description of the steady encroachment of reason upon the unknown that Lamont enjoyed.
All would yet have gone for nothing - the triple coincidence of Bronowski's appearance at campus, Lamont's youthful cryptogrammic enthusiasm, the social pressure of an attractive young lady - were it not for the fact that it was the next day that Lamont saw Hallam and placed himself firmly and, as he eventually found, permanently, in the doghouse.
Within an hour of the conclusion of that interview, Lamont determined to see Bronowski. The issue at hand was the very one that had seemed so obvious to himself and that had so offended Hallam. Because it brought down censure on him, Lamont felt bound to strike back - and in connection with the point of censure specifically. The para-men were more intelligent than man. Lamont had believed it before in a casual sort of way as something more obvious than vital. Now it had become vital. It must be proved and the fact of it forced down the throat of Hallam; sideways, if possible, and with all the sharp corners exposed.
Already Lamont found himself so far removed from his so-recent hero worship that he relished the prospect.
Bronowski was still on campus and Lamont tracked him down and insisted on seeing him.
Bronowski was blandly courteous, when finally cornered.
Lamont acknowledged the courtesies brusquely, introduced himself with clear impatience, and said, "Dr. Bronowski, I'm delighted to have caught you before you left I hope that I will persuade you to stay here even longer."
Bronowski said, "That may not be hard. I have been offered a position on the university faculty."
"And you will accept the position?"
"I am considering it. I think I may."
"You must. You will, when you hear what I have to say. Dr. Bronowski, what is there for you to do now that you've solved the Etruscan inscriptions?"
"That is not my only task, young man." (He was five years older than Lamont.) "I'm an archaeologist, and there is more to Etruscan culture than its inscriptions and more to pre-classical Italic culture than the Etruscans."
"But surely nothing as exciting for you, and as challenging, as the Etruscan inscriptions?"
"I grant you that."
"So you would welcome something even more exciting, even more challenging, and something a trillion times as significant as those inscriptions."
"What have you in mind, Dr. - Lamont?"
"We have inscriptions that are not part of a dead culture, or part of anything on Earth, or part of anything in the Universe. We have something called para-symbols."
"I've heard of them. For that matter, I've seen them."
"Surely, then, you have the urge to tackle the problem, Dr. Bronowski? You have had the desire to work out what they say?"
"No desire at all, Dr. Lamont, because there's no problem."
Lamont stared at him suspiciously, "You mean you can read them?"
Bronowski shook his head. "You mistake me. I mean I can't possibly read them, nor can anyone else. There's no base. In the case of Earthly languages, however dead, there is always the chance of finding a living language, or a dead language already deciphered, that bears some relationship to it, however faint. Failing that, there is at least the fact that any Earthly language was written by human beings with human ways of thought. That makes a starting point, however feeble. None of this is the case with the para-symbols, so that they constitute a problem that clearly has no solution. An insolubility is not a problem."
Lamont had kept himself from interrupting only with difficulty, and now he burst out, "You are wrong, Dr. Bronowski. I don't want to seem to be teaching you your profession but you don't know some of the facts that my own profession has uncovered. We are dealing with para-men, concerning whom we know almost nothing. We don't know what they are like, how they think, what kind of world they live on; almost nothing, however basic and fundamental. So far, you are right."
"But it's only almost nothing that you know, is that it?" Bronowski did not seem impressed. He took out a package of dried figs from his pocket opened them and began to eat. He offered it to Lamont, who shook his head.
Lamont said, "Right. We do know one thing of crucial importance. They are more intelligent than we are. Item one: They can make the exchange across the inter-Universe gap, while we can play only a passive role."
He interrupted himself here to ask, "Do you know anything about the Inter-Universe Electron Pump?"
"A little," said Bronowski. "Enough to follow you,