The John Russell Fearn Science Fiction Megapack by John Russell Fearn & Philip J. Harbottle

Author:John Russell Fearn & Philip J. Harbottle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, pulp, magazine, short stories
ISBN: science fiction| sci-fi| pulp| magazine| short stories
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2014-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT LEARNING

He could read people’s minds; could take their knowledge from them. But it made life very complicated.

I was still at school when I discovered I had the gift. I won scholarships I had really no con­ceivable right to win. On prize day I was given the works of obscure authors for my phenomenal brilliance in mathematics, physics, composition and other fields too numerous to mention.

But actually, you know, I was a cribber! Yes, perhaps the world’s greatest cribber—a kind of human blotting pad for soaking up knowledge. Put me next to a student with a good grasp of mathe­matics and at the end of the examination you would find him chewing his penholder to shavings while I sat complacently with all the answers written on the dotted lines…

“Henry Parker,” the Head would say benignly, squinting through his glasses in that owlish way he had, “you are a credit to Mulhaven! You are one of the cleverest scholars we have ever had…”

I would stand before him full of meekness, and since I was pretty young then I took all the credit and wondered how in blazes I had done it. For it was an undoubted fact that I had a knack of stealing other people’s knowledge and secrets right away from them if I sat near them for long enough. I had only to concentrate—really hard—and the thing was done! It was quite disturbing…

When I was twenty my people died and that seemed to upset the whole routine of my life. I had a little money, but by no means a lot, and since my job in Birmingham did not appeal to me particularly I threw it up and came to London. It had become suddenly evident to me that I had to face the world.

I had forgotten all that I had ever cribbed at school. The immediate task then seemed to be to find a job—and that quite logically suggested it was time to bring my ‘kink’ into action.

For some reason I had always had a deep inner urge to either drive an engine or a motor omnibus. I think the urge can be traced back to my tricycle days: whatever the basic reason, I had never com­pletely suppressed the urge. Suppose, then, I could get a sort of ‘on approval’ idea of how fascinating a bus driver’s life could be?

That decided me. Once I had moved into my London rooms I set about exploring the potentiali­ties of the gentlemen who sit all day over a massive steering wheel…

I boarded my experimental bus in the Strand and took good care to get the seat immedi­ately behind the driver. I do not think the girl on the same seat quite liked the idea, somehow. You see, the bus was almost empty, and that I should squeeze her up into the corner in order to sit beside her no doubt suggested sundry unethical intentions.

I caught a glance from her cold grey eyes—then, with a high-powered sniff, she went on reading her magazine.

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