240
VLADIMIR DUDINTSEV
but do you realize that time can stand still as well as
fly
at
terrific speed? Haven't you ever had to wait for your girl-friend
to turn up?"
"Yes, indeed," the chief said. "Time can crawl very
slowly."
"It can stand still too. Do you remember the story of the
scientists who succeeded in growing plants from lotus seeds that
had lain buried for two thousand years in a stone sepulchre?
Time had stood still for those seeds! Time can be arrested
as
well as pushed on!"
Saying this, he opened the slide rule and then jotted some–
thing down-he was still managing to do his work.
"I shall illustrate my statement with
.a
story which
you,
regardless of its moral, will find interesting."
And, as he began, he seemed to tum towards me as if
his
words were destined exclusively for my benefit.
"In a certain kingdom, in a certain state-in our own city,
to be exact, the following event came to pass some years ago.
On a Sunday, in one of the shadiest comers of the Park of
Culture there gathered some six or ten or, maybe, even a
hundred well-dressed men for the purpose of engaging
in
some
sort of conversation which they had decided to conduct in the
open air. It later became known that, in our Park, there
had
been held for a period of two hours a- what shall I call it-a
symposium of bandits and thieves who, as they themselves tenn
it, were bound by "law." These fellows have their own strict
rules. Any transgression is punishable by death. Those who are
"lawfully bound" must be vouched for by several sponsors.
Any
new member of the society must have a device tattooed on his
chest: just a few words to identify
him
at once as "one of them."
"What relation has this story to our theme of time?" the
chief softly inquired. "Or perhaps you have not yet finished?"
"I haven't finished. It's a very direct relation. I am
just
coming to the theme. The Congress of bandits, of the "law–
fully bound," pronounced
six
death sentences, five of which
