Asimov, Isaac - The Caves Of Steel

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5 ANALYSIS OF A MURDER 59

6 WHISPERS IN A BEDROOM 71

7 EXCURSION INTO SPACETOWN 79

8 DEBATE OVER A ROBOT 91

9 ELUCIDATION BY A SPACER 103

10 AFTERNOON OF A PLAIN-CLOTHES MAN 115

11 ESCAPE ALONG THE STRIPS 129

12 WORDS FROM AN EXPERT 141

13 SHIFT TO THE MACHINE 153

14 POWER OF A NAME 167

15 ARREST OF A CONSPIRATOR 179

16 QUESTIONS CONCERNING A MOTIVE 189

17 CONCLUSION OF A PROJECT 201

18 END OF AN INVESTIGATION 211

All right.

R. Sammy stood there blankly.

Baley said, ~I said, all right. Go away!"

R. Sammy turned on his heel and left to go about his duties. Baley

wondered irritably why those same duties couldn't be done by a man.

He paused to examine the contents of his tobacco pouch and make a

mental calculation. At two pipefuls a day, he could stretch it to next

quota day.

Then he stepped out from behind his railing (he'd rated a railed

corner two years ago) and walked the length of the common room.

Simpson looked up from a merc-pool file as he passed. "Boss wants

you, Lije."

"I know. R. Sammy told me."

A closely coded tape reeled out of the merc-pool's vitals as the

small instrument searched and analyzed its "memory" for the desired

information stored in the tiny vibration patterns of the gleaming mer-

cury surface within.

farms now. He was a bright boy, too. Everyone liked him.

Baley shrugged and said in a manner stiffer than he intended or

felt, "It's a thing we're all living through."

The boss rated a private office. It said JULIUS ENDERBY on the

clouded glass. Nice letters. Carefully etched into the fabric of the

glass. Underneath, it said COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, CITY OF

NEW YORK.

Baley stepped in and said, "You want to see me, Commissioner?" En-

derby looked up. He wore spectacles because his eyes were sensitive

and couldn't take the usual contact lenses. It was only after one got

used to the sight of them that one could take in the rest of the face,

which was quite undistinguished. Baley had a strong notion that the

Commissioner valued his glasses for the personality they lent him and

suspected that his eyeballs weren't as sensitive as all that.

The Commissioner looked definitely nervous. lie straightened his

cuffs, leaned back, and said, too heartily, "Sit clown, Lije. Sit down,"

Baley sat down stiffly and waited.

Enderby said, "How's Jessie and the boy?"

Well, you know how I feel about those things, Lije. But he s been

put here and I've got to use him for something."

"It's uncomfortable, Commissioner. He tells me you want me and

then he stands there. You know what I mean. I have to tell him to go or

he just keeps on standing there."

"Oh, that's my fault, Lije. I gave him the message to deliver and

forgot to tell him specifically to get back to his job when he was

through."

Baley sighed. The fine wrinkles about his intensely brown eyes grew

more pronounced. "Anyway, you wanted to see me."

"Yes, Lije," said the Commissioner, "but not for anything easy."

He stood up, turned away, and walked to the wall behind his deck.

He touched an inconspicious switch and a part of the wall became

transparant.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Commissioner smiled. "I had this arranged specially last year,

Lije. I don't think I've showed it to you before. Come over here and

indecent about the exposure of the privacy of a room to the outside

world. Sometimes the Commissioner carried his affectation of Medie-

valism to a rather foolish extreme.

Like his glasses, Baley thought.

That was it! That was what made him look wrong!

Baley said, "Pardon me, Commissioner, but you're wearing new

glasses, aren't you?"

The Commissioner stared at him in mild surprise, took off his

glasses, looked at them and then at Baley. Without his glasses, his

round face seemed rounder and his chin a trifle more pronounced. He

looked vaguer, too, as his eyes failed to focus properly.

He said, "Yes."

He put his glasses back on his nose, then added with real anger, "I

broke my old ones three days ago. What with one thing or another I

wasn't able to replace them till this morning. Lije, those three days

were hell."

"On account of the glasses?"

"And other things, too. I'm getting to that."

Against his will, Baley had to admit to himself that it was impres-

sive. In his forty-two years he had rarely seen rain, or any of the phe-

nomena at nature, for that matter.

He said, "It always seems a waste for all that water to come down

on the city. It should restrict itself to the reservoirs."

"Lije," said the Commissioner, "you're a modernist. That's your

trouble. In Medieval times, people lived in the open. I don't mean on

the farms only. I mean in the cities, too. Even in New York. When it

rained, they didn't think of it as waste. They gloried in it. They lived

close to nature. It's healthier, better. The troubles of modem life

come from being divorced from nature. Read up on the Coal Century,

sometimes."

Baley had. He had heard many people moaning about the invention of

the atomic pile. He moaned about it himself when things went wrong, or

when he got tired. Moaning like that was a built-in facet of human na-

ture. Back in the Coal Century, people moaned about the invention of

the steam engine. In one of Shakespeare's plays, a character moaned

here.) Look, Julius, you re talking about everything except what I

came in here for, and it's worrying me. What is it?"

The Commissioner said, "I'll get to it, Lije. Let me do it my way.

It's-it's trouble."

"Sure. What isn't on this planet? More trouble with the R's?"

"In a way, yes, Lije. I stand here and wonder how much more trouble

the old world can take. 'When I put in this window, I wasn't just let-

ting in the sky once in a while. I let in the City. I look at it and I won-

der what will become of it in another century."

Baley felt repelled by the other's sentimentality, but he found him-

self staring outward in fascination. Even dimmed by the weather, the

City was a tremendous thing to see. The Police Department was in the

upper levels of City Hall, and City Hall reached high. From the Commis-

sioner's window, the neighboring towers fell short and the tops were

visible. They were so many fingers, groping upward. Their walls were

blank, featureless. They were the outer shells of human hives.

"In a way," said the Commissioner, "I'm sorry it's raining. We can't

see Spacetown."

spread out. It s the difference between us and the Spacers. We reach

high and crowd close. With them, each family has a dome for itself.

One family: one house. And land between each dome. Have you ever

spoken to any of the Spacers, Lije?"

"A few times. About a month ago, I spoke to one right here on your

intercom," Baley said, patiently.

"Yes, I remember. But then, I'm just getting philosophical. We and

they. Different ways of life."

Baley's stomach was beginning to constrict a little. The more devi-

ous the Commissioner's approach, the deadlier he thought might be the

conclusion.

He said, "All right. But what's so surprising about it? You can't

spread eight billion people over Earth in little domes. They've got space

on their worlds, so let them live their way."

The Commissioner walked to his chair and sat down. His eyes looked

unblinkingly at Baley, shrunken a bit by the concave lenses in his spec-

tacles. He said, "Not everyone is that tolerant about differences in

culture. Either among us or among the Spacers."

Baley didn t care to explain. The precision with which the Spacers had

bred disease out of their societies was well known. The care with which

they avoided, as far as possible, contact with disease-riddled Earthmen

was even better known. But then, sarcasm was lost on the Commis-

sioner.

Baley said, "I'm just talking. What did he die of?" He turned back

to the window.

The Commissioner said, "He died of a missing chest. Someone had

used a blaster on him."

Baley's back grew rigid. He said, without turning, "What are you

talking about?"

"I'm talking about murder," said the Commissioner, softly. "You're a

plain-clothes man. You know what murder is."

And now Baley turned. "But a Spacer! Three days ago?"

"Yes."

"But who did it? How?"

"The Spacers say it was an Earthman."

"It can't be."

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摘要：

5ANALYSISOFAMURDER596WHISPERSINABEDROOM717EXCURSIONINTOSPACETOWN798DEBATEOVERAROBOT919ELUCIDATIONBYASPACER10310AFTERNOONOFAPLAIN-CLOTHESMAN11511ESCAPEALONGTHESTRIPS12912WORDSFROMANEXPERT14113SHIFTTOTHEMACHINE15314POWEROFANAME16715ARRESTOFACONSPIRATOR17916QUESTIONSCONCERNINGAMOTIVE18917CONCLUSIONOFAP...

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