The Edge of the Knife by Henry Beam Piper
page 32 of 66 (48%)
page 32 of 66 (48%)
|
The reporters, unable to storm the Faculty Club, had gone off in chase
of other game and had cornered Lloyd Whitburn in front of Administration Center. They had a jeep with a sound-camera mounted on it, and were trying to get something for telecast. After gesticulating angrily, Whitburn broke away from them and dashed up the steps and into the building. A campus policeman stopped those who tried to follow. His only afternoon class was American History III. He got through it somehow, though the class wasn't able to concentrate on the Reconstruction and the first election of Grover Cleveland. The halls were free of reporters, at least, and when it was over he hurried to the Library, going to the faculty reading-room in the rear, where he could smoke. There was nobody there but old Max Pottgeiter, smoking a cigar, his head bent over a book. The Medieval History professor looked up. "Oh, hello, Chalmers. What the deuce is going on around here? Has everybody gone suddenly crazy?" he asked. "Well, they seem to think I have," he said bitterly. "They do? Stupid of them. What's all this about some Arab being shot? I didn't know there were any Arabs around here." "Not here. At Basra." He told Pottgeiter what had happened. "Well! I'm sorry to hear about that," the old man said. "I have a friend at Southern California, Bellingham, who knew Khalid very well. Was in the Middle East doing some research on the Byzantine Empire; |
|