By late November some drifts of snow on the flats were 3 feet deep. The temperature dropped regularly to ten or more below zero at night and seldom went above freezing in the daytime. The level of the log pile in the woodyard dropped steadily in spite of the concentrated efforts of nearly every available able-bodied man in the community to add to it. Crews cut all night long by the light of gasoline lanterns. The fuel ration had to be lowered to meet their rate of cutting.

The deep snow hampered Mayor Hilliard’s plan to sled the logs downhill without use of teams. Criticisms and grumblings at his decision to sacrifice the horses grew swiftly.

There had been no more signs of anthrax, and some were saying the whole program of vaccination and slaughter had been a stupid mistake. In spite of the assurance of the veterinarians that it was the only thing that could have been done, the grumbling went on like a rolling wave as the severity of the winter increased.

The Council was finally forced to issue a conservation order requiring families to double up, two to a house, on the theory that it would be more efficient to heat one house than parts of two. Selection of family pairings was optional. Close friends and relatives moved together wherever possible. Where no selection was made the committee assigned families to live together.

As soon as the order was issued, Ken’s mother suggested they invite the Larsens to move in with them. The Swedish family was happy to accept.

Thanksgiving, when it came, was observed in spirit, but scarcely in fact. There were some suggestions that Mayor Hilliard should order special rations for that day and for Christmas, at least, but he stuck to his ironhard determination that every speck of food would be stretched to the limit. No special allowance would be made for Thanksgiving or any other occasion until the danger was over.

Ken and his father and their friends had done their share of criticizing the Mayor in the past, but they now had only increasing admiration for his determination to take a stand for the principles he knew to be right, no matter how stern. Previously, most of the townspeople had considered him very good at giving highly patriotic Fourth of July speeches, and not much good at anything else. Now, Ken realized, the bombastic little man seemed to have come alive, fully and miraculously alive.

The day after Thanksgiving Ken and Professor Maddox were greeted by Mrs. Maddox upon coming home. “Maria wants you to come to the radio shack right away,” she said. “There’s something important coming in from Berkeley.”

They hurried to the shack, and Maria looked up in relief as they entered. “I’m so glad you’re here!” she cried. “Dr. French is on the radio personally. I’ve been recording him, but he wants to talk to you. He’s breaking in every 10 minutes to give me a chance to let him know if you’re here. It’s almost time, now.”

Ken and his father caught a fragment of a sentence spoken by the Berkeley scientist, and then the operator came on. “Berkeley requesting acknowledgment, Mayfield.”

Ken picked up the microphone and answered. “This is Mayfield, Ken Maddox talking. My father is here and will speak with Dr. French.”

Professor Maddox sat down at the desk. “This is Professor Maddox,” he said. “I came in time to hear your last sentence, Dr. French. They tell me you have something important to discuss. Please go ahead.”

Ken switched over to receive, and in a moment the calm, persuasive voice of Dr. French was heard in the speaker. “I’m glad you came in, Dr. Maddox,” he said. “On the tape you have my report of some experiments we have run the last few days. They are not finished, and if circumstances were normal I would certainly not report a piece of work in this stage.

“I feel optimistic, however, that we are on the verge of a substantial breakthrough in regard to the precipitant we are looking for. I would like you to repeat the work I have reported and go on from there, using your own ideas. I wanted you to have it, along with the people in Pasadena, in case anything should happen here. In my opinion it could be only a matter of days until we have a solution.”

“I certainly hope you are right,” said Professor Maddox. “Why do you speak of the possibility of something happening. Is there trouble?”

“Yes. Rioting has broken out repeatedly in the entire Bay Area during the past 3 days. Food supplies are almost non-existent. At the university here, those of us remaining have our families housed in classrooms. We have some small stock of food, but it’s not enough for an indefinite stay. The rioting may sweep over us. The lack of food may drive us out before we can finish. You are in a better position there for survival purposes. I hope nothing happens to interrupt your work.

“Our local government is crumbling fast. They have attempted to supply the community with seafood, but there are not enough sailing vessels. Perhaps two-thirds of the population have migrated. Some have returned. Thousands have died. I feel our time is limited. Give my report your careful attention and let me know your opinion tomorrow.”

They broke contact, uneasiness filling the hearts of Dr. French’s listeners in Mayfield. Up to now, the Berkeley scientist had seemed impassive and utterly objective. Now, to hear him speak of his own personal disaster, induced in them some of his own premonition of collapse.

When Maria had typed the report Professor Maddox stayed up until the early-morning hours, studying it, developing equations, and making calculations of his own. Ken stayed with him, trying to follow the abstruse work, and follow his father’s too-brief explanations.

When he finished, Professor Maddox was enthusiastic. “I believe he’s on the right track,” he said. “Unfortunately, he hasn’t told all he knows in this report. He must have been too excited about the work. Ordinarily, he leaves nothing out, but he’s omitted three or four important steps near the end. I’ll have to ask him to fill them in before we can do very much with his processes.”

The report was read and discussed at the college laboratory the next day, and the scientists began preliminary work to duplicate Dr. French’s results. Ken and his father hurried home early in order to meet the afternoon schedule with Berkeley and get Dr. French to the microphone to answer the questions he had neglected to consider.

As they arrived at the radio shack and opened the door they found Maria inside, with her head upon the desk. Deep sobs shook her body. The receiver was on, but only the crackle of static came from it. The filaments of the transmitter tubes were lit, but the antenna switch was open. The tape recorder was still running.

Professor Maddox grasped Maria by the shoulders and drew her back in the chair. “What is the matter?” he exclaimed. “Why are you crying, Maria?”

“It’s all over,” she said. “There’s nothing more down there. Just nothing...”

“What do you mean?” Ken cried.

“It’s on the tape. You can hear it for yourself.”

Ken quickly reversed the tape and turned it to play. In a moment the familiar voice of their Berkeley friend was heard. “I’m glad you’re early,” it said. “There isn’t much time today. The thing Dr. French feared has happened.

“Half the Bay Area is in flames. On the campus here, the administration building is gone. They tried to blow up the science building. It’s burning pretty fast in the other wing. I’m on the third floor. Did I ever tell you I moved my stuff over here to be close to the lab?

“There must be a mob of a hundred thousand out there in the streets. Or rather, several hundred mobs that add up to that many. None of them know where they’re going. It’s like a monster with a thousand separate heads cut loose to thrash about before it dies. I see groups of fifty or a hundred running through the streets burning and smashing things. Sometimes they meet another group coming from the opposite direction. Then they fight until the majority of one group is dead, and the others have run away.

“The scientists were having a meeting here until an hour ago. They gathered what papers and notes they could and agreed that each would try to make his own way, with his family, out of the city. They agreed to try to meet in Salinas 6 weeks from now, if possible. I don’t think any of them will ever meet again.”

A sudden tenseness surged into the operator’s voice. “I can see him down there!” he cried in despair. “Dr. French he’s running across the campus with a load of books and a case of his papers and they’re trying to get him. He’s on the brow of a little hill and the mob is down below. They’re laughing at him and shooting. They almost look like college students. He’s down they got him.”

A choking sob caught the operator’s voice. “That’s all there is,” he said. “I hope you can do something with the information Dr. French gave you yesterday. Berkeley is finished. I’m going to try to get out of here myself now. I don’t think I stand much of a chance. The mobs are swarming all over the campus. I can hear the fire on the other side of the building. Maybe I won’t even make it outside. Tell the Professor and Ken so long. I sure wish I could have made it to Mayfield to see what goes with that Swedish accen YL.”

After dinner, Professor Maddox announced his intention of going back to the laboratory. Mrs. Maddox protested vigorously.

“I couldn’t sleep even if I went to bed,” he said, “thinking about what’s happened today in Berkeley.”

“What if a thing like that happened here?” Mrs. Larsen asked with concern. “Could it?”

“We’re in a much better position than the metropolitan areas,” said Professor Maddox. “I think we’ll manage if we can keep our people from getting panicky. It’s easier, too, because there aren’t so many of us.”

Professor Larsen went back to the laboratory with the Maddoxes. Throughout the night they reviewed the work of Dr. French. To Ken it seemed that they were using material out of the past, since all of those responsible for it were probably dead.

“We’ll have to fill in these missing steps,” said Professor Maddox. “We know what he started with and we know the end results at which he was aiming. I think we can fill the gaps.”

“I agree,” said Professor Larsen. “I think we should not neglect to pass this to our people in Stockholm. You will see that is done?” he asked Ken.

“Our next schedule in that area is day after tomorrow. Or I could get it to them on the emergency watch tomorrow afternoon.”

“Use emergency measures. I think it is of utmost importance that they have this quickly.”

As the days passed, strangers were appearing more and more frequently in Mayfield. Ken saw them on the streets as he went to the warehouse for his family’s food ration. He did not know everyone who lived in the valley, of course, but he was sure some of the people he was meeting now were total strangers, and there seemed so many of them.

He had heard stories of how some of them had come, one by one, or in small groups of a family or two. They had made their way from cities to the north or the south, along the highway that passed through the valley. They had come in rags, half-starved, out of the blizzards to the unexpected sanctuary of a town that still retained a vestige of civilization.

Unexpectedly, Ken found this very subject was being discussed in the ration lines when he reached the warehouse. People had in their hands copies of the twice-weekly mimeographed newssheet put out by the Council. Across the top in capital letters was the word: PROCLAMATION.

Ken borrowed a sheet and read, “According to the latest count we’ve made through the ration roll, there are now present in Mayfield almost three thousand people who are refugees from other areas and have come in since the beginning of the disaster.

“As great as our humanitarian feelings are, and although we should like to be able to relieve the suffering of the whole world, if it were in our power to do so, it is obviously impossible. Our food supplies are at mere subsistence level now. Before next season’s crops are in, it may be necessary to reduce them still further.

“In view of this fact, the Mayor and the City Council have determined to issue a proclamation as of this date that every citizen of Mayfield will be registered and numbered and no rations will be issued except by proper identification and number. It is hereby ordered that no one hereafter shall permit the entrance of any stranger who was not a resident of Mayfield prior to this date.

“A barbed-wire inclosure is to be constructed around the entire residential and business district, and armed guards will be posted against all refugees who may attempt to enter. Crews will be assigned to the erection of the fence, and guard duty will be rotated among the male citizens.”

Ken passed the sheet back to his neighbor. His mind felt numb as he thought of some of those he had seen shuffling through the deep snow in town. He knew now how he had known they were strangers. Their pinched, haunted faces showed the evidence of more privation and hardship than any in Mayfield had yet known. These were the ones who would be turned away from now on.

Ken heard the angry buzz of comments all around him. “Should have done it long ago,” a plump woman somewhere behind him was saying. “What right have they got to come in and eat our food?”

A man at the head of the line was saying, “They ought to round them all up and make them move on. Three thousand that would keep the people who’ve got a right here going a long time.”

Someone else, not quite so angry, said, “They’re people just like us. You know what the Bible says about that. We ought to share as long as we can.”

“Yeah, and pretty soon there won’t be anything for anybody to share!”

“That may be true, but it’s what we’re supposed to do. It’s what we’ve got to do if we’re going to stay human. I’ll take anybody into my house who knocks on my door.”

“When you see your kids crying for food you can’t give them you’ll change your tune!”

Just ahead of him in line Ken saw a small, silent woman who looked about with darting glances of fear. She was trembling with fright as much as with the cold that penetrated her thin, ragged, cloth coat.

She was one of them, Ken thought. She was one who had come from the outside. He wondered which of the loud-mouthed ones beside him would be willing to be the first to take her beyond the bounds of Mayfield and force her to move on.

That night, at dinner, he spoke of it to his parents and the Larsens.

“It’s a problem that has to be faced,” said Professor Maddox, “and Hilliard is choosing the solution he thinks is right. He’s no more heartless than Dr. Aylesworth, for example.”

“It seems a horrible thing,” said Mrs. Larsen. “What will happen to those who are turned away?”

“They will die,” said Dr. Larsen. “They will go away and wander in the snow until they die.”

“Why should we have any more right to live than they?” asked Mrs. Maddox. “How can we go on eating and being comfortable while they are out there?”

“They are out there in the whole world,” said Dr. Larsen as if meditating. “There must be thirty million who have died in the United States alone since this began. Another hundred million will die this winter. The proportion will be the same in the rest of the world. Should we be thankful for our preservation so far, or should we voluntarily join them in death?”

“This is different,” said Mrs. Maddox. “It’s those who come and beg for our help who will be on our consciences if we do this thing.”

“The whole world would come if it knew we had stores of food here if it could come. As brutal as it is, the Mayor has taken the only feasible course open to him.”

Ken and Maria remained silent, both feeling the horror of the proposal and its inevitability.

In the following days Ken was especially glad to be able to bury himself in the problems at the laboratory. His father, too, seemed to work with increasing fury as they got further into an investigation of the material originated by Dr. French. As if seized by some fanatic compulsion, unable to stop, Professor Maddox spent from 18 to 20 hours of every day at his desk and laboratory bench.

Ken stayed with him although he could not match his father’s great energy. He often caught snatches of sleep while his father worked on. Then, one morning, as an especially long series of complex tests came to an end at 3 a.m., he said to Ken in quiet exultation, “We can decontaminate now, if nothing else. That’s the thing that French had found. Whether we can ever put it into the atmosphere is another matter, but at least we can get our metals clean.”

Excited, Ken leaned over the notebook while his father described the results of the reaction. He studied the photographs, taken with the electron microscope, of a piece of steel before and after treatment with a compound developed by his father.

Ken said slowly, in a voice full of emotion. “French didn’t do this, Dad.”

“Most of it. I finished it up from where he left off.”

“No. He wasn’t even on the same track. You’ve gone in an entirely different direction from the one his research led to. You are the one who has developed a means of cleaning the dust out of metals.”

Professor Maddox looked away. “You give me too much credit, Son.”

Ken continued to look at his father, at the thick notebook whose scrawled symbols told the story. So this is the way it happens, he thought. You don’t set out to be a great scientist at all. If you can put all other things out of your mind, if you can be absorbed with your whole mind and soul in a problem that seems important enough, even though the world is collapsing about your head; then, if you are clever enough and persevering enough, you may find yourself a great scientist without ever having tried.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be what the world calls a great scientist,” Professor Maddox had said on that day that seemed so long ago. “I’m not clever enough; I don’t think fast enough. I can teach the fundamentals of chemistry, and maybe some of those I teach will be great someday.”

So he had gone along, Ken thought, and by applying his own rules he had achieved greatness. “I think you give me far too much credit, Son,” he said in a tired voice.