Hughes shook his head. "I don't expect you to explain, Doctor; I just want to know your answer. How long?"
"I was just explaining that the answer had to be indefinite. I make it not less than two and not more than four years."
The bartender whistled softly. "Two years. Two years to get away and start a new life."
"No, no, no! Mr. Hughes," Mansfield objected, "Not two years from now - two years from the time the first bomb was dropped."
Hughes' face showed a struggle to comprehend. "But, gentlemen," he protested, "it's been more than two years since the first bomb was dropped."
"That's right."
"Don't blow your top, Paddy," Warner cautioned him. "The bomb isn't everything. It might be ten years before anybody develops the sort of robot carrier that can go over the north pole or the ocean and seek out a particular city with an atom bomb. In the meantime we don't have too much to fear from an ordinary airplane attack."
Mansfield looked annoyed. "You started this, Dick. Why try to hand out soothing syrup now? With a country as wide open as this one you don't need anything as fancy as guided missiles to pull a Pearl Harbor on it. The bombs would be assembled secretly and set off by remote control. Why, there might be a tramp steamer lying out there in the East River right now - Warner let his shoulders slump. "You're right, of course.
Hughes threw down his bar towel. "You're telling me that New York is as likely to be blown up right now as at any other time."
Mansfield nodded. "That's the size of it," he said soberly.
Hughes looked from one to the other. The cat jumped down and commenced rubbing up against his ankle, purring. He pushed it away with his foot. "It's not true! I know it's not true!"
"Why not?"
"Because! If it was true would you be sitting here, drinking quietly? You've been having a bit of fun with me, pulling my leg. Oh, I can't pick the flaw in your argument, but you don't believe it yourselves."
"I wish I didn't believe it," said Mansfield. "Oh, we believe it, Paddy," Warner told him. "To tell you the truth, I'm planning to get out. I've got letters out to half a dozen cow colleges; I'm just waiting until my contract expires. As for Doc Mansfield, he can't leave. This is where his lab is located."
Hughes considered this, then shook his head. "No, it won't wash. No man in his right mind will hang on to a job when it means sitting on the hot squat, waiting for the Warden to throw the switch. You're pulling my leg."
Mansfield acted as if Hughes had not spoken. "Anyhow," he said to Warner, "the political factors might delay the blow off indefinitely."
Warner shook his head angrily. "Now who's handing out soothing syrup? The political factors speed up the event, not delay it. If a country intends to defeat us someday, it's imperative that she do it as quickly as possible, before we catch wind of her plans and strike first. Or before we work out a real counter weapon - if that's possible."
Mansfield looked tired, as if he had been tired for a long time. "Oh, you're right. I was just whistling to keep my courage up. But we won't develop a counter weapon, not a real one. The only possible defense against atomic explosion is not to be there when it goes off." He turned to the barman. "Let's have another round, Paddy."
"Make mine a Manhattan," added Warner.
"Just a minute. Professor Warner. Doctor Mansfield. You were not fooling with me? Every word you had to say is God's own truth?"
"As you're standing there, Paddy."
"And Doctor Mansfield - Professor Warner, do you trust Doctor Mansfield's figuring?"
"There's no man in the United States better qualified to make such an estimate. That's the truth, Paddy."
"Well, then - " Hughes turned toward where his employer sat nodding over the cash register on the restaurant side of the room and whistled loudly between his teeth. "Schreiber! Come take the bar." He started stripping off his apron.
"Hey!" said Warner, "where you going? I ordered a Manhattan."
"Mix it yourself," said Hughes. "I've quit." He reached for his hat with one hand, his coat with the other, and then he was out the door.
Forty seconds later he was on an uptown express; he got off at 34th Street and three minutes thereafter he was buying a ticket, west. It was ten minutes later that he felt the train start to roll under him, headed out of the city.
But it was less than an hour later when his misgivings set in. Had he been too hasty? Professor Warner was a fine man, to be sure, but given to his little jokes, now and again. Had he been taken in by a carefully contrived hoax? Had Warner said to his friend, we'll have some fun and scare the living daylights out of the old Irishman?
Nor had he made any arrangements for someone to feed Sad Sack. The cat had a weak stomach, he was certain, and no one else gave the matter any attention at all. And Molly's grave - Wednesday was his day to do his gardening there. Of course Father Nelson would see that it was watered, just for kindness' sake, but still - When the train paused at Princeton Junction he slipped off and sought out a telephone. He had in mind what he meant to say if he was able to reach Professor Warner - a good chance, he thought, for considering the hour the gentlemen probably stayed on for a steak. Professor Warner, he would say, you've had your fun and a fine joke it was as I would be the first to say and to buy a drink on it, but tell me - man to man - was there anything to what you and your friend was telling me? That would settle it, he thought.
The call went through promptly and he heard Schreiber's irritated voice. "Hello," he said.
The line went dead. He jiggled the hook. The operator answered, "One moment, please - " then, "This is the Princeton operator. Is this the party with the call to New York?"
"Yes. I - "
"There has been a temporary interruption in service. Will you hang up and try again in a few minutes, please?"
"But I was just talking - "
"Will you hang up and try again in a few minutes, puhlease?"
He heard the shouting as he left the booth. As he got outdoors he could see the great, gloriously beautiful, gold and purple mushroom still mounting over where had been the City of New York.
FOREWORD
This story was written twenty - one years before Dr. Neil Armstrong took "one short step for a man, a giant leap for mankind" - hut in all important essentials it has not (yet) become dated. True, we do not know that formations such as "morning glories" exist on Luna and we do not know that there are areas where footgear midway between skis and snowshoes would be useful. But the Lunar surface is about equal in area to Africa; a dozen men have explored an area smaller than Capetown for a total of a few days. We will still be exploring Luna and finding new wonders there when the first interstellar explorers return from Proxima Centauri or Tau Ceti.
This story is compatible with the so - called "Future History" stories. It is also part of my continuing postwar - II attempt to leave the SF - pulp field and spread out. I never left the genre pulps entirely, as it turned out to be easy to write a book - length job, then break it into three or four cliff - hangers and sell it as a pulp serial immediately before book publication. I did this with a dozen novels in the '40s and '5Os. But I recall only one story (GULF) specifically written for pulp, GULF being for Astounding's unique "prophesied" issue.