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was still on, as I had left it, and already it was blatting a news |
item about how Prof. Hallowell had inexplicably returned. There'd be |
other flashes later, I knew. And a lot of explaining to be done to an |
unbelieving public.... |
Then I said, "Damn!" |
"Yeah?" said Hank. "Why for, Jim?" |
"Something I meant to ask Biggs and forgot. But you can tell me, I |
guess. One thing I never did understand, was why Biggs got so excited |
when he found out you and Helen were not married. What difference did |
that make? Why did that cause him to show such great confidence that |
we were going to pull out of our jam?" |
Hank flushed. "Well, you see " he hesitated. |
"I don't. But I'm listening." |
"Well, it was this way. Soon as Lanse learned me an' Helen wasn't |
hitched, he couldn't help knowin' everything was gonna be all right. On |
account of it warn't logical her an' me should git kilt before we was |
married an' an' had a youngster...." |
His face was flaming. But I was inexorable. |
"I still don't get it. Why not? Why wasn't it logical?" |
"Aw, durn, Jim don't you see? Because Biggs knew that much o' my |
'history.' That is, my future, to me, is my past to him. He knew who |
I'd married, and that me an' my wife had a youngster, an' consequently |
if them things hadn't happened yet, we was bound to live an' make 'em |
happen!" |
So it finally sank in. |
I said, "Golly! You're right as usual! But wasn't it a lucky break |
that Lancelot Biggs happened to know something about your history, |
Hank? Your name must be pretty well known to the men of the future " |
Hank writhed in embarrassment. |
"Well, now, I wouldn't 'zackly say that, Jim. Lanse knew about me, yes. |
But then, he'd be likely to. Him an' me bein' related, so to speak " |
"Related!" |
"Yeah. Spoke to him 'bout it later. Y'see, Lanse is a sort of grandson |
o' mine, with a lot o' great-greats on the front of it " He gulped and |
looked at Helen miserably. "I I'm afeared they ain't nothin' we can do |
'bout it, Helen. Lanse says you was his great-great-grandmammy!" |
And then Helen MacDowell smiled! And it was the kind of smile I hope |
to see some time on the lips of a woman looking at me. And she said, |
very softly, |
"There's no sense in fighting fate, is there, Hank? What must be, must |
be. And there is something we can do to make the future happier...." |
Aw, hell! I promised Helen she could have him alone in a dark room, |
didn't I? So I said good-by. |
I don't think either of them heard me. In fact, I'm sure of it! |
Like the rain-drenched angler said as he reeled in a fish, "Life is |
just one damp thing after another!" I thought I'd fixed everything all |
hunky-dory around the campus of dear old Midland U. when I finally got |
my friend "Horsesense Hank" Cleaver engaged to Helen MacDowell. Which |
just goes to prove that you shouldn't count your chickens until they're |
hitched. Because That Man stepped in and messed up everything. |
You know the guy I mean. The chief germ in Germany. The little |
ex-housepainter with a scrap of old paintbrush on his upper lip. First |
he "protected" himself against the poor Austrians. Then the Czechs and |
the Poles. Then came Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg it |
sounds like a geography lesson, doesn't it? then France, the Balkans, |
Greece and Crete. And finally, as his armies, having come a cropper |
against the outraged Russian bear, stalled on the icy steppes of |
Moscow's doorway, he invoked the aid of his yellow-skinned and -spined |
allies, the Japs. |
While their envoys calmed Washington with soft words of peace, their |
air-arm bombed Pearl Harbor with grim weapons of war. It was then that |
Horsesense Hank came to me and said soberly, "Well, so long, Jim. I'll |
see you later." |
I asked, "Where are you going? Down to Mike's for a hamburger? Wait a |
minute; I'll go with." |
"I'm goin' further'n that, Jim," said Hank, "an' the chances are I'll |
be gone a mite longer. I " He wriggled a bulldog-tipped shoe into the |
carpet embarrassedly "I reckon I'm agonna sign up for the duration." |
I gasped. "You mean the army?" |
"Well, not eggsackly. I don't figger they'd want me in the fightin' |
forces, me bein' skinny like I am. But folks say I'm right quick with |
math'matics an' things like that, so if I c'n be of any help to my |
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