The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Unlearned, by Raymond F. Jones

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Title: The Unlearned

Author: Raymond F. Jones

Illustrator: Ed Emsh

Release Date: June 8, 2010 [EBook #32745]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE UNLEARNED

By Raymond F. Jones

Illustrated by Ed Emsh

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from IF Worlds of Science
Fiction August 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: _The scientists of Rykeman III were conceded by all the
galactic members to be supreme in scientific achievement. Now the Rykes
were going to share their vast knowledge with the scientists of Earth.
To any question they would supply an answer--for a price. And Hockley,
of all Earth's scientists, was the stubborn one who wanted to weigh the
answers with the costs...._]

The Chief Officer of Scientific Services, Information and Coordination
was a somewhat misleading and obscure title, and Dr. Sherman Hockley who
held it was not the least of those whom the title misled and sometimes
obscured.

He told himself he was not a mere library administrator, although he was
proud of the information files built up under his direction. They
contained the essence of accumulated knowledge found to date on Earth
and the extraterrestrial planets so far contacted. He didn't feel
justified in claiming to be strictly a research supervisor, either, in
spite of duties as top level administrator for all divisions of the
National Standardization and Research Laboratories and their
subsidiaries in government, industry, and education. During his term of
supervision the National Laboratories had made a tremendous growth, in
contrast to a previous decline.

Most of all, however, he disclaimed being a figurehead, to which all the
loose strings of a vast and rambling organization could be tied. But
sometimes it was quite diffi