He explained that he had had a long lunch with Jerrold, discussing his place in the laboratory. Case: Bob Knowlton 3 The next day, Fester didn’t appear until mid-afternoon. The words seemed to carry the overtones of a threat now. Knowlton thought again of Jerrold’s promise when he had promoted him-”the person who produces gets ahead in this outfit. He told himself that Fester would be good for the group. ” Knowlton walked back to the laboratory with mixed feelings. “I hope he stays we’d be glad to have him. ” “Well, he seemed to have some good ideas even without knowing exactly what we are doing,” Knowlton answered. “If his interest in your work continues, you can add him to your group. I thought he might spend a little time with you by way of getting started. “I don’t know yet where he will finally land,” Jerrold continued, “but he seems interested in what you are doing. ” Knowlton nodded in agreement, instantly wishing that Fester would not be placed with him. “He’s had a very good background in a number of laboratories, and he seems to have ideas about the problems we’re tackling here. What do you think of him? Knowlton replied truthfully that he thought Fester was very bright and probably very competent. The next morning, Knowlton dropped into Jerrold’s office, mentioned that he had talked with Fester, and asked who he was. Knowlton wondered whether Jerrold and Fester had left together. Then, as if he had made a decision, he quickly locked up and took the long way out so that he would pass Jerrold’s office. After Fester left, Knowlton slowly put the graphs away, feeling vaguely annoyed. Let me show you the monster,” he said, and led the way to the work room. ” Bob, who had no idea what he was referring to, grinned back and nodded, and immediately felt uncomfortable. I’ve been playing around with some autocorrelation functions of surfaces-you know that stuff. “These look like plots of a Jennings surface. After a moment, he looked up with an odd grin. ” He stood up, but Fester was deep in the graphs. It’s not finished, but I can show you the section that we’re testing. We’ve got a new gadget by the tail and we’re trying to understand it. “There are the preliminary results of a test we’re running. Case: Bob Knowlton 2 Fester didn’t seem to belong in any of the standard categories of visitors: customer, visiting fireman, stockholder.īob pointed to the sheets on the table. We were talking about your work, and I’m very much interested in what you are doing. “Doctor Jerrold said I might find you in. Are you Bob Knowlton? ” Bob said yes, and they shook hands. The stranger smiled and introduced himself. His wife remarked later that it was the kind of belt the pilgrims must have worn. He wore steel-rimmed glasses and had on a very wide leather belt with a large brass buckle. This always made the day’s end especially pleasant for Bob. He looked up expectantly Jerrold often stayed late himself, and now and then dropped in for a chat. He shrugged out of the reverie and bent determinedly over the sheets when he heard someone come into the room behind him. The whole sequence of events still seemed a little miraculous to Knowlton. Jerrold had been enthusiastic a separate project had been set up for further research and development of the device, and he had gotten the job of running it. During a routine testing of some rejected Clanson components, he had stumbled onto the idea of the photon correlator, and the rest had just happened. He had come to the Simmons Laboratories 2 years ago. Well, dammit, he said to himself, he had produced. The sky is the limit for the person who can produce! ” Knowlton felt again the tingle of happiness and embarrassment. Jerrold, the head of the laboratory, saying again, “There’s one thing about this place that you can bank on. His eyes were on the graphs before him, but in his mind he could hear Dr. His appointment as project head was still new enough to give him a deep sense of pleasure. He liked to stay after the others had gone. Bob, alone in the laboratory, slid a little further down in his chair, looking with satisfaction at the results of the first test run of the new photon unit. One of the secretaries had stopped and talked for a while about her husband’s coming induction into the Army, and had finally left. BOB KNOWLTON Alex Bavelas Bob Knowlton was sitting alone in the conference room of the laboratory.