‘The television?’
He took a swig of alcohol which Fawell had just poured for him and explained.
‘In fact I was working, but it wasn’t going well. I felt myself trapped in a tissue of contradictions. It was then that, to rest my mind, I had the crazy idea of switching on the television set…’
‘I see,’ said Betty. ‘He must have seen the interview.’
‘Not the interview!’ protested Zarratoff. ‘What do you take me for? I’m very wary of such things. I changed the channel after the first few comments. I turned to channel number three. Are you with me?’
‘Well?’
‘Well? If you haven’t tried channel three, you obviously wouldn’t understand.’
‘What does it show?’
‘Games!’
‘Games?’
‘Games,’ the astronomer repeated in a plaintive voice.
‘I understand,’ murmured Yranne.
‘I do too,’ said Fawell. ‘I am, unfortunately, familiar with them!’
All the scholars shared the astronomer’s agitation and seemed to be sincere in feeling sorry for him, without it having been necessary to give them any explanation. He tried to do so however, in the same pathetic tone with which he might have asked heaven to bear witness to his misfortune.
‘Games, do you get it? Or what they call games! While there are doubtless thinking beings in the universe who are desperately calling us on an undetected wavelength, these people divide themselves into two groups of a dozen each and play at pulling the ends of a rope, to the applause of a delirious crowd. And when –’
‘That’s enough, old friend,’ said Yranne, interrupting him. ‘We told you that we’ve understood it all and that we share your indignation. So, in one word, what’s your conclusion? What do you think of it?’
‘Intolerable!’ yelled Zarratoff.
The guests burst out laughing.
‘So we are all agreed,’ concluded Fawell, ‘Calm down and finish your drink. You arrived just at the right moment.’
They brought him up to date with the project which was taking shape and the discussion continued.
4.
‘As I was saying,’ continued Fawell, ‘today it is our urgent duty to put a stop to this situation. We do not have the right to let the world go to ruin. In this country all men of science will agree with this.’
‘In France as well,’ declared Yranne, ‘I can guarantee it.’
‘And in England also,’ said the British man, ‘but will they be of the same opinion in the Soviet Union?’
Zarratoff made no hesitation in replying: ‘Only about thirty years ago, one would have hesitated to reply to that question. As you know, the fact of being regarded with suspicion by a part of the world, caused us to maintain a dangerous spirit of nationalism, with which even our greatest scholars were infected. Today, now that this mistrust appears to belong to the past, after we have confirmed, as you have done, the incompetence of our leaders, I can guarantee that it does not exist anymore, and that all the men of science who are worthy of the name are supporters of a rational world organisation. I would add that there is nothing surprising about it. Weren’t we the pioneers of internationalism?’
Everyone applauded his words. Without prior consultation they came to a common conclusion: at the current stage of evolution, a scientific government of the world had become a vital necessity for humanity. But objections did occur to them, as was natural for minds trained to analyse objectively all the data relating to a problem.
‘All the world’s scholars desire it. That’s fine,’ said Yranne, ‘but what about the peoples of the world? What about young people?’
‘Ruth would agree,’ asserted Fawell, ‘and all her friends as well.’
‘So would Nicolas,’ said Zarratoff, ‘we have often discussed it.’
‘Ruth and Nicolas may have been influenced by the intellectual milieu in which they have lived… But can we really be sure about all the scholars? The Chinese, for example?’