Lieutenant.â
âSnag!â
âI canât tell you any more right nowââ
âWhat do you mean, snag?â
âIâll call you in a day or two when I know something. Do I have your number? Yes, Paula says we have.â
But the âpeople down thereâ had got the grant on the basis of the Ph.D. and they phoned himâthe Chiefâs assistant didâand most courteously asked about it. They needed some credentials to show the Foundation office; would really like to provide them with a copy of the certificate, âjust as a matter of form. Let us have it as soon as you can, Doctor, itâs getting a little awkward for us.â
The rest of it seemed to happen all at once, though of course it took hours, took all of a beautiful October Thursdayâthe early call from X, âSome not-good news, old fellow. Looks like a guy at Berkeley beat you to it,â waiting a minute, getting only a dead silence and going on, âsame problem, same theory, practically the same demonstration. Happens all the time, of course. Two people, miles apart, never heard of each other, pop up one day with the same idea. Happens all the time. Darwin and Whatâs-his-name, you rememberââ
âYou meanââ
âTrouble is the Journal âs publishing this guyâs paper in the nextââ
âYou mean I donât get my Doctorâs?â
âNot at all, Oscar. You just donâtâ get it on the basis of this dissertationââ
âI just start all over again!â
âItâs a lot simpler the second go-round, Oscarââ
âWait a minute! Who is this guy? You know this guy?â
âNot really. No.â
âIsnât Berkeley your school?â
âNow wait a minute yourself, Oscarââ
âYou didnât steer him on to my idea?â
âNow hold on, Lieutenant!â
âNobody else knew, I havenât told a living soulââ
âThese things happen, I tell you. Happen all the timeââ
âYou gave him my ideaââ
âYouâre insane!â And the line went dead.
X was crossing the yard to his car when Tuckwell tramped through a bed of late flowers at a corner of the house, bareheaded, unshaved, rumpled collar, service pistol heavy in his hand. X drew back rigid against the side of the car, so surprised he couldnât find a directive of any sort, his mind like a jostled tray of tools; should he speak, say something, just to break the silence? caution the boy, warn him? Beg him? No words ready that seemed to fit, and no physical movement, no way open to escape with the car door against his back, a thought taking shape in his head that any move to duck and run, or even any spoken words would be enough to break some delicate balance in the air between them, trip some spring, all the choices seeming to cancel one another and leave him standing there, chest square to the front, staring at the pale young man ten feet away, and continuing to stare without moving, unable to move, as the young man put the pistol muzzle in his mouth like a fat cigar and pushed the trigger with his thumb.
âYou mean this Professor X got jealous andââ
I told him there was no reason he should go to Georgia for the funeralâhe was badly shakenâbut he wouldnât listen, and I went with him, just the two of us. We kept out of the way, stood off among the trees, the oleanders, some white camellias, didnât speak to anybody, sign any book. Saw Meg from a distance, blank, dazed as if a bright light had flashed into her eyes; didnât speak to her (she wouldnât have known it if we had), flew back that afternoon.
âYou mean this Professorââ
âIâve told you all I knowâexcept she married again, an Englishman trading in sugar with a plantation in Barbados. One reason I agreed to make the talks at the College. Sheâll be