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we'd have been down to twenty or thereabouts - without the Comet, I mean. The big point
was that our communication to Comet Halley was a British first, and we haven't had too
many firsts to brag about in recent years.'
'So we owe the Comet something?'
'In a manner of speaking,' nodded the Chancellor.
'Well then, I'm inclined to go along with this proposal of Professor Newton's.'
'The telescope proposal, I suppose you mean?'
'Of course. What else should I mean?'
'It's a bit odd, isn't it? Newton seemed to have the idea the Treasury report on his proposal
would come out the way it did - the more telescopes the better. The strange thing is, it
doesn't help the economy to do things on a small scale. The gain only comes if the project is
big enough, otherwise it's marginal. Like the usual grants for scientific research.'
'There's no possibility that Professor Newton and your economists were in step, deliberately
shall we say?'
'None, I would be sure.'
'Then we should do it. For one thing, a defined project is much better than an open stimulus.
You never know what will happen when people are motivated, but to no particular end.'
'Until you see the project raising its ugly head in the inflation rate,' agreed the Chancellor
with another swipe of his stick.
'What d'you think of the latest reports from Cambridge?'
'The bomb was a very nasty business. I know Newton feels badly
about it. We shall be hearing from him at the meeting.'
'We should have put a proper guard there before. It was as much our fault as his - if it was
anybody's fault.'
'What does Intelligence say?'
'Opaque. Desperately opaque, Godfrey. I can't form a real opinion, except that somebody
seems to be sheltering somebody else.'
'At home or abroad?'
'Abroad, I would say. Our own agencies, even down to the local police, are only inclined to
be nosey .1 think.'
'A bit like water-divining?'
'Just a bit. You know, Godfrey, the more I go along, the more I appreciate the wisdom of the
legal oath.'
'What wisdom in particular?'
'About telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I doubt that what I'm told is
ever really untrue, but I also doubt that I'll live to see the day when I'm told the whole truth -
about anything.'
'Nobody knows the whole truth. There's the rub, I'm afraid.'
'Except after the event. After the event everybody seems to know the whole truth, especially
the papers.'
'Well, we didn't do too badly.'
'In the election? No, we didn't. Actually I feel quite bouncy about it.'
They reached a lane which descended to the north where the Chancellor's farm lay. At the
sides of the lane were thick bramble bushes which channelled the way down. About half-way
towards a surfaced road which led to the village of Bepton, they passed a lone figure
ascending the lane. It was not until they had gone another hundred yards that the Chancellor
stopped short and exclaimed:
'Good God! Did you notice the fellow we just passed? He was wearing an astrakhan hat.
That's Tom Taylor of the Observer.'
'It hardly seems the right time of the year for such a hat, I must admit,' the Prime Minister
acknowledged, with a wrinkle of the nose.
'The strange thing is I met him at just this spot when I was out walking here with Newton
several months ago.'
'Perhaps he camps around here,' the Prime Minister suggested.
'That's quite possible,' agreed the Chancellor. 'He must believe he's on to something.
Newton told me a story about a sunken trawler.'
'Well, there are no sunken trawlers around here,' the Prime Minister said decisively.
'Perhaps in the eyes of the Observer there are,' murmured the Chancellor, giving another
swipe with his stick.
The Board met in the large kitchen of the Chancellor's farmhouse, a kitchen with polished
brasses gleaming on the walls. The Board members were seated around a long rectangular
table, the Prime Minister at one end and the Master of Trinity at the other. Isaac Newton was
on the Prime Minister's immediate right, and on his own right was Kurt Waldheim, who had
travelled from Geneva for the meeting. To the Prime Minister's left was Sir Harry Julian, the
Treasury mandarin appointed to the Board by the Chancellor, who sat himself down on
Julian's left.
Frances Haroldsen had a separate small table, to the left and slightly behind the Master of
Trinity, on which she kept the records of previous meetings and made notes on the present
meeting, her writing arm luckily being uninjured.
"I have an apology for absence from Sir Anthony Marshall,' the Prime Minister began. 'In
strict confidence I might add that Sir Anthony is leaving CERC - for a Vice-Chancellorship,
of course. Not Cambridge, where the Board is already fully represented. Why the Chairmen
of our research councils should be perpetually gravitating to vice-chancellorships might
merit comment from the Master of Trinity.'
'The path is evidently seen to be paved with gold, Prime Minister. Although if it is, I haven't
noticed it,' the Master immediately replied, producing smiles all round the table.
'Matters arising,' the Prime Minister continued. 'Professor Newton, 1 believe you have quite
a few things, some very serious, to report.'
'Yes, thank you Prime Minister. I would like to mention at this early stage the serious
explosion which occurred at about four-fifteen p.m. on the twenty-fifth of last month,' Isaac
Newton began. 'A forensic report on the explosion is on the table, so I will only say about the
explosion itself that it is believed to have been caused by a bomb of considerable power. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]