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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Criminal Negligence, by Jesse Francis McComas
+
+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: Criminal Negligence
+
+Author: Jesse Francis McComas
+
+Release Date: January 22, 2008 [EBook #24399]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Greg Bergquist and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science
+Fiction June 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor typographical
+errors have been corrected without note.]
+
+
+
+
+CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE
+
+[Illustration]
+
+     _Somebody was going to have to be left behind ... and who it would
+     be was perfectly obvious...._
+
+BY J. FRANCIS MCCOMAS
+
+Illustrated by Freas
+
+
+Warden Halloran smiled slightly. "You expect to have criminals on Mars,
+then?" he asked. "Is that why you want me?"
+
+"Of course we don't, sir!" snapped the lieutenant general. His name was
+Knox. "We need men of your administrative ability--"
+
+"Pardon me, general," Lansing interposed smoothly, "I rather think we'd
+better give the warden a ... a more detailed picture, shall we say? We
+have been rather abrupt, you know."
+
+"I'd be grateful if you would," Halloran said.
+
+He watched the lanky civilian as Lansing puffed jerkily on his cigar. A
+long man, with a shock of black hair tumbling over a high, narrow
+forehead, Lansing had introduced himself as chairman of the project's
+coördinating committee ... whatever that was.
+
+"Go ahead," grunted Knox. "But make it fast, doctor."
+
+Lansing smiled at the warden, carefully placed his cigar in the ash tray
+before him and said, "We've been working on the ships night and day.
+Both the dust itself and its secondary effects are getter closer to us
+all the time. We've been so intent on the job--it's _really_ been a race
+against time!--that only yesterday one of my young men remembered the
+Mountain State Penitentiary was well within our sphere of control."
+
+"The country--what's left of it--has been split up into regions," the
+general said. "So many ships to each region."
+
+"So," Lansing went on, "learning about you meant there was another batch
+of passengers to round up. And when I was told the warden was
+yourself--I know something of your career, Mr. Halloran--I was
+delighted. Frankly," he grinned at Knox, "we're long on military and
+scientific brass and short on people who can manage other people."
+
+"I see." Halloran pressed a buzzer on his desk. "I think some of my
+associates ought to be in on this discussion."
+
+"Discussion?" barked Knox. "Is there anything to discuss? We simply want
+you out of here in an hour--"
+
+"Please, general!" the warden said quietly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+If the gray-clad man who entered the office at that moment heard the
+general's outburst, he gave no sign. He stood stiffly in front of the
+warden's big desk, a little to one side of the two visitors, and said,
+"Yes sir, Mr. Halloran?"
+
+"Hello, Joe. Know where the captain is?"
+
+"First afternoon inspection, sir." He cocked an eye at the clock on the
+wall behind Halloran. "Ought to be in the laundry about now."
+
+The warden scribbled a few words on a small square of paper. "Ask him to
+come here at once, please. On your way, please stop in at the hospital
+and ask Dr. Slade to come along, too." He pushed the paper across the
+desk to the inmate. "There's your pass."
+
+"Yes sir. Anything else, warden?" He stood, a small, square figure in
+neat gray shirt and pants, seemingly oblivious to the ill-concealed
+stares of the two visitors.
+
+Halloran thought a moment, then said, "Yes ... I'd like to see Father
+Nelson and Rabbi Goldsmid, too."
+
+"Uh, Father Nelson's up on the Row, sir. With Bert Doyle."
+
+"Then we'll not bother him, of course. Just the others."
+
+"Yes, sir. On the double."
+
+Lansing slouched around in his chair and openly watched Joe Mario walk
+out. Then he turned back to Halloran and said, "That chap a ... a
+trusty, warden?"
+
+"To a degree. Although we no longer use the term. We classify the
+inmates according to the amount of responsibility they can handle."
+
+"I see. Ah--" he laughed embarrassedly, "this is the first time I've
+been in a prison. Mind telling me what his crime was?"
+
+Halloran smiled gently. "We try to remember the man, Dr. Lansing, and
+not his crime." Then he relented. "Joe Mario was just a small-time crook
+who got mixed up in a bad murder."
+
+Lansing whistled.
+
+"Aren't we wasting time?" growled the general. "Seems to me, warden, you
+could be ordering your people to pack up without any conference. You're
+in charge here, aren't you?"
+
+Halloran raised his eyebrows. "In charge? Why, yes ... in the sense that
+I shape the final decisions. But all of my assistants contribute to such
+decisions. Further, we have an inmate's council that voices its opinion
+on certain of our problems here. And we--my associates and I--listen to
+them. Always."
+
+Knox scowled and angrily shifted his big body. Lansing picked up his
+cigar, relit it, using the action to unobtrusively study the warden.
+Hardly a presence to cow hardened criminals, Lansing thought. Halloran
+was just below middle height, with gray hair getting a bit thin, eyes
+that twinkled warmly behind rimless glasses. Yet Lansing had read
+somewhere that a critic of Halloran's policies had said the penologist's
+thinking was far ahead of his time--too far, the critic had added.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Joe Mario closed the warden's door behind him, two inmates slowed
+their typing but did not look up as he neared their desks. A guard left
+his post at the outer door and walked toward Mario. The two of them
+stopped beside the desks.
+
+"What's the word, Joe?" the guard asked.
+
+Mario held out his pass.
+
+"Gotta round up the captain, Doc Slade and the Jew preacher," he said.
+
+"All right. Get going."
+
+"What do those guys want?" asked a typist as he pulled the paper from
+his machine.
+
+Mario looked quickly at the guard and as quickly away from him.
+
+"Dunno," he shrugged.
+
+"Somethin' about the war, I bet," grunted the typist.
+
+"War's over, dope," said the other. "Nothin' behind the curtain now but
+a nice assortment of bomb craters. All sizes."
+
+"Go on, Joe," ordered the guard. "You heard something. Give."
+
+"Well ... I heard that fat general say something about wanting the
+warden outa here in a hour."
+
+The typewriters stopped their clacking for a bare instant, then started
+up again, more slowly. The guard frowned, then said, "On your way, Joe."
+He hesitated, then, "No use to tell you to button your lip, I guess."
+
+"I'm not causing any trouble," Mario said, as the guard opened the door
+and stood aside for him to pass into the corridor.
+
+O.K.'d for entrance into the hospital wing, Joe Mario stood outside the
+railing that cut Dr. Slade's reception area off from the corridor that
+led to the wards. An inmate orderly sat behind the railing, writing a
+prescription for a slight, intelligent-looking man.
+
+Mario heard the orderly say, "All right, Vukich, get that filled at the
+dispensary. Take one after each meal and come back to see us when the
+bottle's empty. Unless the pain gets worse, of course. But I don't think
+it will."
+
+"Thanks, doc," the patient drawled.
+
+Both men looked up then and saw Mario.
+
+"Hi, Joe," the orderly smiled. "What's wrong with you? You don't look
+sick!"
+
+"Nothin' wrong with me that a day outside couldn't cure."
+
+"Or a _night_," laughed Vukich.
+
+Mario ran a hand over his sleek, black hair. "Better a night, sure," he
+grinned back. Then he sobered and said to the orderly, "Warden wants to
+see the doc. Right away."
+
+"Mr. Halloran sick?"
+
+"Naw ... it's business. Urgent business."
+
+"Real urgent, Joe? The doc's doing a pretty serious exam right now."
+
+Mario paused, then said, "You guys might as well know about it. There's
+a general and a civilian in the warden's office. They're talkin' about
+something outside. Warden wants the doc in on it."
+
+Sudden tension flowed out between the three men. Down the hall, a
+patient screamed suddenly in the psycho ward. The three of them jerked,
+then grinned feebly at each other.
+
+Vukich said slowly, "Well, you don't start playing catch with atom bombs
+without dropping a few. Wonder what it's like ... out there?"
+
+"We haven't _heard_ that it's any different," the orderly's voice lacked
+conviction.
+
+"Don't be silly," Vukich said flatly. "Ever since they moved the dames
+from Tehama into C block we've known _something_ happened."
+
+"Get the doc," Mario said. "I've got to be on my way."
+
+"Me, too." Vukich's thin, clever face looked thoughtful.
+
+The others stared blankly at him and said nothing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Alfred Court, captain of the prison, strode down the flower-bordered
+path that led from the shops unit past A block to the administration
+building, a side door in A block clanged open and a sergeant came out.
+The sergeant turned without seeing his superior and walked hurriedly
+toward the administration wing.
+
+"Hey, sarge!" Court called. "What's the hurry?"
+
+The sergeant whirled, recognized the captain and quickly saluted.
+
+"Glad to see you, sir," he said. "Just the man I was looking for!"
+
+"Good enough. What's on your mind? Better tell me as we go for the
+warden's in a hurry to see me."
+
+The two men walked abreast, both big, although Court lacked any trace of
+the sergeant's paunch. As they walked and talked, their eyes darted
+continually about, unconsciously checking the appearance of the
+buildings, the position of the guard in the gun tower, the attitude of a
+very old inmate who was meticulously weeding a flower bed.
+
+"Captain, you going to let the men out for their yard time?"
+
+Court's pace slowed. "Why not?"
+
+"No real reason ... _now_. But there's trouble in the air, sir. I can
+smell it. The whole place is buzzing ... with _something_."
+
+"With what?"
+
+"I can't put my finger on it. But all the men know there's some pretty
+big shots--at least one general, they say--in the warden's office, right
+now. There's a hot rumor that there's trouble outside--some sort of
+disaster."
+
+Court laughed shortly. "That Mario! He's going to lose a nice job if he
+doesn't keep his mouth shut!"
+
+"None of them keep their mouths shut, captain."
+
+"Yes ... well, I don't know what's up, myself. I'm heading for that
+conference right now. I'll ask the warden about letting the men out of
+their cells. What's their attitude?"
+
+The sergeant's broad, red face grew more troubled.
+
+"Uh ... the men aren't hostile, captain. They seem worried, nervous ...
+kind of scared. If somebody at the top--the warden or yourself--could
+convince them things were as usual outside ... they'd quiet down, I'm
+sure."
+
+They were now thirty feet from the door to the administration building a
+door that opened for but one man at a time. The officers stopped.
+
+"Things are _not_ normal outside," Court growled, "and you know it. I've
+been wondering how long this prison could go on--as if there were still
+a state's capital, with its Adult Authority, its governor, its Supreme
+Court. D'you think every man jack here doesn't know a visit from the
+Authority's long overdue!"
+
+"Yeah--"
+
+"Well, I'll go in, sarge, and see what's what. If you _don't_ hear from
+me, stick to routine."
+
+"Right, captain."
+
+He remained where he was while Captain Court walked slowly toward the
+door, both hands well in sight. A pace from the door he stopped and
+exchanged a few words with someone watching him through a barred
+peephole. After a moment, the door slid open and he walked into the
+building.
+
+He was the last to arrive at the warden's office. Lansing gazed at him
+in fascination. Goldsmid had been a Golden Gloves champion middleweight
+before he had heeded the call of the Law, and he looked it. Dr. Slade
+was the prototype of all overworked doctors. But Court was a type by
+himself. Lansing thought he'd never seen a colder eye. Yet, the
+captain's lean face--so unlike the warden's mild, scholarly one--was
+quiet, composed, unmarked by any weakness of feature or line of
+self-indulgence. A big, tough man, Lansing mused, a very tough man. But
+a just one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I've a problem, warden," Court said when the introductions were over.
+"Something we should decide right away."
+
+"Can't it wait?" Knox said irritably.
+
+Lansing almost choked with stifled laughter when Court just glanced
+briefly at Knox, then said quietly to the warden, "Sergeant Haines has
+just advised me that the inmates know about these gentlemen and
+they're--restless. I wonder if we shouldn't keep the men in their cells
+this afternoon."'
+
+"Blast it!" roared Knox. "Can't you people keep a secret?"
+
+"There are no secrets in prison, general," Halloran said mildly. "I
+learned that my first week as a guard, twenty years ago." To Court he
+said, "Sit down, Alfred. Unless you disagree strongly, I think we'll let
+the men out as usual. It's a risk, yes, but right now, the closer we
+stick to normal routine, the better."
+
+"You're probably right, sir."
+
+Court sat down and Halloran turned to his two visitors.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," he smiled, "we're at your disposal. As I told you, my
+two associate wardens aren't here. Mr. Briggs is in town and Mr. Tate is
+home ill. Dr. McCall, our Protestant clergyman, is also home, recovering
+from a siege with one of those pesky viruses. But we here represent
+various phases of our administration and can certainly answer all of
+your questions."
+
+"Questions!" Knox snorted. "We're here to tell you the facts--not ask."
+
+"General," soothed Lansing. He looked across the desk at Halloran and
+shrugged slightly. The warden twinkled. "General Knox is a trifle ...
+ah, overblunt, but he's telling you the essential truth of the
+situation. We've come to take you away from here. Just as soon as you
+can leave."
+
+"Hey?" cried Slade. "Leave here? The devil, man, I've got to take out a
+gall bladder this afternoon!"
+
+"I'm afraid I don't understand," murmured Goldsmid. "I thought the war
+was over--"
+
+"This is all nonsense!" There was an ominous note in Knox's hoarse
+voice. "Do you people realize you're now under the authority of the
+Fifth Defense Command?"
+
+Lansing cried: "Let's be sensible about all this!" He pointed his cigar
+at the fuming soldier. "General, these gentlemen have every right to
+know the situation and we'll save time if you'll permit me to give them
+a quick briefing."
+
+"All right! All right!"
+
+"Well, then." Lansing crossed his long legs, glanced nervously about the
+room, and said, "The world as we know it is done with. Finished. In
+another week it will be completely uninhabitable."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Hey," grunted Slade. "You Lansing, the physicist?"
+
+"That's right, doctor."
+
+"Didn't place you at first. Well, what's going to end this lousy old
+world of ours?"
+
+"Well," Lansing answered, "we wiped out our late antagonists with skill
+and dispatch. But, in the end, they outsmarted us. Left behind some sort
+of radioactive dust which ... _spreads_. It's rolling down on us from
+Chicago and up from Texas. God knows what other parts of the country are
+like--we haven't had time to discuss it with them on the radio."
+
+Goldsmid muttered something in Hebrew.
+
+"Isn't that lack of communication rather odd?" asked the warden.
+
+"Not so very. We've been too busy building rocket ships."
+
+"Rocket ships!" Court was jarred out of his icy calm.
+
+"You mean spaceships?" cried the doctor.
+
+"Yes, Slade, they do," murmured the warden.
+
+"Precisely," Lansing said. "When it looked as if the cold war would get
+rather warm, the allied governments faced up to the fact that our
+venerable planet might become a ... ah, a battle casualty. So, in
+carefully selected regions, rather extensive preparations were made for
+a hurried departure from this sector of the universe."
+
+"Oh, come to the point!" Knox exploded. "All you people need to know is
+that one of those regions is this area of the Rocky Mountains, that the
+ships are built and ready to go, and that you're to get aboard. Fast!"
+
+"That," nodded Lansing, "is it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The four prison officials looked at each other. Halloran and Court sat
+quiet; Goldsmid slowly dropped his eyes to the ground and his lips
+moved. Slade scratched his chin.
+
+"Going to Mars, hey?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"That's our destination."
+
+The doctor chuckled. "Comic-book stuff," he chortled.
+
+"No, it isn't," Halloran said. "We've been expecting something like this
+for a long time. Haven't we?"
+
+"Indeed we have," Goldsmid said. "Expecting, but not quite believing."
+
+Halloran looked thoughtfully at the physicist. "Dr. Lansing, these ships
+of yours ... they're pretty big, I take it?"
+
+"Not as big as we like. They never are. But they'll do. Why?"
+
+"I should remind you that we have well over two thousand inmates here."
+
+"Inmates!" barked the general. "Who the devil said anything about your
+inmates? Think we'll take a lot of convicts to Mars! Populate it with
+killers, thieves--"
+
+"Who does go, then?" Halloran did not raise his voice but Knox looked
+suddenly uneasy.
+
+"Why ... uh, your operating personnel," he replied gruffly. "Your
+guards, clerks ... hell, man, it's obvious, isn't it?"
+
+"I'm afraid that is out," Goldsmid said. "For me, that is." He stood up,
+a heavy-shouldered middleweight running a little to fat. "Excuse me,
+warden, my counseling period's coming up."
+
+"Sit down, Pete," Halloran said quietly. "We haven't finished this
+conference."
+
+"I admire your sentiments, Rabbi," Lansing said hurriedly, "but surely
+you realize that we can't take any criminal elements to ... ah, what
+will be our new world. And we do have a special need for you. We've
+plenty of your co-religionists among our various personnel, but we don't
+have an ordained minister for them. They're your responsibility."
+
+"Afraid my first responsibility is here." Goldsmid's voice was quite
+matter-of-fact.
+
+"So's mine," grunted Slade. "Warden, even if the world ends tomorrow,
+I've got to get Squeaker Hanley's gall bladder out today. No point in my
+hanging around any longer is there?"
+
+"Of course there is," Halloran answered. He took a package of cigarettes
+from his pocket, selected one, and lit it. He exhaled smoke and looked
+speculatively at Lansing. The scientist felt himself blushing and looked
+away.
+
+Halloran turned to Court.
+
+"Quite a problem, isn't it, Alfred," he said. "I suppose these gentlemen
+are right in keeping the inmates off their ships. At any rate, _we_
+can't argue the matter--so let's do what we're asked. I think you'd
+better plan to get the guards out of here tonight, at shift change.
+Might pass the word to their wives now, so they can start packing a few
+essentials. Doc," he turned to Slade, "before you get your greedy hands
+on Squeaker's gall bladder, you'd better round up your staff and have
+them make the proper arrangements."
+
+"O.K., I'll put it up to them."
+
+"You'll _not_ put it up to them," the warden said sharply. "You'll
+_order_ them to be ready when the general, here, wants them."
+
+"I'll give no orders," Slade said grimly.
+
+"Just a minute," interposed Court. "Sir, aren't you going?"
+
+"Of course not. But that's neither here nor there--"
+
+The loud clangor of a bell pealed through the room. The two visitors
+jumped.
+
+"What's that?" cried Knox.
+
+"Yard time," Halloran smiled. "The men are allowed two hours out in the
+yard, now. They exercise, play games, or just sit around and talk."
+
+"Oh."
+
+"Did I understand you correctly, Warden Halloran?" Lansing's bony face
+was pale now. "Do you refuse to come with us?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the bell rang, Joe Mario had been standing near the door to the
+warden's office, ostensibly filing reports. Now, he closed the drawer
+with a bang, stretched, and started toward the outside door.
+
+"Where are you going?" the guard asked suspiciously.
+
+"The yard. Where else?"
+
+"Not a word," Mario added virtuously. "I was too busy doin' my work.
+Anyway, you gotta let me out. My team's got a ball game set for this
+afternoon."
+
+"Oh ... all right." He looked at the typists. "How about you two? Want
+out?"
+
+The two men glanced quickly at each other, then shoved back their chairs
+and got up from their desks.
+
+"Sure," one of them grinned, "I guess we'll take a little air."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lansing had the feeling he used to have occasionally, back in his
+university days when he lectured on freshman physics--as if he were
+talking to a class of deaf students. For, like the hapless freshmen,
+Warden Halloran was quite obviously not listening to him. But the
+scientist plunged on. "Sir," he said hoarsely, "we need you. We _will_
+need you! I'm a scientist--I know nothing of the problems of ... ah,
+community living. Neither does Knox. He's accustomed to major
+crises--and solving them by giving orders. But both of us know there'll
+come a time when people won't take orders--"
+
+"Absolutely correct," Knox said unexpectedly. "Once we get settled on
+Mars, the military takes a back seat. And--I mean this, Lansing--_I'll_
+be damn' glad of it. When the people get their towns built they'll need
+some gents with the right kind know-how to help them, show them--"
+
+"That's all very interesting, general, but it's not for me."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+Halloran snubbed out his cigarette, looked up at the general and at the
+scientist. He smiled briefly. "It's just my job, gentlemen--let's not
+discuss the matter any further. You can't make me go."
+
+"We will!" barked Knox. "I told you you were under the jurisdiction of
+the Fifth Defense Command and you are. If I want to, I can send a tank
+company over here and drag you to those ships!"
+
+"He's right, you know," Lansing said.
+
+Court stood up and took one step toward the general.
+
+"Alfred!" the warden did not lift his voice, but Court stopped. "General
+Knox," Halloran went on in a conversational tone, "you're being a bit of
+bully, you know, and in this prison we've all been ... ah, conditioned
+against bullies." He looked down at his desk and frowned. "However, I'll
+admit that your position requires that I elaborate my reasons for
+staying here. Well, then. As I see it, your people, your ... ah,
+colonists, can help themselves. Most of _my_ people, the inmates here,
+can't. A long time ago, gentlemen, I decided I'd spend my life helping
+the one man in our society who seemingly can't help himself, the
+so-called criminal. I've always felt that society owes a debt to the
+criminal ... instead of the other way around."
+
+He hesitated, grinned apologetically at Captain Court. "I'm sermonizing
+again, eh, Alfred? But," he shrugged, "if I must get dramatic about it I
+can only say that my life's work ends only with my--death."
+
+"It's quite a rough job, you know," Goldsmid remarked. "This is a
+maximum security institution. Too many of the inmates have disappointed
+the warden. But he keeps trying and we've learned to follow his
+example."
+
+"Our psychiatric bunch have done some mighty interesting things," beamed
+Slade, "even with cases that looked absolutely hopeless."
+
+"None of them can be saved now," muttered Lansing.
+
+"That is in the hands of God," Goldsmid replied.
+
+"Well," Halloran said gently, "still going to send those tanks after me,
+general?"
+
+"Uh ... no ... I won't interfere with a man doing his duty."
+
+Lansing cleared his throat, looked slowly from the somber-faced
+clergyman, to the fidgeting medico, to the burly captain, still staring
+impassively at the general, to, finally, the quiet, smiling warden.
+"Gentlemen," he said slowly, "it occurs to me that the situation hasn't
+actually registered on you. The earth is really doomed, you know. This
+dust simply won't tolerate organic life. In some way--we have not had
+time to discover how--it's self-multiplying, so, as I said, it spreads.
+Right now, not a tenth of this entire continent--from the pole down to
+the Panama Canal--is capable of supporting any kind of life as we know
+it. And that area is diminishing hourly."
+
+"No way of checking it?" Slade asked. His tone was one of idle
+curiosity, nothing else.
+
+"No. It's death, gentlemen. As deadly as your ... ah, gallows."
+
+"We use the gas chamber," Halloran corrected him. His mouth twisted.
+"More humane, you know."
+
+There was brief quiet, then the warden said, "Well ... now that we've
+finished philosophizing, let's get back to the matter at hand. We can
+have everyone that's going ready to leave by seven tonight. Will that be
+satisfactory?"
+
+"It'll have to be," Knox grunted.
+
+"Thank you." Halloran reached for his phone, then dropped his hands on
+his desk. "I'd like to ask you a question," he said. "Perhaps it's
+presumptuous, but I'm rather curious about the ... er, last workings of
+our government. Tell me, don't you really have room for our inmates? You
+haven't told us how many ships you've built. Or how big they are."
+
+Lansing looked at Knox. The general flushed, then stared at the floor.
+Lansing shrugged tiredly.
+
+"Oh, we've plenty of room," he sighed. "But ... our orders are to take
+only those completely fit to build a new world. We've ... well, we have
+practiced a lot of euthanasia lately."
+
+"Judges," murmured Goldsmid.
+
+"If you had come sooner," there was no anger in Halloran's voice,
+"couldn't you have selected some of our people, those that I ... all of
+us know are ready for rehabilitation--even on another planet?"
+
+"Perhaps. But no one remembered there was a prison nearby."
+
+The warden looked at the rabbi. Goldsmid raised his heavy shoulders in
+an ancient Hebraic gesture.
+
+"That was always the trouble, wasn't it, Pete?" Halloran murmured.
+"People never remembered the prisons!"
+
+The telephone beside him shrilled loudly, urgently.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The inmate mopping the floor of Condemned Row's single corridor slowed
+in front of Bert Doyle's cell. Doyle was slated for a ride down the
+elevator that night to the death cell behind the gas chamber. At the
+moment, he was stretched out on his bunk, listening to the soft voice of
+Father Nelson.
+
+"Sorry to interrupt," the inmate said, "but I thought you'd like to know
+that all hell's busting loose down in the yard."
+
+Father Nelson looked up.
+
+Doyle, too, looked interested. "A riot?" he asked.
+
+"Yessiree, bob!"
+
+"Nonsense!" snapped the priest. "This prison doesn't have riots!"
+
+"Well, it's sure got one, now. 'Scuse me, Father, but it's the truth.
+The men grabbed four or five yard guards and the screws in the towers
+don't dare shoot!"
+
+He gave up all pretense of work and stood, leaning on his mop-handle,
+his rheumy old eyes glowing with a feverish excitement.
+
+Nelson stood up.
+
+"Will you excuse me, Bert?" he asked. "I'd better see if I can help the
+warden."
+
+Doyle, too, sat up, swung his feet to the steel floor, stood up and
+stretched. "Sure," he said. His hard face was pale but otherwise he
+seemed quite calm. "You've been a great help, Father." He looked
+quizzically at the old inmate. "You lying, Danny? Seems to me the boys
+have got nothing to beef about here."
+
+"Heh, they sure have now."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Well, I got this from a guy who got it from Vukich who heard it from
+Joe Mario. Seems there's a big-shot general and some kinda scientist in
+Mr. Halloran's office." He shifted his grip on the mop-handle. "You
+gents maybe won't believe this, but it's what Joe heard 'em say to the
+warden. Outside is all covered with radium and this general and this
+here scientist are goin' to Mars an' they want the warden to go along.
+Leavin' us behind, of course. That's what the boys are riotin' about."
+
+Bert Doyle burst into harsh laughter.
+
+"Danny! Danny!" he cried. "I've been predicting this! You've gone
+stir-bugs!"
+
+"Ain't neither!"
+
+"Just a moment, Bert," Nelson whispered. Aloud he said, "Dan, go call
+the guard for me, please." When the old man had shuffled out of earshot
+the priest said to the condemned man, "It could be true, Bert. By
+radium, he means radioactive material. And there's no reason spaceships
+can't get to Mars. We'd reached the Moon before the war started, you
+know."
+
+Doyle sank back on his bunk.
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!" he breathed.
+
+"Bert!"
+
+Doyle grinned sheepishly. "Force of habit." Then, more soberly, "So
+they're off to Mars, eh? Father, you better get down there and pick up
+your reservations!"
+
+"Don't be ridiculous!" The priest's voice softened and he patted the
+killer's shoulder. "I will go down and see what's what, Bert. And I'll
+be back just as soon as the men have quieted down. That is, if they
+_are_ creating a disturbance."
+
+The footsteps of the approaching guard sounded loud in the corridor.
+Doyle frowned a little.
+
+"When you come back, Father, you'll tell me the truth? No kidding, now!"
+
+The guard stood in front of the door of heavy steel bars. Father Nelson
+looked down at the man on the bunk.
+
+"I'll tell you everything, Bert. I swear it."
+
+"Uh, Father?" the guard's voice was nervous--and embarrassed.
+
+"Yes, Perkins?"
+
+"I ... I can't let you out right now. Orders from the warden. Not a
+cell door opens till I hear from him direct."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Doyle chuckled.
+
+"Might as well sit down, Father," he said, "and make yourself
+comfortable--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What will you do?" cried Lansing.
+
+"Go out and talk to them, of course," replied Halloran. He arose from
+his desk, a calm, unhurried man.
+
+"Look," growled Knox, "you get me through to the town. Some of our
+people are still there. I'll order out as many soldiers as you want.
+I'll see to it that they get here--on the double!"
+
+Halloran flushed. "Would it ease your conscience, general," he grated,
+"if you killed off my men instead of leaving them--behind! Now, you will
+please keep quiet. You'll be perfectly safe!"
+
+"What will we do with them, sir?" Court gestured at Lansing and Knox.
+
+Halloran strode from behind his desk to the opposite end of the room. As
+he twirled the dials of a wall safe he said, "They'll have to remain
+here, for now. The men have got between this building and the gate
+office." The safe swung open and he reached far inside and took out a
+submachine gun. "Here," he held the weapon out to Court. "If I don't
+come back, use this to get them to the gate office."
+
+"Didn't know you had an arsenal in here!" cried Slade.
+
+"No one else did, either, except Alfred. Now Doc, think you and Pete had
+better stay here."
+
+Slade and Goldsmid pulled themselves out of their chairs as one man.
+Their timing was perfect.
+
+"No, you don't, hero!" growled Slade.
+
+"Warden," Goldsmid said, "perhaps _I_ could talk to the men--"
+
+The warden smiled and walked toward the door. There he stopped and said
+to Court, "Switch on the speaker system, Alfred. I'll take the portable
+mike from the next office. While I'm out there, get word to all
+custodial and operating personnel that they will be permitted to leave
+tonight. Meantime, I hope they will stay on their jobs. Better phone Mr.
+Tate, have someone try to locate Mr. Briggs, be sure and call Dr.
+Slade's staff."
+
+"Right, sir."
+
+The three men left the office. Court, the gun cradled under one arm,
+picked up the phone and spoke into it. His voice was a low, crisp
+monotone. After a while, he replaced the receiver and stood quiet,
+staring impassively at the others.
+
+"You might say the warden's career has been twenty years of futility,"
+he muttered. Lansing and Knox felt he wasn't actually speaking to them.
+"Now me, I'm a screw of the old school. Hardboiled, they say. _I_ never
+expected a thing from a con ... and cons have lied to him, politicians
+have broken their promises ... but the liars have loved him and the
+dumbest dope in the legislature has respected him."
+
+"Will he ... be all right?" Lansing asked.
+
+Court shrugged. "Who knows? You handled this very badly," he said
+dispassionately. "Five minutes after you stepped through the main gate
+every inmate in the place knew you were here and started wondering. Why
+didn't you write--make arrangements to see the warden outside?"
+
+"I'm sorry," Lansing said. "We know very little about prisons."
+
+Court laughed shortly. "You'd better learn," he said grimly.
+
+"Anyway we can see what's going on?" rumbled Knox. "And how about that
+speaker business?"
+
+"There's a window in the next office. Come along."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They crouched at the window, the fat Knox whizzing a little, because
+Court had ordered them to keep out of sight of the rioters. They saw
+Halloran, Slade and Goldsmid at his heels, walking out into the small
+courtyard that lay between them and safety. Over the wall speaker came a
+sullen roar, something very like the ragged blast of a rocket whose
+timing is off. A few gray-clad men in the courtyard saw the approaching
+warden, surged toward him, screaming at their fellows in the big yard
+behind them.
+
+Halloran ignored the clutching hands. He held the mike up and they heard
+him say, "There's no point in my talking with you unless you will be
+quiet and listen." He paused. The roar slowly subsided into an angry
+mutter. "Thanks. That's better."
+
+Now, they could see Slade's head but both Halloran and the rabbi were
+hidden by the swirl of gray figures that swept around the three prison
+officials.
+
+"Now," the warden went on, "it seems that you have something to say to
+me. Good enough. But why didn't you send word through your council,
+instead of roughing up guards, damaging property, yelling your heads off
+and generally behaving like a bunch of spoiled brats. Go on, tell me!
+Why?"
+
+Someone's scream came clearly over the mike. "The world's coming to an
+end! They're leaving us here to die!"
+
+"Yeah!" the mike picked up another voice. "How about that?"
+
+Before the wordless, mindless roar could rise again, the warden barked,
+"Oh, hush up!" And they were quiet.
+
+"My God," breathed Lansing.
+
+"Now," Halloran's voice was easy, assured, "I want to make sure that all
+of you hear me. So, I'm coming out in the center of the yard. Rabbi Pete
+Goldsmid and Doc Slade insist on coming with me although," he chuckled,
+"I understand Squeaker Hanley's screaming for the doc to cut out his
+gall bladder." A few of the men laughed. "All right, here I come. And
+you fellows behind me, keep off the wire. I don't want this mike to go
+dead and have to yell my lungs out."
+
+They saw the eddy of men around him move slowly through the broken gate
+and out of their sight.
+
+"What will he tell them," muttered Knox.
+
+"Whatever--they'll believe it," Court said. The courtyard before them
+was now empty. He stared thoughtfully out the barred window, then said,
+"Think you could get to the gate office pretty soon, now--"
+
+"No!" snarled Knox. "I want to see what happens to that gutty
+so-and-so!"
+
+Lansing grinned nervously. "Somehow, captain, I feel it won't be
+necessary for us to sneak out of here."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They listened again while assorted thieves, murderers, rapists,
+men--save for an innocent few--whose hands were consistently raised
+against their fellows' peace and property, heard their jailor tell them
+that the end of their world, a world that many of them remembered but
+dimly, was coming to an end. The screaming broke out again when Halloran
+spoke of the Mars-bound ships, and, for a moment, the three in the
+office thought he had lost control. But the amplifiers prevailed and
+Halloran laughed and said, "Anyway, we're not going to Mars--"
+
+"_You_ can go!"
+
+The man who yelled that was apparently very close to the warden within
+his view, for they heard him say: "Chrisman, you're a fool--as usual!
+Would I bother to come out here and talk to you if I could go?"
+
+That got them. That, they understood. If a guy didn't scram from a hot
+spot when he could ... well, then, he couldn't scram in the first place.
+So, the warden was stuck, just like they were.
+
+Later, perhaps, a few of them might figure out why.
+
+"Now, let's have no more interruptions," Halloran said. "_I_ don't think
+there's any need to go. Neither does the doc, here, or the rabbi. We're
+all staying--because the desert to the south of us has stopped the
+spread of this dust and it seems it can't cross the rivers, either. So,
+we're safe enough."
+
+"But that's not true," groaned Lansing.
+
+Court glanced at him. "Would you tell them different?" he said coldly.
+
+"No--"
+
+Halloran said, "Well, that's that. Life is a little difficult outside
+and so the people out there want to try to get to Mars. Believe me,
+that's a trip I want someone else to make first. But if they think life
+will be easier on those deserts--why, let them go. But God help
+them--they'll need it."
+
+He paused. Knox tried to catch Lansing's eye, but the scientist's face
+was blank, unseeing.
+
+"What do _we_ do?" This voice was not hysterical, just seriously
+questioning.
+
+"_You_ should do darned well. Life should be easy enough for _you_.
+You've got your own farms, your livestock, laundry, hospital,
+shops--everything a man can need. So, take over and run things to suit
+yourselves."
+
+A unanimous gasp whistled over the speaker. Then, they all cried just
+one word.
+
+"Us?"
+
+"Why not? Don't you think you can?"
+
+Silence, broken by strange, wistful mutterings.
+
+"I'd suggest this," Halloran said. "Let's follow our normal routine
+tonight--no lock-ups, of course--and tomorrow, you fellows take over.
+I'll help you in any way I can. But it will be _your_ job. Perhaps after
+breakfast tomorrow, you ought to have a mass meeting. Under the
+supervision of your council, I'd say. You can't keep going without some
+kind of order, you know."
+
+Again silence.
+
+"My God," whispered Lansing, "he makes it all sound so _real_."
+
+"Any questions?" Halloran asked.
+
+"Hey, warden! How about the dames?"
+
+"The ladies will join you tomorrow morning." He chuckled. "I imagine
+they'll be able to handle you all right!"
+
+A joyous roar.
+
+"However," Halloran raised his voice, "I'd like to remind you fellows
+that a successful community needs ... _families_!"
+
+There was a long quiet, then, broken finally by an inmate who asked,
+"Warden, how about the guys up on the Row?"
+
+"Well," Halloran's voice lost all humor, "you can start ripping out the
+gas chamber whenever you're ready to. I'll see that you get the tools."
+
+The swell of applause was so loud in the office that Court hastily
+turned down the speaker's volume.
+
+"All right," Halloran said when they had quieted down, "that's about it.
+You're free now, till supper-time. I'd suggest all of you start right
+now, thinking about your future--"
+
+     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Outside the main gate, first Knox, then Lansing shook hands with the
+gray-faced warden.
+
+"Trucks'll be in town at seven for your people," Knox muttered. He gave
+a windy sigh. "It's all fouled up. As usual. Damn it, we need people
+like you, sir!"
+
+Lansing looked at Halloran for a long time, trying to see behind the
+mask of exhaustion. "I'm a mannerless fool," he said at last. "But Mr.
+Halloran, would you tell me what you're thinking? I mean, really
+thinking? Even if it's rough on us!"
+
+Halloran laughed softly. "I wasn't thinking about you at all, Dr.
+Lansing. I was--and am--regretting that what I told the men couldn't be
+the truth. It's too bad they'll have so short a time. It would be very
+interesting to see what they would do with--_life_."
+
+Knox scowled. "Seems like they haven't done much with it so far."
+
+"Come along, general," Lansing said quietly. "You don't understand. None
+of us do. We never did."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Criminal Negligence, by Jesse Francis McComas
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Criminal Negligence, by Jesse Francis McComas
+
+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
+
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+Title: Criminal Negligence
+
+Author: Jesse Francis McComas
+
+Release Date: January 22, 2008 [EBook #24399]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE ***
+
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+
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+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="tnote"><p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science
+Fiction June 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor typographical
+errors have been corrected without note.]</p></div>
+
+<h1>CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE</h1>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/title.jpg" width="400" height="225" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><i><b>Somebody was going to have to be left behind<br /> ... and
+who it would be was perfectly obvious....</b></i></p>
+
+<h2>BY J. FRANCIS MCCOMAS</h2>
+
+<h4>Illustrated by Freas</h4>
+
+
+<p>Warden Halloran smiled slightly.
+"You expect to have criminals on
+Mars, then?" he asked. "Is that why
+you want me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we don't, sir!" snapped
+the lieutenant general. His name was
+Knox. "We need men of your administrative
+ability&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, general," Lansing
+interposed smoothly, "I rather think
+we'd better give the warden a ...
+a more detailed picture, shall we say?
+We have been rather abrupt, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd be grateful if you would,"
+Halloran said.</p>
+
+<p>He watched the lanky civilian as
+Lansing puffed jerkily on his cigar.
+A long man, with a shock of black
+hair tumbling over a high, narrow
+forehead, Lansing had introduced
+himself as chairman of the project's
+co&ouml;rdinating committee ... whatever
+that was.</p>
+
+<p>"Go ahead," grunted Knox. "But
+make it fast, doctor."</p>
+
+<p>Lansing smiled at the warden,
+carefully placed his cigar in the ash
+tray before him and said, "We've
+been working on the ships night
+and day. Both the dust itself and its
+secondary effects are getter closer to
+us all the time. We've been so intent
+on the job&mdash;it's <i>really</i> been a race
+against time!&mdash;that only yesterday
+one of my young men remembered
+the Mountain State Penitentiary was
+well within our sphere of control."</p>
+
+<p>"The country&mdash;what's left of it&mdash;has
+been split up into regions," the
+general said. "So many ships to each
+region."</p>
+
+<p>"So," Lansing went on, "learning
+about you meant there was another
+batch of passengers to round up.
+And when I was told the warden
+was yourself&mdash;I know something of
+your career, Mr. Halloran&mdash;I was
+delighted. Frankly," he grinned at
+Knox, "we're long on military and
+scientific brass and short on people
+who can manage other people."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." Halloran pressed a buzzer
+on his desk. "I think some of my
+associates ought to be in on this discussion."</p>
+
+<p>"Discussion?" barked Knox. "Is
+there anything to discuss? We simply
+want you out of here in an
+hour&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please, general!" the warden
+said quietly.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>If the gray-clad man who entered
+the office at that moment heard the
+general's outburst, he gave no sign.
+He stood stiffly in front of the warden's
+big desk, a little to one side of
+the two visitors, and said, "Yes sir,
+Mr. Halloran?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Joe. Know where the captain
+is?"</p>
+
+<p>"First afternoon inspection, sir."
+He cocked an eye at the clock on the
+wall behind Halloran. "Ought to be
+in the laundry about now."</p>
+
+<p>The warden scribbled a few words
+on a small square of paper. "Ask
+him to come here at once, please.
+On your way, please stop in at
+the hospital and ask Dr. Slade to
+come along, too." He pushed the
+paper across the desk to the inmate.
+"There's your pass."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir. Anything else, warden?"
+He stood, a small, square figure in
+neat gray shirt and pants, seemingly
+oblivious to the ill-concealed stares
+of the two visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Halloran thought a moment, then
+said, "Yes ... I'd like to see Father
+Nelson and Rabbi Goldsmid, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Uh, Father Nelson's up on the
+Row, sir. With Bert Doyle."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll not bother him, of
+course. Just the others."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. On the double."</p>
+
+<p>Lansing slouched around in his
+chair and openly watched Joe Mario
+walk out. Then he turned back to
+Halloran and said, "That chap a ...
+a trusty, warden?"</p>
+
+<p>"To a degree. Although we no
+longer use the term. We classify the
+inmates according to the amount of
+responsibility they can handle."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. Ah&mdash;" he laughed embarrassedly,
+"this is the first time I've
+been in a prison. Mind telling me
+what his crime was?"</p>
+
+<p>Halloran smiled gently. "We try
+to remember the man, Dr. Lansing,
+and not his crime." Then he relented.
+"Joe Mario was just a small-time
+crook who got mixed up in a bad
+murder."</p>
+
+<p>Lansing whistled.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't we wasting time?" growled
+the general. "Seems to me, warden,
+you could be ordering your people
+to pack up without any conference.
+You're in charge here, aren't
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>Halloran raised his eyebrows. "In
+charge? Why, yes ... in the sense
+that I shape the final decisions. But
+all of my assistants contribute to
+such decisions. Further, we have an
+inmate's council that voices its opinion
+on certain of our problems here.
+And we&mdash;my associates and I&mdash;listen
+to them. Always."</p>
+
+<p>Knox scowled and angrily shifted
+his big body. Lansing picked up his
+cigar, relit it, using the action to
+unobtrusively study the warden.
+Hardly a presence to cow hardened
+criminals, Lansing thought. Halloran
+was just below middle height, with
+gray hair getting a bit thin, eyes that
+twinkled warmly behind rimless
+glasses. Yet Lansing had read somewhere
+that a critic of Halloran's
+policies had said the penologist's
+thinking was far ahead of his time&mdash;too
+far, the critic had added.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>As Joe Mario closed the warden's
+door behind him, two inmates slowed
+their typing but did not look up as
+he neared their desks. A guard left
+his post at the outer door and walked
+toward Mario. The two of them
+stopped beside the desks.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the word, Joe?" the
+guard asked.</p>
+
+<p>Mario held out his pass.</p>
+
+<p>"Gotta round up the captain, Doc
+Slade and the Jew preacher," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Get going."</p>
+
+<p>"What do those guys want?" asked
+a typist as he pulled the paper
+from his machine.</p>
+
+<p>Mario looked quickly at the guard
+and as quickly away from him.</p>
+
+<p>"Dunno," he shrugged.</p>
+
+<p>"Somethin' about the war, I bet,"
+grunted the typist.</p>
+
+<p>"War's over, dope," said the other.
+"Nothin' behind the curtain now but
+a nice assortment of bomb craters.
+All sizes."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, Joe," ordered the guard.
+"You heard something. Give."</p>
+
+<p>"Well ... I heard that fat general
+say something about wanting the
+warden outa here in a hour."</p>
+
+<p>The typewriters stopped their
+clacking for a bare instant, then
+started up again, more slowly. The
+guard frowned, then said, "On your
+way, Joe." He hesitated, then, "No
+use to tell you to button your lip,
+I guess."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not causing any trouble,"
+Mario said, as the guard opened the
+door and stood aside for him to pass
+into the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>O.K.'d for entrance into the hospital
+wing, Joe Mario stood outside
+the railing that cut Dr. Slade's reception
+area off from the corridor that
+led to the wards. An inmate orderly
+sat behind the railing, writing a prescription
+for a slight, intelligent-looking man.</p>
+
+<p>Mario heard the orderly say, "All
+right, Vukich, get that filled at the
+dispensary. Take one after each meal
+and come back to see us when the
+bottle's empty. Unless the pain gets
+worse, of course. But I don't think
+it will."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, doc," the patient drawled.</p>
+
+<p>Both men looked up then and saw
+Mario.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi, Joe," the orderly smiled.
+"What's wrong with you? You don't
+look sick!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothin' wrong with me that a
+day outside couldn't cure."</p>
+
+<p>"Or a <i>night</i>," laughed Vukich.</p>
+
+<p>Mario ran a hand over his sleek,
+black hair. "Better a night, sure,"
+he grinned back. Then he sobered
+and said to the orderly, "Warden
+wants to see the doc. Right away."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Halloran sick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naw ... it's business. Urgent
+business."</p>
+
+<p>"Real urgent, Joe? The doc's
+doing a pretty serious exam right
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Mario paused, then said, "You
+guys might as well know about it.
+There's a general and a civilian in
+the warden's office. They're talkin'
+about something outside. Warden
+wants the doc in on it."</p>
+
+<p>Sudden tension flowed out between
+the three men. Down the hall, a
+patient screamed suddenly in the
+psycho ward. The three of them jerked,
+then grinned feebly at each other.</p>
+
+<p>Vukich said slowly, "Well, you
+don't start playing catch with atom
+bombs without dropping a few.
+Wonder what it's like ... out
+there?"</p>
+
+<p>"We haven't <i>heard</i> that it's any
+different," the orderly's voice lacked
+conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly," Vukich said
+flatly. "Ever since they moved the
+dames from Tehama into C block
+we've known <i>something</i> happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Get the doc," Mario said. "I've
+got to be on my way."</p>
+
+<p>"Me, too." Vukich's thin, clever
+face looked thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>The others stared blankly at him
+and said nothing.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>As Alfred Court, captain of the
+prison, strode down the flower-bordered
+path that led from the shops
+unit past A block to the administration
+building, a side door in A block
+clanged open and a sergeant came
+out. The sergeant turned without
+seeing his superior and walked hurriedly
+toward the administration
+wing.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, sarge!" Court called.
+"What's the hurry?"</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant whirled, recognized
+the captain and quickly saluted.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to see you, sir," he said.
+"Just the man I was looking for!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough. What's on your
+mind? Better tell me as we go for
+the warden's in a hurry to see me."</p>
+
+<p>The two men walked abreast, both
+big, although Court lacked any trace
+of the sergeant's paunch. As they
+walked and talked, their eyes darted
+continually about, unconsciously
+checking the appearance of the buildings,
+the position of the guard in
+the gun tower, the attitude of a very
+old inmate who was meticulously
+weeding a flower bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain, you going to let the men
+out for their yard time?"</p>
+
+<p>Court's pace slowed. "Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"No real reason ... <i>now</i>. But
+there's trouble in the air, sir. I can
+smell it. The whole place is buzzing ... with
+<i>something</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"With what?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't put my finger on it. But
+all the men know there's some pretty
+big shots&mdash;at least one general, they
+say&mdash;in the warden's office, right
+now. There's a hot rumor that there's
+trouble outside&mdash;some sort of disaster."</p>
+
+<p>Court laughed shortly. "That
+Mario! He's going to lose a nice
+job if he doesn't keep his mouth
+shut!"</p>
+
+<p>"None of them keep their mouths
+shut, captain."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... well, I don't know what's
+up, myself. I'm heading for that
+conference right now. I'll ask the
+warden about letting the men out
+of their cells. What's their attitude?"</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant's broad, red face
+grew more troubled.</p>
+
+<p>"Uh ... the men aren't hostile,
+captain. They seem worried, nervous ... kind
+of scared. If somebody at
+the top&mdash;the warden or yourself&mdash;could
+convince them things were as
+usual outside ... they'd quiet down,
+I'm sure."</p>
+
+<p>They were now thirty feet from
+the door to the administration building
+a door that opened for but one
+man at a time. The officers stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Things are <i>not</i> normal outside,"
+Court growled, "and you know it.
+I've been wondering how long this
+prison could go on&mdash;as if there were
+still a state's capital, with its Adult
+Authority, its governor, its Supreme
+Court. D'you think every man jack
+here doesn't know a visit from the
+Authority's long overdue!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll go in, sarge, and see
+what's what. If you <i>don't</i> hear from
+me, stick to routine."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, captain."</p>
+
+<p>He remained where he was while
+Captain Court walked slowly toward
+the door, both hands well in sight.
+A pace from the door he stopped
+and exchanged a few words with
+someone watching him through a
+barred peephole. After a moment,
+the door slid open and he walked
+into the building.</p>
+
+<p>He was the last to arrive at the
+warden's office. Lansing gazed at
+him in fascination. Goldsmid had
+been a Golden Gloves champion
+middleweight before he had heeded
+the call of the Law, and he looked
+it. Dr. Slade was the prototype of
+all overworked doctors. But Court
+was a type by himself. Lansing
+thought he'd never seen a colder eye.
+Yet, the captain's lean face&mdash;so unlike
+the warden's mild, scholarly one&mdash;was
+quiet, composed, unmarked
+by any weakness of feature or line
+of self-indulgence. A big, tough man,
+Lansing mused, a very tough man.
+But a just one.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"I've a problem, warden," Court
+said when the introductions were
+over. "Something we should decide
+right away."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't it wait?" Knox said irritably.</p>
+
+<p>Lansing almost choked with stifled
+laughter when Court just glanced
+briefly at Knox, then said quietly to
+the warden, "Sergeant Haines has
+just advised me that the inmates
+know about these gentlemen and
+they're&mdash;restless. I wonder if we
+shouldn't keep the men in their cells
+this afternoon."'</p>
+
+<p>"Blast it!" roared Knox. "Can't
+you people keep a secret?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are no secrets in prison,
+general," Halloran said mildly. "I
+learned that my first week as a guard,
+twenty years ago." To Court he said,
+"Sit down, Alfred. Unless you disagree
+strongly, I think we'll let the
+men out as usual. It's a risk, yes, but
+right now, the closer we stick to
+normal routine, the better."</p>
+
+<p>"You're probably right, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Court sat down and Halloran
+turned to his two visitors.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, gentlemen," he smiled,
+"we're at your disposal. As I told
+you, my two associate wardens aren't
+here. Mr. Briggs is in town and Mr.
+Tate is home ill. Dr. McCall, our
+Protestant clergyman, is also home,
+recovering from a siege with one of
+those pesky viruses. But we here
+represent various phases of our administration
+and can certainly answer
+all of your questions."</p>
+
+<p>"Questions!" Knox snorted.
+"We're here to tell you the facts&mdash;not
+ask."</p>
+
+<p>"General," soothed Lansing. He
+looked across the desk at Halloran
+and shrugged slightly. The warden
+twinkled. "General Knox is a trifle ... ah,
+overblunt, but he's telling
+you the essential truth of the situation.
+We've come to take you away
+from here. Just as soon as you can
+leave."</p>
+
+<p>"Hey?" cried Slade. "Leave here?
+The devil, man, I've got to take out
+a gall bladder this afternoon!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I don't understand,"
+murmured Goldsmid. "I thought the
+war was over&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"This is all nonsense!" There was
+an ominous note in Knox's hoarse
+voice. "Do you people realize you're
+now under the authority of the Fifth
+Defense Command?"</p>
+
+<p>Lansing cried: "Let's be sensible
+about all this!" He pointed his cigar
+at the fuming soldier. "General,
+these gentlemen have every right to
+know the situation and we'll save
+time if you'll permit me to give them
+a quick briefing."</p>
+
+<p>"All right! All right!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then." Lansing crossed his
+long legs, glanced nervously about
+the room, and said, "The world as
+we know it is done with. Finished.
+In another week it will be completely
+uninhabitable."</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/second.jpg" width="250" height="728" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Hey," grunted Slade. "You Lansing,
+the physicist?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't place you at first. Well,
+what's going to end this lousy old
+world of ours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Lansing answered, "we
+wiped out our late antagonists with
+skill and dispatch. But, in the end,
+they outsmarted us. Left behind
+some sort of radioactive dust which ... <i>spreads</i>.
+It's rolling down on us
+from Chicago and up from Texas.
+God knows what other parts of the
+country are like&mdash;we haven't had
+time to discuss it with them on the
+radio."</p>
+
+<p>Goldsmid muttered something in
+Hebrew.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that lack of communication
+rather odd?" asked the warden.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so very. We've been too
+busy building rocket ships."</p>
+
+<p>"Rocket ships!" Court was jarred
+out of his icy calm.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean spaceships?" cried the
+doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Slade, they do," murmured
+the warden.</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely," Lansing said. "When
+it looked as if the cold war would
+get rather warm, the allied governments
+faced up to the fact that our
+venerable planet might become a ...
+ah, a battle casualty. So, in carefully
+selected regions, rather extensive
+preparations were made for a hurried
+departure from this sector of the
+universe."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come to the point!" Knox
+exploded. "All you people need to
+know is that one of those regions is
+this area of the Rocky Mountains,
+that the ships are built and ready to
+go, and that you're to get aboard.
+Fast!"</p>
+
+<p>"That," nodded Lansing, "is it."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The four prison officials looked at
+each other. Halloran and Court sat
+quiet; Goldsmid slowly dropped his
+eyes to the ground and his lips
+moved. Slade scratched his chin.</p>
+
+<p>"Going to Mars, hey?" he asked
+abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"That's our destination."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor chuckled. "Comic-book
+stuff," he chortled.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it isn't," Halloran said.
+"We've been expecting something
+like this for a long time. Haven't
+we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed we have," Goldsmid said.
+"Expecting, but not quite believing."</p>
+
+<p>Halloran looked thoughtfully at
+the physicist. "Dr. Lansing, these
+ships of yours ... they're pretty big,
+I take it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not as big as we like. They never
+are. But they'll do. Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should remind you that we
+have well over two thousand inmates
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Inmates!" barked the general.
+"Who the devil said anything about
+your inmates? Think we'll take a
+lot of convicts to Mars! Populate it
+with killers, thieves&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Who does go, then?" Halloran
+did not raise his voice but Knox
+looked suddenly uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>"Why ... uh, your operating
+personnel," he replied gruffly. "Your
+guards, clerks ... hell, man, it's
+obvious, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid that is out," Goldsmid
+said. "For me, that is." He stood up,
+a heavy-shouldered middleweight
+running a little to fat. "Excuse me,
+warden, my counseling period's coming
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Pete," Halloran said
+quietly. "We haven't finished this
+conference."</p>
+
+<p>"I admire your sentiments, Rabbi,"
+Lansing said hurriedly, "but surely
+you realize that we can't take any
+criminal elements to ... ah, what
+will be our new world. And we do
+have a special need for you. We've
+plenty of your co-religionists among
+our various personnel, but we don't
+have an ordained minister for them.
+They're your responsibility."</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid my first responsibility is
+here." Goldsmid's voice was quite
+matter-of-fact.</p>
+
+<p>"So's mine," grunted Slade.
+"Warden, even if the world ends tomorrow,
+I've got to get Squeaker
+Hanley's gall bladder out today. No
+point in my hanging around any
+longer is there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course there is," Halloran
+answered. He took a package of cigarettes
+from his pocket, selected
+one, and lit it. He exhaled smoke
+and looked speculatively at Lansing.
+The scientist felt himself blushing
+and looked away.</p>
+
+<p>Halloran turned to Court.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite a problem, isn't it, Alfred,"
+he said. "I suppose these gentlemen
+are right in keeping the inmates off
+their ships. At any rate, <i>we</i> can't
+argue the matter&mdash;so let's do what
+we're asked. I think you'd better plan
+to get the guards out of here tonight,
+at shift change. Might pass the word
+to their wives now, so they can start
+packing a few essentials. Doc," he
+turned to Slade, "before you get
+your greedy hands on Squeaker's
+gall bladder, you'd better round up
+your staff and have them make the
+proper arrangements."</p>
+
+<p>"O.K., I'll put it up to them."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll <i>not</i> put it up to them,"
+the warden said sharply. "You'll
+<i>order</i> them to be ready when the
+general, here, wants them."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll give no orders," Slade said
+grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Just a minute," interposed Court.
+"Sir, aren't you going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. But that's neither
+here nor there&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The loud clangor of a bell pealed
+through the room. The two visitors
+jumped.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" cried Knox.</p>
+
+<p>"Yard time," Halloran smiled.
+"The men are allowed two hours
+out in the yard, now. They exercise,
+play games, or just sit around and
+talk."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I understand you correctly,
+Warden Halloran?" Lansing's bony
+face was pale now. "Do you refuse
+to come with us?"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>When the bell rang, Joe Mario
+had been standing near the door to
+the warden's office, ostensibly filing
+reports. Now, he closed the drawer
+with a bang, stretched, and started
+toward the outside door.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" the
+guard asked suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"The yard. Where else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a word," Mario added virtuously.
+"I was too busy doin' my
+work. Anyway, you gotta let me out.
+My team's got a ball game set for
+this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh ... all right." He looked at
+the typists. "How about you two?
+Want out?"</p>
+
+<p>The two men glanced quickly at
+each other, then shoved back their
+chairs and got up from their desks.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," one of them grinned, "I
+guess we'll take a little air."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Lansing had the feeling he used
+to have occasionally, back in his university
+days when he lectured on
+freshman physics&mdash;as if he were
+talking to a class of deaf students.
+For, like the hapless freshmen,
+Warden Halloran was quite obviously
+not listening to him. But the scientist
+plunged on. "Sir," he said
+hoarsely, "we need you. We <i>will</i>
+need you! I'm a scientist&mdash;I know
+nothing of the problems of ... ah,
+community living. Neither does
+Knox. He's accustomed to major
+crises&mdash;and solving them by giving
+orders. But both of us know there'll
+come a time when people won't take
+orders&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely correct," Knox said
+unexpectedly. "Once we get settled
+on Mars, the military takes a back
+seat. And&mdash;I mean this, Lansing&mdash;<i>I'll</i>
+be damn' glad of it. When the
+people get their towns built they'll
+need some gents with the right kind
+know-how to help them, show
+them&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very interesting, general,
+but it's not for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>Halloran snubbed out his cigarette,
+looked up at the general and at the
+scientist. He smiled briefly. "It's just
+my job, gentlemen&mdash;let's not discuss
+the matter any further. You can't
+make me go."</p>
+
+<p>"We will!" barked Knox. "I told
+you you were under the jurisdiction
+of the Fifth Defense Command and
+you are. If I want to, I can send a
+tank company over here and drag
+you to those ships!"</p>
+
+<p>"He's right, you know," Lansing
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Court stood up and took one step
+toward the general.</p>
+
+<p>"Alfred!" the warden did not lift
+his voice, but Court stopped. "General
+Knox," Halloran went on in a
+conversational tone, "you're being a
+bit of bully, you know, and in this
+prison we've all been ... ah, conditioned
+against bullies." He looked
+down at his desk and frowned.
+"However, I'll admit that your position
+requires that I elaborate my reasons
+for staying here. Well, then. As
+I see it, your people, your ... ah,
+colonists, can help themselves. Most
+of <i>my</i> people, the inmates here, can't.
+A long time ago, gentlemen, I decided
+I'd spend my life helping the
+one man in our society who seemingly
+can't help himself, the so-called
+criminal. I've always felt that society
+owes a debt to the criminal ...
+instead of the other way around."</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated, grinned apologetically
+at Captain Court. "I'm sermonizing
+again, eh, Alfred? But," he
+shrugged, "if I must get dramatic
+about it I can only say that my life's
+work ends only with my&mdash;death."</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite a rough job, you
+know," Goldsmid remarked. "This
+is a maximum security institution.
+Too many of the inmates have disappointed
+the warden. But he keeps
+trying and we've learned to follow
+his example."</p>
+
+<p>"Our psychiatric bunch have done
+some mighty interesting things,"
+beamed Slade, "even with cases that
+looked absolutely hopeless."</p>
+
+<p>"None of them can be saved now,"
+muttered Lansing.</p>
+
+<p>"That is in the hands of God,"
+Goldsmid replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Halloran said gently,
+"still going to send those tanks after
+me, general?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uh ... no ... I won't interfere
+with a man doing his duty."</p>
+
+<p>Lansing cleared his throat, looked
+slowly from the somber-faced clergyman,
+to the fidgeting medico, to the
+burly captain, still staring impassively
+at the general, to, finally, the quiet,
+smiling warden. "Gentlemen," he
+said slowly, "it occurs to me that the
+situation hasn't actually registered on
+you. The earth is really doomed, you
+know. This dust simply won't tolerate
+organic life. In some way&mdash;we have
+not had time to discover how&mdash;it's
+self-multiplying, so, as I said, it
+spreads. Right now, not a tenth of
+this entire continent&mdash;from the pole
+down to the Panama Canal&mdash;is capable
+of supporting any kind of life
+as we know it. And that area is
+diminishing hourly."</p>
+
+<p>"No way of checking it?" Slade
+asked. His tone was one of idle
+curiosity, nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>"No. It's death, gentlemen. As
+deadly as your ... ah, gallows."</p>
+
+<p>"We use the gas chamber," Halloran
+corrected him. His mouth
+twisted. "More humane, you know."</p>
+
+<p>There was brief quiet, then the
+warden said, "Well ... now that
+we've finished philosophizing, let's
+get back to the matter at hand. We
+can have everyone that's going ready
+to leave by seven tonight. Will that
+be satisfactory?"</p>
+
+<p>"It'll have to be," Knox grunted.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you." Halloran reached
+for his phone, then dropped his
+hands on his desk. "I'd like to ask
+you a question," he said. "Perhaps
+it's presumptuous, but I'm rather
+curious about the ... er, last workings
+of our government. Tell me,
+don't you really have room for our
+inmates? You haven't told us how
+many ships you've built. Or how big
+they are."</p>
+
+<p>Lansing looked at Knox. The general
+flushed, then stared at the floor.
+Lansing shrugged tiredly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we've plenty of room," he
+sighed. "But ... our orders are to
+take only those completely fit to
+build a new world. We've ... well,
+we have practiced a lot of euthanasia
+lately."</p>
+
+<p>"Judges," murmured Goldsmid.</p>
+
+<p>"If you had come sooner," there
+was no anger in Halloran's voice,
+"couldn't you have selected some of
+our people, those that I ... all of
+us know are ready for rehabilitation&mdash;even
+on another planet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. But no one remembered
+there was a prison nearby."</p>
+
+<p>The warden looked at the rabbi.
+Goldsmid raised his heavy shoulders
+in an ancient Hebraic gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"That was always the trouble,
+wasn't it, Pete?" Halloran murmured.
+"People never remembered the
+prisons!"</p>
+
+<p>The telephone beside him shrilled
+loudly, urgently.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The inmate mopping the floor of
+Condemned Row's single corridor
+slowed in front of Bert Doyle's cell.
+Doyle was slated for a ride down
+the elevator that night to the death
+cell behind the gas chamber. At the
+moment, he was stretched out on
+his bunk, listening to the soft voice
+of Father Nelson.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry to interrupt," the inmate
+said, "but I thought you'd like to
+know that all hell's busting loose
+down in the yard."</p>
+
+<p>Father Nelson looked up.</p>
+
+<p>Doyle, too, looked interested. "A
+riot?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yessiree, bob!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" snapped the priest.
+"This prison doesn't have riots!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's sure got one, now.
+'Scuse me, Father, but it's the truth.
+The men grabbed four or five yard
+guards and the screws in the towers
+don't dare shoot!"</p>
+
+<p>He gave up all pretense of work
+and stood, leaning on his mop-handle,
+his rheumy old eyes glowing
+with a feverish excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Nelson stood up.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you excuse me, Bert?" he
+asked. "I'd better see if I can help
+the warden."</p>
+
+<p>Doyle, too, sat up, swung his
+feet to the steel floor, stood up and
+stretched. "Sure," he said. His hard
+face was pale but otherwise he
+seemed quite calm. "You've been
+a great help, Father." He looked
+quizzically at the old inmate. "You
+lying, Danny? Seems to me the boys
+have got nothing to beef about here."</p>
+
+<p>"Heh, they sure have now."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I got this from a guy who
+got it from Vukich who heard it
+from Joe Mario. Seems there's a big-shot
+general and some kinda scientist
+in Mr. Halloran's office." He
+shifted his grip on the mop-handle.
+"You gents maybe won't believe this,
+but it's what Joe heard 'em say to
+the warden. Outside is all covered
+with radium and this general and
+this here scientist are goin' to Mars
+an' they want the warden to go
+along. Leavin' us behind, of course.
+That's what the boys are riotin'
+about."</p>
+
+<p>Bert Doyle burst into harsh laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Danny! Danny!" he cried. "I've
+been predicting this! You've gone
+stir-bugs!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't neither!"</p>
+
+<p>"Just a moment, Bert," Nelson
+whispered. Aloud he said, "Dan, go
+call the guard for me, please." When
+the old man had shuffled out of
+earshot the priest said to the condemned
+man, "It could be true, Bert.
+By radium, he means radioactive
+material. And there's no reason
+spaceships can't get to Mars. We'd
+reached the Moon before the war
+started, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Doyle sank back on his bunk.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll be damned!" he
+breathed.</p>
+
+<p>"Bert!"</p>
+
+<p>Doyle grinned sheepishly. "Force
+of habit." Then, more soberly, "So
+they're off to Mars, eh? Father, you
+better get down there and pick up
+your reservations!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be ridiculous!" The priest's
+voice softened and he patted the
+killer's shoulder. "I will go down
+and see what's what, Bert. And I'll
+be back just as soon as the men have
+quieted down. That is, if they <i>are</i>
+creating a disturbance."</p>
+
+<p>The footsteps of the approaching
+guard sounded loud in the corridor.
+Doyle frowned a little.</p>
+
+<p>"When you come back, Father,
+you'll tell me the truth? No kidding,
+now!"</p>
+
+<p>The guard stood in front of the
+door of heavy steel bars. Father Nelson
+looked down at the man on the
+bunk.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you everything, Bert. I
+swear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Uh, Father?" the guard's voice
+was nervous&mdash;and embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Perkins?"</p>
+
+<p>"I ... I can't let you out right
+now. Orders from the warden. Not
+a cell door opens till I hear from
+him direct."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/third.jpg" width="400" height="301" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Doyle chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"Might as well sit down, Father,"
+he said, "and make yourself comfortable&mdash;"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"What will you do?" cried Lansing.</p>
+
+<p>"Go out and talk to them, of
+course," replied Halloran. He arose
+from his desk, a calm, unhurried
+man.</p>
+
+<p>"Look," growled Knox, "you get
+me through to the town. Some of
+our people are still there. I'll order
+out as many soldiers as you want.
+I'll see to it that they get here&mdash;on
+the double!"</p>
+
+<p>Halloran flushed. "Would it ease
+your conscience, general," he grated,
+"if you killed off my men instead of
+leaving them&mdash;behind! Now, you
+will please keep quiet. You'll be
+perfectly safe!"</p>
+
+<p>"What will we do with them,
+sir?" Court gestured at Lansing and
+Knox.</p>
+
+<p>Halloran strode from behind his
+desk to the opposite end of the room.
+As he twirled the dials of a wall
+safe he said, "They'll have to remain
+here, for now. The men have
+got between this building and the
+gate office." The safe swung open
+and he reached far inside and took
+out a submachine gun. "Here," he
+held the weapon out to Court. "If
+I don't come back, use this to get
+them to the gate office."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't know you had an arsenal
+in here!" cried Slade.</p>
+
+<p>"No one else did, either, except
+Alfred. Now Doc, think you and
+Pete had better stay here."</p>
+
+<p>Slade and Goldsmid pulled themselves
+out of their chairs as one
+man. Their timing was perfect.</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't, hero!" growled
+Slade.</p>
+
+<p>"Warden," Goldsmid said, "perhaps
+<i>I</i> could talk to the men&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The warden smiled and walked
+toward the door. There he stopped
+and said to Court, "Switch on the
+speaker system, Alfred. I'll take the
+portable mike from the next office.
+While I'm out there, get word to
+all custodial and operating personnel
+that they will be permitted to leave
+tonight. Meantime, I hope they will
+stay on their jobs. Better phone Mr.
+Tate, have someone try to locate Mr.
+Briggs, be sure and call Dr. Slade's
+staff."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The three men left the office.
+Court, the gun cradled under one
+arm, picked up the phone and spoke
+into it. His voice was a low, crisp
+monotone. After a while, he replaced
+the receiver and stood quiet, staring
+impassively at the others.</p>
+
+<p>"You might say the warden's
+career has been twenty years of futility,"
+he muttered. Lansing and Knox
+felt he wasn't actually speaking to
+them. "Now me, I'm a screw of the
+old school. Hardboiled, they say. <i>I</i>
+never expected a thing from a con ... and
+cons have lied to him, politicians
+have broken their promises ... but
+the liars have loved him and
+the dumbest dope in the legislature
+has respected him."</p>
+
+<p>"Will he ... be all right?" Lansing
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>Court shrugged. "Who knows?
+You handled this very badly," he
+said dispassionately. "Five minutes
+after you stepped through the main
+gate every inmate in the place knew
+you were here and started wondering.
+Why didn't you write&mdash;make
+arrangements to see the warden outside?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry," Lansing said. "We
+know very little about prisons."</p>
+
+<p>Court laughed shortly. "You'd
+better learn," he said grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyway we can see what's going
+on?" rumbled Knox. "And how
+about that speaker business?"</p>
+
+<p>"There's a window in the next
+office. Come along."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>They crouched at the window, the
+fat Knox whizzing a little, because
+Court had ordered them to keep out
+of sight of the rioters. They saw
+Halloran, Slade and Goldsmid at his
+heels, walking out into the small
+courtyard that lay between them and
+safety. Over the wall speaker came
+a sullen roar, something very like
+the ragged blast of a rocket whose
+timing is off. A few gray-clad men
+in the courtyard saw the approaching
+warden, surged toward him, screaming
+at their fellows in the big yard
+behind them.</p>
+
+<p>Halloran ignored the clutching
+hands. He held the mike up and
+they heard him say, "There's no
+point in my talking with you unless
+you will be quiet and listen." He
+paused. The roar slowly subsided into
+an angry mutter. "Thanks. That's
+better."</p>
+
+<p>Now, they could see Slade's
+head but both Halloran and the rabbi
+were hidden by the swirl of gray
+figures that swept around the three
+prison officials.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," the warden went on, "it
+seems that you have something to
+say to me. Good enough. But why
+didn't you send word through your
+council, instead of roughing up
+guards, damaging property, yelling
+your heads off and generally behaving
+like a bunch of spoiled brats. Go
+on, tell me! Why?"</p>
+
+<p>Someone's scream came clearly
+over the mike. "The world's coming
+to an end! They're leaving us here
+to die!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah!" the mike picked up another
+voice. "How about that?"</p>
+
+<p>Before the wordless, mindless roar
+could rise again, the warden barked,
+"Oh, hush up!" And they were
+quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"My God," breathed Lansing.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," Halloran's voice was easy,
+assured, "I want to make sure that
+all of you hear me. So, I'm coming
+out in the center of the yard. Rabbi
+Pete Goldsmid and Doc Slade insist
+on coming with me although," he
+chuckled, "I understand Squeaker
+Hanley's screaming for the doc to
+cut out his gall bladder." A few of
+the men laughed. "All right, here
+I come. And you fellows behind me,
+keep off the wire. I don't want this
+mike to go dead and have to yell my
+lungs out."</p>
+
+<p>They saw the eddy of men around
+him move slowly through the broken
+gate and out of their sight.</p>
+
+<p>"What will he tell them," muttered
+Knox.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever&mdash;they'll believe it,"
+Court said. The courtyard before
+them was now empty. He stared
+thoughtfully out the barred window,
+then said, "Think you could get
+to the gate office pretty soon,
+now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" snarled Knox. "I want to
+see what happens to that gutty so-and-so!"</p>
+
+<p>Lansing grinned nervously. "Somehow,
+captain, I feel it won't be
+necessary for us to sneak out of
+here."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>They listened again while assorted
+thieves, murderers, rapists, men&mdash;save
+for an innocent few&mdash;whose
+hands were consistently raised against
+their fellows' peace and property,
+heard their jailor tell them that the
+end of their world, a world that
+many of them remembered but dimly,
+was coming to an end. The
+screaming broke out again when Halloran
+spoke of the Mars-bound ships,
+and, for a moment, the three in the
+office thought he had lost control.
+But the amplifiers prevailed and Halloran
+laughed and said, "Anyway,
+we're not going to Mars&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> can go!"</p>
+
+<p>The man who yelled that was apparently
+very close to the warden
+within his view, for they heard him
+say: "Chrisman, you're a fool&mdash;as
+usual! Would I bother to come out
+here and talk to you if I could go?"</p>
+
+<p>That got them. That, they understood.
+If a guy didn't scram from a
+hot spot when he could ... well,
+then, he couldn't scram in the first
+place. So, the warden was stuck, just
+like they were.</p>
+
+<p>Later, perhaps, a few of them
+might figure out why.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, let's have no more interruptions,"
+Halloran said. "<i>I</i> don't
+think there's any need to go. Neither
+does the doc, here, or the rabbi.
+We're all staying&mdash;because the desert
+to the south of us has stopped the
+spread of this dust and it seems it
+can't cross the rivers, either. So, we're
+safe enough."</p>
+
+<p>"But that's not true," groaned
+Lansing.</p>
+
+<p>Court glanced at him. "Would
+you tell them different?" he said
+coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Halloran said, "Well, that's that.
+Life is a little difficult outside and
+so the people out there want to try
+to get to Mars. Believe me, that's a
+trip I want someone else to make
+first. But if they think life will be
+easier on those deserts&mdash;why, let
+them go. But God help them&mdash;they'll
+need it."</p>
+
+<p>He paused. Knox tried to catch
+Lansing's eye, but the scientist's face
+was blank, unseeing.</p>
+
+<p>"What do <i>we</i> do?" This voice was
+not hysterical, just seriously questioning.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> should do darned well. Life
+should be easy enough for <i>you</i>.
+You've got your own farms, your
+livestock, laundry, hospital, shops&mdash;everything
+a man can need. So, take
+over and run things to suit yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>A unanimous gasp whistled over
+the speaker. Then, they all cried just
+one word.</p>
+
+<p>"Us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? Don't you think you
+can?"</p>
+
+<p>Silence, broken by strange, wistful
+mutterings.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd suggest this," Halloran said.
+"Let's follow our normal routine tonight&mdash;no
+lock-ups, of course&mdash;and
+tomorrow, you fellows take over. I'll
+help you in any way I can. But it
+will be <i>your</i> job. Perhaps after breakfast
+tomorrow, you ought to have a
+mass meeting. Under the supervision
+of your council, I'd say. You can't
+keep going without some kind of
+order, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Again silence.</p>
+
+<p>"My God," whispered Lansing,
+"he makes it all sound so <i>real</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Any questions?" Halloran asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, warden! How about the
+dames?"</p>
+
+<p>"The ladies will join you tomorrow
+morning." He chuckled. "I
+imagine they'll be able to handle
+you all right!"</p>
+
+<p>A joyous roar.</p>
+
+<p>"However," Halloran raised his
+voice, "I'd like to remind you fellows
+that a successful community
+needs ... <i>families</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a long quiet, then,
+broken finally by an inmate who
+asked, "Warden, how about the guys
+up on the Row?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Halloran's voice lost all
+humor, "you can start ripping out
+the gas chamber whenever you're
+ready to. I'll see that you get the
+tools."</p>
+
+<p>The swell of applause was so loud
+in the office that Court hastily turned
+down the speaker's volume.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," Halloran said when
+they had quieted down, "that's about
+it. You're free now, till supper-time.
+I'd suggest all of you start right
+now, thinking about your future&mdash;"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Outside the main gate, first Knox,
+then Lansing shook hands with the
+gray-faced warden.</p>
+
+<p>"Trucks'll be in town at seven for
+your people," Knox muttered. He
+gave a windy sigh. "It's all fouled
+up. As usual. Damn it, we need
+people like you, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>Lansing looked at Halloran for a
+long time, trying to see behind the
+mask of exhaustion. "I'm a mannerless
+fool," he said at last. "But Mr.
+Halloran, would you tell me what
+you're thinking? I mean, really thinking?
+Even if it's rough on us!"</p>
+
+<p>Halloran laughed softly. "I wasn't
+thinking about you at all, Dr. Lansing.
+I was&mdash;and am&mdash;regretting
+that what I told the men couldn't
+be the truth. It's too bad they'll have
+so short a time. It would be very
+interesting to see what they would
+do with&mdash;<i>life</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Knox scowled. "Seems like they
+haven't done much with it so far."</p>
+
+<p>"Come along, general," Lansing
+said quietly. "You don't understand.
+None of us do. We never did."</p>
+
+
+<h4>THE END</h4>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Criminal Negligence, by Jesse Francis McComas
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+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Criminal Negligence, by Jesse Francis McComas
+
+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: Criminal Negligence
+
+Author: Jesse Francis McComas
+
+Release Date: January 22, 2008 [EBook #24399]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Greg Bergquist and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science
+Fiction June 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor typographical
+errors have been corrected without note.]
+
+
+
+
+CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE
+
+[Illustration]
+
+     _Somebody was going to have to be left behind ... and who it would
+     be was perfectly obvious...._
+
+BY J. FRANCIS MCCOMAS
+
+Illustrated by Freas
+
+
+Warden Halloran smiled slightly. "You expect to have criminals on Mars,
+then?" he asked. "Is that why you want me?"
+
+"Of course we don't, sir!" snapped the lieutenant general. His name was
+Knox. "We need men of your administrative ability--"
+
+"Pardon me, general," Lansing interposed smoothly, "I rather think we'd
+better give the warden a ... a more detailed picture, shall we say? We
+have been rather abrupt, you know."
+
+"I'd be grateful if you would," Halloran said.
+
+He watched the lanky civilian as Lansing puffed jerkily on his cigar. A
+long man, with a shock of black hair tumbling over a high, narrow
+forehead, Lansing had introduced himself as chairman of the project's
+cooerdinating committee ... whatever that was.
+
+"Go ahead," grunted Knox. "But make it fast, doctor."
+
+Lansing smiled at the warden, carefully placed his cigar in the ash tray
+before him and said, "We've been working on the ships night and day.
+Both the dust itself and its secondary effects are getter closer to us
+all the time. We've been so intent on the job--it's _really_ been a race
+against time!--that only yesterday one of my young men remembered the
+Mountain State Penitentiary was well within our sphere of control."
+
+"The country--what's left of it--has been split up into regions," the
+general said. "So many ships to each region."
+
+"So," Lansing went on, "learning about you meant there was another batch
+of passengers to round up. And when I was told the warden was
+yourself--I know something of your career, Mr. Halloran--I was
+delighted. Frankly," he grinned at Knox, "we're long on military and
+scientific brass and short on people who can manage other people."
+
+"I see." Halloran pressed a buzzer on his desk. "I think some of my
+associates ought to be in on this discussion."
+
+"Discussion?" barked Knox. "Is there anything to discuss? We simply want
+you out of here in an hour--"
+
+"Please, general!" the warden said quietly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+If the gray-clad man who entered the office at that moment heard the
+general's outburst, he gave no sign. He stood stiffly in front of the
+warden's big desk, a little to one side of the two visitors, and said,
+"Yes sir, Mr. Halloran?"
+
+"Hello, Joe. Know where the captain is?"
+
+"First afternoon inspection, sir." He cocked an eye at the clock on the
+wall behind Halloran. "Ought to be in the laundry about now."
+
+The warden scribbled a few words on a small square of paper. "Ask him to
+come here at once, please. On your way, please stop in at the hospital
+and ask Dr. Slade to come along, too." He pushed the paper across the
+desk to the inmate. "There's your pass."
+
+"Yes sir. Anything else, warden?" He stood, a small, square figure in
+neat gray shirt and pants, seemingly oblivious to the ill-concealed
+stares of the two visitors.
+
+Halloran thought a moment, then said, "Yes ... I'd like to see Father
+Nelson and Rabbi Goldsmid, too."
+
+"Uh, Father Nelson's up on the Row, sir. With Bert Doyle."
+
+"Then we'll not bother him, of course. Just the others."
+
+"Yes, sir. On the double."
+
+Lansing slouched around in his chair and openly watched Joe Mario walk
+out. Then he turned back to Halloran and said, "That chap a ... a
+trusty, warden?"
+
+"To a degree. Although we no longer use the term. We classify the
+inmates according to the amount of responsibility they can handle."
+
+"I see. Ah--" he laughed embarrassedly, "this is the first time I've
+been in a prison. Mind telling me what his crime was?"
+
+Halloran smiled gently. "We try to remember the man, Dr. Lansing, and
+not his crime." Then he relented. "Joe Mario was just a small-time crook
+who got mixed up in a bad murder."
+
+Lansing whistled.
+
+"Aren't we wasting time?" growled the general. "Seems to me, warden, you
+could be ordering your people to pack up without any conference. You're
+in charge here, aren't you?"
+
+Halloran raised his eyebrows. "In charge? Why, yes ... in the sense that
+I shape the final decisions. But all of my assistants contribute to such
+decisions. Further, we have an inmate's council that voices its opinion
+on certain of our problems here. And we--my associates and I--listen to
+them. Always."
+
+Knox scowled and angrily shifted his big body. Lansing picked up his
+cigar, relit it, using the action to unobtrusively study the warden.
+Hardly a presence to cow hardened criminals, Lansing thought. Halloran
+was just below middle height, with gray hair getting a bit thin, eyes
+that twinkled warmly behind rimless glasses. Yet Lansing had read
+somewhere that a critic of Halloran's policies had said the penologist's
+thinking was far ahead of his time--too far, the critic had added.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Joe Mario closed the warden's door behind him, two inmates slowed
+their typing but did not look up as he neared their desks. A guard left
+his post at the outer door and walked toward Mario. The two of them
+stopped beside the desks.
+
+"What's the word, Joe?" the guard asked.
+
+Mario held out his pass.
+
+"Gotta round up the captain, Doc Slade and the Jew preacher," he said.
+
+"All right. Get going."
+
+"What do those guys want?" asked a typist as he pulled the paper from
+his machine.
+
+Mario looked quickly at the guard and as quickly away from him.
+
+"Dunno," he shrugged.
+
+"Somethin' about the war, I bet," grunted the typist.
+
+"War's over, dope," said the other. "Nothin' behind the curtain now but
+a nice assortment of bomb craters. All sizes."
+
+"Go on, Joe," ordered the guard. "You heard something. Give."
+
+"Well ... I heard that fat general say something about wanting the
+warden outa here in a hour."
+
+The typewriters stopped their clacking for a bare instant, then started
+up again, more slowly. The guard frowned, then said, "On your way, Joe."
+He hesitated, then, "No use to tell you to button your lip, I guess."
+
+"I'm not causing any trouble," Mario said, as the guard opened the door
+and stood aside for him to pass into the corridor.
+
+O.K.'d for entrance into the hospital wing, Joe Mario stood outside the
+railing that cut Dr. Slade's reception area off from the corridor that
+led to the wards. An inmate orderly sat behind the railing, writing a
+prescription for a slight, intelligent-looking man.
+
+Mario heard the orderly say, "All right, Vukich, get that filled at the
+dispensary. Take one after each meal and come back to see us when the
+bottle's empty. Unless the pain gets worse, of course. But I don't think
+it will."
+
+"Thanks, doc," the patient drawled.
+
+Both men looked up then and saw Mario.
+
+"Hi, Joe," the orderly smiled. "What's wrong with you? You don't look
+sick!"
+
+"Nothin' wrong with me that a day outside couldn't cure."
+
+"Or a _night_," laughed Vukich.
+
+Mario ran a hand over his sleek, black hair. "Better a night, sure," he
+grinned back. Then he sobered and said to the orderly, "Warden wants to
+see the doc. Right away."
+
+"Mr. Halloran sick?"
+
+"Naw ... it's business. Urgent business."
+
+"Real urgent, Joe? The doc's doing a pretty serious exam right now."
+
+Mario paused, then said, "You guys might as well know about it. There's
+a general and a civilian in the warden's office. They're talkin' about
+something outside. Warden wants the doc in on it."
+
+Sudden tension flowed out between the three men. Down the hall, a
+patient screamed suddenly in the psycho ward. The three of them jerked,
+then grinned feebly at each other.
+
+Vukich said slowly, "Well, you don't start playing catch with atom bombs
+without dropping a few. Wonder what it's like ... out there?"
+
+"We haven't _heard_ that it's any different," the orderly's voice lacked
+conviction.
+
+"Don't be silly," Vukich said flatly. "Ever since they moved the dames
+from Tehama into C block we've known _something_ happened."
+
+"Get the doc," Mario said. "I've got to be on my way."
+
+"Me, too." Vukich's thin, clever face looked thoughtful.
+
+The others stared blankly at him and said nothing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Alfred Court, captain of the prison, strode down the flower-bordered
+path that led from the shops unit past A block to the administration
+building, a side door in A block clanged open and a sergeant came out.
+The sergeant turned without seeing his superior and walked hurriedly
+toward the administration wing.
+
+"Hey, sarge!" Court called. "What's the hurry?"
+
+The sergeant whirled, recognized the captain and quickly saluted.
+
+"Glad to see you, sir," he said. "Just the man I was looking for!"
+
+"Good enough. What's on your mind? Better tell me as we go for the
+warden's in a hurry to see me."
+
+The two men walked abreast, both big, although Court lacked any trace of
+the sergeant's paunch. As they walked and talked, their eyes darted
+continually about, unconsciously checking the appearance of the
+buildings, the position of the guard in the gun tower, the attitude of a
+very old inmate who was meticulously weeding a flower bed.
+
+"Captain, you going to let the men out for their yard time?"
+
+Court's pace slowed. "Why not?"
+
+"No real reason ... _now_. But there's trouble in the air, sir. I can
+smell it. The whole place is buzzing ... with _something_."
+
+"With what?"
+
+"I can't put my finger on it. But all the men know there's some pretty
+big shots--at least one general, they say--in the warden's office, right
+now. There's a hot rumor that there's trouble outside--some sort of
+disaster."
+
+Court laughed shortly. "That Mario! He's going to lose a nice job if he
+doesn't keep his mouth shut!"
+
+"None of them keep their mouths shut, captain."
+
+"Yes ... well, I don't know what's up, myself. I'm heading for that
+conference right now. I'll ask the warden about letting the men out of
+their cells. What's their attitude?"
+
+The sergeant's broad, red face grew more troubled.
+
+"Uh ... the men aren't hostile, captain. They seem worried, nervous ...
+kind of scared. If somebody at the top--the warden or yourself--could
+convince them things were as usual outside ... they'd quiet down, I'm
+sure."
+
+They were now thirty feet from the door to the administration building a
+door that opened for but one man at a time. The officers stopped.
+
+"Things are _not_ normal outside," Court growled, "and you know it. I've
+been wondering how long this prison could go on--as if there were still
+a state's capital, with its Adult Authority, its governor, its Supreme
+Court. D'you think every man jack here doesn't know a visit from the
+Authority's long overdue!"
+
+"Yeah--"
+
+"Well, I'll go in, sarge, and see what's what. If you _don't_ hear from
+me, stick to routine."
+
+"Right, captain."
+
+He remained where he was while Captain Court walked slowly toward the
+door, both hands well in sight. A pace from the door he stopped and
+exchanged a few words with someone watching him through a barred
+peephole. After a moment, the door slid open and he walked into the
+building.
+
+He was the last to arrive at the warden's office. Lansing gazed at him
+in fascination. Goldsmid had been a Golden Gloves champion middleweight
+before he had heeded the call of the Law, and he looked it. Dr. Slade
+was the prototype of all overworked doctors. But Court was a type by
+himself. Lansing thought he'd never seen a colder eye. Yet, the
+captain's lean face--so unlike the warden's mild, scholarly one--was
+quiet, composed, unmarked by any weakness of feature or line of
+self-indulgence. A big, tough man, Lansing mused, a very tough man. But
+a just one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I've a problem, warden," Court said when the introductions were over.
+"Something we should decide right away."
+
+"Can't it wait?" Knox said irritably.
+
+Lansing almost choked with stifled laughter when Court just glanced
+briefly at Knox, then said quietly to the warden, "Sergeant Haines has
+just advised me that the inmates know about these gentlemen and
+they're--restless. I wonder if we shouldn't keep the men in their cells
+this afternoon."'
+
+"Blast it!" roared Knox. "Can't you people keep a secret?"
+
+"There are no secrets in prison, general," Halloran said mildly. "I
+learned that my first week as a guard, twenty years ago." To Court he
+said, "Sit down, Alfred. Unless you disagree strongly, I think we'll let
+the men out as usual. It's a risk, yes, but right now, the closer we
+stick to normal routine, the better."
+
+"You're probably right, sir."
+
+Court sat down and Halloran turned to his two visitors.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," he smiled, "we're at your disposal. As I told you, my
+two associate wardens aren't here. Mr. Briggs is in town and Mr. Tate is
+home ill. Dr. McCall, our Protestant clergyman, is also home, recovering
+from a siege with one of those pesky viruses. But we here represent
+various phases of our administration and can certainly answer all of
+your questions."
+
+"Questions!" Knox snorted. "We're here to tell you the facts--not ask."
+
+"General," soothed Lansing. He looked across the desk at Halloran and
+shrugged slightly. The warden twinkled. "General Knox is a trifle ...
+ah, overblunt, but he's telling you the essential truth of the
+situation. We've come to take you away from here. Just as soon as you
+can leave."
+
+"Hey?" cried Slade. "Leave here? The devil, man, I've got to take out a
+gall bladder this afternoon!"
+
+"I'm afraid I don't understand," murmured Goldsmid. "I thought the war
+was over--"
+
+"This is all nonsense!" There was an ominous note in Knox's hoarse
+voice. "Do you people realize you're now under the authority of the
+Fifth Defense Command?"
+
+Lansing cried: "Let's be sensible about all this!" He pointed his cigar
+at the fuming soldier. "General, these gentlemen have every right to
+know the situation and we'll save time if you'll permit me to give them
+a quick briefing."
+
+"All right! All right!"
+
+"Well, then." Lansing crossed his long legs, glanced nervously about the
+room, and said, "The world as we know it is done with. Finished. In
+another week it will be completely uninhabitable."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Hey," grunted Slade. "You Lansing, the physicist?"
+
+"That's right, doctor."
+
+"Didn't place you at first. Well, what's going to end this lousy old
+world of ours?"
+
+"Well," Lansing answered, "we wiped out our late antagonists with skill
+and dispatch. But, in the end, they outsmarted us. Left behind some sort
+of radioactive dust which ... _spreads_. It's rolling down on us from
+Chicago and up from Texas. God knows what other parts of the country are
+like--we haven't had time to discuss it with them on the radio."
+
+Goldsmid muttered something in Hebrew.
+
+"Isn't that lack of communication rather odd?" asked the warden.
+
+"Not so very. We've been too busy building rocket ships."
+
+"Rocket ships!" Court was jarred out of his icy calm.
+
+"You mean spaceships?" cried the doctor.
+
+"Yes, Slade, they do," murmured the warden.
+
+"Precisely," Lansing said. "When it looked as if the cold war would get
+rather warm, the allied governments faced up to the fact that our
+venerable planet might become a ... ah, a battle casualty. So, in
+carefully selected regions, rather extensive preparations were made for
+a hurried departure from this sector of the universe."
+
+"Oh, come to the point!" Knox exploded. "All you people need to know is
+that one of those regions is this area of the Rocky Mountains, that the
+ships are built and ready to go, and that you're to get aboard. Fast!"
+
+"That," nodded Lansing, "is it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The four prison officials looked at each other. Halloran and Court sat
+quiet; Goldsmid slowly dropped his eyes to the ground and his lips
+moved. Slade scratched his chin.
+
+"Going to Mars, hey?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"That's our destination."
+
+The doctor chuckled. "Comic-book stuff," he chortled.
+
+"No, it isn't," Halloran said. "We've been expecting something like this
+for a long time. Haven't we?"
+
+"Indeed we have," Goldsmid said. "Expecting, but not quite believing."
+
+Halloran looked thoughtfully at the physicist. "Dr. Lansing, these ships
+of yours ... they're pretty big, I take it?"
+
+"Not as big as we like. They never are. But they'll do. Why?"
+
+"I should remind you that we have well over two thousand inmates here."
+
+"Inmates!" barked the general. "Who the devil said anything about your
+inmates? Think we'll take a lot of convicts to Mars! Populate it with
+killers, thieves--"
+
+"Who does go, then?" Halloran did not raise his voice but Knox looked
+suddenly uneasy.
+
+"Why ... uh, your operating personnel," he replied gruffly. "Your
+guards, clerks ... hell, man, it's obvious, isn't it?"
+
+"I'm afraid that is out," Goldsmid said. "For me, that is." He stood up,
+a heavy-shouldered middleweight running a little to fat. "Excuse me,
+warden, my counseling period's coming up."
+
+"Sit down, Pete," Halloran said quietly. "We haven't finished this
+conference."
+
+"I admire your sentiments, Rabbi," Lansing said hurriedly, "but surely
+you realize that we can't take any criminal elements to ... ah, what
+will be our new world. And we do have a special need for you. We've
+plenty of your co-religionists among our various personnel, but we don't
+have an ordained minister for them. They're your responsibility."
+
+"Afraid my first responsibility is here." Goldsmid's voice was quite
+matter-of-fact.
+
+"So's mine," grunted Slade. "Warden, even if the world ends tomorrow,
+I've got to get Squeaker Hanley's gall bladder out today. No point in my
+hanging around any longer is there?"
+
+"Of course there is," Halloran answered. He took a package of cigarettes
+from his pocket, selected one, and lit it. He exhaled smoke and looked
+speculatively at Lansing. The scientist felt himself blushing and looked
+away.
+
+Halloran turned to Court.
+
+"Quite a problem, isn't it, Alfred," he said. "I suppose these gentlemen
+are right in keeping the inmates off their ships. At any rate, _we_
+can't argue the matter--so let's do what we're asked. I think you'd
+better plan to get the guards out of here tonight, at shift change.
+Might pass the word to their wives now, so they can start packing a few
+essentials. Doc," he turned to Slade, "before you get your greedy hands
+on Squeaker's gall bladder, you'd better round up your staff and have
+them make the proper arrangements."
+
+"O.K., I'll put it up to them."
+
+"You'll _not_ put it up to them," the warden said sharply. "You'll
+_order_ them to be ready when the general, here, wants them."
+
+"I'll give no orders," Slade said grimly.
+
+"Just a minute," interposed Court. "Sir, aren't you going?"
+
+"Of course not. But that's neither here nor there--"
+
+The loud clangor of a bell pealed through the room. The two visitors
+jumped.
+
+"What's that?" cried Knox.
+
+"Yard time," Halloran smiled. "The men are allowed two hours out in the
+yard, now. They exercise, play games, or just sit around and talk."
+
+"Oh."
+
+"Did I understand you correctly, Warden Halloran?" Lansing's bony face
+was pale now. "Do you refuse to come with us?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the bell rang, Joe Mario had been standing near the door to the
+warden's office, ostensibly filing reports. Now, he closed the drawer
+with a bang, stretched, and started toward the outside door.
+
+"Where are you going?" the guard asked suspiciously.
+
+"The yard. Where else?"
+
+"Not a word," Mario added virtuously. "I was too busy doin' my work.
+Anyway, you gotta let me out. My team's got a ball game set for this
+afternoon."
+
+"Oh ... all right." He looked at the typists. "How about you two? Want
+out?"
+
+The two men glanced quickly at each other, then shoved back their chairs
+and got up from their desks.
+
+"Sure," one of them grinned, "I guess we'll take a little air."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lansing had the feeling he used to have occasionally, back in his
+university days when he lectured on freshman physics--as if he were
+talking to a class of deaf students. For, like the hapless freshmen,
+Warden Halloran was quite obviously not listening to him. But the
+scientist plunged on. "Sir," he said hoarsely, "we need you. We _will_
+need you! I'm a scientist--I know nothing of the problems of ... ah,
+community living. Neither does Knox. He's accustomed to major
+crises--and solving them by giving orders. But both of us know there'll
+come a time when people won't take orders--"
+
+"Absolutely correct," Knox said unexpectedly. "Once we get settled on
+Mars, the military takes a back seat. And--I mean this, Lansing--_I'll_
+be damn' glad of it. When the people get their towns built they'll need
+some gents with the right kind know-how to help them, show them--"
+
+"That's all very interesting, general, but it's not for me."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+Halloran snubbed out his cigarette, looked up at the general and at the
+scientist. He smiled briefly. "It's just my job, gentlemen--let's not
+discuss the matter any further. You can't make me go."
+
+"We will!" barked Knox. "I told you you were under the jurisdiction of
+the Fifth Defense Command and you are. If I want to, I can send a tank
+company over here and drag you to those ships!"
+
+"He's right, you know," Lansing said.
+
+Court stood up and took one step toward the general.
+
+"Alfred!" the warden did not lift his voice, but Court stopped. "General
+Knox," Halloran went on in a conversational tone, "you're being a bit of
+bully, you know, and in this prison we've all been ... ah, conditioned
+against bullies." He looked down at his desk and frowned. "However, I'll
+admit that your position requires that I elaborate my reasons for
+staying here. Well, then. As I see it, your people, your ... ah,
+colonists, can help themselves. Most of _my_ people, the inmates here,
+can't. A long time ago, gentlemen, I decided I'd spend my life helping
+the one man in our society who seemingly can't help himself, the
+so-called criminal. I've always felt that society owes a debt to the
+criminal ... instead of the other way around."
+
+He hesitated, grinned apologetically at Captain Court. "I'm sermonizing
+again, eh, Alfred? But," he shrugged, "if I must get dramatic about it I
+can only say that my life's work ends only with my--death."
+
+"It's quite a rough job, you know," Goldsmid remarked. "This is a
+maximum security institution. Too many of the inmates have disappointed
+the warden. But he keeps trying and we've learned to follow his
+example."
+
+"Our psychiatric bunch have done some mighty interesting things," beamed
+Slade, "even with cases that looked absolutely hopeless."
+
+"None of them can be saved now," muttered Lansing.
+
+"That is in the hands of God," Goldsmid replied.
+
+"Well," Halloran said gently, "still going to send those tanks after me,
+general?"
+
+"Uh ... no ... I won't interfere with a man doing his duty."
+
+Lansing cleared his throat, looked slowly from the somber-faced
+clergyman, to the fidgeting medico, to the burly captain, still staring
+impassively at the general, to, finally, the quiet, smiling warden.
+"Gentlemen," he said slowly, "it occurs to me that the situation hasn't
+actually registered on you. The earth is really doomed, you know. This
+dust simply won't tolerate organic life. In some way--we have not had
+time to discover how--it's self-multiplying, so, as I said, it spreads.
+Right now, not a tenth of this entire continent--from the pole down to
+the Panama Canal--is capable of supporting any kind of life as we know
+it. And that area is diminishing hourly."
+
+"No way of checking it?" Slade asked. His tone was one of idle
+curiosity, nothing else.
+
+"No. It's death, gentlemen. As deadly as your ... ah, gallows."
+
+"We use the gas chamber," Halloran corrected him. His mouth twisted.
+"More humane, you know."
+
+There was brief quiet, then the warden said, "Well ... now that we've
+finished philosophizing, let's get back to the matter at hand. We can
+have everyone that's going ready to leave by seven tonight. Will that be
+satisfactory?"
+
+"It'll have to be," Knox grunted.
+
+"Thank you." Halloran reached for his phone, then dropped his hands on
+his desk. "I'd like to ask you a question," he said. "Perhaps it's
+presumptuous, but I'm rather curious about the ... er, last workings of
+our government. Tell me, don't you really have room for our inmates? You
+haven't told us how many ships you've built. Or how big they are."
+
+Lansing looked at Knox. The general flushed, then stared at the floor.
+Lansing shrugged tiredly.
+
+"Oh, we've plenty of room," he sighed. "But ... our orders are to take
+only those completely fit to build a new world. We've ... well, we have
+practiced a lot of euthanasia lately."
+
+"Judges," murmured Goldsmid.
+
+"If you had come sooner," there was no anger in Halloran's voice,
+"couldn't you have selected some of our people, those that I ... all of
+us know are ready for rehabilitation--even on another planet?"
+
+"Perhaps. But no one remembered there was a prison nearby."
+
+The warden looked at the rabbi. Goldsmid raised his heavy shoulders in
+an ancient Hebraic gesture.
+
+"That was always the trouble, wasn't it, Pete?" Halloran murmured.
+"People never remembered the prisons!"
+
+The telephone beside him shrilled loudly, urgently.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The inmate mopping the floor of Condemned Row's single corridor slowed
+in front of Bert Doyle's cell. Doyle was slated for a ride down the
+elevator that night to the death cell behind the gas chamber. At the
+moment, he was stretched out on his bunk, listening to the soft voice of
+Father Nelson.
+
+"Sorry to interrupt," the inmate said, "but I thought you'd like to know
+that all hell's busting loose down in the yard."
+
+Father Nelson looked up.
+
+Doyle, too, looked interested. "A riot?" he asked.
+
+"Yessiree, bob!"
+
+"Nonsense!" snapped the priest. "This prison doesn't have riots!"
+
+"Well, it's sure got one, now. 'Scuse me, Father, but it's the truth.
+The men grabbed four or five yard guards and the screws in the towers
+don't dare shoot!"
+
+He gave up all pretense of work and stood, leaning on his mop-handle,
+his rheumy old eyes glowing with a feverish excitement.
+
+Nelson stood up.
+
+"Will you excuse me, Bert?" he asked. "I'd better see if I can help the
+warden."
+
+Doyle, too, sat up, swung his feet to the steel floor, stood up and
+stretched. "Sure," he said. His hard face was pale but otherwise he
+seemed quite calm. "You've been a great help, Father." He looked
+quizzically at the old inmate. "You lying, Danny? Seems to me the boys
+have got nothing to beef about here."
+
+"Heh, they sure have now."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Well, I got this from a guy who got it from Vukich who heard it from
+Joe Mario. Seems there's a big-shot general and some kinda scientist in
+Mr. Halloran's office." He shifted his grip on the mop-handle. "You
+gents maybe won't believe this, but it's what Joe heard 'em say to the
+warden. Outside is all covered with radium and this general and this
+here scientist are goin' to Mars an' they want the warden to go along.
+Leavin' us behind, of course. That's what the boys are riotin' about."
+
+Bert Doyle burst into harsh laughter.
+
+"Danny! Danny!" he cried. "I've been predicting this! You've gone
+stir-bugs!"
+
+"Ain't neither!"
+
+"Just a moment, Bert," Nelson whispered. Aloud he said, "Dan, go call
+the guard for me, please." When the old man had shuffled out of earshot
+the priest said to the condemned man, "It could be true, Bert. By
+radium, he means radioactive material. And there's no reason spaceships
+can't get to Mars. We'd reached the Moon before the war started, you
+know."
+
+Doyle sank back on his bunk.
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!" he breathed.
+
+"Bert!"
+
+Doyle grinned sheepishly. "Force of habit." Then, more soberly, "So
+they're off to Mars, eh? Father, you better get down there and pick up
+your reservations!"
+
+"Don't be ridiculous!" The priest's voice softened and he patted the
+killer's shoulder. "I will go down and see what's what, Bert. And I'll
+be back just as soon as the men have quieted down. That is, if they
+_are_ creating a disturbance."
+
+The footsteps of the approaching guard sounded loud in the corridor.
+Doyle frowned a little.
+
+"When you come back, Father, you'll tell me the truth? No kidding, now!"
+
+The guard stood in front of the door of heavy steel bars. Father Nelson
+looked down at the man on the bunk.
+
+"I'll tell you everything, Bert. I swear it."
+
+"Uh, Father?" the guard's voice was nervous--and embarrassed.
+
+"Yes, Perkins?"
+
+"I ... I can't let you out right now. Orders from the warden. Not a
+cell door opens till I hear from him direct."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Doyle chuckled.
+
+"Might as well sit down, Father," he said, "and make yourself
+comfortable--"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What will you do?" cried Lansing.
+
+"Go out and talk to them, of course," replied Halloran. He arose from
+his desk, a calm, unhurried man.
+
+"Look," growled Knox, "you get me through to the town. Some of our
+people are still there. I'll order out as many soldiers as you want.
+I'll see to it that they get here--on the double!"
+
+Halloran flushed. "Would it ease your conscience, general," he grated,
+"if you killed off my men instead of leaving them--behind! Now, you will
+please keep quiet. You'll be perfectly safe!"
+
+"What will we do with them, sir?" Court gestured at Lansing and Knox.
+
+Halloran strode from behind his desk to the opposite end of the room. As
+he twirled the dials of a wall safe he said, "They'll have to remain
+here, for now. The men have got between this building and the gate
+office." The safe swung open and he reached far inside and took out a
+submachine gun. "Here," he held the weapon out to Court. "If I don't
+come back, use this to get them to the gate office."
+
+"Didn't know you had an arsenal in here!" cried Slade.
+
+"No one else did, either, except Alfred. Now Doc, think you and Pete had
+better stay here."
+
+Slade and Goldsmid pulled themselves out of their chairs as one man.
+Their timing was perfect.
+
+"No, you don't, hero!" growled Slade.
+
+"Warden," Goldsmid said, "perhaps _I_ could talk to the men--"
+
+The warden smiled and walked toward the door. There he stopped and said
+to Court, "Switch on the speaker system, Alfred. I'll take the portable
+mike from the next office. While I'm out there, get word to all
+custodial and operating personnel that they will be permitted to leave
+tonight. Meantime, I hope they will stay on their jobs. Better phone Mr.
+Tate, have someone try to locate Mr. Briggs, be sure and call Dr.
+Slade's staff."
+
+"Right, sir."
+
+The three men left the office. Court, the gun cradled under one arm,
+picked up the phone and spoke into it. His voice was a low, crisp
+monotone. After a while, he replaced the receiver and stood quiet,
+staring impassively at the others.
+
+"You might say the warden's career has been twenty years of futility,"
+he muttered. Lansing and Knox felt he wasn't actually speaking to them.
+"Now me, I'm a screw of the old school. Hardboiled, they say. _I_ never
+expected a thing from a con ... and cons have lied to him, politicians
+have broken their promises ... but the liars have loved him and the
+dumbest dope in the legislature has respected him."
+
+"Will he ... be all right?" Lansing asked.
+
+Court shrugged. "Who knows? You handled this very badly," he said
+dispassionately. "Five minutes after you stepped through the main gate
+every inmate in the place knew you were here and started wondering. Why
+didn't you write--make arrangements to see the warden outside?"
+
+"I'm sorry," Lansing said. "We know very little about prisons."
+
+Court laughed shortly. "You'd better learn," he said grimly.
+
+"Anyway we can see what's going on?" rumbled Knox. "And how about that
+speaker business?"
+
+"There's a window in the next office. Come along."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They crouched at the window, the fat Knox whizzing a little, because
+Court had ordered them to keep out of sight of the rioters. They saw
+Halloran, Slade and Goldsmid at his heels, walking out into the small
+courtyard that lay between them and safety. Over the wall speaker came a
+sullen roar, something very like the ragged blast of a rocket whose
+timing is off. A few gray-clad men in the courtyard saw the approaching
+warden, surged toward him, screaming at their fellows in the big yard
+behind them.
+
+Halloran ignored the clutching hands. He held the mike up and they heard
+him say, "There's no point in my talking with you unless you will be
+quiet and listen." He paused. The roar slowly subsided into an angry
+mutter. "Thanks. That's better."
+
+Now, they could see Slade's head but both Halloran and the rabbi were
+hidden by the swirl of gray figures that swept around the three prison
+officials.
+
+"Now," the warden went on, "it seems that you have something to say to
+me. Good enough. But why didn't you send word through your council,
+instead of roughing up guards, damaging property, yelling your heads off
+and generally behaving like a bunch of spoiled brats. Go on, tell me!
+Why?"
+
+Someone's scream came clearly over the mike. "The world's coming to an
+end! They're leaving us here to die!"
+
+"Yeah!" the mike picked up another voice. "How about that?"
+
+Before the wordless, mindless roar could rise again, the warden barked,
+"Oh, hush up!" And they were quiet.
+
+"My God," breathed Lansing.
+
+"Now," Halloran's voice was easy, assured, "I want to make sure that all
+of you hear me. So, I'm coming out in the center of the yard. Rabbi Pete
+Goldsmid and Doc Slade insist on coming with me although," he chuckled,
+"I understand Squeaker Hanley's screaming for the doc to cut out his
+gall bladder." A few of the men laughed. "All right, here I come. And
+you fellows behind me, keep off the wire. I don't want this mike to go
+dead and have to yell my lungs out."
+
+They saw the eddy of men around him move slowly through the broken gate
+and out of their sight.
+
+"What will he tell them," muttered Knox.
+
+"Whatever--they'll believe it," Court said. The courtyard before them
+was now empty. He stared thoughtfully out the barred window, then said,
+"Think you could get to the gate office pretty soon, now--"
+
+"No!" snarled Knox. "I want to see what happens to that gutty
+so-and-so!"
+
+Lansing grinned nervously. "Somehow, captain, I feel it won't be
+necessary for us to sneak out of here."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They listened again while assorted thieves, murderers, rapists,
+men--save for an innocent few--whose hands were consistently raised
+against their fellows' peace and property, heard their jailor tell them
+that the end of their world, a world that many of them remembered but
+dimly, was coming to an end. The screaming broke out again when Halloran
+spoke of the Mars-bound ships, and, for a moment, the three in the
+office thought he had lost control. But the amplifiers prevailed and
+Halloran laughed and said, "Anyway, we're not going to Mars--"
+
+"_You_ can go!"
+
+The man who yelled that was apparently very close to the warden within
+his view, for they heard him say: "Chrisman, you're a fool--as usual!
+Would I bother to come out here and talk to you if I could go?"
+
+That got them. That, they understood. If a guy didn't scram from a hot
+spot when he could ... well, then, he couldn't scram in the first place.
+So, the warden was stuck, just like they were.
+
+Later, perhaps, a few of them might figure out why.
+
+"Now, let's have no more interruptions," Halloran said. "_I_ don't think
+there's any need to go. Neither does the doc, here, or the rabbi. We're
+all staying--because the desert to the south of us has stopped the
+spread of this dust and it seems it can't cross the rivers, either. So,
+we're safe enough."
+
+"But that's not true," groaned Lansing.
+
+Court glanced at him. "Would you tell them different?" he said coldly.
+
+"No--"
+
+Halloran said, "Well, that's that. Life is a little difficult outside
+and so the people out there want to try to get to Mars. Believe me,
+that's a trip I want someone else to make first. But if they think life
+will be easier on those deserts--why, let them go. But God help
+them--they'll need it."
+
+He paused. Knox tried to catch Lansing's eye, but the scientist's face
+was blank, unseeing.
+
+"What do _we_ do?" This voice was not hysterical, just seriously
+questioning.
+
+"_You_ should do darned well. Life should be easy enough for _you_.
+You've got your own farms, your livestock, laundry, hospital,
+shops--everything a man can need. So, take over and run things to suit
+yourselves."
+
+A unanimous gasp whistled over the speaker. Then, they all cried just
+one word.
+
+"Us?"
+
+"Why not? Don't you think you can?"
+
+Silence, broken by strange, wistful mutterings.
+
+"I'd suggest this," Halloran said. "Let's follow our normal routine
+tonight--no lock-ups, of course--and tomorrow, you fellows take over.
+I'll help you in any way I can. But it will be _your_ job. Perhaps after
+breakfast tomorrow, you ought to have a mass meeting. Under the
+supervision of your council, I'd say. You can't keep going without some
+kind of order, you know."
+
+Again silence.
+
+"My God," whispered Lansing, "he makes it all sound so _real_."
+
+"Any questions?" Halloran asked.
+
+"Hey, warden! How about the dames?"
+
+"The ladies will join you tomorrow morning." He chuckled. "I imagine
+they'll be able to handle you all right!"
+
+A joyous roar.
+
+"However," Halloran raised his voice, "I'd like to remind you fellows
+that a successful community needs ... _families_!"
+
+There was a long quiet, then, broken finally by an inmate who asked,
+"Warden, how about the guys up on the Row?"
+
+"Well," Halloran's voice lost all humor, "you can start ripping out the
+gas chamber whenever you're ready to. I'll see that you get the tools."
+
+The swell of applause was so loud in the office that Court hastily
+turned down the speaker's volume.
+
+"All right," Halloran said when they had quieted down, "that's about it.
+You're free now, till supper-time. I'd suggest all of you start right
+now, thinking about your future--"
+
+     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Outside the main gate, first Knox, then Lansing shook hands with the
+gray-faced warden.
+
+"Trucks'll be in town at seven for your people," Knox muttered. He gave
+a windy sigh. "It's all fouled up. As usual. Damn it, we need people
+like you, sir!"
+
+Lansing looked at Halloran for a long time, trying to see behind the
+mask of exhaustion. "I'm a mannerless fool," he said at last. "But Mr.
+Halloran, would you tell me what you're thinking? I mean, really
+thinking? Even if it's rough on us!"
+
+Halloran laughed softly. "I wasn't thinking about you at all, Dr.
+Lansing. I was--and am--regretting that what I told the men couldn't be
+the truth. It's too bad they'll have so short a time. It would be very
+interesting to see what they would do with--_life_."
+
+Knox scowled. "Seems like they haven't done much with it so far."
+
+"Come along, general," Lansing said quietly. "You don't understand. None
+of us do. We never did."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Criminal Negligence, by Jesse Francis McComas
+
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