Charles Sheffield - The Amazing Dr. Darwin

“Professor Riker is a man of outstanding talent.”

“I would go beyond that.” Darwin stood up from his chair and walked across to the engine. “This machine displays genius. One might even say it contains genius. Do you know the names of Jedediah Buxton, or George Lambert Walker?”

“They are new to me.”

“They should not be. You have much in common with them. But one thing about this engine puzzles me more than any other.”

“Indeed?” Marйe’s tone was completely neutral, but he had stopped carving. “I am afraid that an explanation must await Professor Riker’s return.”

“I am not sure of that. You see, Monsieur Marйe, my question has nothing to do with the interior workings of the engine. It is something far more mundane.”

The other remained silent.

“It is simply this,” Darwin continued. “When the engine was brought to Newlands, it needed two servants to carry it to and from the carriage. But when Professor Riker left the Solborne house to bring the machine here, he was alone. The professor is not a man of powerful build. I wondered how it was possible for him, single-handed, to unload an engine heavy enough to need the efforts of two strong young men.”

“I helped him.” Marйe was totally still.

“I feel sure that you did. In more ways than one.” Darwin took hold of one corner of the calculating engine and lifted. It raised easily from the floor. “You helped to carry it, but more than that: you diminished its weight, from a hundredweight and more to less than half of that. By the amount, in fact, of your own weight.”

Again, Marйe’s eyes showed that rapid evaluation and decision was going on behind them. The final shrug of his shoulders suggested that he did not care any more. He raised the carving knife, but only to spear slices of mutton and drop them onto the two plates.

“How much do you know— Dr. Darwin ? I think you will agree that it gives away nothing to admit that I realize who you are.”

“Nothing at all. One might say, in some sense, we were introduced to each other earlier this evening. Would you do me the honor of showing me the inner working of your invention?—I assume that it is all yours.”

“Totally. Design and fabrication. Anton Riker is a brave man, and a good actor, but nothing more.” Elie Marйe hopped off his chair and went to crouch by the calculating engine. He pressed a concealed stud in the base, and the lower section slid open across its whole length like a drawer. “As you see. The levers here, that can be read off below as they are moved above. The type here, to print answers.”

“Just so. But the provision of those arithmetical answers, Monsieur?”

Marйe did not speak, but tapped his forehead.

Darwin nodded. “As I thought. I did not mention Jedediah Buxton and George Walker for no reason. They, like you, are phenomenal calculators, capable of feats of mentation far beyond most men. Unlike you, they lack the power of original engineering design.” He leaned forward, examining the cavity at the base of the engine. “It is padded, but most cramped. Long hours inside must be uncomfortable.”

“Believe me, Dr. Darwin, I am used to discomfort. The life of a dwarf is not all pleasure.” For the first time, Marйe’s voice betrayed emotion. He gestured to the engine. “Do you wish to see how I lie inside? It is a tight fit—even for a little man.”

“That is not necessary. Come, eat your dinner. You have more than deserved it.”

“I am not sure that I have appetite.” But Marйe closed the drawer and returned to the table. “What now, Dr. Darwin? You know my secret. You can easily expose me, and destroy my livelihood. You will surely not permit our other activities in England to continue. Whatever happens, I have no future.”

Rather than answering at once, Darwin reached for a slice of mutton and began to chew on it moodily.

“There are other mysteries,” he said at last. “It is not my purpose to cause you pain, but I do not understand why you follow such a life. You have great gifts, that is obvious. You have used them, too, but for deception. And you are here, in a foreign land, living with discomfort and uncertainty and danger—for you must know the consequences if your role in assisting a revolt in France were to be discovered. Why not use your powers openly, to do what you do so well?”

Despite his stated lack of interest in food, Elie Marйe had begun to eat. He was picking at the cauliflower, breaking off pieces with his fingers. “What would be easy for another is not easy for me. May I tell a story, Dr. Darwin?”

“Whatever you wish, sir.”

“I am twenty-seven years old. The life span of one such as I is not long—perhaps forty years. I do not complain of that. Christ and Alexander had fewer years to accomplish their work. But with the knowledge of short life, I am perhaps too impatient. I have always had a talent for engineering invention. Two years ago I had what seemed like a most valuable idea. As you know, water power increasingly runs our spinning wheels and looms. But there is a problem in controlling the machinery to operate at a constant speed when the water flow varies.

“I have solved that problem. I place spring-loaded weights on the perimeter of the driven wheel. They move outward under centrifugal force as the spin increases, return inward as it decreases. Their changing position adjusts the water flow, according as the weights are farther from or nearer to the center. In this way, we can precisely govern and make constant the speed of the wheel, without human intervention. Do you follow?”

“I do, completely. It is most ingenious, and must be of vast value.”

“I thought so. In fact, I was so convinced of its worth that I sought an audience with his Majesty, King Louis. I was quite prepared to offer my invention, without personal reward, for the good of France. But I made a fatal mistake. I was sure that King and Court would immediately grasp the significance of what I had done—as you did. The king, after all, has a reputation as a skilled locksmith. I did not think that a large working model would be necessary. Now I realize that I ought to have controlled some giant wheel on the Seine or the Loire River, to demonstrate an impressive mastery over Nature.

“But I did not. Instead, I brought to the Palace of Versailles a small scale model, without the means to drive it. I cannot describe my excitement as I waited in the antechamber for my audience. I had rehearsed a thousand times what I would say to the king.

“It was all in vain. I was lost as soon as I entered the door of the royal chamber, my model in my arms. A score of people were with the king, men and women both. I heard them titter and giggle and remark to each other as I came forward.” Marйe’s voice became bitter. “To them I was not an inventor, Dr. Darwin, seeking to serve France. I was not even a man. I was a freak, a walking joke, a parody of humanity carrying in his arms a child’s toy.

“I began my explanation, stammering and lame-tongued. The king was not listening, he was too distracted by his jesting courtiers. One of the gowned women said, with no attempt to keep the words from my ears, ‘How does he propose to drive the little wheel? Piss on it, with his teeny-weeny little thing?’

“I stopped. The king waved a hand. I was ushered out. It was over, the end of my great audience.”

Darwin nodded slowly. “Monsieur Marйe, I understand the magnitude of your tragedy too well to offer sympathy. So let me instead ask two questions. First, would your ‘speed governor’ work as well to regulate the flow of steam?”

Marйe frowned at the sudden change of subject. “I do not see why not. But I know little about steam power, although here in England it is much talked about.”