The Old Phoenix Tavern by Poul Anderson

Author:Poul Anderson [Anderson, Poul]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2014-11-16T16:00:00+00:00

Will you give to me again that melody of Bach's?

How did you fare under Sforza, how under Borgia, how under King Francis?

How did you fare in Switzerland, how against Hitler, how with Roosevelt?

What physical considerations led you to think men might build wings?

What evidence proves that the earth goes around the sun, that light has a finite speed, that the stars are also suns?

What makes you doubt the finiteness of the universe?

Well, sir, why have you not analyzed your concept of space-time as follows?

Taverner and the barmaid spoke low behind their hands. Finally she went to Heloise and Abelard. "Go on upstairs," she said through tears of her own. "You've only this while, and it's wearing away."

He looked up like a blind man. "We took vows," came from his lips.

Heloise closed them with hers. "Thou didst break thine before," she told him, "and we praised the goodness of God."

"Go, go," said the barmaid. Almost by herself, she raised them to their feet. I saw them leave, I heard them on the stairs.

And then Leonardo: "Doctor Alberto, you waste your efforts." He grimaced; the hands knotted around his goblet. "I cannot follow your mathematics, your logic. I have not the knowledge—"

But Einstein leaned forward, and his voice too was less than steady. "You have the brain. And, yes, a fresh view, an insight not blinkered by four centuries of progress point by point. . . down a single road, when we know in this room there are many, many. . . ."

"You cannot explain to me in a few hours—"

"No, but you can get a general idea of what I mean, and I think you, out of everybody who ever lived, can see where . . . where I am astray—and from me, you can carry back home—"

Leonardo flamed.

"No."

That was Taverner. He had come up on the empty side of our table; and he no longer seemed stumpy or jolly.

"No, gentlemen," he said in language after language. His tone was not stern, it was regretful, but it never wavered. "I fear I must ask you to change the subject. You would learn more than should be. Both of you."

We stared at him, and the silence around us turned off the singing. Leonardo's countenance froze. Finally Einstein smiled lopsidedly, scraped back his chair, stood, knocked the dottle from his pipe. Its odor was bittersweet. "My apologies, Herr Gastwirt," he said in his soft fashion. "You are right. I forgot." He bowed. "This evening has been an honor and a delight. Thank you."

Turning, his stooped form departed.

When the door had shut on him, Leonardo sat unmoving for another while. Taverner threw me a rueful grin and went back to his visiting mysteries. The men at the bar, who had sensed a problem and quieted down, now cheered up and grew rowdier yet. When Mrs. Hauksbee walked in, they cheered.

Leonardo cast his goblet on the floor. Glass flew outward, wine fountained red. "Heloise and Abelard!" he roared. "They will have had their night!"

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