"H. Beam Piper - The Edge of the Knife" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

"No, I have everything ready." He pocketed the pipe he had filled on entering, and went out.
The president of Blanley College sat hunched forward at his desk; he had rounded shoulders and round,
pudgy fists and a round, bald head. He seemed to be expecting his visitor to stand at attention in front of
him. Chalmers got the pipe out of his pocket, sat down in the desk-side chair, and snapped his lighter.

"Good morning, Doctor Whitburn," he said very pleasantly.

Whitburn's scowl deepened. "I hope I don't have to tell you why I wanted to see you," he began.

"I have an idea." Chalmers puffed until the pipe was drawing satisfactorily. "It might help you get started if
you did, though."

"I don't suppose, at that, that you realize the full effect of your performance, yesterday morning, in
Modern History Four," Whitburn replied. "I don't suppose you know, for instance, that I had to intervene
at the last moment and suppress an editorial in the Black and Green, derisively critical of you and your
teaching methods, and, by implication, of the administration of this college. You didn't hear about that,
did you? No, living as you do in the future, you wouldn't."

"If the students who edit the Black and Green are dissatisfied with anything here, I'd imagine they ought
to say so," Chalmers commented. "Isn't that what they teach in the journalism classes, that the purpose of
journalism is to speak for the dissatisfied? Why make exception?"

"I should think you'd be grateful to me for trying to keep your behavior from being made a subject of
public ridicule among your students. Why, this editorial which I suppressed actually went so far as to
question your sanity!"

"I should suppose it might have sounded a good deal like that, to them. Of course, I have been
preoccupied, lately, with an imaginative projection of present trends into the future. I'll quite freely admit
that I should have kept my extracurricular work separate from my class and lecture work, but...."

"That's no excuse, even if I were sure it were true! What you did, while engaged in the serious teaching of
history, was to indulge in a farrago of nonsense, obvious as such to any child, and damage not only your
own standing with your class but the standing of Blanley College as well. Doctor Chalmers, if this were
the first incident of the kind it would be bad enough, but it isn't. You've done things like this before, and
I've warned you before. I assumed, then, that you were merely showing the effects of overwork, and I
offered you a vacation, which you refused to take. Well, this is the limit. I'm compelled to request your
immediate resignation."

Chalmers laughed. "A moment ago, you accused me of living in the future. It seems you're living in the
past. Evidently you haven't heard about the Higher Education Faculty Tenure Act of 1963, or such things
as tenure-contracts. Well, for your information, I have one; you signed it yourself, in case you've
forgotten. If you want my resignation, you'll have to show cause, in a court of law, why my contract
should be voided, and I don't think a slip of the tongue is a reason for voiding a contract that any court
would accept."
Whitburn's face reddened. "You don't, don't you? Well, maybe it isn't, but insanity is. It's a very good
reason for voiding a contract voidable on grounds of unfitness or incapacity to teach."

He had been expecting, and mentally shrinking from, just that. Now that it was out, however, he felt
relieved. He gave another short laugh.