‘Oh, nonsense. No foolish dramatics, please. Just listen to me, and try to understand. There were Greek philosophers once, named Leucippus and Democritus, who evolved an atomic theory. All matter, they said, was composed of atoms. Varieties of atoms were distinct and changeless and by their different combinations with each other formed the various substances found in nature. That theory was not the result of experiment or observation. It came into being, somehow, full-grown.
‘The didactic Roman poet Lucretius, in his ‘De Rerum Natura,’ – ‘On the Nature of Things’ – elaborated on that theory and throughout manages to sound startlingly modern.
‘In Hellenistic times, Hero built a steam engine and weapons of war became almost mechanized. The period has been referred to as an abortive mechanical age, which came to nothing because, somehow, it neither grew out of nor fitted into its social and economic milieu. Alexandrian science was a queer and rather inexplicable phenomenon.
‘Then one might mention the old Roman legend about the books of the Sibyl that contained mysterious information direct from the gods—
‘In other words, gentlemen, while you are right that any change in the course of past events, however trifling, would have incalculable consequences, and while I also believe that you are right in supposing that any random change is much more likely to be for the worse than for the better, I must point out that you are nevertheless wrong in your final conclusions.
‘Because THIS is the world in which the Greek chemistry text WAS sent back.
‘This has been a Red Queen’s race, if you remember your ‘Through the Looking Glass.’ In the Red Queen’s country, one had to run. as fast as one could merely to stay in the same place. And so it was in this case! ‘fywood may have thought he was creating a new world, but it was I who prepared the translations, and I took care that only such passages as would account for the queer scraps of knowledge the ancients apparently got from nowhere would be included.
‘And my only intention, for all my racing, was to stay in the same place.’
Three weeks passed; three months; three years. Nothing happened. When nothing happens, you have no proof. We gave up trying to explain, and we ended, the Boss and I, by doubting it ourselves.
The case never ended. Boulder could not be considered a criminal without being considered a world savior as well, and vice versa. He was ignored. And in the end, the case was neither solved, nor closed out; merely put in a file all by itself, under the designation ‘?’ and buried in the deepest vault in Washington.
The Boss is in Washington now; a big wheel. And I’m Regional Head of the Bureau.
Boulder is still assistant professor, though. Promotions are slow at the University.
Day of the Hunters
It began the same night it ended. It wasn’t much. It just bothered me· it still bothers me.
Yo see, Joe Bloch, Ray Manning, and I were squatting around our favorite table m the corner bar with an evening on our hands and a mess of chatter to throw it away with. That’s the beginning.
Joe Bloch started it by talking about the atomic bomb, and what he thought ought to be done with it, and how who would have thought it five !ears ago. And I said lots of guys thought it five years ago and wrote stones about 1t and it was going to be tough on them trying to keep ahead of the newspapers now. Which led to a general palaver on how lots of screwy things might come true and a lot of for-instances were thrown about.
Ray said he heard from somebody that some big-shot scientist had sent a block of lead back in time for about two seconds or two minutes or two thousandths of a second – he didn’t know which. He said the scientist wasn t saying anything to anybody because he didn’t think any- one would believe him.
So I asked, pretty sarcastic, how he came to know about it. – Ray may have lots of friends but I have the same lot and none of them know any big-shot scientists. But he said never mind how he heard, take it or leave it.
And then there wasn’t anything to do but talk about time machines, and how supposing you went back and killed your own grandfather or why didn’t somebody from the future come back and tell us who was going to win the next war, or if there was going to be a next war, or if there’d be anywhere on Earth you could live after it, regardless of who wins.
Ray thought just knowing the winner in the seventh race while the sixth was being run would be something.
But Joe decided different. He said, ‘The trouble with you guys is you got wars and races on the mind. Me, I got .curiosity. Know what I’d do if I had a time machine?’
So right away we wanted to know, all ready to give him the old snicker whatever it was.
He said, ‘If I had one, I’d go back in time about a couple or five or fifty million years and find out what happened to the dinosaurs.’
Which was too bad for Joe, because Ray and I both thought there was just about no sense to that at all. Ray said who cared about a lot of dinosaurs and I said the only thing they were good for was to make a mess of skeletons for guys who were dopy enough to wear out the floors in museums; and it was a good thing they did get out of the way to make room for human beings. Of course Joe said that with some human beings he knew, and he gives us a hard look, we should’ve stuck to dinosaurs, but we pay no attention to that.
‘You dumb squirts can laugh and make like you know something, but that’s because you don’t ever have any imagination,’ he says. ‘Those dinosaurs were big stuff. Millions of all kinds – big as houses, and dumb as houses, too – all over the place. And then, all of a sudden, like that,’ and he snaps his fingers, ‘there aren’t any anymore.’
How come, we wanted to know.
But he was just finishing a beer and waving at Charlie for another with a coin to prove he wanted to pay for it and he just shrugged his shoulders. ‘I don’t know. That’s what I’d find out, though.’
That’s all. That would have finished it. I would’ve said something and Ray would’ve made a crack, and we all would’ve had another beer and maybe swapped some talk about the weather and the Brooklyn Dodgers and then said so long, and never think of dinosaurs again.
Only we didn’t, and now I never have anything on my mind but dinosaurs, and I feel sick.
Because the rummy at the next table looks up and hoIIers, ‘Hey!’
We hadn’t seen him. As a general rule, we don’t go around looking at rummies we don’t know in bars. I got plenty to do keeping track of the rummies I do know. This fellow had a bottle before him that was half empty, and a glass in his hand that was half full.
He said, ‘Hey,’ and we all looked at him, and Ray said, ‘Ask him what he wants, Joe.’
Joe was nearest. He tipped his chair backward and said, ‘What do you want?’
The rummy said, ‘Did I hear you gentlemen mention dinosaurs?’
He was just a little weavy, and his eyes looked like they were bleeding, and you could only tell his shirt was once white by guessing, but it must’ve been the way he talked. It didn’t sound rummy, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, Joe sort of eased up and said, ‘Sure. Something you want to know?’
He sort of smiled at us. It was a funny smile; it started at the mouth and ended just before it touched the eyes. He said, ‘Did you want to build a time machine and go back to find out what happened to the dinosaurs?’
I could see Joe was figuring that some kind of confidence game was coming up. I was figuring the same thing. Joe said, ‘Why? You aiming to offer to build one for me?’
The rummy showed a mess of teeth and said, ‘No, sir. I could but I won’t. You know why? Because I built a time machine for myself a couple of years ago and went back to the Mesozoic Era and found out what happened to the dinosaurs.’
Later on, I looked up how to spell ‘Mesozoic,’ which is why I got it right, in case you’re wondering, and I found out that the Mesozoic Era is when all the dinosaurs were doing whatever dinosaurs do. But of course at the time this is just so much double-talk to me, and mostly I was thinking we had a lunatic talking to us. Joe claimed afterward that he knew about this Mesozoic thing, but he’ll have to talk lots longer and louder before Ray and I believe him.
