[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Magazine April 1960.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Brilliant? A genius? David Adam Smith had
the brains of fifty men--very literally!
Three students were expelled for bringing the bubble dancer into the
Desert Institute, Lee White, Burns Gilbert and John Thay. The Director
did not like any of them. He liked me, Morris. I was his stooge, his
squirming straight man. I was useful for his jokes.
"We know calculus is a method of measuring uncircular curves, such as
beer barrels ... but I fear Morris has allowed that thought to absorb
him, hig, hig, hig, hig."
That was one of Professor David Adam Smith's favorites. Or:
"If you will visit me this afternoon, Morris, I will give you personal
tuition in astrophysics ... beginning with the more complicated parts
of the alphabet, hig, hig, hig."
But he owned the Desert Institute. He was the only living authority on
geology, terrestrial or extraplanetary, and there was a waiting list of
students....
On their last afternoon, I was sent with the disgraced three on a
specimen-collecting tour of the desert. It was my routine job but a
real disgrace to them. I often thought the only reason David Adam Smith
allowed me to stay on as a student, apart from offering him a target
for sneering at, was because of my muscles. I could handle the long
specimen trailer and heave boulders about more easily than the others.
"Do not sneer at Morris, gentlemen. Science tells us brain size is
related to surface area. You should expect in Morris a potentially
great brain therefore ... if Morris were not devoted to obstructing
science, hig, hig, hig."
The other three, Lee, Burns and John, were about six feet tall, slim,
dark haired and handsome. But we were collecting specimens, not running
for Miss Earth 2430. My extra seven inches in height extends more or
less proportionately in my reach and thickness of shoulder. Anyway,
they were depressed at being expelled, so I let them sit in the shade
of the trailer while I set up the specimen plates and power unit,
minima stand here, maxima stand there, controls on the sand beside them.
"I don't expect you've done this elementary stuff for a couple of
years," I said. "So ... don't walk on the plates and don't touch the
dial or the red and blue buttons."
"Hell, Morry, we know."
"Okay, okay. Only it's more tricky than it looks."
* * * * *
The whole desert belonged to David Adam Smith, which showed his
political pull. Who else on Earth was allowed a whole _room_ to
themselves, even--except maybe the Planetary Salvager, and the heads
of the Material Recovery subdivisions and top Government people like
that. But David Adam Smith had to have a complete desert. He ruled from
the Holiday Probable centers of Reno to the gambling computers of Las
Vegas, where the bubble dancer had come from.