He glanced at Ken and said, "Don't tell me! I know you haven't any
workers out there today. They're here in line, trying to collect
groceries without working!"

"We're not going to work so those scientists on the hill can have the
fat of everything!" a man near the head of the line shouted. Others
echoed him with cries of hysteria.

Ken felt his disgust and disappointment vanish before a wave of genuine
fear. These people had ceased to be anything but frightened, hungry
animals. Their capacity for rational action had all but disappeared
under the strains they had suffered. They were ready to lash out at
anything that appeared a suitable target for their own hysterical anger
and panic.

It was useless to expect them to help with the projector. The crew of
scientists and students would have to do it alone, no matter how many
weeks it took.

Sheriff Johnson, however, had no such thought. He fired a bullet over
the heads of the crowd and brought them to silence. "Listen to me," he
said. "I know you're sick and hungry and scared. There's not a man or
woman in this valley who isn't, and that includes me and the members of
the Council, and those you tried to burn off College Hill.

"You don't know how good you've got it! You don't deserve it as good as
you've got. You people should have been with those in Chicago or in San
Francisco. You should have known what it was really like to be suddenly
cut off from every ounce of food beyond that which was in your own
cupboards. You should have known what it was like to fight day after day
in the streets of a burning city without knowing why you were fighting,
or having any hope of victory.

"You've gone through your battle, and you've won, and you're still here,
and there's food left. A lot of us are still going to die before the
epidemic is over. We haven't the medical means to save us all. But some
of us will come out of it, and every one has just as good a chance as
his neighbor.

"That's not important. It doesn't make much difference whether any one
of us stays alive now, or dies in 50 years. What is important is trying
to keep the world alive, and that's what these scientists are doing.

"While you accuse them of every crime in the book, they are the only
chance the world has got for survival!"

"They can't do anything about it!" a woman shouted. "They're just making
it up to get more than the rest of us!"

The crowd started to take up its cry again.

"Shut up!" t