Atlas Shrugged [111]
Nobody heard him or paid any attention. The young boy was watching Dagny with a kind of fierce, purposeless intensity.
"You're not afraid," he said to her suddenly, without explanation, a fiat statement in a brusque, lifeless voice that had a note of wonder.
She looked at him. "No," she said, "I'm not."
"I know who is John Galt," said the tramp. "It's a secret, but I know it."
"Who?" she asked without interest.
"An explorer," said the tramp. "The greatest explorer that ever lived. The man who found the fountain of youth."
"Give me another cup. Black," said the old bum, pushing his cup across the counter.
"John Galt spent years looking for it. He crossed oceans, and he crossed deserts, and he went down into forgotten mines, miles under the earth. But he found it on the top of a mountain. It took him ten years to climb that mountain. It broke every bone in his body, it tore the skin off his hands, it made him lose his home, his name, his love.
But he climbed it. He found the fountain of youth, which he wanted to bring down to men. Only he never came back."
"Why didn't he?" she asked.
"Because he found that it couldn't be brought down."
The man who sat in front of Rearden's desk had vague features and a manner devoid of all emphasis, so that one could form no specific image of his face nor detect the driving motive of his person. His only mark of distinction seemed to be a bulbous nose, a bit too large for the rest of him; his manner was meek, but it conveyed a preposterous hint, the hint of a threat deliberately kept furtive, yet intended to be recognized. Rearden could not understand the purpose of his visit. He was Dr. Potter, who held some undefined position with the State Science Institute.
"What do you want?" Rearden asked for the third time.
"It is the social aspect that I am asking you to consider, Mr.
Rearden," the man said softly, "I urge you to take note of the age we're living in. Our economy is not ready for it."
"For what?"
"Our economy is in a state of extremely precarious equilibrium. We all have to pool our efforts to save it from collapse."
"Well, what is it you want me to do?"
"These are the considerations which I was asked to call to your attention. I am from the State Science Institute, Mr. Rearden."
"You've said so before. But what did you wish to see me about?"
"The State Science Institute does not hold a favorable opinion of Rearden Metal."
"You've said that, too."
"Isn't that a factor which you must take into consideration?"
"No."
The light was growing dim in the broad windows of the office. The days were short. Rearden saw the irregular shadow of the nose on the man's cheek, and the pale eyes watching him; the glance was vague, but its direction purposeful.
"The State Science Institute represents the best brains of the country, Mr. Rearden."
"So I'm told."
"Surely you do not want to pit your own judgment against theirs?"
"I do."
The man looked at Rearden as if pleading for help, as if Rearden had broken an unwritten code which demanded that he should have understood long ago. Rearden offered no help.
"Is this all you wanted to know?" he asked.
"It's only a question of time, Mr. Rearden," the man said placatingly. "Just a temporary delay. Just to give our economy a chance to get stabilized. If you'd only wait for a couple of years-"
Rearden chuckled, gaily, contemptuously. "So that's what you're after? Want me to take Rearden Metal off the market? Why?"
"Only for a few years, Mr. Rearden. Only until-"
"Look," said Rearden. "Now I'll ask you a question: did your scientists decide that Rearden Metal is not what I claim it is?"
"We have not committed ourselves as to that."
"Did they decide it's no good?"
"It is the social impact of a product that must be considered. We are thinking in terms of the country as a whole, we are concerned with the public welfare and the terrible crisis of the present moment, which-"
"Is Rearden Metal good or not?"
"If we view the picture from the angle of the alarming growth of unemployment, which at present-"