one world and seeing it happen was another thing
+entirely.
+
+For James Holden it opened a new area for contemplation. He would have to
+know something about this matter if he hoped to achieve his dreamed-of
+status as an adult.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Information about the relation between man and woman had not been
+included in the course of education devised by his father and mother.
+Therefore his physical age and his information on the delicate subject
+were approximately parallel.
+
+His personal evaluation of the subject was uncomplicated. At some age not
+much greater than his own, boys and girls conglomerated in a mass that
+milled around in a constant state of flux and motion, like individual
+atoms of gas compressed in a container. Meetings and encounters took
+place both singly and in groups until nearly everybody had been in touch
+with almost everybody else. Slowly the amorphous mass changed. Groups
+became attracted by mutual interests. Changes and exchanges took place,
+and then a pair-formation began to take place. The pair-formation went
+through its interchanges both with and without friction as the
+settling-down process proceeded. At times predictable by comparing it
+to the statistics of radioactivity, the pair-production resulted in
+permanent combination, which effectively removed this couple from free
+circulation.
+
+James Holden had no grasp or feeling for the great catalyst that causes
+this pair-production; he saw it only for its sheer mechanics. To him, the
+sensible way to go about this matter was to get there early and move
+fast, because one stands to make a better choice when there is a greater
+number of unattached specimens from which to choose. Those left over are
+likely to have flaws.
+
+And so he pondered, long after Martha had gone to bed.
+
+He was still up and waiting when he heard the car stop at the gate.
+He watched them come up the walk arm in arm, their stride slow and
+lingering. They paused for several moments on the doorstep, once there
+was a short, muted laugh. The snick of the key came next and they came
+into the hallway.
+
+"No, please don't come in," said Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"But--" replied the man.
+
+"But me no buts. It's late, Tim."
+
+Tim? Tim? That would probably be Timothy Fisher. He ran the local garage
+where Mrs. Bagley bought her car. James went on listening shamelessly.
+
+"Late? Phooey. When is eleven-thirty late?"
+
+"When it's right now," she replied with a light laugh. "Now, Tim. It's
+been very--"
+
+There came a long silence.
+
+Her voice was throaty when the silence broke. "Now, will you go?"
+
+"Of course," he said.
+
+"Not that way, silly," she said. "The door's behind you."
+
+"Isn't the door I want," he chuckled.
+
+"We're making enough noise to wake the dead," she complained.
+
+"Then let's stop talking," he told her.
+
+There was another long silence.
+
+"Now please go."
+
+"Can I come back tomorrow night?"
+
+"Not tomorrow."
+
+"Friday?"
+
+"Saturday."
+
+"It's a date, then."
+
+"All right. Now get along with you."
+
+"You're cruel and heartless, Janet," he complained. "Sending a man out in
+that cold and storm."
+
+"It isn't storming, and you've a fine heater in that car of yours."
+
+"I'd rather have you."
+
+"Do you tell that to all the girls?"
+
+"Sure. Even Maggie the Washerwoman is better than an old car heater."
+
+Mrs. Bagley chuckled throatily. "How is Maggie?"
+
+"She's fine."
+
+"I mean as a date."
+
+"Better than the car heater."
+
+"Tim, you're a fool."
+
+"When I was a kid," said Tim reflectively, "there used to be a female
+siren in the movies. Her pet line used to be 'Kiss me, my fool!' Theda
+Bara, I think. Before talkies. Now--"
+
+"No, Tim--"
+
+Another long silence.
+
+"Now, Tim, you've simply _got_ to go!"
+
+"Yeah, I know. You've convinced me."
+
+"Then why aren't you going?"
+
+He chuckled. "Look, you've convinced me. I can't stay so I'll go,
+obviously. But now that we've covered this problem, let's drop the
+subject for a while, huh?"
+
+"Don't spoil a fine evening, Tim."
+
+"Janet, what's with you, anyway?"
+
+"What do you mean, 'what's with me?'"
+
+"Just this. Somewhere up in the house is this oddball Maxwell who hides
+out all the time. He's either asleep or busy. Anyway, he isn't here. Do
+you have to report in, punch a time clock, tuck him in--or do you turn
+into a pumpkin at the stroke of twelve?"
+
+"Mr. Maxwell is paying me wages to keep house for him. That's all. Part
+of my wages is my keep. But it doesn't entitle me to have full run of the
+house or to bring guests in at midnight for a two-hour good-night
+session."
+
+"I'd like to tell this bird a thing or two," said Tim Fisher sharply. "He
+can't keep you cooped up like--like--"
+
+"Nobody is keeping me cooped up," she said. "Like what?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"You said 'like--'"
+
+"Skip it. What I meant is that you can't moulder, Janet. You've got to
+get out and meet people."
+
+"I've been out and I've met people. I've met you."
+
+"All to the good."
+
+"Fine. So you invited me out, and I went. It was fun. I liked it. You've
+asked me, and I've said that I'd like to do it again on Saturday. I've
+enjoyed being kissed, and I'll probably enjoy it again on Saturday. So--"
+
+"I'd think you'd enjoy a lot of it."
+
+"Because my husband has been gone for five years?"
+
+"Oh, now Janet--"
+
+"That's what you meant, isn't it?"
+
+"No. You've got me wrong."
+
+"Tim, stop it. You're spoiling a fine evening. You should have gone
+before it started to spoil. Now please put your smile on again and leave
+cheerfully. There's always Saturday--if you still want it."
+
+"I'll call you," he said.
+
+The door opened once more and then closed. James took a deep breath, and
+then stole away quietly to his own room.
+
+By some instinct he knew that this was no time to intercept Mrs. Bagley
+with a lot of fool questions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To the surprise and puzzlement of young James Quincy Holden, Mr. Timothy
+Fisher telephoned early upon the following evening. He was greeted quite
+cordially by Mrs. Bagley. Their conversation was rambling and inane,
+especially when heard from one end only, and it took them almost ten
+minutes to confirm their Saturday night date. That came as another shock.
+
+Well, not quite. The explanation bothered him even more than the fact
+itself. As a further extension of his little mechanical mating process,
+James had to find a place for the like of Jake Caslow and the women Jake
+knew. None of them were classed in the desirable group, all of them were
+among the leftovers. But of course, since none of them were good enough
+for the 'good' people, they were good enough for one another, and that
+made it all right--for them.
+
+But Mrs. Bagley was not of their ilk. It was not right that she should be
+forced to take a leftover.
+
+And then it occurred to him that perhaps Mrs. Bagley was not really
+taking the leftover, Tim Fisher, but instead was using Tim Fisher's
+company as a means toward meeting a larger group, from which there might
+be a better specimen. So he bided his time, thinking deeply around the
+subject, about which he knew nothing whatsoever.
+
+Saturday night was a repeat of Wednesday. They stayed out later, and upon
+their return they took possession of the living room for at least an hour
+before they started their routine about the going-home process. With
+minor variations in the dialog, and with longer and more frequent
+silences, it almost followed the Wednesday night script. The variation
+puzzled James even more. This session went according to program for a
+while until Tim Fisher admitted with regret that it was, indeed, time for
+him to depart. At which juncture Mrs. Bagley did not leap to her feet to
+accept his offer to do that which she had been asking him to do for a
+half hour. Mrs. Bagley compounded the affair by sighing deeply and
+agreeing with him that it was a shame that it was so late and that she,
+too, wished that he could stay a little longer. This, of course, put them
+precisely where they were a half hour earlier and they had to start the
+silly business all over again.
+
+They parted after a final fifteen-minute discussion at the front door.
+This discussion covered Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and finally came to
+agreement on Wednesday.
+
+And so James Holden went to bed that night fully convinced that in a town
+of approximately two thousand people--he did not count the two or three
+hundred A.E.C.-College group as part of the problem--there were entirely
+too few attractive leftovers from which Mrs. Bagley could choose.
+
+But as this association grew, it puzzled him even more. For in his
+understanding, any person forced to accept a second-rate choice does so
+with an air of resignation, but not with a cheerful smile, a sparkle in
+the eyes, and two hours of primping.
+
+James sought the answer in his books but they were the wrong volumes for
+reference of this subject. He considered the local Public Library only
+long enough to remember that it carried a few hundred books suitable for
+the A.E.C.-College crew and a thousand or so of second-hand culls donated
+by local citizens during cleanup campaigns. He resorted to buying books
+by mail through advertisements in newspapers and magazines and received a
+number of volumes of medical treatises, psychological texts, and a book
+on obstetrics that convinced him that baby-having was both rare and
+hazardous. He read _By Love Possessed_ but he did not recognize the many
+forms of love portrayed by the author because the volume was not
+annotated with signs or provided with a road map, and he did not know
+it when he read about it.
+
+He went through the Kinsey books and absorbed a lot of data and graphs
+and figures on human behavior that meant nothing to him. James was not
+even interested in the incidence of homosexuality among college students
+as compared to religious groups, or in the comparison between premarital
+experience and level of education. He knew the words and what the words
+meant as defined in other words. But they were only words and did not
+touch him where he lived.
+
+So, because none of the texts bothered to explain why a woman says Yes,
+when she means No, nor why a woman will cling to a man's lapels and press
+herself against him and at the same time tell him he has to go home,
+James remained ignorant. He could have learned more from Lord Byron,
+Shelley, Keats, or Browning than from Kinsey, deLee, or the "Instructive
+book on Sex, forwarded under plain wrapper for $2.69 postpaid."
+
+Luckily for James, he did not study any of his material via the medium of
+his father's machine or it would have made him sick. For he was not yet
+capable of understanding the single subject upon which more words have
+been expended in saying less than any other subject since the dawn of
+history.
+
+His approach was academic, he could have been reading the definitive
+material on the life-cycle of the beetle insofar as any stir of his own
+blood was concerned.
+
+From his study he did identify a couple of items. Tim Fisher obviously
+desired extramarital relations with Mrs. Bagley--or was it premarital
+relations? Probably both. Logic said that Mrs. Bagley, having already
+been married to Martha's father, could hardly enter into _pre_marital
+relations, although Tim could, since he was a bachelor. But they wouldn't
+be _pre_marital with Tim unless he followed through and married Mrs.
+Bagley. And so they must be _extra_marital. But whatever they were
+called, the Book said that there was about as much on one side as on the
+other.
+
+With a mind mildly aware of the facts of life, distorted through the eyes
+of near-nine James Holden, he watched them and listened in.
+
+As for Mrs. Bagley, she did not know that she was providing part of James
+Holden's extraliterary education. She enjoyed the company of Tim Fisher.
+Hesitantly, she asked James if she could have Tim for dinner one evening,
+and was a bit surprised at his immediate assent. They planned the
+evening, cleaned the lower part of the house of every trace of its
+current occupancy, and James and Martha hied themselves upstairs. Dinner
+went with candlelight and charcoal-broiled steak--and a tray taken aloft
+for "Mr. Maxwell" was consumed by James and Martha. The evening went
+smoothly. They listened to music and danced, they sat and talked. And
+James listened.
+
+Tim was not the same man. He sat calm and comfortably on the low sofa
+with Mrs. Bagley's head on his shoulder, both of them pleasantly bemused
+by the dancing fireplace and with each other's company. He said, "Well,
+I'm glad this finally happened."
+
+"What happened?" she replied in a murmur.
+
+"Getting the invite for dinner."
+
+"Might have been sooner, I suppose. Sorry."
+
+"What took you so long?"
+
+"Just being cautious, I guess."
+
+He chuckled. "Cautious?"
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+Tim laughed.
+
+"What's so darned funny?"
+
+"Women."
+
+"Are we such a bunch of clowns?"
+
+"Not clowns, Janet. Just funny."
+
+"All right, genius. Explain that."
+
+"A woman is a lovely creature who sends a man away so that he can't do
+what she wants him to do most of all."
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+"She feeds him full of rare steak until he wants to crawl off in a corner
+like the family mutt and go to sleep. Once she gets him in a somnolent
+state, she drapes herself tastefully on his shoulder and gets soft and
+warm and willing."
+
+Mrs. Bagley laughed throatily. "Just start getting active," she warned,
+"and you'll see how fast I can beat a hasty retreat."
+
+"Janet, what _is_ with you?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"What are you hiding?"
+
+"Hiding?"
+
+"Yes, confound it, hiding!" he said, his voice turning hard. "Just who is
+this Charles Maxwell character, anyway?"
+
+"Tim, please--"
+
+His voice lowered again. "Janet," he said softly, "you're asking me to
+trust you, and at the same time you're not trusting me."
+
+"But I've nothing to hide."
+
+"Oh, stop it. I'm no schoolboy, Janet. If you have nothing to hide, why
+are you acting as if you were sitting on the lid?"
+
+"I still don't know what you're talking about."
+
+"Your words say so, but your tone is the icy haughtiness that dares me,
+mere male that I am, to call your lie. I've a half-notion to stomp
+upstairs and confront your mysterious Maxwell--if he indeed exists."
+
+"You mustn't. He'd--"
+
+"He'd what? I've been in this house for hours day and night and now all
+evening. I've never heard a sound, not the creak of a floorboard, the
+slam of a door, the opening of a window, nor the distant gurgle of cool,
+clear water, gushing into plumbing. So you've been married. This I know.
+You have a daughter. This I accept. Your husband is dead. This happens to
+people every day; nice people, bad people, bright people, dull people.
+There was a young boy here last summer. Him I do not know, but you and
+your daughter I do know about. I've checked--"
+
+"How dare you check--?"
+
+"I damn well dare check anything and anybody I happen to be personally
+interested in," he stormed. "As a potential bed partner I wouldn't give a
+hoot who you were or what you were. But before I go to the point of
+dividing the rest of my life on an exclusive contract, I have the right
+to know what I'm splitting it with."
+
+"You have no right--"
+
+"Balderdash! I have as much right as anybody to look at the record. I
+grant you the same right to look up my family and my friends and the
+status of my bank account and my credit rating and my service record.
+Grant it? Hell, I couldn't stop you. Now, what's going on? Where is your
+daughter and where is that little boy? And where--if he exists--is this
+Charles Maxwell?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James had heard enough. No matter which way this was going, it would end
+up wrong. He was proud of Mrs. Bagley's loyalty, but he knew that it was
+an increasing strain and could very well lead to complications that could
+not be explained away without the whole truth. He decided that the only
+thing to do was to put in his own oar and relieve Mrs. Bagley.
+
+He walked in, yawning. He stood between them, facing Tim Fisher. Behind
+him, Mrs. Bagley cried, "Now see--you've awakened him!"
+
+In a dry-throated voice, Tim said, "I thought he was away at school. Now,
+what's the story?"
+
+"It isn't her story to tell," said James. "It's mine."
+
+"Now see here--"
+
+"Mr. Fisher, you can't learn anything by talking incessantly."
+
+Tim Fisher took a step forward, his face dark, his intention to shake the
+truth out of somebody. James held up a hand. "Sit down a moment and
+listen," he ordered.
+
+The sight of James and the words that this child was uttering stopped Tim
+Fisher. Puzzled, he nodded dumbly, found a chair, and sat on the front
+edge of it, poised.
+
+"The whereabouts of Mr. Maxwell is his own business and none of yours.
+Your criticism is unfounded and your suspicions unworthy. But since you
+take the attitude that this is some of your business, we don't mind
+telling you that Mr. Maxwell is in New York on business."
+
+Tim Fisher eyed the youngster. "I thought you were away at school," he
+repeated.
+
+"I heard you the first time," said James. "Obviously, I am not. Why I am
+not is Mr. Maxwell's business, not yours. And by insisting that something
+is wrong here and demanding the truth, you have placed Mrs. Bagley in the
+awkward position of having to make a decision that divides her loyalties.
+She has had the complete trust of Mr. Maxwell for almost a year and a
+half. Now, tell me, Mr. Fisher, to whom shall she remain loyal?"
+
+"That isn't the point--"
+
+"Yes, it is the point, Mr. Fisher. It is exactly the point. You're asking
+Mrs. Bagley to tell you the details of her employer's business, which is
+unethical."
+
+"How much have you heard?" demanded Fisher crossly.
+
+"Enough, at least to know what you've been hammering at."
+
+"Then you know that I've as much as said that there was some suspicion
+attached."
+
+"Suspicion of what?"
+
+"Well, why aren't you in school?"
+
+"That's Mr. Maxwell's business."
+
+"Let me tell you, youngster, it is more than your Mr. Maxwell's business.
+There are laws about education and he's breaking them."
+
+James said patiently: "The law states that every child shall receive an
+adequate education. The precise wording I do not know, but it does
+provide for schooling outside of the state school system if the parent or
+guardian so prefers, and providing that such extraschool education is
+deemed adequate by the state. Can you say that I am not properly
+educated, Mr. Fisher?"
+
+"Well, you'd hardly expect me to be an expert on the subject."
+
+"Then I'd hardly expect you to pass judgment, either," said James
+pointedly.
+
+"You're pretty--" Tim Fisher caught his tongue at the right moment. He
+felt his neck getting hot. It is hard enough to be told that you are
+off-base and that your behavior has been bad when an adult says the
+damning words. To hear the same words from a ten-year-old is unbearable.
+Right or wrong, the adult's position is to turn aside or shut the child
+up either by pulling rank or cuffing the young offender with an open
+hand. To have this upstart defend Mrs. Bagley, in whose presence he could
+hardly lash back, put Mr. Fisher in a very unhappy state of mind. He
+swallowed and then asked, lamely, "Why does he have to be so furtive?"
+
+"What is your definition of 'furtive'?" asked James calmly. "Do you
+employ the same term to describe the operations of that combination
+College-A.E.C. installation on the other side of town?"
+
+"That's secret--"
+
+"Implying that atomic energy is secretly above-board, legal, and
+honorable, whereas Mr. Maxwell's--"
+
+"But we know about atomic energy."
+
+"Sure we do," jeered James, and the sound of his immature near-treble
+voice made the jeer very close to an insult. "We know _all_ about atomic
+energy. Was the Manhattan Project called 'furtive' until Hiroshima gave
+the story away?"
+
+"You're trying to put words in my mouth," objected Tim.
+
+"No, I'm not. I'm merely trying to make you understand something
+important to everybody. You come in here and claim by the right of
+personal interest that we should be most willing to tell you our
+business. Then in the next breath you defend the installation over on the
+other side of town for their attitude in giving the bum's rush to people
+who try to ask questions about their business. Go read your Constitution,
+Mr. Fisher. It says there that I have as much right to defend my home
+against intruders as the A.E.C. has to defend their home against spies."
+
+"But I'm not intruding."
+
+James nodded his head gently. "Not," he said, "until you make the grave
+error of equating personal privacy with culpable guilt."
+
+"I didn't mean that."
+
+"You should learn to say what you mean," said James, "instead of trying
+to pry information out of someone who happens to be fond of you."
+
+"Now see here," said Tim Fisher, "I happen to be fond of her too, you
+know. Doesn't that give me some rights?"
+
+"Would you expect to know all of her business if she were your wife?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Suppose she were working in the A.E.C.-College?"
+
+"Well, that--er--"
+
+"Would be different?"
+
+"Well, now--"
+
+"I talked this right around in its circle for a purpose," said James.
+"Stop and think for a moment. Let's discuss me. Mr. Fisher, where would
+you place me in school?"
+
+"Er--how old are you?"
+
+"Nine," said James. "In April."
+
+"Well, I'm not sure--"
+
+"Exactly. Do you suppose that I could sit in a classroom among my
+nine-year-old contemporaries very long without being found out?"
+
+"Er--no--I suppose not."
+
+"Mr. Fisher, how long do you think I could remain a secret if I attended
+high school, sitting at a specially installed desk in a class among
+teenagers twice my size?"
+
+"Not very long."
+
+"Then remember that some secrets are so big that you have to have armed
+guards to keep them secret, and others are so easy to conceal that all
+you need is a rambling old house and a plausible facade."
+
+"Why have you told me all this?"
+
+"Because you have penetrated this far by your own effort, justified by
+your own personal emotions, and driven by an urge that is all-powerful if
+I am to believe the books I've read on the subject. You are told this
+much of the truth so that you won't go off half-cocked with a fine
+collection of rather dangerous untruths. Understand?"
+
+"I'm beginning to."
+
+"Well, whether Mrs. Bagley accepts your offer of marriage or not,
+remember one thing: If she were working for the A.E.C. you'd be proud of
+her, and you'd also be quite careful not to ask questions that would
+cause her embarrassment."
+
+Tim Fisher looked at Mrs. Bagley. "Well?" he asked.
+
+Mrs. Bagley looked bleak. "Please don't ask me until I've had a chance to
+discuss all of the angles with Mr. Maxwell, Tim."
+
+"Maxwell, again."
+
+"Tim," she said in a quiet voice, "remember--he's an employer, not an
+emotional involvement."
+
+James Holden looked at Tim Fisher. "And if you'll promise to keep this
+thing as close a secret as you would some information about atomic
+energy, I'll go to bed and let you settle your personal problems in
+private. Good night!"
+
+He left, reasonably satisfied that Tim Fisher would probably keep their
+secret for a time, at least. The hinted suggestion that this was as
+important a government project as the Atomic Energy Commission's works
+would prevent casual talk. There was also the slim likelihood that Tim
+Fisher might enjoy the position of being on the inside of a big secret,
+although this sort of inner superiority lacks true satisfaction. There
+was a more solid chance that Tim Fisher, being the ambitious man that he
+was, would keep their secret in the hope of acquiring for himself some
+of the superior knowledge and the advanced ability that went with it.
+
+But James was certain that the program that had worked so well with Mrs.
+Bagley would fail with Tim Fisher. James had nothing material to offer
+Tim. Tim was the kind of man who would insist upon his wife being a
+full-time wife, physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
+
+And James suddenly realized that Tim Fisher's own ambition and character
+would insist that Mrs. Bagley, with Martha, leave James Holden to take up
+residence in a home furnished by Tim Fisher upon the date and at time she
+became Mrs. Timothy Fisher.
+
+He was still thinking about the complications this would cause when he
+heard Tim leave. His clock said three-thirty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden's mechanical educator was a wonderful machine, but there
+were some aspects of knowledge that it was not equipped to impart. The
+glandular comprehension of love was one such; there were others. In all
+of his hours under the machine James had not learned how personalities
+change and grow.
+
+And yet there was a textbook case right before his eyes.
+
+In a few months, Janet Bagley had changed from a frightened and
+belligerent mother-animal to a cheerful young prospective wife. The
+importance of the change lay in the fact that it was not polar, nothing
+reversed; it was only that the emphasis passed gradually from the
+protection of the young to the development of Janet Bagley herself.
+
+James could not very well understand, though he tried, but he couldn't
+miss seeing it happen. It was worrisome. It threatened complications.
+
+There was quite a change that came with Tim Fisher's elevation in status
+from steady date to affianced husband, heightened by Tim Fisher's partial
+understanding of the situation at Martin's Hill.
+
+Then, having assumed the right to drop in as he pleased, he went on to
+assume more "rights" as Mrs. Bagley's fiance. He brought in his friends
+from time to time. Not without warning, of course, for he understood the
+need for secrecy. When he brought friends it was after warning, and very
+frequently after he had helped them to remove the traces of juvenile
+occupancy from the lower part of the house.
+
+In one way, this took some of the pressure off. The opening of the
+"hermit's" house to the friends of the "hermit's" housekeeper's fiance
+and friends was a pleasant evidence of good will; people stopped
+wondering, a little.
+
+On the other hand, James did not wholly approve. He contrasted this with
+what he remembered of his own home life. The guests who came to visit his
+mother and father were quiet and earnest. They indulged in animated
+discussions, argued points of deep reasoning, and in moments of
+relaxation they indulged in games that demanded skill and intellect.
+
+Tim Fisher's friends were noisy and boisterous. They mixed highballs.
+They danced to music played so loud that it made the house throb. They
+watched the fights on television and argued with more volume than logic.
+
+They were, to young James, a far cry from his parents' friends.
+
+But, as he couldn't do anything about it, he refused to worry about it.
+James Holden turned his thoughts forward and began to plan how he was
+going to face the culmination of this romance next September Fifteenth.
+He even suspected that there would probably be a number of knotty little
+problems that he now knew nothing about; he resolved to allow some
+thinking-time to cope with them when, as, and if.
+
+In the meantime, the summer was coming closer.
+
+He prepared to make a visible show of having Mr. Charles Maxwell leave
+for a protracted summer travel. This would ease the growing problem of
+providing solid evidence of Maxwell's presence during the increasing
+frequency of Tim Fisher's visits and the widening circle of Mrs. Bagley's
+acquaintances in Shipmont. At the same time he and Martha would make a
+return from the Bolton School for Youth. This would allow them their
+freedom for the summer; for the first time James looked forward to it.
+Martha Bagley was progressing rapidly. This summer would see her over and
+done with the scatter-brain prattle that gave equal weight to fact or
+fancy. Her store of information was growing; she could be relied upon to
+maintain a fairly secure cover. Her logic was not to James Holden's
+complete satisfaction but she accepted most of his direction as necessary
+information to be acted upon now and reasoned later.
+
+In the solving of his immediate problems, James can be forgiven for
+putting Paul Brennan out of his mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+
+But Paul Brennan was still alive, and he had not forgotten.
+
+While James was, with astonishing success, building a life for himself in
+hiding, Brennan did everything he could to find him. That is to say, he
+did everything that--under the circumstances--he could afford to do.
+
+The thing was, the boy had got clean away, without a trace.
+
+When James escaped for the third, and very successful, time, Brennan was
+helpless. James had planned well. He had learned from his first two
+efforts. The first escape was a blind run toward a predictable objective;
+all right, that was a danger to be avoided. His second was entirely
+successful--until James created his own area of danger. Another lesson
+learned.
+
+The third was planned with as much care as Napoleon's deliverance from
+the island.
+
+James had started by choosing his time. He'd waited until Easter Week.
+He'd had a solid ten days during which he would be only one of countless
+thousands of children on the streets; there would be no slight suspicion
+because he was out when others were in.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James didn't go to school that day. That was common; children in the
+lower grades are often absent, and no one asks a question until they
+return, with the proper note from the parent. He was not missed anywhere
+until the school bus that should have dropped him off did not. This was
+an area of weakness that Brennan could not plug; he could hardly justify
+the effort of delivering and fetching the lad to and from school when the
+public school bus passed the Holden home. Brennan relied upon the
+Mitchells to see James upon the bus and to check him off when he
+returned. Whether James would have been missed earlier even with a
+personal delivery is problematical; certainly James would have had to
+concoct some other scheme to gain him his hours of free time.
+
+At any rate, the first call to the school connected the Mitchells with a
+grumpy-voiced janitor who growled that teachers and principals had headed
+for their hills of freedom and wouldn't be back until Monday Week. It
+took some calling to locate a couple of James Holden's classmates who
+asserted that he hadn't been in school that day.
+
+Paul Brennan knew at once what had happened, but he could not raise an
+immediate hue-and-cry. He fretted because of the Easter Week vacation; in
+any other time the sight of a school-aged boy free during school hours
+would have caused suspicion. During Easter Week vacation, every schoolboy
+would be free. James would also be protected by his size. A youngster
+walking alone is not suspect; his folks _must_ be close by. The fact that
+it was "again" placed Paul Brennan in an undesirable position. This was
+not the youthful adventure that usually ends about three blocks from
+home. This was a repeat of the first absence during which James had been
+missing for months. People smile at the parents of the child who packs
+his little bag with a handkerchief and a candy bar to sally forth into
+the great big world, but it becomes another matter when the lad of six
+leaves home with every appearance of making it stick. So Brennan had to
+play it cozy, inviting newspaper reporters to the Holden home to display
+what he had to offer young James and giving them free rein to question
+Brennan's housekeeper and general factotum, the Mitchells. With
+honest-looking zeal, Paul Brennan succeeded in building up a picture that
+depicted James as ungrateful, hard to understand, wilful, and something
+of an intellectual brat.
+
+Then the authorities proceeded to throw out a fine-mesh dragnet. They
+questioned and cross-questioned bus drivers and railroad men. They made
+contact with the local airport even though its facilities were only used
+for a daisy-cutting feeder line. Posters were printed and sent to all
+truck lines for display to the truck drivers. The roadside diners were
+covered thoroughly. And knowing the boy's ability to talk convincingly,
+the authorities even went so far as to try the awesome project of making
+contact with passengers bound out-of-town with young male children in
+tow.
+
+Had James given them no previous experience to think about, he would have
+been merely considered a missing child and not a deliberate runaway.
+Then, instead of dragging down all of the known avenues of standard
+escape, the townspeople would have organized a tree-by-tree search of the
+fields and woods with hundreds of men walking hand in hand to inspect
+every square foot of the ground for either tracks or the child himself.
+But the _modus operandi_ of young James Holden had been to apply sly
+touches such as writing letters and forging signatures of adults to
+cause the unquestioned sale of railroad tickets, or the unauthorized ride
+in the side-door Pullman.
+
+Therefore, while the authorities were extending their circle of search
+based upon the velocity of modern transportation, James Holden was making
+his slow way across field and stream, guided by a Boy Scout compass and a
+U.S. Geodetic Survey map to keep him well out of the reach of roadway or
+town. With difficulty, but with dogged determination, he carried a light
+cot-blanket into which he had rolled four cans of pork and beans. He had
+a Boy Scout knife and a small pair of pliers to open it with. He had
+matches. He had the Boy Scout Handbook which was doubly useful; the pages
+devoted to woodsman's lore he kept for reference, the pages wasted on the
+qualifications for merit badges he used to start fires. He enjoyed
+sleeping in the open because it was spring and pleasantly warm, and
+because the Boy Scout Manual said that camping out was fun.
+
+A grown man with an objective can cover thirty or forty miles per day
+without tiring. James made it ten to fifteen. Thus, by the time the
+organized search petered out for lack of evidence and manpower--try
+asking one question of everybody within a hundred-mile radius--James was
+quietly making his way, free of care, like a hardy pioneer looking for a
+homestead site.
+
+The hint of kidnap went out early. The Federal Bureau of Investigation,
+of course, could not move until the waiting period was ended, but they
+did collect information and set up their organization ready to move
+into high speed at the instant of legal time. But then no ransom letter
+came; no evidence of the crime of kidnapping. This did not close the
+case; there were other cases on record where a child was stolen by adults
+for purposes other than ransom. It was not very likely that a child of
+six would be stolen by a neurotic adult to replace a lost infant, and
+Paul Brennan was personally convinced that James Holden had enough
+self-reliance to make such a kidnap attempt fail rather early in the
+game. He could hardly say so, nor could he suggest that James had indeed
+run away deliberately and skilfully, and with planned steps worthy of a
+much older person. He could only hint and urge the F.B.I. into any action
+that he could coerce them into taking; he did not care how or who brought
+James back just so long as the child was returned to his custody.
+
+Then as the days wore into weeks with no sign, the files were placed
+in the inactive drawer. Paul Brennan made contact with a few private
+agencies.
+
+He was stopped here, again, by another angle. The Holdens were by no
+means wealthy. Brennan could not justify the offer of some reward so
+large that people simply could not turn down the slim chance of
+collecting. If the missing one is heir to a couple of million dollars,
+the trustees can justify a reward of a good many thousand dollars for his
+return. The amount that Brennan was prepared to offer could not compel
+the services of a private agency on a full-time basis. The best and the
+most interested of the agencies took the case on a contingent basis; if
+something turned their way in the due course of their work they'd
+immediately take steps. Solving the case of a complete disappearance on
+the part of a child who virtually vanished into thin air would be good
+advertising, but their advertising budget would not allow them to put one
+man on the case without the first shred of evidence to point the way.
+
+If Paul Brennan had been above-board, he could have evoked a lot of
+interest. The search for a six-year-old boy with the educational
+development of a youth of about eighteen, informed through the services
+of an electromechanical device, would have fired public interest,
+Government intervention, and would also have justified Paul Brennan's
+depth of interest. But Paul Brennan could say nothing about the excellent
+training, he could only hint at James Holden's mental proficiency which
+was backed up by the boy's school record. As it was, Paul Brennan's
+most frightful nightmare was one where young James was spotted by some
+eagle-eyed detective and then in desperation--anything being better than
+an enforced return to Paul Brennan--James Holden pulled out all the stops
+and showed everybody precisely how well educated he really was.
+
+In his own affairs, Paul still had to make a living, which took up his
+time. As guardian and trustee of the Holden Estate, he was responsible to
+the State for his handling of James Holden's inheritance. The State takes
+a sensible view of the disbursements of the inheritance of a minor.
+Reasonable sums may be spent on items hardly deemed necessities to the
+average person, but the ceiling called "reasonable" is a flexible term
+and subject to close scrutiny by the State.
+
+In the long run it was Paul Brennan's own indefensible position that made
+it impossible to prosecute a proper search for the missing James Holden.
+Brennan suspected James of building up a bank account under some false
+name, but he could not saunter into banks and ask to examine their
+records without a Court order. Brennan knew that James had not taken off
+without preparation, but the examination of the stuff that James left
+behind was not very informative. There was a small blanket missing and
+Mrs. Mitchell said that it looked as though some cans had been removed
+from the stock but she could not be sure. And in a large collection of
+boy's stuff, one would not observe the absence of a Boy Scout knife and
+other trivia. Had a 100% inventory been available, the list of missing
+items would have pointed out James Holden's avenue of escape.
+
+The search for an adult would have included questioning of banks. No one
+knows whether such a questioning would have uncovered the bank-by-mail
+routine conducted under the name of Charles Maxwell. It is not a regular
+thing, but the receipt of a check drawn on a New York bank, issued by a
+publishing company, and endorsed to be paid to the account of so-and-so,
+accompanied by a request to open an account in that name might never be
+connected with the manipulations of a six-year-old genius, who was
+overtly just plain bright.
+
+And so Paul Brennan worried himself out of several pounds for fear
+that James would give himself away to the right people. He cursed the
+necessity of keeping up his daily work routine. The hue-and-cry he could
+not keep alive, but he knew that somewhere there was a young boy entirely
+capable of reconstructing the whole machine that Paul Brennan wanted so
+desperately that he had killed for it.
+
+Paul Brennan was blocked cold. With the F.B.I. maintaining a hands-off
+attitude because there was no trace of any Federal crime involved, the
+case of James Holden was relegated to the missing-persons files. It
+became the official opinion that the lad had suffered some mishap and
+that it would only be a matter of time before his body was discovered.
+Paul Brennan could hardly prove them wrong without explaining the whole
+secret of James Holden's intelligence, competence, and the certainty that
+the young man would improve upon both as soon as he succeeded in
+rebuilding the Holden Electromechanical Educator.
+
+With the F.B.I. out of the picture, the local authorities waiting for the
+discovery of a small body, and the state authorities shelving the case
+except for the routine punch-card checks, official action died. Brennan's
+available reward money was not enough to buy a private agency's interest
+full-time.
+
+Brennan could not afford to tell anybody of his suspicion of James
+Holden's source of income, for the idea of a child's making a living by
+writing would be indefensible without full explanation. However, Paul
+Brennan resorted to reading of magazines edited for boys. Month after
+month he bought them and read them, comparing the styles of the many
+writers against the style of the manuscript copy left behind by James.
+
+Brennan naturally assumed that James would use a pen name. Writers often
+used pen names to conceal their own identity for any one of several
+reasons. A writer might use three or more pen names, each one identified
+with a known style of writing, or a certain subject or established
+character. But Paul Brennan did not know all there was to know about the
+pen-name business, such as an editor assigning a pen name to prevent the
+too-often appearance of some prolific writer, or conversely to make one
+writer's name seem exclusive with his magazine; nor could Brennan know
+that a writer's literary standing can be kept high by assigning a pen
+name to any second-rate material he may be so unfortunate as to turn out.
+
+Paul Brennan read many stories written by James Holden under several
+names, including the name of Charles Maxwell, but Brennan's
+identification according to literary style was no better than if he had
+tossed a coin.
+
+And so, blocked by his own guilt and avarice from making use of the legal
+avenues of approach, Paul Brennan fumed and fretted away four long years
+while James Holden grew from six to ten years old, hiding under the guise
+of the Hermit of Martin's Hill and behind the pleasant adult facade of
+Mrs. Janet Bagley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+
+If Paul Brennan found himself blocked in his efforts to find James Holden
+and the re-created Holden Educator, James himself was annoyed by one
+evident fact: Everything he did resulted in spreading the news of the
+machine itself.
+
+Had he been eighteen or so, he might have made out to his own taste. In
+the days of late teen-age, a youth can hold a job and rent a room, buy
+his own clothing and conduct himself to the limit of his ability. At ten
+he is suspect, because no one will permit him to paddle his own canoe. At
+a later age James could have rented a small apartment and built his
+machine alone. But starting as young as he did, he was forced to hide
+behind the cover of some adult, and he had picked Mrs. Bagley because he
+could control her both through her desire for security and the promise of
+a fine education for the daughter Martha Bagley.
+
+The daughter was a two-way necessity; she provided him with a
+contemporary companion and also gave him a lever to wield against the
+adult. A lone woman could have made her way without trouble. A lone woman
+with a girl-child is up against a rather horrifying problem of providing
+both support and parental care. He felt that he had done what he had to
+do, up to the point where Mrs. Bagley became involved with Tim Fisher or
+anybody else. This part of adulthood was not yet within his grasp.
+
+But there it was and here it is, and now there was Martha to complicate
+the picture. Had Mrs. Bagley been alone, she and Tim could go off and
+marry and then settle down in Timbuctoo if they wanted to. But not with
+Martha. She was in the same intellectual kettle of sardines as James. Her
+taste in education was by no means the same. She took to the mathematical
+subjects indifferently, absorbing them well enough--once she could be
+talked into spending the couple of hours that each day demanded--but
+without interest. Martha could rattle off quotations from literary
+masters, she could follow the score of most operas (her voice was a bit
+off-key but she knew what was going on) and she enjoyed all of the
+available information on keeping a house in order. Her eye and her mind
+were, as James Holden's, faster than her hand. She went through the same
+frustrations as he did, with different tools and in a different medium.
+The first offside snick of the scissors she knew to be bad before she
+tried the pattern for size, and the only way she could correct such
+defective work was to practice and practice until her muscles were
+trained enough to respond to the direction of her mind.
+
+Remove her now and place her in a school--even the most advanced
+school--and she would undergo the unhappy treatment that James had
+undergone these several years ago.
+
+And yet she could not be cut loose. Martha was as much a part of this
+very strange life as James was. So this meant that any revision in
+overall policy must necessarily include the addition of Tim Fisher and
+not the subtraction of Mrs. Bagley and Martha.
+
+"Charles Maxwell" had to go.
+
+James's problem had not changed. His machine must be kept a secret as
+long as he could. The machine was his, James Quincy Holden's property by
+every known and unwritten legal right of direct, single, uncluttered
+inheritance. The work of his parents had been stopped by their death, but
+it was by no means finished with the construction of the machine. To the
+contrary, the real work had only begun with the completion of the first
+working model. And whether he turned out to be a machine-made genius, an
+over-powered dolt, or an introverted monster it was still his own
+personal reason for being alive.
+
+He alone should reap the benefit or the sorrow, and had his parents lived
+they would have had their right to reap good or bad with him. Good or
+bad, had they lived, he would have received their protection.
+
+As it was, he had no protection whatsoever. Until he could have and hold
+the right to control his own property as he himself saw fit, he had to
+hide just as deep from the enemy who would steal it as he must hide from
+the friend who would administrate it as a property in escrow for his own
+good, since he as a minor was legally unable to walk a path both fitting
+and proper for his feet.
+
+So, the facts had to be concealed. Yet all he was buying was time.
+
+By careful juggling, he had already bought some. Months with Jake Caslow,
+a few months stolidly fighting the school, and two with the help of Mrs.
+Bagley and Martha. Then in these later months there had been more
+purchased time; time gained by the post-dated engagement and the
+procrastinated marriage, which was now running out.
+
+No matter what he did, it seemed that the result was a wider spread of
+knowledge about the Holden Electromechanical Educator.
+
+So with misgiving and yet unaware of any way or means to circumvent the
+necessity without doing more overall harm, James decided that Tim Fisher
+must be handed another piece of the secret. A plausible piece, with as
+much truth as he would accept for the time being. Maybe--hand Tim Fisher
+a bit with great gesture and he would not go prying for the whole?
+
+His chance came in mid-August. It was after dinner on an evening
+uncluttered with party or shower or the horde of just-dropped-in-friends
+of whom Tim Fisher had legion.
+
+Janet Bagley and Tim Fisher sat on the low divan in the living room
+half-facing each other. Apart, but just so far apart that they could
+touch with half a gesture, they were discussing the problem of domicile.
+They were also still quibbling mildly about the honeymoon. Tim Fisher
+wanted a short, noisy one. A ten-day stay in Hawaii, flying both ways,
+with a ten-hour stopover in Los Angeles on the way back. Janet Bagley
+wanted a long and lazy stay somewhere no closer than fifteen hundred
+miles to the nearest telephone, newspaper, mailbox, airline, bus stop, or
+highway. She'd take the 762-day rocket trip to Venus if they had one
+available. Tim was duly sympathetic to her desire to get away from her
+daily grind for as long a time as possible, but he also had a garage to
+run, and he was by no means incapable of pointing out the practical side
+of crass commercialism.
+
+But unlike the problem of the honeymoon, which Janet Bagley was willing
+to discuss on any terms for the pleasure of discussing it, the problem of
+domicile had been avoided--to the degree of being pointed.
+
+For Janet Bagley was still torn between two loyalties. Hers was not
+a lone loyalty to James Holden, there had been almost a complete
+association with the future of her daughter in the loyalty. She realized
+as well as James did, that Martha must not be wrested from this life and
+forced to live, forever an outcast, raised mentally above the level of
+her age and below the physical size of her mental development. Mrs.
+Bagley thought only of Martha's future; she gave little or no thought on
+the secondary part of the problem. But James knew that once Martha was
+separated from the establishment, she could not long conceal her advanced
+information, and revealing that would reveal its source.
+
+And so, as they talked together with soft voices, James Holden decided
+that he could best buy time by employing logic, finance, and good common
+sense. He walked into the living room and sat across the coffee table
+from them. He said, "You'll have to live here, you know."
+
+The abrupt statement stunned them both. Tim sat bolt upright and
+objected, "I'll see to it that we're properly housed, young fellow."
+
+"This isn't charity," replied James. "Nor the goodness of my little
+heart. It's a necessity."
+
+"How so?" demanded Tim crossly. "It's my life--and Janet's."
+
+"And--Martha's life," added James.
+
+"You don't think I'm including her out, do you?"
+
+"No, but you're forgetting that she isn't to be popped here and there as
+the fancy hits you, either. She's much to be considered."
+
+"I'll consider her," snapped Tim. "She shall be my daughter. If she will,
+I'll have her use my name as well as my care and affection."
+
+"Of course you will," agreed James. The quick gesture of Mrs. Bagley's
+hand towards Tim, and his equally swift caress in reply were noticed but
+not understood by James. "But you're not thinking deeply enough about
+it."
+
+"All right. You tell me all about it."
+
+"Martha must stay here," said James. "Neither of you--nor Martha--have
+any idea of how stultifying it can be to be forced into school under the
+supervision of teachers who cannot understand, and among classmates
+whose grasp of any subject is no stronger than a feeble grope in the
+mental dawn."
+
+"Maybe so. But that's no reason why we must run our life your way."
+
+"You're wrong, Mr. Fisher. Think a moment. Without hesitation, you will
+include the education of Martha Bagley along with the 'care and
+affection' you mentioned a moment ago."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"This means, Mr. Fisher, that Martha, approaching ten years old,
+represents a responsibility of about seven more years prior to her
+graduation from high school and another four years of college--granting
+that Martha is a standard, normal, healthy young lady. Am I right?"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"Well, since you are happy and willing to take on the responsibility of
+eleven years of care and affection and the expense of schooling the girl,
+you might as well take advantage of the possibilities here and figure on
+five years--or less. If we cannot give her the equal of a master's degree
+in three, I'm shooting in the dark. Make it five, and she'll have her
+doctor's degree--or at least it's equivalent. Does that make sense?"
+
+"Of course it does. But--"
+
+"No buts until we're finished. You'll recall the tales we told you about
+the necessity of hiding out. It must continue. During the school year we
+must not be visible to the general public."
+
+"But dammit, I don't want to set up my family in someone else's house,"
+objected Tim Fisher.
+
+"Buy this one," suggested James. "Then it will be yours. I'll stay on and
+pay rent on my section."
+
+"You'll--now wait a minute! What are you talking about?"
+
+"I said, _'I'll pay rent on my section,'_" said James.
+
+"But this guy upstairs--" Tim took a long breath. "Let's get this
+straight," he said, "now that we're on the subject, what about Mr.
+Charles Maxwell?"
+
+"I can best quote," said James with a smile, "'Oh, what a tangled web we
+weave, when first we practice to deceive!'"
+
+"That's Shakespeare."
+
+"Sorry. That's Sir Walter Scott. _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_. Canto
+Six, Stanza Seventeen. The fact of the matter is that we could go on
+compounding this lie, but it's time to stop it. Mr. Charles Maxwell
+does not exist."
+
+"I don't understand!"
+
+"Hasn't it puzzled you that this hermit-type character that never puts a
+foot out of the house has been out and gone on some unstated vacation or
+business trip for most of the spring and summer?"
+
+"Hadn't given it a thought," said Fisher with a fatuous look at Mrs.
+Bagley. She mooned back at him. For a moment they were lost in one
+another, giving proof to the idea that blinder than he who will not
+see is the fellow who has his eye on a woman.
+
+"Charles Maxwell does not exist except in the minds of his happy
+readers," said James. "He is a famous writer of boys' stories and known
+to a lot of people for that talent. Yet he is no more a real person
+than Lewis Carroll."
+
+"But Lewis Carroll did exist--"
+
+"As Charles L. Dodgson, a mathematician famous for his work in symbolic
+logic."
+
+"All right! Then who writes these stories? Who supports you--and this
+house?"
+
+"I do!"
+
+Tim blinked, looked around the room a bit wildly and then settled on
+Martha, looking at her helplessly.
+
+"It's true, Tim," she said quietly. "It's crazy but it works. I've been
+living with it for years."
+
+Tim considered that for a full minute. "All right," he said shortly. "So
+it works. But why does any kid have to live for himself?" He eyed James.
+"Who's responsible for you?"
+
+"I am!"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Got an hour?" asked James with a smile. "Then listen--"
+
+At the end of James Holden's long explanation, Tim Fisher said, "Me--?
+Now, I need a drink!"
+
+James chuckled, "Alcoholic, of course--which is Pi to seven decimal
+places if you ever need it. Just count the letters."
+
+Over his glass, Tim eyed James thoughtfully. "So if this is true, James,
+just who owns that fabulous machine of yours?"
+
+"It is mine, or ours."
+
+"You gave me to believe that it was a high-priority Government project,"
+he said accusingly.
+
+"Sorry. But I would lie as glibly to God Himself if it became necessary
+to protect myself by falsehood. I'm sorry it isn't a Government project,
+but it's just as important a secret."
+
+"Anything as big as this _should_ be the business of the Government."
+
+"Perhaps so. But it's mine to keep or to give, and it's mine to study."
+James was thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose that you can argue that
+anything as important as this should be handed over to the authorities
+immediately; that a large group of men dedicated to such a study can
+locate its difficulties and its pitfalls and failures far swifter than
+a single youth of eleven. Yet by the right of invention, a process
+protected by the Constitution of the United States and circumvented by
+some very odd rulings on the part of the Supreme Court, it is mine by
+inheritance, to reap the exclusive rewards for my family's work. Until
+I'm of an age when I am deemed capable of managing my own life, I'd be
+'protected' out of my rights if I handed this to anybody--including the
+Government. They'd start a commission full of bureaucrats who'd first
+use the machine to study how to best expand their own little empire,
+perpetuate themselves in office, and then they'd rule me out on the
+quaint theory that education is so important that it mustn't be wasted
+on the young."
+
+Tim Fisher smiled wryly. He turned to Janet Bagley. "How do you want it?"
+he asked her.
+
+"For Martha's sake, I want it his way," she said.
+
+"All right. Then that's the way we'll have it," said Tim Fisher. He eyed
+James somewhat ruefully. "You know, it's a funny thing. I've always
+thought this was a screwy set-up, and to be honest, I've always thought
+you were a pretty bumptious kid. I guess you had a good reason. Anyway, I
+should have known Janet wouldn't have played along with it unless she had
+a reason that was really helping somebody."
+
+James saw with relief that Tim had allied himself with the cause; he was,
+in fact, very glad to have someone knowledgeable and levelheaded in on
+the problem. Anyway he really liked Tim, and was happy to have the
+deception out of the way.
+
+"That's all right," he said awkwardly.
+
+Tim laughed. "Hey, will this contraption of yours teach me how to adjust
+a set of tappets?"
+
+"No," said James quickly. "It will teach you the theory of how to chop
+down a tree but it can't show you how to swing an axe. Or," he went on
+with a smile, "it will teach you how to be an efficient accountant--but
+you have to use your own money!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the house on Martin's Hill, everybody won. Tim Fisher objected at
+first to the idea of gallivanting off on a protracted honeymoon, leaving
+a nine-year-old daughter in the care of a ten-year-old boy. But
+Janet--now Mrs. Fisher--pointed out that James and Martha were both quite
+competent, and furthermore there was little to be said for a honeymoon
+encumbered with a little pitcher that had such big ears, to say nothing
+of a pair of extremely curious eyes and a rather loud voice. And
+furthermore, if we allow the woman's privilege of adding one furthermore
+on top of another, it had been a long, long time since Janet had enjoyed
+a child-free vacation. So she won. It was not Hawaii by air for a ten-day
+stay. It was Hawaii by ship with a sixty-day sojourn in a hotel that
+offered both seclusion and company to the guests' immediate preference.
+
+James Holden won more time. He felt that every hour was a victory. At
+times he despaired because time passed so crawlingly slow. All the wealth
+of his education could not diminish that odd sense of the time-factor
+that convinces all people that the length of the years diminish as age
+increases. Far from being a simple, amusing remark, the problem has been
+studied because it is universal. It is psychological, of course, and it
+is not hard to explain simply in terms of human experience plus the known
+fact that the human senses respond to the logarithm of the stimulus.
+
+With most people, time is reasonably important. We live by the clock, and
+we die by the clock, and before there were clocks there were candles
+marked in lengths and sand flowing through narrow orifices, water
+dripping into jars, and posts stuck in the ground with marks for the
+shadow to divide the day. The ancient ones related womanhood to the moon
+and understood that time was vital in the course of Life.
+
+With James, time was more important, perhaps, than to any other human
+being alive. He was fighting for time, always. His was not the immature
+desire of uneducated youth to become adult overnight for vague reasons.
+
+With James it was an honest evaluation of his precarious position. He
+had to hide until he was deemed capable of handling his own affairs,
+after which he could fight his own battles in his own way without the
+interference of the laws that are set up to protect the immature.
+
+With Tim Fisher and his brand-new bride out of the way, James took a deep
+breath at having leaped one more hurdle. Then he sat down to think.
+
+Obviously there is no great sea-change that takes place at the Stroke Of
+Midnight on the date of the person's 21st birthday; no magic wand is
+waved over his scalp to convert him in a moment of time from a puling
+infant to a mature adult. The growth of child to adult is as gradual as
+the increase of his stature, which varies from one child to the next.
+
+The fact remained that few people are confronted by the necessity of
+making a decision based upon the precise age of the subject. We usually
+cross this barrier with no trouble, taking on our rights and
+responsibilities as we find them necessary to our life. Only in probating
+an estate left by the demise of both parents in the presence of minor
+children does this legal matter of precise age become noticeable. Even
+then, the control exerted over the minor by the legal guardian diminishes
+by some obscure mathematical proportion that approaches zero as the minor
+approaches the legal age of maturity. Rare is the case of the reluctant
+guardian who jealously relinquishes the iron rule only after the proper
+litigation directs him to let go, render the accounting for audit, and
+turn over the keys to the treasury to the rightful heir.
+
+James Holden was the seldom case. James Holden needed a very adroit
+lawyer to tell him how and when his rights and privileges as a citizen
+could be granted, and under what circumstances. From the evidence already
+at hand, James saw loopholes available in the matter of the legal age of
+twenty-one. But he also knew that he could not approach a lawyer with
+questions without giving full explanation of every why and wherefore.
+
+So James Holden, already quite competent in the do-it-himself method of
+cutting his own ice, decided to study law. Without any forewarning of the
+monumental proportions of the task he faced, James started to acquire
+books on legal procedure and the law.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With the return of Tim and Janet Fisher matters progressed well. Mrs.
+Fisher took over the running of the household; Tim continued his running
+of the garage and started to dicker for the purchase of the house on
+Martin's Hill. The "Hermit" who had returned before the wedding remained
+temporarily. With a long-drawn plan, Charles Maxwell would slowly fade
+out of sight. Already his absence during the summer was hinting as being
+a medical study; during the winter he would return to the distant
+hospital. Later he would leave completely cured to take up residence
+elsewhere. Beyond this they planned to play it by ear.
+
+James and Martha, freed from the housework routine, went deep into study.
+
+Christmas passed and spring came and in April, James marked his eleventh
+birthday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+
+One important item continued to elude James Holden. The Educator could
+not be made to work in "tandem." In less technical terms, the Educator
+was strictly an individual device, a one-man-dog. The wave forms that
+could be recorded were as individual as fingerprints and pore-patterns
+and iris markings. James could record a series of ideas or a few pages of
+information and play them back to himself. During the playback he could
+think in no other terms; he could not even correct, edit or improve the
+phrasing. It came back word for word with the faithful reproduction of
+absolute fidelity. Similarly, Martha could record a phase of information
+and she, too, underwent the same repetition when her recording was played
+back to her.
+
+But if Martha's recording were played through to James, utter confusion
+came. It was a whirling maze of colors and odors, sound, taste and touch.
+
+It spoiled some of James Holden's hopes; he sought the way to mass-use,
+his plan was to employ a teacher to digest the information and then via
+the Educator, impress the information upon many other brains each coupled
+to the machine. This would not work.
+
+He made an extra headset late in June and they tried it, sitting
+side-by-side and still it did not work. With Martha doing the reading,
+she got the full benefit of the machine and James emerged with a whirling
+head full of riotous colors and other sensations. At one point he hoped
+that they might learn some subject by sitting side-by-side and reading
+the text in unison, but from this they received the information horribly
+mingled with equal intensity of sensory noise.
+
+He did not abandon this hope completely. He merely put it aside as a
+problem that he was not ready to study yet. He would re-open the question
+when he knew more about the whole process. To know the whole process
+meant studying many fields of knowledge and combining them into a
+research of his own.
+
+And so James entered the summer months as he'd entered them before; Tim
+and Janet Fisher took off one day and returned the next afternoon with a
+great gay show of "bringing the children home for the summer."
+
+Even in this day of multi-billion-dollar budgets and farm surpluses that
+cost forty thousand dollars per hour for warehouse rental, twenty-five
+hundred dollars is still a tidy sum to dangle before the eyes of any
+individual. This was the reward offered by Paul Brennan for any
+information as to the whereabouts of James Quincy Holden.
+
+If Paul Brennan could have been honest, the information he could have
+supplied would have provided any of the better agencies with enough
+lead-material to track James Holden down in a time short enough to make
+the reward money worth the effort. Similarly, if James Holden's
+competence had been no greater than Brennan's scaled-down description,
+he could not have made his own way without being discovered.
+
+Bound by his own guilt, Brennan could only fret. Everything including
+time, was running against him.
+
+And as the years of James Holden's independence looked toward the sixth,
+Paul Brennan was willing to make a mental bet that the young man's
+education was deeper than ever.
+
+He would have won. James was close to his dream of making his play for an
+appearance in court and pleading for the law to recognize his competence
+to act as an adult. He abandoned all pretense; he no longer hid through
+the winter months, and he did not keep Martha under cover either. They
+went shopping with Mrs. Fisher now and then, and if any of the folks in
+Shipmont wondered about them, the fact that the children were in the care
+and keeping of responsible adults and were oh-so-quick on the uptake
+stopped anybody who might have made a fast call to the truant officer.
+
+Then in the spring of James Holden's twelfth year and the sixth of
+his freedom, he said to Tim Fisher. "How would you like to collect
+twenty-five hundred dollars?"
+
+Fisher grinned. "Who do you want killed?"
+
+"Seriously."
+
+"Who wouldn't?"
+
+"All right, drop the word to Paul Brennan and collect the reward."
+
+"Can you protect yourself?"
+
+"I can quote Gladstone from one end to the other. I can cite every civil
+suit regarding the majority or minority problem that has any importance.
+If I fail, I'll skin out of there in a hurry on the next train. But I
+can't wait forever."
+
+"What's the gimmick, James?"
+
+"First, I am sick and tired of running and hiding, and I think I've got
+enough to prove my point and establish my rights. Second, there is a bit
+of cupidity here; the reward money is being offered out of my own
+inheritance so I feel that I should have some say in where it should go.
+Third, the fact that I steer it into the hands of someone I'd prefer to
+get it tickles my sense of humor. The trapper trapped; the bopper bopped;
+the sapper hoist by his own petard."
+
+"And--?"
+
+"It isn't fair to Martha, either. So the sooner we get this whole affair
+settled, the sooner we can start to move towards a reasonable way of
+life."
+
+"Okay, but how are we going to work it? I can't very well turn up by
+myself, you know."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"People would think I'm a heel."
+
+"Let them think so. They'll change their opinion once the whole truth is
+known." James smiled. "It'll also let you know who your true friends
+are."
+
+"Okay. Twenty-five hundred bucks and a chance at the last laugh sounds
+good. I'll talk it over with Janet."
+
+That night they buried Charles Maxwell, the Hermit of Martin's Hill.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THREE:
+
+THE REBEL
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+
+In his years of searching, Paul Brennan had followed eleven fruitless
+leads. It had cost him over thirteen hundred dollars and he was prepared
+to go on and on until he located James Holden, no matter how much it
+took. He fretted under two fears, one that James had indeed suffered a
+mishap, and the other that James might reveal his secret in a dramatic
+announcement, or be discovered by some force or agency that would place
+the whole process in hands that Paul Brennan could not reach.
+
+The registered letter from Tim Fisher culminated this six years of
+frantic search. Unlike the previous leads, this spoke with authority,
+named names, gave dates, and outlined sketchily but adequately the
+operations of the young man in very plausible prose. Then the letter went
+on in the manner of a man with his foot in a cleft stick; the writer did
+not approve of James Holden's operations since they involved his wife and
+newly-adopted daughter, but since wife and daughter were fond of James
+Holden, the writer could not make any overt move to rid his household of
+the interfering young man. Paul Brennan was asked to move with caution
+and in utter secrecy, even to sending the reward in cash to a special
+post-office box.
+
+Paul Brennan's reaction was a disappointment to himself. He neither felt
+great relief nor the desire to exult. He found himself assaying his own
+calmness and wondering why he lacked emotion over this culmination of so
+many years of futile effort. He re-read the letter carefully to see if
+there were something hidden in the words that his subconscious had
+caught, but he found nothing that gave him any reason to believe that
+this letter was a false lead. It rang true; Brennan could understand Tim
+Fisher's stated reaction and the man's desire to collect. Brennan even
+suspected that Fisher might use the reward money for his own private
+purpose.
+
+It was not until he read the letter for the third time that he saw the
+suggestion to move with caution and secrecy not as its stated request to
+protect the writer, but as an excellent advice for his own guidance.
+
+And then Paul Brennan realized that for six years he had been
+concentrating upon the single problem of having James Holden returned to
+his custody, and in that concentration he had lost sight of the more
+important problem of achieving his true purpose of gaining control of the
+Holden Educator. The letter had not been the end of a long quest, but
+just the signal to start.
+
+Paul Brennan of course did not give a fig for the Holden Estate nor the
+welfare of James. His only interest was in the machine, and the secret of
+that machine was locked in the young man's mind and would stay that way
+unless James could be coerced into revealing it. The secret indubitably
+existed as hardware in the machine rebuilt in the house on Martin's Hill,
+but Brennan guessed that any sight of him would cause James to repeat his
+job of destruction. Brennan also envisioned a self-destructive device
+that would addle the heart of the machine at the touch of a button,
+perhaps booby-traps fitted like burglar alarms that would ruin the
+machine at the first touch of an untrained hand.
+
+Brennan's mind began to work. He must plan his moves carefully to acquire
+the machine by stealth. He toyed with the idea of murder and rejected it
+as too dangerous to chance a repeat, especially in view of the existence
+of the rebuilt machine.
+
+Brennan read the letter again. It gave him to think. James had obviously
+succeeded in keeping his secret by imparting it to a few people that he
+could either trust or bind to him, perhaps with the offer of education
+via the machine, which James and only James maintained in hiding could
+provide. Brennan could not estimate the extent of James Holden's
+knowledge but it was obvious that he was capable of some extremely
+intelligent planning. He was willing to grant the boy the likelihood of
+being the equal of a long and experienced campaigner, and the fact that
+James was in the favor of Tim Fisher's wife and daughter meant that the
+lad would be able to call upon them for additional advice. Brennan
+counted the daughter Martha in this planning program, most certainly
+James would have given the girl an extensive education, too. Everything
+added up, even to Tim Fisher's resentment.
+
+But there was not time to ponder over the efficiency of James Holden's
+operations. It was time for Paul Brennan to cope, and it seemed sensible
+to face the fact that Paul Brennan alone could not plot the illegal
+grab of the Holden Educator and at the same time masquerade as the
+deeply-concerned loving guardian. He could label James Holden's little
+group as an organization, and if he was to combat this organization he
+needed one himself.
+
+Paul Brennan began to form a mental outline of his requirements. First he
+had to figure out the angle at which to make his attack. Once he knew the
+legal angle, then he could find ruthless men in the proper position of
+authority whose ambitions he could control. He regretted that the elder
+Holden had not allowed him to study civil and criminal law along with his
+courses in real estate and corporate law. As it was, Brennan was unsure
+of his legal rights, and he could not plan until he had researched the
+problem most thoroughly.
+
+To his complete surprise, Paul Brennan discovered that there was no law
+that would stay an infant from picking up his marbles and leaving home.
+So long as the minor did not become a ward of responsibility of the
+State, his freedom was as inviolable as the freedom of any adult. The
+universal interest in missing-persons cases is overdrawn because of their
+dramatic appeal. In every case that comes to important notice, the
+missing person has left some important responsibilities that had to be
+satisfied. A person with no moral, legal, or ethical anchor has every
+right to pack his suitcase and catch the next conveyance for parts
+unknown. If he is found by the authorities after an appeal by friends or
+relatives, the missing party can tell the police that, Yes he did leave
+home and, No he isn't returning and, furthermore he does not wish his
+whereabouts made known; and all the authorities can report is that the
+missing one is hale, happy, and hearty and wants to stay missing.
+
+Under the law, a minor is a minor and there is no proposition that
+divides one degree of minority from another. Major decisions, such as
+voting, the signing of binding contracts of importance, the determination
+of a course of drastic medical treatment, are deemed to be matters that
+require mature judgment. The age for such decisions is arbitrarily set at
+age twenty-one. Acts such as driving a car, sawing a plank, or buying
+food and clothing are considered to be "skills" that do not require
+judgment and therefore the age of demarcation varies with the state and
+the state legislature's attitude.
+
+James was a minor; presumably he could repudiate contracts signed while a
+minor, at the time he reached the age of twenty-one. From a practical
+standpoint, however, anything that James contracted for was expendable
+and of vital necessity. He could not stop payment on a check for his
+rent, nor claim that he had not received proper payment for his stories
+and demand damages. Paul Brennan might possibly interfere with the smooth
+operation by squawking to the bank that Charles Maxwell was a phantom
+front for the minor child James Holden. And bankers, being bankers, might
+very well clog up the operation with a lot of questions. But there was
+the possibility that James Holden, operating through the agency of an
+adult, would switch his method. He could even go so far as to bring
+Brennan to lawsuit to have Brennan stopped from his interference. Child
+or not, James Holden had been running a checking account by mail for a
+number of years which could be used as evidence of his good faith and
+ability.
+
+Indeed, the position of James Holden was so solid that Brennan could only
+plead personal interest and personal responsibility in the case for
+securing a writ of habeas corpus to have the person of James Holden
+returned to his custody and protection. And this of itself was a bit on
+the dangerous side. A writ of habeas corpus will, by law, cause the
+delivery of the person to the right hands, but there is no part of the
+writ that can be used to guarantee that the person will remain
+thereafter. If Brennan tried to repeat this program, James Holden was
+very apt to suggest either the rather rare case of Barratry or
+Maintenance against Brennan. Barratry consists of the constant harassment
+of a citizen by the serial entry of lawsuit after lawsuit against him,
+each of which he must defend to the loss of time and money--and the tying
+up of courts and their officials. Maintenance is the re-opening of the
+same suit and its charges time after time in court after court. One need
+only be sure of the attitude of the plaintiff to strike back; if he is
+interested in heckling the defendant and this can be demonstrated in
+evidence, the heckler is a dead duck. Such a response would surely damage
+Paul Brennan's overt position as a responsible, interested, affectionate
+guardian of his best friends' orphaned child.
+
+Then to put the top on the bottle, James Holden had crossed state lines
+in his flight from home. This meant that the case was not the simple
+proposition of appearing before a local magistrate and filing an
+emotional appeal. It was interstate. It smacked of extradition, and James
+Holden had committed no crime in either state.
+
+To Paul Brennan's qualifications for his henchmen, he now added the need
+for flouting the law if the law could not be warped to fit his need.
+
+Finding a man with ambition, with a casual disregard for ethics, is not
+hard in political circles. Paul Brennan found his man in Frank Manison,
+a rising figure in the office of the District Attorney. Manison had
+gubernatorial ambitions, and he was politically sharp. He personally
+conducted only those cases that would give him ironclad publicity; he
+preferred to lower the boom on a lighter charge than chance an acquittal.
+Manison also had a fine feeling for anticipating public trends, a sense
+of the drama, and an understanding of public opinion.
+
+He granted Brennan a conference of ten minutes, and knowing from long
+experience that incoming information flows faster when it is not
+interrupted, he listened attentively, oiling and urging the flow by
+facial expressions of interest and by leaning forward attentively
+whenever a serious point was about to come forth. Brennan explained about
+James Holden, his superior education, and what it had enabled the lad to
+do. He explained the education not as a machine but as a "system of
+study" devised by James Holden's parents, feeling that it was better to
+leave a few stones lying flat and unturned for his own protection.
+Manison nodded at the end of the ten-minute time-limit, used his desk
+interphone to inform his secretary that he was not to be disturbed until
+further notice (which also told Paul Brennan that he was indeed
+interested) and then said:
+
+"You know you haven't a legal leg to stand on, Brennan."
+
+"So I find out. It seems incredible that there isn't any law set up to
+control the activity of a child."
+
+"Incredible? No, Brennan, not so. To now it hasn't been necessary. People
+just do not see the necessity of laws passed to prevent something that
+isn't being done anyway. The number of outmoded laws, ridiculous laws,
+and laws passed in the heat of public emotion are always a subject for
+public ridicule. If the state legislature were to pass a law stating that
+any child under fourteen may not leave home without the consent of his
+parents, every opposition newspaper in the state would howl about the
+waste of time and money spent on ridiculous legislation passed to govern
+activities that are already under excellent control. They would poll the
+state and point out that for so many million children under age fourteen,
+precisely zero of them have left home to set up their own housekeeping.
+One might just as well waste the taxpayer's money by passing a law that
+confirms the Universal Law of Gravity.
+
+"But that's neither here nor there," he said. "Your problem is to figure
+out some means of exerting the proper control over this intelligent
+infant."
+
+"My problem rises higher than that," said Brennan ruefully. "He dislikes
+me to the point of blind, unreasonable hatred. He believes that I am the
+party responsible for the death of his parents and furthermore that the
+act was deliberate. Tantamount to a charge of first-degree murder."
+
+"Has he made that statement recently?" asked Manison.
+
+"I would hardly know."
+
+"When last did you hear him say words to that effect?"
+
+"At the time, following the accidental death of his parents, James Holden
+ran off to the home of his grandparents. Puzzled and concerned, they
+called me as the child's guardian. I went there to bring him back to his
+home. I arrived the following morning and it was during that session that
+James Holden made the accusation."
+
+"And he has not made it since, to the best of your knowledge?"
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"Hardly make anything out of that. Seven years ago. Not a formal charge,
+only a cry of rage, frustration, hysterical grief. The complaint of a
+five-year-old made under strain could hardly be considered slanderous.
+It is too bad that the child hasn't broken any laws. Your success in
+collecting him the first time was entirely due to the associations he'd
+made with this automobile thief--Caslow, you said his name was. We can't
+go back to that. The responsibility has been fixed, I presume, upon Jake
+Caslow in another state. Brennan, you've a real problem: How can you be
+sure that this James Holden will disclose his secret system of study even
+if we do succeed in cooking up some legal means of placing him and keep
+him in your custody?"
+
+Brennan considered, and came to the conclusion that now was the time to
+let another snibbet of information go. "The system of study consists of
+an electronic device, the exact nature of which I do not understand. The
+entire machine is large and cumbersome. In it, as a sort of 'heart,' is a
+special circuit. Without this special circuit the thing is no more than
+an expensive aggregation of delicate devices that could be used elsewhere
+in electronics. One such machine stands unused in the Holden Home because
+the central circuit was destroyed beyond repair or replacement by young
+James Holden. He destroyed it because he felt that this secret should
+remain his own, the intellectual inheritance from his parents. There is
+one other machine--undoubtedly in full function and employed daily--in
+the house on Martin's Hill under James Holden's personal supervision."
+
+"Indeed? How, may I ask?"
+
+"It was rebuilt by James Holden from plans, specifications, and
+information engraved on his brain by his parents through the use of their
+first machine. Unfortunately, I have every reason to believe that this
+new machine is so booby-trapped and tamper-protected that the first
+interference by someone other than James Holden will cause its
+destruction."
+
+"Um. It might be possible to impound this machine as a device of high
+interest to the State," mused Manison. "But if we start any proceeding
+as delicate as that, it will hit every newspaper in the country and our
+advantage will be lost."
+
+"Technically," said Paul Brennan, "you don't know that such a machine
+exists. But as soon as young Holden realizes that you know about his
+machine, he'll also know that you got the information from me." Brennan
+sat quietly and thought for a moment. "There's another distressing angle,
+too," he said at last. "I don't think that there is a soul on earth who
+knows how to run this machine but James Holden. Steal it or impound it or
+take it away legally, you've got to know how it runs. I doubt that we'd
+find a half-dozen people on the earth who'd willingly sit in a chair with
+a heavy headset on, connected to a devilish aggregation of electrical
+machinery purported to educate the victim, while a number of fumblers
+experimented with the dials and the knobs and the switches. No sir, some
+sort of pressure must be brought to bear upon the youngster."
+
+"Um. Perhaps civic pride? Might work. Point out to him that he is in
+control of a device that is essential to the security of the United
+States. That he is denying the children of this country the right to
+their extensive education. Et cetera?"
+
+"Could be. But how are you going to swing it, technically in ignorance of
+the existence of such a machine?"
+
+"Were I a member of the Congressional Committee on Education, I could
+investigate the matter of James Holden's apparent superiority of
+intellect."
+
+"And hit Page One of every newspaper in the country," sneered Brennan.
+
+"Well, I'm not," snapped Manison angrily. "However, there is a way,
+perhaps several ways, once we find the first entering wedge. After all,
+Brennan, the existence of a method of accelerating the course of
+educational training is of the utmost importance to the future of not
+only the United States of America, but the entire human race. Once I can
+locate some plausible reason for asking James Holden the first question
+about anything, the remainder of any session can be so slanted as to
+bring into the open any secret knowledge he may have. We, to make the
+disclosure easier, shall hold any sessions in the strictest of secrecy.
+We can quite readily agree with James Holden's concern over the
+long-range effectiveness of his machine and state that secrecy is
+necessary lest headstrong factions take the plunge into something that
+could be very detrimental to the human race instead of beneficial.
+Frankly, Mr. Brennan," said Manison with a wry smile, "I should like to
+borrow that device for about a week myself. It might help me locate some
+of the little legal points that would help me." He sighed. "Yes," he said
+sadly, "I know the law, but no one man knows all of the finer points.
+Lord knows," he went on, "if the law were a simple matter of behaving as
+it states, we'd not have this tremendous burden. But the law is subject
+to interpretation and change and argument and precedent--Precedent? Um,
+here we may have an interesting angle, Brennan. I must look into it."
+
+"Precedent?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. Any ruling that we were to make covering the right of a
+seven, eight, or nine year old to run his own life as he sees fit will be
+a ruling that establishes precedent."
+
+"And--?"
+
+"Well, up to now there's no ruling about such a case; no child of ten has
+ever left home to live as he prefers. But this James Holden is apparently
+capable of doing just that--and any impartial judge deliberating such a
+case would find it difficult to justify a decision that placed the
+competent infant under the guardianship and protection of an adult who is
+less competent than the infant."
+
+Brennan's face turned dark. "You're saying that this Holden kid is
+smarter than I am?"
+
+"Sit down and stop sputtering," snapped Manison. "What were you doing at
+six years old, Brennan? Did you have the brains to leave home and protect
+yourself by cooking up the plausible front of a very interesting
+character such as the mythical Hermit of Martin's Hill? Were you writing
+boys' stories for a nationwide magazine of high circulation and
+accredited quality? Could you have planned your own dinner and prepared
+it, or would you have dined on chocolate bars washed down with strawberry
+pop? Stop acting indignant. Start thinking. If for no other reason than
+that we don't want to end up selling pencils on Halstead Street because
+we're not quite bright, we've got to lay our hands on that machine. We've
+got to lead, not follow. Yet at the present time I'll wager that your
+James Holden is going to give everybody concerned a very rough time. Now,
+let me figure out the angles and pull the wires. One thing that nobody
+can learn from any electronic machine is how to manipulate the component
+people that comprise a political machine. I'll be in touch with you,
+Brennan."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The ring at the door was Chief of Police Joseph Colling and another
+gentleman. Janet Fisher answered the door, "Good evening, Mr. Colling.
+Come in?"
+
+"Thank you," said Colling politely. "This is Mr. Frank Manison, from the
+office of the State Department of Justice."
+
+"Oh? Is something wrong?"
+
+"Not that we know of," replied Manison. "We're simply after some
+information. I apologize for calling at eight o'clock in the evening, but
+I wanted to catch you all under one roof. Is Mr. Fisher home? And the
+children?"
+
+"Why, yes. We're all here." Janet stepped aside to let them enter the
+living room, and then called upstairs. Mr. Manison was introduced around
+and Tim Fisher said, cautiously, "What's the trouble here?"
+
+"No trouble that we know of," said Manison affably. "We're just after
+some information about the education of James Holden, a legal minor, who
+seems never to have been enrolled in any school."
+
+"If you don't mind," replied Tim Fisher, "I'll not answer anything
+without the advice of my attorney."
+
+Janet Fisher gasped.
+
+Tim turned with a smile. "Don't you like lawyers, honey?"
+
+"It isn't that. But isn't crying for a lawyer an admission of some sort?"
+
+"Sure is," replied Tim Fisher. "It's an admission that I don't know all
+of my legal rights. If lawyers come to me because they don't know all
+there is to know about the guts of an automobile, I have every right to
+the same sort of consultation in reverse. Agree, James?"
+
+James Holden nodded. "The man who represents himself in court has a fool
+for a client," he said. "I think that's Daniel Webster, but I'm not
+certain. No matter; it's right. Call Mr. Waterman, and until he arrives
+we'll discuss the weather, the latest dope in high-altitude research, or
+nuclear physics."
+
+Frank Manison eyed the lad. "You're James Holden?"
+
+"I am."
+
+Tim interrupted. "We're not answering _anything_," he warned.
+
+"Oh, I don't mind admitting my identity," said James. "I've committed no
+crime, I've broken no law. No one can point to a single act of mine that
+shows a shred of evidence to the effect that my intentions are not
+honorable. Sooner or later this whole affair had to come to a showdown,
+and I'm prepared to face it squarely."
+
+"Thank you," said Manison. "Now, without inviting comment, let me explain
+one important fact. The state reserves the right to record marriages,
+births, and deaths as a simple matter of vital statistics. We feel that
+we have every right to the compiling of the census, and we can justify
+our feeling. I am here because of some apparent irregularities, records
+of which we do not have. If these apparent irregularities can be
+explained to our satisfaction for the record, this meeting will be ended.
+Now, let's relax until your attorney arrives."
+
+"May I get you some coffee or a highball?" asked Janet Fisher.
+
+"Coffee, please," agreed Frank Manison. Chief Colling nodded quietly.
+They relaxed over coffee and small talk for a half hour. The arrival of
+Waterman, Tim Fisher's attorney, signalled the opening of the discussion.
+
+"First," said Manison, his pencil poised over a notebook, "Who lives here
+in permanent residence, and for how long?" He wrote rapidly as they told
+him. "The house is your property?" he asked Tim, and wrote again. "And
+you are paying a rental on certain rooms of this house?" he asked James,
+who nodded.
+
+"Where did you attend school?" he asked James.
+
+"I did not."
+
+"Where did you get your education?"
+
+"By a special course in home study."
+
+"You understand that under the state laws that provide for the education
+of minor children, the curriculum must be approved by the state?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And has it?"
+
+Waterman interrupted. "Just a moment, Mr. Manison. In what way must the
+curriculum be approved? Does the State study all textbooks and the manner
+in which each and every school presents them? Or does the State merely
+insist that the school child be taught certain subjects?"
+
+"The State merely insists that certain standards of education be
+observed."
+
+"In fact," added James, "the State does not even insist that the child
+_learn_ the subjects, realizing that some children lack the intellect to
+be taught certain subjects completely and fully. Let's rather say that
+the State demands that school children be exposed to certain subjects in
+the hope that they 'take.' Am I not correct?"
+
+"I presume you are."
+
+"Then I shall answer your question. In my home study, I have indeed
+followed the approved curriculum by making use of the approved textbooks
+in their proper order. I am aware of the fact that this is not the same
+State, but if you will consult the record of my earlier years in
+attendance at a school selected by my legal guardian, you'll find that I
+passed from preschool grade to Fourth Grade in a matter of less than half
+a year, at the age of five-approaching-six. If this matter is subject to
+question, I'll submit to any course of extensive examination your
+educators care to prepare. The law regarding compulsory education in this
+state says that the minor child must attend school until either the age
+of eighteen, or until he has completed the standard eight years of
+grammar school and four years of high school. I shall then stipulate that
+the suggested examination be limited to the schooling of a high school
+graduate."
+
+"For the moment we'll pass this over. We may ask that you do prove your
+contention," said Manison.
+
+"You don't doubt that I can, do you?" asked James.
+
+Manison shook his head. "No, at this moment I have no doubt."
+
+"Then why do you bother asking?"
+
+"I am here for a rather odd reason," said Manison. "I've told you the
+reservations that the State holds, which justify my presence. Now, it is
+patently obvious that you are a very competent young man, James Holden.
+The matter of making your own way is difficult, as many adults can
+testify. To have contrived a means of covering up your youth, in addition
+to living a full and competent life, demonstrates an ability above and
+beyond the average. Now, the State is naturally interested in anything
+that smacks of acceleration of the educational period. Can you understand
+that?"
+
+"Naturally. None but a dolt would avoid education."
+
+"Then you agree with our interest?"
+
+"I--"
+
+"Just a moment, James," said Waterman. "Let's put it that you understand
+their interest, but that you do not necessarily agree."
+
+"I understand," said James.
+
+"Then you must also understand that this 'course of study' by which you
+claim the equal of a high-school education at the age of ten or eleven
+(perhaps earlier) must be of high importance."
+
+"I understand that it might," agreed James.
+
+"Then will you explain why you have kept this a secret?"
+
+"Because--"
+
+"Just a moment," said Waterman again. "James, would you say that your
+method of educating yourself is completely perfected?"
+
+"Not completely."
+
+"Not perfected?" asked Manison. "Yet you claim to have the education of a
+high-school graduate?"
+
+"I so claim," said James. "But I must also point out that I have acquired
+a lot of mish-mash in the course of this education. For instance, it is
+one thing to study English, its composition, spelling, vocabulary,
+construction, rules and regulations. One must learn these things if he is
+to be considered literate. In the course of such study, one also becomes
+acquainted with English literature. With literature it is enough to
+merely be acquainted with the subject. One need not know the works of
+Chaucer or Spenser intimately--unless one is preparing to specialize in
+the English literature of the writers of that era. Frankly, sir, I should
+hate to have my speech colored by the flowery phrases of that time, and
+the spelling of that day would flunk me out of First Grade if I made use
+of it. In simple words, I am still perfecting the method."
+
+"Now, James," went on Waterman, "have you ever entertained the idea of
+not releasing the details of your method?"
+
+"Occasionally," admitted James.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Until we know everything about it, we can not be certain that its
+ultimate effect will be wholly beneficial."
+
+"So, you see," said Waterman to Manison, "the intention is reasonable.
+Furthermore, we must point out that this system is indeed the invention
+created by the labor and study of the parents of James Holden, and as
+such it is a valuable property retained by James Holden as his own by the
+right of inheritance. The patent laws of the United States are clear, it
+is the many conflicting rulings that have weakened the system. The law
+itself is contained in the Constitution of the United States, which
+provides for the establishment of a Patent Office as a means to encourage
+inventors by granting them the exclusive right to the benefits of their
+labor for a reasonable period of time--namely seventeen years with
+provision for a second period under renewal."
+
+"Then why doesn't he make use of it?" demanded Manison.
+
+"Because the process, like so many another process, can be copied and
+used by individuals without payment, and because there hasn't been a
+patent suit upheld for about forty years, with the possible exception
+of Major Armstrong's suit against the Radio Corporation of America,
+settled in Armstrong's favor after about twenty-five years of expensive
+litigation. A secret is no longer a secret these days, once it has been
+written on a piece of paper and called to the attention of a few million
+people across the country."
+
+"You realize that anything that will give an extensive education at an
+early age is vital to the security of the country."
+
+"We recognize that responsibility, sir," said Waterman quietly. "We also
+recognize that in the hands of unscrupulous men, the system could be
+misused. We also realize its dangers, and we are trying to avoid them
+before we make the announcement. We are very much aware of the important,
+although unfortunate, fact that James Holden, as a minor, can have his
+rights abridged. Normally honest men, interested in the protection of
+youth, could easily prevent him from using his own methods, thus
+depriving him of the benefits that are legally his. This could be
+done under the guise of protection, and the result would be the
+super-education of the protectors--whose improving intellectual
+competence would only teach them more and better reasons for depriving
+the young man of his rights. James Holden has a secret, and he has a
+right to keep that secret, and his only protection is for him to continue
+to keep that secret inviolate. It was his parents' determination not to
+release this process upon the world until they were certain of the
+results. James is a living example of their effort; they conceived him
+for the express purpose of providing a virgin mind to educate by their
+methods, so that no outside interference would becloud their results. If
+this can be construed as the illegal experimentation on animals under the
+anti-vivisection laws, or cruelty to children, it was their act, not his.
+Is that clear?"
+
+"It is clear," replied Manison. "We may be back for more discussion on
+this point. I'm really after information, not conducting a case, you
+know."
+
+"Well, you have your information."
+
+"Not entirely. We've another point to consider, Mr. Waterman. It is
+admittedly a delicate point. It is the matter of legal precedent.
+Granting everything you say is true--and I'll grant that hypothetically
+for the purpose of this argument--let's assume that James Holden
+ultimately finds his process suitable for public use. Now, happily to
+this date James had not broken any laws. He is an honorable individual.
+Let's now suppose that in the near future, someone becomes educated by
+his process and at the age of twelve or so decided to make use of his
+advanced intelligence in nefarious work?"
+
+"All right. Let's suppose."
+
+"Then you tell me who is responsible for the person of James Holden?"
+
+"He is responsible unto himself."
+
+"Not under the existing laws," said Manison. "Let's consider James just
+as we know him now. Who says, 'go ahead,' if he has an attack of acute
+appendicitis?"
+
+"In the absence of someone to take the personal responsibility," said
+James quietly, "the attending doctor would toss his coin to see whether
+his Oath of Hippocrates was stronger than his fear of legal reprisals.
+It's been done before. But let's get to the point, Mr. Manison. What do
+you have in mind?"
+
+"You've rather pointedly demonstrated your preference to live here rather
+than with your legally-appointed guardian."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, young man, I suggest that we get this matter settled legally. You
+are not living under the supervision of your guardian, but you are indeed
+living under the auspices of people who are not recognized by law as
+holding the responsibility for you."
+
+"So far there's been no cause for complaint."
+
+"Let's keep it that way," smiled Manison. "I'll ask you to accept a writ
+of habeas corpus, directing you to show just cause why you should not be
+returned to the custody of your guardian."
+
+"And what good will that do?"
+
+"If you can show just cause," said Manison, "the Court will follow
+established precedent and appoint Mr. and Mrs. Fisher as your responsible
+legal guardians--if that is your desire."
+
+"Can this be done?" asked Mrs. Fisher.
+
+"It's been done before, time and again. The State is concerned primarily
+with the welfare of the child; children have been legally removed from
+natural but unsuitable parents, you know." He looked distressed for a
+moment and then went on, "The will of the deceased is respected, but the
+law recognizes that it is the living with which it must be primarily
+concerned, that mistakes can be made, and that such errors in judgment
+must be rectified in the name of the public weal."
+
+"I've been--" started James but Attorney Waterman interrupted him:
+
+"We'll accept the service of your writ, Mr. Manison." And to James after
+the man had departed: "Never give the opposition an inkling of what you
+have in mind--and always treat anybody who is not in your retainer as
+opposition."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+
+The case of Brennan vs. Holden opened in the emptied court room of Judge
+Norman L. Carter, with a couple of bored members of the press wishing
+they were elsewhere. For the first two hours, it was no more than
+formalized outlining of the whole situation.
+
+The plaintiff identified himself, testified that he was indeed the legal
+guardian of the minor James Quincy Holden, entered a transcript of the
+will in evidence, and then went on to make his case. He had provided
+a home atmosphere that was, to the best of his knowledge, the type of
+home atmosphere that would have been highly pleasing to the deceased
+parents--especially in view of the fact that this home was one and the
+same house as theirs and that little had been changed. He was supported
+by the Mitchells. It all went off in the slow, cumbersome dry phraseology
+of the legal profession and the sum and substance of two hours of
+back-and-forth question-and-answer was to establish the fact that Paul
+Brennan had provided a suitable home for the minor, James Quincy Holden,
+and that the minor James Quincy Holden had refused to live in it and had
+indeed demonstrated his objections by repeatedly absenting himself
+wilfully and with premeditation.
+
+The next half hour covered a blow-by-blow account of Paul Brennan's
+efforts to have the minor restored to him. The attorneys for both sides
+were alert. Brennan's counsel did not even object when Waterman paved the
+way to show why James Holden wanted his freedom by asking Brennan:
+
+"Were you aware that James Holden was a child of exceptional intellect?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you've testified that when you moved into the Holden home, you found
+things as the Holdens had provided them for their child?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In your opinion, were these surroundings suitable for James Holden?"
+
+"They were far too advanced for a child of five."
+
+"I asked specifically about James Holden."
+
+"James Holden was five years old."
+
+Waterman eyed Brennan with some surprise, then cast a glance at Frank
+Manison, who sat at ease, calmly watching and listening with no sign of
+objection. Waterman turned back to Brennan and said, "Let's take one more
+turn around Robin Hood's Barn, Mr. Brennan. First, James Holden was an
+exceptional child?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And the nature of his toys and furnishings?"
+
+"In my opinion, too advanced for a child of five."
+
+"But were they suitable for James Holden?"
+
+"James Holden was a child of five."
+
+Waterman faced Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "I submit that the
+witness is evasive. Will you direct him to respond to my direct question
+with a direct answer?"
+
+"The witness will answer the question properly," said Judge Carter with
+a slight frown of puzzlement, "unless counsel for the witness has some
+plausible objection?"'
+
+"No objection," said Manison.
+
+"Please repeat or rephrase your question," suggested Judge Carter.
+
+"Mr. Brennan," said Waterman, "you've testified that James was an
+exceptional child, advanced beyond his years. You've testified that the
+home and surroundings provided by James Holden's parents reflected this
+fact. Now tell me, were the toys, surroundings, and the home suitable for
+James Holden?"
+
+"In my opinion, no."
+
+"And subsequently you replaced them with stuff you believed more suitable
+for a child of five, is that it?"
+
+"Yes. I did, and you are correct."
+
+"To which he objected?"
+
+"To which James Holden objected."
+
+"And what was your response to his objection?"
+
+"I overruled his objection."
+
+"Upon what grounds?"
+
+"Upon the grounds that the education and the experience of an adult
+carries more wisdom than the desires of a child."
+
+"Now, Mr. Brennan, please listen carefully. During the months following
+your guardianship, you successively removed the books that James Holden
+was fond of reading, replaced his advanced Meccano set with a set of
+modular blocks, exchanged his oil-painting equipment for a child's
+coloring books and standard crayolas, and in general you removed
+everything interesting to a child with known superiority of intellect?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And your purpose in opening this hearing was to convince this Court that
+James Holden should be returned by legal procedure to such surroundings?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"No more questions," said Waterman. He sat down and rubbed his forehead
+with the palm of his right hand, trying to think.
+
+Manison said, "I have one question to ask of Janet Fisher, known formerly
+as Mrs. Bagley."
+
+Janet Fisher was sworn and properly identified.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Fisher, prior to your marriage to Mr. Fisher and during your
+sojourn with James Holden in the House on Martin's Hill, did you
+supervise the activities of James Holden?"
+
+"No," she said.
+
+"Thank you," said Manison. He turned to Waterman and waved him to any
+cross-questioning.
+
+Still puzzled, Waterman asked, "Mrs. Fisher, who did supervise the House
+on Martin's Hill?"
+
+"James Holden."
+
+"During those years, Mrs. Fisher, did James Holden at any time conduct
+himself in any other manner but the actions of an honest citizen? I mean,
+did he perform or suggest the performance of any illegal act to your
+knowledge?"
+
+"No, he did not."
+
+Waterman turned to Judge Carter. "Your Honor," he said, "it seems quite
+apparent to me that the plaintiff in this case has given more testimony
+to support the contentions of my client than they have to support their
+own case. Will the Court honor a petition that the case be dismissed?"
+
+Judge Norman L. Carter smiled slightly. "This is irregular," he said.
+"You should wait for that petition until the plaintiff's counsel has
+closed his case, you know." He looked at Frank Manison. "Any objection?"
+
+Manison said, "Your Honor, I have permitted my client to be shown in this
+questionable light for no other purpose than to bring out the fact that
+any man can make a mistake in the eyes of other men when in reality he
+was doing precisely what he thought to be the best thing to do for
+himself and for the people within his responsibility. The man who raises
+his child to be a roustabout is wrong in the eyes of his neighbor who is
+raising his child to be a scientist, and vice versa. We'll accept the
+fact that James Holden's mind is superior. We'll point out that there
+have been many cases of precocious children or child geniuses who make a
+strong mark in their early years and drop into oblivion by the time
+they're twenty. Now, consider James Holden, sitting there discussing
+something with his attorney--I have no doubt in the world that he could
+conjugate Latin verbs, discuss the effect of the Fall of Rome on Western
+Civilization, and probably compute the orbit of an artificial satellite.
+But can James Holden fly a kite or shoot a marble? Has he ever had the
+fun of sliding into third base, or whittling on a peg, or any of the
+other enjoyable trivia of boyhood? Has he--"
+
+"One moment," said Judge Carter. "Let's not have an impassioned oration,
+counsel. What is your point?"
+
+"James Holden has a legal guardian, appointed by law at the express will
+of his parents. Headstrong, he has seen fit to leave that protection. He
+is fighting now to remain away from that protection. I can presume that
+James Holden would prefer to remain in the company of the Fishers where,
+according to Mrs. Fisher, he was not responsible to her whatsoever, but
+rather ran the show himself. I--"
+
+"You can't make that presumption," said Judge Carter. "Strike it from the
+record."
+
+"I apologize," said Manison. "But I object to dismissing this case until
+we find out just what James Holden has in mind for his future."
+
+"I'll hold Counsel Waterman's petition in abeyance until the point you
+mention is in the record," said Judge Carter. "Counsel, are you
+finished?"
+
+"Yes," said Manison. "I'll rest."
+
+"Mr. Waterman?"
+
+Waterman said, "Your Honor, we've been directed to show just cause why
+James Holden should not be returned to the protection of his legal
+guardian. Counsel has implied that James Holden desires to be placed in
+the legal custody of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher. This is a pardonable error
+whether it stands in the record or not. The fact is that James Holden
+does not need protection, nor does he want protection. To the contrary,
+James Holden petitions this Court to declare him legally competent so
+that he may conduct his own affairs with the rights, privileges, and
+indeed, even the _risks_ taken by the status of adult.
+
+"I'll point out that the rules and laws that govern the control and
+protection of minor children were passed by benevolent legislators to
+prevent exploitation, cruelty, and deprivation of the child's life by
+men who would take advantage of his immaturity. However we have here a
+young man of twelve who has shown his competence to deal with the adult
+world by actual practice. Therefore it is our contention that protective
+laws are not only unnecessary, but undesirable because they restrict the
+individual from his desire to live a full and fruitful life.
+
+"To prove our contention beyond any doubt, I'll ask that James Holden be
+sworn in as my first witness."
+
+Frank Manison said, "I object, Your Honor. James Holden is a minor and
+not qualified under law to give creditable testimony as a witness."
+
+Waterman turned upon Manison angrily. "You really mean that you object to
+my case _per se_."
+
+"That, too," replied Manison easily.
+
+"Your Honor, I take exception! It is my purpose to place James Holden on
+the witness stand, and there to show this Court and all the world that he
+is of honorable mind, properly prepared to assume the rights of an adult.
+We not only propose to show that he acted honorably, we shall show that
+James Holden consulted the law to be sure that whatever he did was not
+illegal."
+
+"Or," added Manison, "was it so that he would know how close to the limit
+he could go without stepping over the line?"
+
+"Your Honor," asked Waterman, "can't we have your indulgence?"
+
+"I object! The child is a minor."
+
+"I accept the statement!" stormed Waterman. "And I say that we intend to
+prove that this minor is qualified to act as an adult."
+
+"And," sneered Manison, "I'll guess that one of your later arguments will
+be that Judge Carter, having accepted this minor as qualified to deliver
+sworn testimony, has already granted the first premise of your argument."
+
+"I say that James Holden has indeed shown his competence already by
+actually doing it!"
+
+"While hiding under a false facade!"
+
+"A facade forced upon him by the restrictive laws that he is petitioning
+the Court to set aside in his case so that he need hide no longer."
+
+Frank Manison said, "Your Honor, how shall the case of James Holden be
+determined for the next eight or ten years if we do grant James Holden
+this legal right to conduct his own affairs as an adult? That we must
+abridge the laws regarding compulsory education is evident. James Holden
+is twelve years and five months old. Shall he be granted the right to
+enter a tavern to buy a drink? Will his request for a license to marry be
+honored? May he enter the polling place and cast his vote? The contention
+of counsel that the creation of Charles Maxwell was a physical necessity
+is acceptable. But what happens without 'Maxwell'? Must we prepare a card
+of identity for James Holden, stating his legal status, and renew it
+every year like an automobile license because the youth will grow in
+stature, add to his weight, and ultimately grow a beard? Must we enter on
+this identification card the fact that he is legally competent to sign
+contracts, rent a house, write checks, and make his own decision about
+the course of dangerous medical treatment--or shall we list those items
+that he is not permitted to do such as drinking in a public place, cast
+his vote, or marry? This State permits a youth to drive an automobile at
+the age of sixteen, this act being considered a skill rather than an act
+that requires judgment. Shall James Holden be permitted to drive an
+automobile even though he can not reach the foot pedals from any position
+where he can see through the windshield?"
+
+Judge Carter sat quietly. He said calmly, "Let the record show that I
+recognize the irregularity of this procedure and that I permit it only
+because of the unique aspects of this case. Were there a Jury, I would
+dismiss them until this verbal exchange of views and personalities has
+subsided.
+
+"Now," he went on, "I will not allow James Holden to take the witness
+stand as a qualified witness to prove that he is a qualified witness.
+I am sure that he can display his own competence with a flow of academic
+brilliance, or his attorney would not have tried to place him upon the
+stand where such a display could have been demonstrated. Of more
+importance to the Court and to the State is an equitable disposition
+of the responsibility to and over James Quincy Holden."
+
+Judge Norman L. Carter leaned forward and looked from Frank Manison to
+James Holden, and then to Attorney Waterman.
+
+"We must face some awkward facts," he said. "If I rule that he be
+returned to Mr. Brennan, he will probably remain no longer than he finds
+it convenient, at which point he will behave just as if this Court had
+never convened. Am I not correct, Mr. Manison?"
+
+"Your Honor, you are correct. However, as a member of the Department of
+Justice of this State, I suggest that you place the responsibility in my
+hands. As an Officer of the Court, my interest would be to the best
+interest of the State rather than based upon experience, choice, or
+opinion as to what is better for a five-year-old or a child prodigy. In
+other words, I would exert the control that the young man needed. At the
+same time I would not make the mistakes that were made by Mr. Brennan's
+personal opinion of how a child should be reared."
+
+Waterman shouted, "I object, Your Honor. I object--"
+
+Brennan leaped to his feet and cried, "Manison, you can't freeze me
+out--"
+
+James Holden shrilled, "I won't! I won't!"
+
+Judge Carter eyed them one by one, staring them into silence. Finally he
+looked at Janet Fisher and said, "May I also presume that you would be
+happy to resume your association with James Holden?"
+
+She nodded and said, "I'd be glad to," in a sincere voice. Tim Fisher
+nodded his agreement.
+
+Brennan whirled upon them and snarled. "My reward money--" but he was
+shoved down in his seat with a heavy hand by Frank Manison who snapped,
+"Your money bought what it was offered for. So now shut up, you utter
+imbecile!"
+
+Judge Norman L. Carter cleared his throat and said, "This great concern
+over the welfare of James Holden is touching. We have Mr. Brennan already
+twice a loser and yet willing to try it for three times. We have Mr. and
+Mrs. Fisher who are not dismayed at the possibility of having their home
+occupied by a headstrong youth whose actions they cannot control. We find
+one of the ambitious members of the District Attorney's Office offering
+to take on an additional responsibility--all, of course, in the name of
+the State and the welfare of James Holden. Finally we have James Holden
+who wants no part of the word 'protection' and claims the ability to run
+his own life.
+
+"Now it strikes me that assigning the responsibility for this young
+man's welfare is by no means the reason why you all are present, and it
+similarly occurs to me that the young man's welfare is of considerably
+less importance than the very interesting question of how and why this
+young man has achieved so much."
+
+With a thoughtful expression, Judge Carter said, "James Holden, how did
+you acquire this magnificent education at the tender age of twelve-plus?"
+
+"I--"
+
+"I object!" cried Frank Manison. "The minor is not qualified to give
+testimony."
+
+"Objection overruled. This is not testimony. I have every right in the
+world to seek out as much information from whatever source I may select;
+and I have the additional right to inspect the information I receive to
+pass upon its competence and relevance. Sit down, counsel!"
+
+Manison sat grumpily and Judge Carter eyed James again, and James took a
+full breath. This was the moment he had been waiting for.
+
+"Go on, James. Answer my question. Where did you come by your knowledge?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden stood up. This was the question that had to arise; he was
+only surprised it had taken so long.
+
+He said calmly: "Your Honor, you may not ask that question."
+
+"I may not?" asked Judge Carter with a lift of his eyebrows.
+
+"No sir. You may not."
+
+"And just why may I not?"
+
+"If this were a criminal case, and if you could establish that some of my
+knowledge were guilty knowledge, you could then demand that I reveal the
+source of my guilty knowledge and under what circumstance it was
+obtained. If I refused to disclose my source, I could then be held in
+contempt of court or charged with being an accessory to the corpus of the
+crime. However, this is a court hearing to establish whether or not I am
+competent under law to manage my own affairs. How I achieve my mental
+competence is not under question. Let us say that it is a process that is
+my secret by the right of inheritance from my parents and as such it is
+valuable to me so long as I can demand payment for its use."
+
+"This information may have a bearing on my ruling."
+
+"Your Honor, the acquisition of knowledge or information _per se_ is
+concomitant with growing up. I can and will demonstrate that I have the
+equivalent of the schooling necessary to satisfy both this Court and the
+State Board of Education. I will state that my education has been
+acquired by concentration and application in home study, and that I admit
+to attendance at no school. I will provide you or anybody else with a
+list of the books from which I have gleaned my education. But whether I
+practice Yoga, Dianetics, or write the lines on a sugarcoated pill and
+swallow it is my trade secret. It can not be extracted from me by any
+process of the law because no illegality exists."
+
+"And what if I rule that you are not competent under the law, or withhold
+judgment until I have had an opportunity to investigate these ways and
+means of acquiring an accelerated education?"
+
+"I'll then go on record as asking you to disbar yourself from this
+hearing on the grounds that you are not an impartial judge of the justice
+in my case."
+
+"Upon what grounds?"
+
+"Upon the grounds that you are personally interested in being provided
+with a process whereby you may acquire an advanced education yourself."
+
+The judge looked at James thoughtfully for a moment. "And if I point out
+that any such process is of extreme interest to the State and to the
+Union itself, and as such must be disclosed?"
+
+"Then I shall point out that your ruling is based upon a personal opinion
+because you don't know anything about the process. If I am ruled a legal
+minor you cannot punish me for not telling you my secrets, and if I am
+ruled legally competent, I am entitled to my own decision."
+
+"You are within your rights," admitted Judge Carter with some interest.
+"I shall not make such a demand. But I now ask you if this process of
+yours is both safe and simple."
+
+"If it is properly used with some good judgment."
+
+"Now listen to me carefully," said Judge Carter. "Is it not true that
+your difficulties in school, your inability to get along with your
+classmates, and your having to hide while you toiled for your livelihood
+in secret--these are due to this extensive education brought about
+through your secret process?"
+
+"I must agree, but--"
+
+"You must agree," interrupted Judge Carter. "Yet knowing these unpleasant
+things did not deter you from placing, or trying to place, the daughter
+of your housekeeper in the same unhappy state. In other words, you hoped
+to make an intellectual misfit out of her, too?"
+
+"I--now see here--"
+
+"You see here! Did you or did you not aid in the education of Martha
+Bagley, now Martha Fisher?"
+
+"Yes, I did, and--"
+
+"Was that good judgment, James Holden?"
+
+"What's wrong with higher education?" demanded James angrily.
+
+"Nothing, if it's acquired properly."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Now listen again. If I were to rule in your favor, would Martha Fisher
+be the next bratling in a long and everlasting line of infant supermen
+applying to this and that and the other Court to have their legal
+majority ruled, each of them pointing to your case as having established
+precedence?"
+
+"I have no way of predicting the future, sir. What may happen in the
+future really has no bearing in evidence here."
+
+"Granted that it does not. But I am not going to establish a dangerous
+precedent that will end with doctors qualified to practice surgery before
+they are big enough to swing a stethoscope or attorneys that plead a case
+before they are out of short pants. I am going to recess this case
+indefinitely with a partial ruling. First, until this process of yours
+comes under official study, I am declaring you, James Holden, to be a
+Ward of this State, under the jurisdiction of this Court. You will have
+the legal competence to act in matters of skill, including the signing of
+documents and instruments necessary to your continued good health. In all
+matters that require mature judgment, you will report to this Court and
+all such questions shall be rendered after proper deliberation either in
+open session or in chambers, depending upon the Court's opinion of their
+importance. The court stenographer will now strike all of the testimony
+given by James Holden from the record."
+
+"I object!" exploded Brennan's attorney, rising swiftly and with one hand
+pressing Brennan down to prevent him from rising also.
+
+"All objections are overruled. The new Ward of the State will meet with
+me in my chambers at once. Court is adjourned."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The session was stormy but brief. Holden objected to everything, but the
+voice of Judge Carter was loud and his stature was large; they overrode
+James Holden and compelled his attention.
+
+"We're out of the court," snapped Judge Carter. "We no longer need
+observe the niceties of court etiquette, so now shut up and listen!
+Holden, you are involved in a thing that is explosively dangerous. You
+claim it to be a secret, but your secret is slowly leaking out of your
+control. You asked for your legal competence to be ruled. Fine, but if I
+allowed that, every statement made by you about your education would be
+in court record and your so-called secret that much more widespread. How
+long do you think it would have been before millions of people howled at
+your door? Some of them yelping for help and some of them bitterly
+objecting to tampering with the immature brain? You'd be accused of
+brainwashing, of making monsters, of depriving children of their heritage
+of happiness--and in the same ungodly howl there would be voices as
+loudly damning you for not tossing your process into their laps. And
+there would be a number trying to get to you on the sly so that they
+could get a head start over the rest.
+
+"You want your competence affirmed legally? James, you have not the
+stature nor the voice to fight them off. Even now, your little secret is
+in danger and you'll probably have to bribe a few wiseacres with a touch
+of accelerated knowledge to keep them from spilling the whole story, even
+though I've ruled your testimony incompetent and immaterial and stricken
+from the record. Now, we'll study this system of yours under controlled
+conditions as your parents wanted, and we'll have professional help and
+educated advice, and both you and your process shall be under the
+protection of my Court, and when the time comes you shall receive the
+kudos and benefits from it. Understand?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+"Good. Now, as my first order, you go back to Shipmont and pack your
+gear. You'll report to my home as soon as you've made all the
+arrangements. There'll be no more hiding out and playing your little
+process in secret either from Paul Brennan--yes, I know that you believe
+that he was somehow instrumental in the death of your parents but have no
+shred of evidence that would stand in court--or the rest of the world. Is
+that, and everything else I've said in private, very clear?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Good. Now, be off with you. And do not hesitate to call upon me if there
+is any interference whatsoever."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+
+Judge Carter insisted and won his point that James Holden accept
+residence in his home.
+
+He did not turn a hair when the trucks of equipment arrived from the
+house on Martin's Hill; he already had room for it in the cellar. He
+cheerfully allowed James the right to set it up and test it out. He
+respected James Holden's absolute insistence that no one be permitted to
+touch the special circuit that was the heart of the entire machine. Judge
+Carter also counter-requested--and enforced the request--that he be
+allowed to try the machinery out. He took a simple reading course in
+higher mathematics, after discovering that Holden's machine would not
+teach him how to play the violin. (Judge Carter already played the
+violin--but badly.)
+
+Later, the judge committed to memory the entire book of Bartlett's Famous
+Quotations despite the objection of young Holden that he was cluttering
+up his memory with a lot of useless material. The Judge learned (as James
+had learned earlier) that the proper way to store such information in the
+memory was to read the book with the machine turned in "stand-by" until
+some section was encountered that was of interest. Using this method, the
+judge picked and pecked at the Holy Bible, a number of documents that
+looked like important governmental records, and a few books in modern
+history.
+
+Then there came other men. First was a Professor Harold White from the
+State Board of Education who came to study both Holden and Holden's
+machinery and what it did. Next came a Dr. Persons who said very little
+but made diagrams and histograms and graphs which he studied. The third
+was a rather cheerful fellow called Jack Cowling who was more interested
+in James Holden's personal feelings than he was in the machine. He
+studied many subjects superficially and watched the behavior of young
+Holden as Holden himself studied subjects recommended by Professor White.
+
+White had a huge blackboard installed on the cellar wall opposite the
+machine, and he proceeded to fill the board with block outlines filled
+with crabbed writing and odd-looking symbols. The whole was meaningless
+to James Holden; it looked like the organization chart of a large
+corporation but it contained no names or titles. The arrival of each new
+visitor caused changes in the block diagram.
+
+These arrivals went at their project with stop watches and slide rules.
+They calibrated themselves and James with the cold-blooded attitude of
+racetrack touts clocking their favorite horses. Where James had simply
+taken what he wanted or what he could at any single sitting, then let
+it settle in his mind before taking another dose of unpremeditated
+magnitude, these fellows ascertained the best effectiveness of each
+application to each of them. They tried taking long terms under the
+machine and then they measured the time it took for the installed
+information to sink in and settle into usable shape. Then they tried
+shorter and shorter sittings and measured the correspondingly shorter
+settling times. They found out that no two men were alike, nor were any
+two subjects. They discovered that a man with an extensive education
+already could take a larger sitting and have the new information
+available for mental use in a shorter settling time than a man whose
+education had been sketchy or incomplete.
+
+They brought in men who had either little or no mathematics and gave them
+courses in advanced subjects. Afterwards they provided the foundation
+mathematics and they calibrated and measured the time it took for the
+higher subject to be understood as it aligned its information to the
+whole. Men came with crude English and bluntly read the dictionary and
+the proper rules of grammar and they were checked to see if their early
+bad-speech habits were corrected, and to what degree the Holden machine
+could be made to help repair the damage of a lifelong ingrained set of
+errors. They sent some of these boys through comparison dictionaries in
+foreign tongues and then had their language checked by specialists who
+were truly polylingual. There were some who spoke fluent English but no
+other tongue; these progressed into German with a German-to-English
+comparison dictionary, and then into French via a German-to-French
+comparison and were finally checked out in French by French-speaking
+examiners.
+
+And Professor White's block diagram grew complex, and Dr. Persons's
+histograms filled pages and pages of his broad notebooks.
+
+It was the first time that James Holden had ever seen a team of
+researchers plow into a problem, running a cold and icy scientific
+investigation to ascertain precisely how much cause produced how much
+effect. Holden, who had taken what he wanted or needed as the time came,
+began to understand the desirability of full and careful programming. The
+whole affair intrigued him and interested him. He plunged in with a will
+and gave them all the help he could.
+
+He had no time to be bored, and he did not mark the passage of time until
+he arrived at his thirteenth birthday.
+
+Then one night shortly after his birthday, James Holden discovered women
+indirectly. He had his first erotic dream.
+
+We shall not go into the details of this midnight introduction to the
+arrival of manhood, for the simple reason that if we dwell on the
+subject, someone is certain to attempt a dream-analysis and come up with
+some flanged-up character-study or personality-quirk that really has
+nothing to do with the mind or body of James Holden. The truth is that
+his erotic dream was pleasantly stirring, but not entirely satisfactory.
+It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last very long. It awakened him
+to the realization that knowledge is not the end-all of life, and that a
+full understanding of the words, the medical terms, and the biology
+involved did not tell him a thing about this primary drive of all life.
+
+His total grasp of even the sideline issues was still dim. He came to a
+partial understanding of why Jake Caslow had entertained late visitors of
+the opposite sex, but he still could not quite see the reason why Jake
+kept the collection of calendar photographs and paintings hung up around
+the place. Crude jokes and rude talk heard long years before and dimly
+remembered did not have much connection with the subject. To James
+Holden, a "tomato" was still a vegetable, although he knew that some
+botanists were willing to argue that the tomato was really a fruit.
+
+For many days he watched Judge Carter and his wife with a critical
+curiosity that their childless life had never known before. James found
+that they did not act as if something new and strangely thrilling had
+just hit the known universe. He felt that they should know about it.
+Despite the fact that he knew everything that his textbooks could tell
+him about sex and copulation he still had the quaint notion that the
+reason why Judge Carter and his wife were childless was because they had
+not yet gotten around to Doing It. He made no attempt to correlate this
+oddity with its opposite in Jake Caslow's ladies of the night who seemed
+to go on their merry way without conceiving.
+
+He remembered the joking parry-and-thrust of that midnight talk between
+Tim Fisher and Janet Bagley but it made no sense to him still. But as he
+pondered the multitude of puzzlements, some of the answers fell partly
+into place just as some of the matching pieces of a jigsaw puzzle may lie
+close to one another when they are dumped out of the box. Very dimly
+James began to realize that this sort of thing was not New, but to the
+contrary it had been going on for a long, long time. So long in fact that
+neither Tim Fisher nor Janet Bagley had found it necessary to state
+desire and raise objection respectively in simple clear sentences
+containing subject, verb, and object. This much came to him and it
+bothered him even more, now that he understood that they were bandying
+their meanings lightly over a subject so vital, so important, so--so
+completely personal.
+
+Then, in that oddly irrational corner of his brain that neither knowledge
+nor information had been adequate to rationalize nor had experience
+arrived to supply the explanation, James Holden's limited but growing
+comprehension arrived at a conclusion that was reasonable within its
+limited framework. Judge Carter and his wife occupied separate bedrooms
+and had therefore never Done It. Conversely, Tim and Janet Fisher from
+their midnight discussion obviously Knew What It Was All About. James
+wondered whether they had Done It yet, and he also wondered whether he
+could tell by listening to their discussions and conversations now that
+they'd been married at least long enough to have Tried It.
+
+With a brand new and very interesting subject to study, James lost
+interest in the program of concentrated research. James Holden found that
+all he had to do to arrange a trip to Shipmont was to state his desire to
+go and the length of his visit. The judge deemed both reasonable, Mrs.
+Carter packed James a bag, and off he went.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The house on Martin's Hill was about the same, with some improvement such
+as a coat of paint and some needed repair work. The grounds had been
+worked over, but it was going to take a number of years of concentrated
+gardening to de-weed the tangled lawn and to cut the undergrowth in the
+thin woodsy back area where James had played in concealment.
+
+But the air inside was changed. Janet, as Mrs. Bagley, had been as close
+to James Holden as any substitute mother could have been. Now she seemed
+preoccupied and too busy with her own life to act more than pleasantly
+polite. He could have been visiting the home of a friend instead of
+returning to the domicile he had created, in which he had provided her
+with a home--for herself and a frightened little girl. She asked him how
+he had been and what he was doing, but he felt that this was more a
+matter of taking up time than real interest. He had the feeling that
+somewhere deep inside, her soul was biting its fingernails. She spoke of
+Martha with pride and hope, she asked how Judge Carter was making out and
+whether Martha would be able to finish her schooling via Holden's
+machine.
+
+James believed this was her problem. Martha had been educated far beyond
+her years. She could no more enter school now than he could; unwittingly
+he'd made Martha a misfit, too. So James tried to explain that part of
+the study undertaken in Judge Carter's program had been the question of
+what to do about Martha.
+
+The professionals studying the case did not know yet whether Martha would
+remain ahead of her age group, or whether to let her loaf it out until
+her age group caught up with her, or whether to give Martha everything
+she could take as fast as she could take it. This would make a female
+counterpart of James Holden to study.
+
+But knowing that there were a number of very brilliant scientists,
+educators, and psychologists working on Martha's problem did not cheer up
+Mrs. Janet Fisher as much as James thought it should. Yet as he watched
+her, he could not say that Tim Fisher's wife was _unhappy_.
+
+Tim, on the other hand, looked fine. James watched them together as
+critically curious as he'd been in watching the Judge and Mrs. Carter.
+Tim was gentle with his wife, tender, polite, and more than willing to
+wait on her. From their talk and chit-chat, James could detect nothing.
+There were still elisions, questions answered with a half-phrase,
+comments added with a disconnected word and replied in another word
+that--in cold print--would appear to have no bearing on the original
+subject. This sort of thing told James nothing. Judge Carter and his wife
+did the same; if there were any difference to be noted it was only in the
+basic subject materials. The judge and his wife were inclined more toward
+discussions of political questions and judicial problems, whereas Tim and
+Janet Fisher were more interested in music, movies, and the general trend
+of the automobile repair business; or more to the point, whether to
+expand the present facility in Shipmont, to open another branch
+elsewhere, or to sell out to buy a really big operation in some sizable
+city.
+
+James saw a change in Martha, too. It had been months since he came back
+home to supervise the removal of his belongings. Now Martha had filled
+out. She was dressed in a shirt-and-skirt instead of the little jumper
+dresses James remembered. Martha's hair was lightly wavy instead of
+trimmed short, and she was wearing a very faint touch of color on her
+lips. She wore tiny slippers with heels just a trifle higher than the
+altitude recommended for a girl close to thirteen.
+
+Ultimately they fell into animated chatter of their own, just as they
+always had. There was a barrier between the pair of them and Martha's
+mother and stepfather--slightly higher than the usual barrier erected
+between children and their adults because of their educational adventures
+together. They had covered reams and volumes together. Martha's mother
+was interested in Holden's machine only when something specific came to
+her attention that she did not wish to forget such as a recipe or a
+pattern, and one very extensive course that enabled her to add a column
+of three-digit numbers by the whole lines instead of taking each column
+digit by digit. Tim Fisher himself had deeper interests, but nearly all
+of them directed at making Tim Fisher a better manager of the automobile
+repair business. There had been some discussion of the possibility that
+Tim Fisher might memorize some subject such as the names of all baseball
+players and their yearly and lifetime scoring, fielding, and playing
+averages, training for him to go as a contestant on one of the big money
+giveaway shows. This never came to pass; Tim Fisher did not have any
+spectacular qualities about him that would land him an invitation. So
+Tim's work with Holden's machine had been straightforward studies in
+mechanics and bookkeeping and business management--plus a fine repertoire
+of bawdy songs he had rung in on the sly and subsequently used at
+parties.
+
+James and Martha had taken all they wanted of education and available
+information, sometimes with plan and the guidance of schoolbooks and
+sometimes simply because they found the subject of interest. In the past
+they'd had discussions of problems in understanding; they'd talked of
+things that parents and elders would have considered utterly impossible
+to discuss with young minds. With this communion of interests, they fell
+back into their former pattern of first joining the general conversation
+politely and then gradually confining their remarks to one another until
+there were two conversations going on at the same time, one between
+James and Martha and another between Janet and Tim. Again, the vocal
+interference and cross-talk became too high, and it was Tim and Janet who
+left the living room to mix a couple of highballs and start dinner.
+
+The chatter continued, but now with a growing strain on the part of young
+James Holden.
+
+He wanted to switch to a more personal topic of conversation but he did
+not know how to accomplish this feat. There was plenty of interest but it
+was more clinical than passionate; he was not stirred to yearning, he
+felt no overwhelming desire to hold Martha's hand nor to feel the
+softness of her face, yet there was a stirring urge to make some form of
+contact. But he had no idea of how to steer the conversation towards
+personal lines that might lead into something that would justify a
+gesture towards her. It began to work on him. The original clinical urge
+to touch her just to see what reaction would obtain changed into a
+personal urge that grew higher as he found that he could not kick the
+conversational ball in that direction. The idea of putting an arm about
+her waist as he had seen men embrace their girls on television was a
+pleasing thought; he wanted to find out if kissing was as much fun as it
+was made up to be.
+
+But instead of offering him any encouragement, or even giving him a
+chance to start shifting the conversation, Martha went prattling on and
+on and on about a book she'd read recently.
+
+It did not occur to James Holden that Martha Bagley might entertain the
+idea of physical contact of some mild sort on an experimental basis. He
+did not even consider the possibility that he might _start_ her thinking
+about it. So instead of closing the distance between them like a gentle
+wolf, watching with sly calculation to ascertain whether her response was
+positive, negative, or completely neutral, he sat like a post and fretted
+inwardly because he couldn't control the direction of their conversation.
+
+Ultimately, of course, Martha ran out of comment on her book and then
+there fell a deadly silence because James couldn't dredge up another
+lively subject. Desperately, he searched through his mind for an opening.
+There was none. The bright patter between male and female characters in
+books he'd smuggled started off on too high a level on both sides. Books
+that were written adequately for his understanding of this problem signed
+off with the trite explanation that they lived happily ever afterwards
+but did not say a darned thing about how they went about it. The slightly
+lurid books that he'd bought, delivered in plain wrappers, gave some very
+illuminating descriptions of the art or act, but the affair opened with
+the scene all set and the principal characters both ready, willing, and
+able. There was no conversational road map that showed the way that led
+two people from a calm and unemotional discussion into an area that might
+lead to something entirely else.
+
+In silence, James Holden sat there sinking deeper and deeper into his own
+misery.
+
+The more he thought about it, the farther he found himself from his
+desire. Later in the process, he knew, came a big barrier called
+"stealing a kiss," and James with his literal mind provided this game
+with an aggressor, a defender, and the final extraction by coercion or
+violence of the first osculatory contact. If the objective could be
+carried off without the defense repulsing the advance, the rest was
+supposed to come with less trouble. But here he was floundering before he
+began, let alone approaching the barrier that must be an even bigger
+problem.
+
+Briefly he wished that it were Christmas, because at Christmas people
+hung up mistletoe. Mistletoe would not only provide an opening by
+custom and tradition, it also cut through this verbal morass of trying
+to lead up to the subject by the quick process of supplying the subject
+itself. But it was a long time before Christmas. James abandoned that
+ill-conceived idea and went on sinking deep and feeling miserable.
+
+Then Martha's mother took James out of his misery by coming in to
+announce dinner. Regretfully, James sighed for his lost moments and
+helplessness, then got to his feet and held out a hand for Martha.
+
+She put her hand in his and allowed him to lift her to her feet by
+pulling. The first contact did not stir him at all, though it was warm
+and pleasant. Once the pulling pressure was off, he continued to hold
+Martha's hand, tentatively and experimentally.
+
+Then Janet Fisher showered shards of ice with a light laugh. "You two can
+stand there holding hands," she said. "But I'm going to eat it while it's
+on the table."
+
+James Holden's hand opened with the swiftness of a reflex action, almost
+as fast as the wink of an eye at the flash of light or the body's jump at
+the crack of sound. Martha's hand did not drop because she, too, was
+holding his and did not let go abruptly. She giggled, gave his hand a
+little squeeze and said, "Let's go. I'm hungry too."
+
+None of which solved James Holden's problem. But during dinner his
+personal problem slipped aside because he discovered another slight
+change in Janet Fisher's attitude. He puzzled over it quietly, but
+managed to eat without any apparent preoccupation. Dinner took about a
+half hour, after which they spent another fifteen minutes over coffee,
+with Janet refusing her second cup. She disappeared at the first shuffle
+of a foot under the table, while James and Martha resumed their years-old
+chore of clearing the table and tackling the dishwashing problem.
+
+Alone in the kitchen, James asked Martha, "What's with your mother?"
+
+"What do you mean, what's with her?"
+
+"She's changed, somehow."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"She seems sort of inner-thoughtful. Cheerful enough but as if
+something's bothering her that she can't stop."
+
+"That all?"
+
+"No," he went on. "She hiked upstairs like a shot right after dinner was
+over. Tim raced after her. And she said no to coffee."
+
+"Oh, that. She's just a little upset in the middle."
+
+"But why?"
+
+"She's pregnant."
+
+"Pregnant?"
+
+"Sure. Can't you see?"
+
+"Never occurred to me to look."
+
+"Well, it's so," said Martha, scouring a coffee cup with an exaggerated
+flourish. "And I'm going to have a half-sibling."
+
+"But look--"
+
+"Don't _you_ go getting upset," said Martha. "It's a natural process
+that's been going on for hundreds of thousands of years, you know."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Not for months," said Martha. "It just happened."
+
+"Too bad she's unhappy."
+
+"She's very happy. Both of them wanted it."
+
+James considered this. He had never come across Voltaire's observation
+that marriage is responsible for the population because it provides the
+maximum opportunity with the maximum temptation. But it was beginning to
+filter slowly into his brain that the ways and means were always
+available and there was neither custom, tradition, nor biology that
+dictated a waiting period or a time limit. It was a matter of choice, and
+when two people want their baby, and have no reason for not having their
+baby, it is silly to wait.
+
+"Why did they wait so long if they both want it?"
+
+"Oh," replied Martha in a matter-of-fact voice, "they've been working at
+it right along."
+
+James thought some more. He'd come to see if he could detect any
+difference between the behavior of Judge and Mrs. Carter, and the
+behavior of Tim and Janet Fisher. He saw little, other than the standard
+differences that could be accounted for by age and temperament. Tim and
+Janet did not really act as if they'd Discovered Something New. Tim, he
+knew, was a bit more sweet and tender to Janet than he'd been before, but
+there was nothing startling in his behavior. If there were any difference
+as compared to their original antics, James knew that it was undoubtedly
+due to the fact that they didn't have to stand lollygagging in the
+hallway for two hours while Janet half-heartedly insisted that Tim go
+home. He went on to consider his original theory that the Carters were
+childless because they occupied separate bedrooms; by some sort of
+deduction he came to the conclusion that he was right, because Tim and
+Janet Fisher were making a baby and they slept in the same bedroom.
+
+He went on in a whirl; maybe the Carters didn't want children, but it was
+more likely that they too had tried but it hadn't happened.
+
+And then it came to him suddenly that here he was in the kitchen alone
+with Martha Bagley, discussing the very delicate subject. But he was
+actually no closer to his problem of becoming a participant than he'd
+been an hour ago in the living room. It was one thing to daydream the
+suggestion when you can also daydream the affirmative response, but it
+was another matter when the response was completely out of your control.
+James was not old enough in the ways of the world to even consider
+outright asking; even if he had considered it, he did not know how to
+ask.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The evening went slowly. Janet and Tim returned about the time the
+dishwashing process was complete. Janet proposed a hand of bridge; Tim
+suggested poker, James voted for pinochle, and Martha wanted to toss a
+coin between canasta or gin rummy. They settled it by dealing a shuffled
+deck face upward until the ace of hearts landed in front of Janet,
+whereupon they played bridge until about eleven o'clock. It was
+interesting bridge; James and Martha had studied bridge columns and books
+for recreation; against them were aligned Tim and Janet, who played with
+the card sense developed over years of practice. The youngsters knew the
+theories, their bidding was as precise as bridge bidding could be made
+with value-numbering, honor-counting, response-value addition, and all
+of the other systems. They understood all of the coups and end plays
+complete with classic examples. But having all of the theory engraved on
+their brains did not temporarily imprint the location of every card
+already played, whereas Tim and Janet counted their played cards
+automatically and made up in play what they missed in stratagem.
+
+At eleven, Janet announced that she was tired, Tim joined her; James
+turned on the television set and he and Martha watched a ten-year-old
+movie for an hour. Finally Martha yawned.
+
+And James, still floundering, mentally meandered back to his wish that it
+were Christmas so that mistletoe would provide a traditional gesture of
+affection, and came up with a new and novel idea that he expressed in a
+voice that almost trembled:
+
+"Tired, Martha?"
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+"Well, why don't I kiss you good night and send you off to bed."
+
+"All right, if you want to."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Oh--just--well, everybody does it."
+
+She sat near him on the low divan, looking him full in the face but
+making no move, no gesture, no change in her expression. He looked at her
+and realized that he was not sure of how to take hold of her, how to
+reach for her, how to proceed.
+
+She said, "Well, go ahead."
+
+"I'm going to."
+
+"When?"
+
+"As soon as I get good and ready."
+
+"Are we going to sit here all night?"
+
+In its own way, it reminded James of the equally un-brilliant
+conversation between Janet and Tim on the homecoming after their first
+date. He chuckled.
+
+"What's so funny?"
+
+"Nothing," he said in a slightly strained voice. "I'm thinking that here
+we sit like a couple of kids that don't know what it's all about."
+
+"Well," said Martha, "aren't we?"
+
+"Yes," he said reluctantly, "I guess we are. But darn it, Martha, how
+does a guy grow up? How does a guy learn these things?" His voice was
+plaintive, it galled him to admit that for all of his knowledge and his
+competence, he was still just a bit more than a child emotionally.
+
+"I don't know," she said in a voice as plaintive as his. "I wouldn't know
+where to look to find it. I've tried. All I know," she said with a
+quickening voice, "is that somewhere between now and then I'll learn how
+to toss talk back and forth the way they do."
+
+"Yes," he said glumly.
+
+"James," said Martha brightly, "we should be somewhat better than a pair
+of kids who don't know what it's all about, shouldn't we?"
+
+"That's what bothers me," he admitted. "We're neither of us stupid. Lord
+knows we've plenty of education between us, but--"
+
+"James, how did we get that education?"
+
+"Through my father's machine."
+
+"No, you don't understand. What I mean is that no matter how we got our
+education, we had to learn, didn't we?"
+
+"Why, yes. In a--"
+
+"Now, let's not get involved in another philosophical argument. Let's run
+this one right on through to the end. Why are we sitting here fumbling?
+Because we haven't yet learned how to behave like adults."
+
+"I suppose so. But it strikes me that anything should be--"
+
+"James, for goodness' sake. Here we are, the two people in the whole
+world who have studied everything we know together, and when we hit
+something we can't study--you want to go home and kiss your old machine,"
+she finished with a remarkable lack of serial logic. She laughed
+nervously.
+
+"What's so darned funny?" he demanded sourly.
+
+"Oh," she said, "you're afraid to kiss me because you don't know how, and
+I'm afraid to let you because I don't know how, and so we're talking away
+a golden opportunity to find out. James," she said seriously, "if you
+fumble a bit, I won't know the difference because I'm no smarter than you
+are."
+
+She leaned forward holding her face up, her lips puckered forward in
+a tight little rosebud. She closed her eyes and waited. Gingerly and
+hesitantly he leaned forward and met her lips with a pucker of his own.
+It was a light contact, warm, and ended quickly with a characteristic
+smack that seemed to echo through the silent house. It had all of the
+emotional charge of a mother-in-law's peck, but it served its purpose
+admirably. They both opened their eyes and looked at one another from
+four inches of distance. Then they tried it again and their second was a
+little longer and a little warmer and a little closer, and it ended with
+less of the noise of opening a fruit jar.
+
+Martha moved over close beside him and put her head on his shoulder;
+James responded by putting an arm around her, and together they tried to
+assemble themselves in the comfortably affectionate position seen in
+movies and on television. It didn't quite work that way. There seemed to
+be too many arms and legs and sharp corners for comfort, or when they
+found a contortion that did not create interferences with limb or corner,
+it was a strain on the spine or a twist in the neck. After a few minutes
+of this coeducational wrestling they decided almost without effort to
+return to the original routine of kissing. By more luck than good
+management they succeeded in an embrace that placed no strain and which
+met them almost face to face. They puckered again and made contact, then
+pressure came and spread out the pair of tightly pursed rosebuds. Martha
+moved once to get her nose free of his cheek for a breath of air.
+
+At the rate they were going, they might have hit paydirt this time, but
+just at the point where James should have relaxed to enjoy the long kiss
+he began to worry: There is something planned and final about the quick
+smacking kiss, but how does one gracefully terminate the long-term,
+high-pressure jobs? So instead of enjoying himself, James planned and
+discarded plans until he decided that the way he'd do it would be to
+exert a short, heavy pressure and then cease with the same action as in
+the quick-smack variety.
+
+It worked fine, but as he opened his eyes to look at her, she was there
+with her eyes still closed and her lips still ready. He took a deep
+breath and plunged in again. Having determined how to start, James was
+now going to experiment with endings.
+
+They came up for air successfully again, and then spent some time
+wriggling around into another position. The figure-fitting went easier
+this time, after threshing around through three or four near-comforts
+they came to rest in a pleasantly natural position and James Holden
+became nervously aware of the fact that his right hand was cupped over
+a soft roundness that filled his palm almost perfectly. He wondered
+whether to remove it quickly to let her know that this intimacy wasn't
+intentional; slowly so that (maybe, he hoped) she wouldn't realize that
+it had been there; or to leave it there because it felt pleasant. While
+he was wondering, Martha moved around because she could not twist her
+neck all the way around like an owl, and she wanted to see him. The move
+solved his problem but presented the equally great problem of how he
+would try it again.
+
+James allowed a small portion of his brain to think about this, and put
+the rest of his mind at ease by kissing her again. Halfway through, he
+felt warm moistness as her lips parted slightly, then the tip of her
+tongue darted forward between his lips to quest against his tongue in a
+caress so fleeting that it was withdrawn before he could react--and James
+reacted by jerking his head back faster than if he had been clubbed in
+the face. He was still tingling with the shock, a pleasant shock but none
+the less a shock, when Martha giggled lightly.
+
+He bubbled and blurted, "Wha--whu--?"
+
+She told him nervously, "I've been wanting to try that ever since I read
+it in a book."
+
+He shivered. "What book?" he demanded in almost a quaver.
+
+"A paperback of Tim's. Mother calls them, Tim's sex and slay stories."
+Martha giggled again. "You jumped."
+
+"Sure did. I was surprised. Do it again."
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Didn't you like it?"
+
+"Did you?"
+
+"I don't know. I didn't have time to find out."
+
+"Oh."
+
+He kissed her again and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally he moved
+back an inch and said, "What's the matter?"
+
+"I don't think we should. Maybe we ought to wait until we're older."
+
+"Not fair," he complained. "You had all the warning."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Didn't you like it?" he asked.
+
+"Well, it gave me the most tickly tingle."
+
+"And all I got was a sort of mild electric shock. Come on."
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, then, I'll do it to you."
+
+"All right. Just once."
+
+Leaping to the end of this midnight research, there are three primary
+ways of concluding, namely: 1, physical satisfaction; 2, physical
+exhaustion; and 3, interruption. We need not go into sub-classifications
+or argue the point. James and Martha were not emotionally ready to
+conclude with mutual defloration. Ultimately they fell asleep on the
+divan with their arms around each other. They weren't interrupted;
+they awoke as the first flush of daylight brightened the sky, and with
+one more rather chaste kiss, they parted to fall into the deep slumber of
+complete physical and emotional exhaustion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+
+James Holden's ride home on the train gave him a chance to think, alone
+and isolated from all but superficial interruptions. He felt that he was
+quite the bright young man.
+
+He noticed with surreptitious pride that folks no longer eyed him with
+sly, amused, knowing smiles whenever he opened a newspaper. Perhaps some
+of their amusement had been the sight of a youngster struggling with a
+full-spread page, employing arms that did not quite make the span. But
+most of all he hated the condescending tolerance; their everlasting
+attitude that everything he did was "cute" like the little girl who
+decked herself out in mother's clothing from high heels and brassiere
+to evening gown, costume jewelry, and a fumbled smear of makeup.
+
+That was over. He'd made it to a couple of months over fourteen, he'd
+finally reached a stature large enough so that he did not have to prove
+his right to buy a railroad ticket, nor climb on the suitcase bar so that
+he could peer over the counter. Newsdealers let him alone to pick his own
+fare instead of trying to "save his money" by shoving Mickey Mouse at him
+and putting his own choice back on its pile.
+
+He had not succeeded in gaining his legal freedom, but as Ward of the
+State under Judge Carter he had other interesting expectations that he
+might not have stumbled upon. Carter had connections; there was talk of
+James' entering a comprehensive examination at some university, where the
+examining board, forearmed with the truth about his education, would test
+James to ascertain his true level of comprehension. He could of course
+collect his bachelor's degree once he complied with the required work
+of term papers written to demonstrate that his information could be
+interwoven into the formation of an opinion, or reflection, or view
+of some topic. Master's degrees and doctor's degrees required the
+presentation of some original area of study, competence in his chosen
+field, and the development of some facet of the field that had not been
+touched before. These would require more work, but could be handled in
+time.
+
+In fact, he felt that he was in pretty good shape. There were a couple
+of sticky problems, still. He wanted Paul Brennan to get his comeuppance,
+but he knew that there was no evidence available to support his story
+about the slaughter of his parents. It galled him to realize that
+cold-blooded, premeditated murder for personal profit and avarice could
+go undetected. But until there could be proffered some material evidence,
+Brennan's word was as good as his in any court. So Brennan was getting
+away with it.
+
+The other little item was his own independence. He wanted it. That he
+might continue living with Judge Carter had no bearing. No matter how
+benevolent the tyranny, James wanted no part of it. In fighting for his
+freedom, James Holden's foot had slipped. He'd used his father's machine
+on Martha, and that was a legal error.
+
+Martha? James was not really sorry he'd slipped. Error or not, he'd made
+of her the only person in the world who understood his problem wholly and
+sympathetically. Otherwise he would be completely alone.
+
+Oh yes, he felt that he was quite the bright young man. He was coming
+along fine and getting somewhere. His very pleasant experiences in the
+house on Martin's Hill had raised him from a boy to a young man; he was
+now able to grasp the appreciation of the Big Drive, to understand some
+of the reasons why adults acted in the way that they did. He hadn't
+managed another late session of sofa with Martha, but there had been
+little incidental meetings in the hallway or in the kitchen with the
+exchange of kisses, and they'd boldly kissed goodbye at the railroad
+station under her mother's smile.
+
+He could not know Janet Fisher's mind, of course. Janet, mother to a girl
+entering young womanhood, worried about all of the things that such a
+mother worries about and added a couple of things that no other mother
+ever had. She could hardly slip her daughter a smooth version of the
+birds and the bees and people when she knew full well that Martha had
+gone through a yard or so of books on the subject that covered everything
+from the advanced medical to the lurid expose and from the salacious to
+the ribald. Janet could only hope that her daughter valued her chastity
+according to convention despite the natural human curiosity which in
+Martha would be multiplied by the girl's advanced education. Janet knew
+that young people were marrying younger and younger as the years went on;
+she saw young James Holden no longer as a rather odd youngster with
+abilities beyond his age. She saw him now as the potential mate for
+Martha. And when they embraced and kissed at the station, Janet did not
+realize that she was accepting this salute as the natural act of two
+sub-adults, rather than a pair of precocious kids.
+
+At any rate, James Holden felt very good. Now he had a girl. He had
+acquired one more of the many attitudes of the Age of Maturity.
+
+So James settled down to read his newspaper, and on page three he saw a
+photograph and an article that attracted his attention. The photograph
+was of a girl no more than seven years old holding a baby at least a year
+old. Beside them was a boy of about nine. In the background was a
+miserable hovel made of crude lumber and patched windows. This couple and
+their baby had been discovered by a geological survey outfit living in
+the backwoods hills. Relief, aid, and help were being rushed, and the
+legislature was considering ways and means of their schooling. Neither
+of them could read or write.
+
+James read the article, and his first thought was to proffer his help.
+Aid and enlightenment they needed, and they needed it quickly. And then
+he stopped immediately because he could do nothing to educate them unless
+they already possessed the ability to read.
+
+His second thought was one of dismay. His exultation came down with a
+dull thud. Within seconds he realized that the acquisition of a girl was
+no evidence of his competent maturity. The couple photographed were human
+beings, but intellectually they were no more than animals with a slight
+edge in vocabulary. It made James Holden sick at heart to read the
+article and to realize that such filth and ignorance could still go on.
+But it took a shock of such violence to make James realize that clams,
+guppies, worms, fleas, cats, dogs, and the great whales reproduced their
+kind; intellect, education and mature competence under law had nothing to
+do with the process whatsoever.
+
+And while his heart was still unhappy, he turned to page four and read an
+open editorial that discussed the chances of The Educational Party in the
+coming Election Year.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James blinked.
+
+"Splinter" parties, the editorial said, seldom succeeded in gaining a
+primary objective. They only succeeded in drawing votes from the other
+major parties, in splitting the total ballot, and dividing public
+opinion. On the other hand, they did provide a useful political
+weathervane for the major parties to watch most carefully. If the
+splinter party succeeded in capturing a large vote, it was an indication
+that the People found their program favorable and upon such evidence it
+behooved the major parties to mend their political fences--or to relocate
+them.
+
+Education, said the editorial, was a primary issue and had been one
+for years. There had been experimenting with education ever since
+the Industrial Revolution uncovered the fact, in about 1900, that
+backbreaking physical toil was going to be replaced by educated workers
+operating machinery.
+
+Then the editorial quoted Judge Norman L. Carter:
+
+"'For many years,' said Judge Carter, 'we have deplored the situation
+whereby a doctor or a physicist is not considered fully educated until he
+has reached his middle or even late twenties. Yet instead of speeding up
+the curriculum in the early school years, we have introduced such
+important studies as social graces, baton twirling, interpretive painting
+and dancing, and a lot of other fiddle-faddle which graduates students
+who cannot spell, nor read a book, nor count above ten without taking off
+their shoes. Perhaps such studies are necessary to make sound citizens
+and graceful companions. I shall not contest the point. However, I
+contend that a sound and basic schooling should be included--and when I
+so contend I am told by our great educators that the day is not long
+enough nor the years great enough to accomplish this very necessary end.
+
+"'Gentlemen, we leaders of The Education Party propose to accomplish
+precisely that which they said cannot be done!'"
+
+The editorial closed with the terse suggestion: Educator--Educate
+thyself!
+
+James Holden sat stunned.
+
+_What was Judge Carter doing?_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+James Holden arrived to find the home of Judge Norman L. Carter an upset
+madhouse. He was stopped at the front door by a secretary at a small desk
+whose purpose was to screen the visitors and to log them in and out in
+addition to being decorative. Above her left breast was a large enamelled
+button, red on top, white in the middle as a broad stripe from left to
+right, and blue below. Across the white stripe was printed CARTER in
+bold, black letters. From in back of the pin depended two broad silk
+ribbons that cascaded forward over the stuffing in her brassiere and hung
+free until they disappeared behind the edge of the desk. She eyed James
+with curiosity. "Young man, if you're looking for throwaways for your
+civics class, you'll have to wait until we're better organized--"
+
+James eyed her with cold distaste. "I am James Quincy Holden," he told
+her, "and you have neither the authority nor the agility necessary to
+prevent my entrance."
+
+"You are--I what?"
+
+"I live here," he told her flatly. "Or didn't they provide you with this
+tidbit of vital statistic?"
+
+Wheels rotated behind the girl's eyes somewhere, and memory cells linked
+into comprehension. "Oh!--You're James."
+
+"I said that first," he replied. "Where's Judge Carter?"
+
+"He's in conference and cannot be disturbed."
+
+"Your objection is overruled. I shall disturb him as soon as I find out
+precisely what has been going on."
+
+He went on in through the short hallway and found audible confusion. Men
+in groups of two to four stood in corners talking in bedlam. There was a
+layer of blue smoke above their heads that broke into skirls as various
+individuals left one group to join another. Through this vocal mob scene
+James went veering from left to right to avoid the groupings. He stood
+with polite insolence directly in front of two men sitting on the stairs
+until they made room for his passage--still talking as he went between
+them. In his room, three were sitting on the bed and the chair holding
+glasses and, of course, smoking like the rest. James dropped his
+overnight bag on a low stand and headed for his bathroom. One of the men
+caught sight of him and said, "Hey kid, scram!"
+
+James looked at the man coldly. "You happen to be using my bedroom. You
+should be asking my permission to do so, or perhaps apologizing for not
+having asked me before you moved in. I have no intention of leaving."
+
+"Get the likes of him!"
+
+"Wait a moment, Pete. This is the Holden kid."
+
+"The little genius, huh?"
+
+James said, "I am no genius. I do happen to have an education that
+provides me with the right to criticize your social behavior. I will
+neither be insulted nor patronized."
+
+"Listen to him, will you!"
+
+James turned and with the supreme gesture of contempt, he left the door
+open.
+
+He wound his way through the place to Judge Carter's study and home
+office, strode towards it with purpose and reached for the doorknob. A
+voice halted him: "Hey kid, you can't go in there!"
+
+Turning to face the new voice, James said calmly,
+
+"You mean 'may not' which implies that I have asked your permission. Your
+statement is incorrect as phrased and erroneous when corrected."
+
+He turned the knob and entered. Judge Carter sat at his desk with two
+men; their discussion ceased with the sound of the doorknob. The judge
+looked up in annoyance. "Hello, James. You shouldn't have come in here.
+We're busy. I'll let you know when I'm free."
+
+"You'd better make time for me right now," said James angrily. "I'd like
+to know what's going on here."
+
+"This much I'll tell you quickly. We're planning a political campaign.
+Now, please--"
+
+"I know you're planning a political campaign," replied James. "But if
+you're proposing to campaign on the platform of a reform in education,
+I suggest that you educate your henchmen in the rudimentary elements of
+polite speech and gentle behavior. I dislike being ordered out of my room
+by usurpers who have the temerity to address me as 'hey kid'."
+
+"Relax, James. I'll send them out later."
+
+"I'd suggest that you tell them off," snapped James. He turned on his
+heel and left, heading for the cellar. In the workshop he found Professor
+White and Jack Cowling presiding over the machine. In the chair with the
+headset on sat the crowning insult of all:
+
+Paul Brennan leafing through a heavy sheaf of papers, reading and
+intoning the words of political oratory.
+
+Unable to lick them, Brennan had joined them--or, wondered young Holden,
+was Judge Norman L. Carter paying for Brennan's silence with some plum of
+political patronage?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As he stood there, the years of persecution rose strong in the mind of
+James Holden. Brennan, the man who'd got away with murder and would
+continue to get away with it because there was no shred of evidence, no
+witness, nothing but James Holden's knowledge of Brennan's actions when
+he'd thought himself unseen in his calloused treatment of James Holden's
+dying mother; Brennan's critical inspection of the smashed body of his
+father, coldly checking the dead flesh to be sure beyond doubt; the cruel
+search about the scene of the 'accident' for James himself--interrupted
+only by the arrival of a Samaritan, whose name was never known to James
+Holden. In James rose the violent resentment of the years, the certain
+knowledge that any act of revenge upon Paul Brennan would be viewed as
+cold-blooded premeditated murder without cause or motive.
+
+And then came the angry knowledge that simple slaughter was too good for
+Paul Brennan. He was not a dog to be quickly released from misery by a
+merciful death. Paul Brennan should suffer until he cried for death as a
+blessed release from daily living.
+
+James Holden, angry, silently, unseen by the preoccupied workers,
+stole across the room to the main switch-panel, flipped up a small
+half-concealed cover, and flipped a small button.
+
+There came a sharp _Crack_! that shattered the silence and
+re-echoed again and again through the room. The panel that held the
+repeater-circuit of the Holden Educator bulged outward; jets of smoke
+lanced out of broken metal, bulged corners, holes and skirled into little
+clouds that drifted upward--trailing a flowing billow of thick, black,
+pungent smoke that reached the low ceiling and spread outward, fanwise,
+obscuring the ceiling like a low-lying nimbus.
+
+At the sound of the report, the man in the chair jumped as if he'd been
+stabbed where he sat.
+
+"Ouyeowwww!" yowled Brennan in a pitiful ululation. He fell forward from
+the chair, asprawl on wobbly hands and knees, on elbows and knees as he
+tried to press away the torrent of agony that hammered back and forth
+from temple to temple. James watched Brennan with cold detachment,
+Professor White and Jack Cowling looked on in paralyzed horror. Slowly,
+oh, so slowly, Paul Brennan managed to squirm around until he was sitting
+on the floor still cradling his head between his hands.
+
+James said, "I'm afraid that you're going to have a rough time whenever
+you hear the word 'entrenched'." And then, as Brennan made no response,
+James Holden went on, "Or were you by chance reading the word
+'pedagogue'?"
+
+At the word, Brennan howled again; the pain was too much for him and he
+toppled sidewise to writhe in kicking agony.
+
+James smiled coldly, "I'm sorry that you weren't reading the word 'the'.
+The English language uses more of them than the word 'pedagogue'."
+
+With remarkable effort, Brennan struggled to his feet; he lurched toward
+James. "I'll teach you, you little--"
+
+"Pedagogue?" asked James.
+
+The shock rocked Brennan right to the floor again.
+
+"Better sit there and think," said James coldly. "You come within a dozen
+yards of me and I'll say--"
+
+"No! Don't!" screamed Paul Brennan. "Not again!"
+
+"Now," asked James, "what's going on here?"
+
+"He was memorizing a political speech," said Jack Cowling. "What did you
+do?"
+
+"I merely fixed my machine so that it will not be used again."
+
+"But you shouldn't have done that!"
+
+"You shouldn't have been using it for this purpose," replied James. "It
+wasn't intended to further political ambitions."
+
+"But Judge Carter--"
+
+"Judge Carter doesn't own it," said James. "I do."
+
+"I'm sure that Judge Carter can explain everything."
+
+"Tell him so. Then add that if he'd bothered to give me the time of day,
+I'd be less angry. He's not to be interrupted, is he? I'm ordered out of
+my room, am I? Well, go tell the judge that his political campaign has
+been stopped by a fourteen-year-old boy who knows which button to push!
+I'll wait here."
+
+Professor White took off; Jack Cowling smiled crookedly and shook his
+head at James. "You're a rash young man," he said. "What did you do to
+Brennan, here?"
+
+James pointed at the smoke curling up out of the panel. "I put in a
+destructive charge to addle the circuit as a preventive measure against
+capture or use by unauthorized persons," he replied. "So I pushed the
+button just as Brennan was trying to memorize the word--"
+
+"Don't!" cried Brennan in a pleading scream.
+
+"You mean he's going to throw a fit every time he hears the word--"
+
+"No! No! Can't anybody talk without saying--Ouwwouooo!"
+
+"Interesting," commented James. "It seems to start as soon as the
+fore-reading part of his mind predicts that the word may be next, or
+when he thinks about it."
+
+"Do you mean that Brennan is going to be like the guy who could win the
+world if he sat on the top of a hill for one hour and did not think of
+the word 'Swordfish'? Except that he'll be out of pain so long as he
+doesn't think of the word--"
+
+"Thing I'm interested in is that maybe our orator here doesn't know the
+definition thoroughly. Tell me, dear 'Uncle' Paul, does the word
+'teacher' give--Sorry. I was just experimenting. Wasn't as bad as--"
+
+Gritting his teeth and wincing with pain, Brennan said, "Stop it!
+Even the word 'sch-(wince)-ool' hurts like--" He thought for a
+moment and then went on with his voice rising to a pitiful
+howl of agony at the end: "Even the name 'Miss Adams' gives
+me a fleeting headache all over my body, and Miss Adams was
+on--ly--my--third--growww--school--Owuuuuoooo--teach--earrrrrrr--Owwww!"
+
+Brennan collapsed in his chair just as Judge Carter came in with his
+white mane flying and hot fire in his attitude. "What goes on here?" he
+stormed at James.
+
+"I stopped your campaign."
+
+"Now see here, you young--"
+
+Judge Carter stopped abruptly, took a deep breath and calmed himself with
+a visible effort to control his rage. "James," he said in a quieter
+voice, "Can you repair the damage quickly?"
+
+"Yes--but I won't."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because one of the things my father taught me was the danger of allowing
+this machine to fall into the hands of ruthless men with political
+ambition."
+
+"And I am a ruthless man with political ambition?"
+
+James nodded. "Under the guise of studying me and my machine," he said,
+"you've been using it to train speakers, and to educate ward-heelers.
+You've been building a political machine by buying delegates. Not with
+money, of course, because that is illegal. With knowledge, and because
+knowledge, education, and information are intangibles and no legality
+has been established, and this is all very legal."
+
+Judge Carter smiled distantly. "It is bad to elevate the mind of the
+average ward-heeler? To provide the smalltime politician with a fine
+grasp of the National Problem and how his little local problems fit into
+the big picture? Is this making a better world, or isn't it?"
+
+"It's making a political machine that can't be defeated."
+
+"Think not? What makes you think it can't?"
+
+"Pedagogue!" said James.
+
+"Yeowwww!"
+
+The judge whirled to look at Brennan. "What was--that?" asked the judge.
+
+James explained what had happened, then: "I've mentioned hazards. This is
+what would happen if a fuse blew in the middle of a course. Maybe he can
+be trained out of it, and maybe not. You'll have to try, of course. But
+think of what would happen if you and your political machine put these
+things into schools and fixed them to make a voltage twitch or something
+while the student was reading the word 'republican'. You'd end up with a
+single-party system."
+
+"And get myself assassinated by a group of righteously irate citizens,"
+said Judge Carter. "Which I would very warmly deserve. On the other hand,
+suppose we 'treated' people to feel anguish at thoughts of murder or
+killing, theft, treason, and other forms of human deviltry?"
+
+"Now that might be a fine idea."
+
+"It would not," said Judge Carter flatly. James Holden's eyes widened,
+and he started to say something but the judge held up his hand, fingers
+outspread, and began to tick off his points finger by finger as he went
+on: "Where would we be in the case of enemy attack? Could our policemen
+aim their guns at a vicious criminal if they were conditioned against
+killing? Could our butchers operate; must our housewives live among a
+horde of flies? Theft? Well, it's harder to justify, James, but it would
+change the game of baseball as in 'stealing a base' or it would ruin the
+game of love as in 'stealing a kiss'. It would ruin the mystery-story
+field for millions of people who really haven't any inclination to go out
+and rob, steal, or kill. Treason? Our very revered Declaration of
+Independence is an article of Treason in the eyes of King George Third;
+it wouldn't be very hard to draw a charge of treason against a man who
+complained about the way the Government is being run. Now, one more
+angle, James. The threat or fear of punishment hasn't deterred any
+potential felon so far as anybody knows. And I hold the odd belief that
+if we removed the quart of mixed felony, chicanery, falsehood, and
+underhandedness from the human makeup, on that day the human race could
+step down to take its place alongside of the cow, just one step ahead of
+the worm.
+
+"Now you accuse me of holding political ambition. I plead guilty of the
+charge and demand to be shown by my accuser just what is undesirable
+about ambition, be it political or otherwise. Have you no ambition? Of
+course you have. Ambition drove your folks to create this machine and
+ambition drove you to the fight for your freedom. Ambition is the
+catalyst that lifts a man above his fellows and then lifts them also.
+There is a sort of tradition in this country that a man must not openly
+seek the office of the Presidency. I consider this downright silly. I
+have announced my candidacy, and I intend to campaign for it as hard as
+I can. I propose to make the problem of _education_ the most important
+argument that has ever come up in a presidential campaign. I believe that
+I shall win because I shall promise to provide this accelerated education
+for everybody who wants it."
+
+"And to do this you've used my machine," objected James.
+
+"Did you intend to keep it for yourself?" snapped Judge Carter.
+
+"No, but--"
+
+"And when did you intend to release it?"
+
+"As soon as I could handle it myself."
+
+"Oh, fine!" jeered the judge sourly. "Now, let me orate on that subject
+for a moment and then we'll get to the real meat of this argument. James,
+there is no way of delivering this machine to the public without
+delivering it to them through the hands of a capable Government agency.
+If you try to release it as an individual you'll be swamped with cries of
+anger and pleas for special consideration. The reactionaries will shout
+that we're moving too fast and the progressives will complain that we
+aren't moving fast enough. Teachers' organizations will say that we're
+throwing teachers out of jobs, and little petty politicians will try to
+slip their political plug into the daily course in Civics. Start your
+company and within a week some Madison Avenue advertising agency will be
+offering you several million dollars to let them convince people that
+Hickory-Chickory Coffee is the only stuff they can pour down their gullet
+without causing stomach pains, acid system, jittery nerves, sleepless
+nights, flat feet, upset glands, and so on and on and on. Announce it;
+the next day you'll have so many foreign spies in your bailiwick that
+you'll have to hire a stadium to hold them. You'll be ducking
+intercontinental ballistic missiles because there are people who would
+kill the dog in order to get rid of the fleas. You'll start the biggest
+war this planet has ever seen and it will go on long after you are killed
+and your father's secret is lost--and after the fallout has died off,
+we'll have another scientific race to recreate it. And don't think that
+it can't be rediscovered by determined scientists who know that such a
+thing as the Holden Electromechanical Educator is a reality."
+
+"And how do you propose to prevent this war?"
+
+"By broadcasting the secret as soon as we can; let the British and the
+French and the Russians and the Germans and all the rest build it and
+use it as wisely as they can program it. Which, by the way, James,
+brings us right back to James Quincy Holden, Martha Bagley, and the
+immediate future."
+
+"Oh?"
+
+"Yes. James, tell me after deliberation, at what point in your life did
+you first believe that you had the competence to enter the adult world in
+freedom to do as you believed right?"
+
+"Um, about five or six, as I recall."
+
+"What do you think now about those days?"
+
+James shrugged. "I got along."
+
+"Wasn't very well, was it?"
+
+"No, but I was under a handicap, you know. I had to hide out."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"Well, if I had legal ruling, I wouldn't have to hide."
+
+"Think you know everything you need to know to enter this adult world?"
+
+"No man stops learning," parried James. "I think I know enough to start."
+
+"James, no matter what you say, there is a very important but intangible
+thing called 'judgment'. You have part of it, but not by far enough.
+You've been studying the laws about ages and rights, James, but you've
+missed a couple of them because you've been looking for evidence
+favorable to your own argument. First, to become a duly elected member of
+the House of Representatives, a man must be at least twenty-five years of
+age. To be a Senator, he must be at least thirty. To be President, one
+must be at least thirty-five. Have you any idea why the framers of the
+Constitution of the United States placed such restrictions?"
+
+"Well, I suppose it had to do with judgment?" replied James reluctantly.
+
+"That--and _experience_. Experience in knowing people, in understanding
+that there might be another side to any question, in realizing that you
+must not approach every problem from your own purely personal point of
+view nor expect it to be solved to your own private satisfaction or to
+your benefit. Now, let's step off a distance and take a good look at
+James Quincy Holden and see where he lacks the necessary ingredients."
+
+"Yes, tell me," said James, sourly.
+
+"Oh, I intend to. Let's take the statistics first. You're four-feet
+eleven-inches tall, you weigh one-hundred and three pounds, and you're a
+few weeks over fourteen. I suppose you know that you've still got one
+more spurt of growth, sometimes known as the post-puberty-growth. You'll
+probably put on another foot in the next couple of years, spread out a
+bit across the shoulders, and that fuzz on your face will become a
+collection of bristles. I suppose you think that any man in this room can
+handle you simply because we're all larger than you are? Possibly true,
+and one of the reasons why we can't give you a ticket and let you
+proclaim yourself an adult. You can't carry the weight. But this isn't
+all. Your muscles and your bones aren't yet in equilibrium. I could find
+a man of age thirty who weighed one-oh-three and stood four-eleven. He
+could pick you up and spin you like a top on his forefinger just because
+his bones match his muscles nicely, and his nervous system and brain have
+had experience in driving the body he's living in."
+
+"Could be, but what has all this to do with me? It does not affect the
+fact that I've been getting along in life."
+
+"You get along. It isn't enough to 'get along.' You've got to have
+judgment. You claim judgment, but still you realize that you can't handle
+your own machine. You can't even come to an equitable choice in selecting
+some agency to handle your machine. You can't decide upon a good outlet.
+You believe that proclaiming your legal competence will provide you with
+some mysterious protection against the wolves and thieves and ruthless
+men with political ambition--that this ruling will permit you to keep it
+to yourself until you decide that it is time to release it. You still
+want to hide. You want to use it until you are so far above and beyond
+the rest of the world that they can't catch up, once you give it to
+everybody. You now object to my plans and programs, still not knowing
+whether I intend to use it for good or for evil--and juvenile that you
+are, it must be good or evil and cannot be an in-between shade of gray.
+Men are heroes or villains to _you_; but _I_ must say with some
+reluctance that the biggest crooks that ever held public office still
+passed laws that were beneficial to their people. There is the area in
+which you lack judgment, James. There and in your blindness."
+
+"Blindness?"
+
+"Blindness," repeated Judge Carter. "As Mark Twain once said, 'When I was
+seventeen, I was ashamed at the ignorance of my father, but by the time I
+was twenty-one I was amazed to discover how much the old man had learned
+in four short years!' Confound it, James, you don't yet realize that
+there are a lot of things in life that you can't even know about until
+you've lived through them. You're blind here, even though your life has
+been a solid case of encounter with unexpected experiences, one after the
+other as you grew. Oh, you're smart enough to know that you've got to top
+the next hill as soon as you've climbed this one, but you're not smart
+enough to realize that the next hill merely hides the one beyond, and
+that there are still higher hills beyond that stretching to the end of
+the road for you--and that when you've finally reached the end of your
+own road there will be more distant hills to climb for the folks that
+follow you.
+
+"You've a fine education, and it's helped you tremendously. But you've
+loused up your own life and the life of Martha Bagley. You two are a pair
+of outcasts, and you'll be outcasts until about ten years from now when
+your body will have caught up with your mind so that you can join your
+contemporaries without being regarded as a pair of intellectual freaks."
+
+"And what should I have done?" demanded James Holden angrily.
+
+"That's just it, again. You do not now realize that there isn't anything
+you could have done, nor is there anything you can do now. That's why I'm
+taking over and I'm going to do it for you."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Yes!" snapped Judge Carter. "We'll let them have their courses in baton
+twirling and social grace and civic improvement and etiquette--and at the
+same time we'll give them history and mathematics and spelling and
+graduate them from 'high' school at the age of twelve or fourteen,
+introduce an intermediary school for languages and customs of other
+countries and in universal law and international affairs and economics,
+where our bookkeepers will learn science and scientists will understand
+commercial law; our lawyers will know business and our businessmen will
+be taught politics. After that we'll start them in college and run them
+as high as they can go, and our doctors will no longer go sour from the
+moment they leave school at thirty-five to hang out their shingle.
+
+"As for you, James Holden, you and Martha Bagley will attend this
+preparatory school as soon as we can set it up. There will be no more of
+this argument about being as competent as an adult, because we oldsters
+will still be the chiefs and you kids will be the Indians. Have I made
+myself clear?"
+
+"Yes sir. But how about Brennan?"
+
+Judge Carter looked at the unhappy man. "You still want revenge? Won't he
+be punished enough just hearing the word 'pedagogue'?"
+
+"For the love of--"
+
+"Don't blaspheme," snapped the judge. "You'd hang if James could bring
+a shred of evidence, and I'd help him if I could." He turned to James
+Holden. "Now," he asked, "will you repair your machine?"
+
+"And if I say No?"
+
+"Can you stand the pressure of a whole world angered because you've
+denied them their right to an education?"
+
+"I suppose not." He looked at Brennan, at Professor White and at Jack
+Cowling. "If I've got to trust somebody," he said reluctantly, "I suppose
+it might as well be you."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK FOUR:
+
+THE NEW MATURITY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+
+It is the campus of Holden Preparatory Academy.
+
+It is spring, but many another spring must pass before the ambitious ivy
+climbs to smother the gray granite walls, before the stripling trees grow
+stately, before the lawn is sturdy enough to withstand the crab grass and
+the students. Anecdote and apocrypha have yet to evolve into hallowed
+tradition. The walks ways are bare of bronze plaques because there are no
+illustrious alumni to honor; Holden Preparatory has yet to graduate its
+first class.
+
+It is youth, a lusty infant whose latent power is already great enough
+to move the world. As it rises, the world rises with it for the whole
+consists of all its parts; no man moves alone.
+
+The movement has its supporters and its enemies, and between them lies a
+vast apathy of folks who simply don't give a damn. It supporters deplore
+the dolts and the sluggards who either cannot or will not be educated.
+Its enemies see it as a danger to their comfortable position of eminence
+and claim bitterly that the honored degree of doctor is being degraded.
+They refuse to see that it is not the degradation of the standard but
+rather the exaltation of the norm. Comfortable, they lazily object to the
+necessity of rising with the norm to keep their position. Nor do they
+realize that the ones who will be assaulting their fortress will
+themselves be fighting still stronger youth one day when the mistakes are
+corrected and the program streamlined through experience.
+
+On the virgin lawn, in a spot that will someday lie in the shade of a
+great oak, a group of students sit, sprawl, lie. The oldest of them is
+sixteen, and it is true that not one of them has any reverence for
+college degrees, because the entrance requirements demand the scholastic
+level of bachelor in the arts, the sciences, in language and literature.
+The mark of their progress is not stated in grades, but rather in the
+number of supplementary degrees for which they qualify. The honors of
+their graduation are noted by the number of doctorates they acquire.
+Their goal is the title of Scholar, without which they may not attend
+college for their ultimate education.
+
+But they do not have the "look of eagles" nor do they act as if they felt
+some divine purpose fill their lives. They do not lead the pack in an
+easy lope, for who holds rank when admirals meet? They are not dedicated
+nor single-minded; if their jokes and pranks start on a higher or lower
+plane, it is just because they have better minds than their forebears at
+the same time.
+
+On the fringe of this group, an olive-skinned Brazilian co-ed asks:
+"Where's Martha?"
+
+John Philips looks up from a diagram of fieldmatrics he's been using to
+lay out a football play. "She's lending moral support to Holden. He's
+sweating out his scholar's impromptu this afternoon."
+
+"Why should he be stewing?"
+
+John Philips smiles knowingly. "Tony Dirk put the triple-whammy on him.
+Gimmicked up the random-choice selector in the Regent's office. Herr von
+James is discoursing on the subjects of Medicine, Astronomy, and
+Psychology--that is if Dirk knows his stuff."
+
+Tony Dirk looks down from his study of a fluffy cloud. "Anybody care to
+hazard some loose change on my ability?"
+
+"But why?"
+
+"Oh," replies Philips, "we figure that the first graduating class could
+use a professional _Astrologer_! We'll be the first in history to have
+one--if M'sieu Holden can tie Medicine, Astronomy, and Psychology into
+something cogent in his impromptu."
+
+It is a strange tongue they are using, probably the first birth-pains of
+a truly universal language. By some tacit agreement, personal questions
+are voiced in French, the reply in Spanish. Impersonal questions are
+Italian and the response in Portuguese. Anything of a scientific nature
+must be in German; law, language, or literature in English; art in
+Japanese; music in Greek; medicine in Latin; agriculture in Czech.
+Anything laudatory in Mandarin, derogatory in Sanskrit--and _ad libitum_
+at any point for any subject.
+
+Anita Lowes has been trying to attract the attention of John Philips from
+his diagram long enough to invite her to the Spring Festival by reciting
+a low-voiced string of nuclear equations carefully compounded to make
+them sound naughty unless they're properly identified with full
+attention. She looks up and says, "What if he doesn't make the
+connection?"
+
+Philips replies, "Well, if he can prove to that tough bunch that there
+is no possible advance in learning through a combination of Astronomy,
+Medicine, and Psychology, he'll make it on that basis. It's just as
+important to close a door as it is to open one, you know. But it's one
+rough deal to prove negation. Maybe we'll have James the Holden on our
+hands for another semester. Martha will like that."
+
+"Talking about me?"
+
+There is a rolling motion, sort of like a bushel of fish trying to leap
+back into the sea. The newcomer is Martha Fisher. At fifteen, her eyes
+are bright, and her features are beginning to soften into the beginning
+of a beauty that will deepen with maturity.
+
+"James," says Tony Dirk. "We figured you'd like to have him around
+another four months. So we gimmicked him."
+
+"You mean that test-trio?" chuckles Martha.
+
+"How's he doing?"
+
+"When I left, he was wriggling his way through probability math, showing
+the relationship between his three subjects and the solution for random
+choice figures which may or may not be shaded by known or not-known
+agency. He's covered Mason's History of Superstition and--"
+
+"Superstition?" asks a Japanese.
+
+Martha nods. "He claimed superstition is based upon fear and faith, and
+he feared that someone had tampered with his random choice of subjects,
+and he had faith that it was one of his buddies. So--"
+
+Martha is interrupted by a shout. The years have done well by James
+Holden, too. He is a lithe sixteen. It is a long time since he formed his
+little theory of human pair-production and it is almost as long since
+he thought of it last. If he reconsiders it now, he does not recognize
+his part in it because everything looks different from within the circle.
+His world, like the organization of the Universe, is made up of schools
+containing classes of groups of clusters of sets of associations created
+by combinations and permutations of individuals.
+
+"I made it!" he says.
+
+James has his problems. Big ones. Shall he go to Harvard alone, or shall
+he go to coeducational California with the hope that Martha will follow
+him? Then there was the fun awaiting him at Heidelberg, the historic
+background of Pisa, the vigorous routine at Tokyo. As a Scholar, he has
+contributed original research in four or five fields to attain
+doctorates, now he is to pick a few allied fields, combine certain phases
+of them, and work for his Specific. It is James Holden's determination to
+prove that the son is worthy of the parents for which his school is
+named.
+
+But there is high competition. At Carter tech-prep, a girl is struggling
+to arrange a Periodic Chart of the Nucleons. At Maxwell, one of his
+contemporaries will contend that the human spleen acts as an ion-exchange
+organ to rid the human body of radioactive minerals, and he will someday
+die trying to prove it. His own classmate Tony Dirk will organize a
+weather-control program, and John Philips will write six lines of odd
+symbols that will be called the Inertiogravitic Equations.
+
+Their children will reach the distant stars, and their children's
+children will, humanlike, cross the vast chasm that lies between one
+swirl of matter and the other before they have barely touched their home
+galaxy.
+
+No man is an island, near or far on Earth as it is across the glowing
+clusters of galaxies--nay, as it may be in Heaven itself.
+
+The motto is cut deep in the granite over the doorway to Holden Hall:
+
+YOU YOURSELF
+MUST LIGHT THE FAGGOTS
+THAT YOU HAVE BROUGHT
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth R, by George Oliver Smith
+
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