03 Casebook Of The Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov [Asimov, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780385157049
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

7. Irrelevance!

“I think,” said Mario Gonzalo, “that I know Henry’s secret; how he gets the answer when we don’t.” Gonzalo nodded in the direction of the waiter, who was quietly serving the drinks that were prelude to the monthly banquet of the Black Widowers.

James Drake stubbed out his cigarette and said, “I’ve known it all along - he’s smarter than we are.”

“Sure,” said Gonzalo, flicking tobacco ash from the sleeve of his velvet jacket and helping himself to some Brie on a cracker, “but being smarter isn’t enough.”

“Being dumber isn’t enough, either,” broke in Emmanuel Rubin, glowering through his thick - lensed glasses, “so what good will the secret do you, Mario?’

“Being really dumb,” said Gonzalo coolly, “is to be afraid to listen for fear of learning something. So I suppose you’re not interested, Manny.”

“What, and miss a good laugh?” said Rubin. “Go ahead, Mario.”

Geoffrey Avalon, having accepted his drink from Henry, approached and said, “A good laugh about what?”

“About Mario’s idea as to how Henry manages to come up with solutions,” said Rubin. “Henry, you can listen, too. Mario has your secret.”

Henry smiled discreetly. “I have made no secret of what I do. The gentlemen of the Black Widowers analyze the problems carefully, remove all the useless adornments, and leave a plain picture for me to describe.”

“Not at all,” said Gonzalo, “not at all. You just say that to throw us off. The secret is - irrelevance!”

There was a short pause. Then Rubin’s scanty beard bristled and he said in high - pitched disbelief, “Is that what I’m supposed to listen to so that I can learn something?”

“Sure,” said Gonzalo. “We’re all of us reasoning men - even you, sometimes, Manny - and we try to solve any little puzzle presented to us by catching at all the relevant angles. But if it were the relevant matters that mattered, so to speak, there’d be no puzzle. Anyone would then see the answer. It’s Henry’s trick of seeing the irrelevant that gives him the answer.”

Drake said, “This is a contradiction in terms, Mario. Something that is irrelevant has nothing to do . . .”

Gonzalo interposed patiently, “Something that seems irrelevant but isn’t. We see that it seems irrelevant; Henry sees that it really isn’t irrelevant. Right, Henry?”

Henry’s face showed no expression beyond a general benevolence. “It is certainly an interesting suggestion,” he said.

Avalon drew his formidable eyebrows together. “It is surely more than that, Mario. Henry sees what we do not, because he looks clearly at life while the rest of us do not have his direct and simple honesty and are not capable of doing so. Even if you were to see what Henry does, you would not get the answer.”

Gonzalo said, “I bet I can. Five dollars says that if there’s a puzzle today, I’ll use Henry’s technique and get the answer before he does.”

“You’re on,” said Rubin at once.

“Good,” said Mario. “Geoff, you hold the stakes. But remember, no bet if there’s no problem.”

Drake said, “Oh there’ll be a problem.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.