supervision. They were laying a rough board floor over the tarred cement. As he shielded his eyes from the bright glare a third man came up the stairs behind him, carrying two sections of wooden railing.
‘Sorry about the noise, Mr Renthall,’ Mulvaney apologized. ‘We should be finished by tomorrow.’
‘What’s going on?’ Renthall asked. ‘Surely you’re not putting a sun garden here.’
‘That’s the idea.’ Mulvaney pointed to the railings. ‘A few chairs and umbrellas, be pleasant for the old folk. Dr Clifton suggested it.’ He peered down at Renthall, who was still hiding in the doorway. ‘You’ll have to bring a chair up here yourself, you look as if you could use a little sunshine.’
Renthall raised his eyes to the watch-tower almost directly over their heads. A pebble tossed underhand would easily have rebounded off the corrugated metal underside. The roof was completely exposed to the score of watch-towers hanging in the air around them, and he wondered whether Mulvaney was out of his mind — none of the old people would sit there for more than a second.
Mulvaney pointed to a roof-top on the other side of the garden, where similar activity was taking place. A bright yellow awning was being unfurled, and two seats were already occupied.
Renthall hesitated, lowering his voice. ‘But what about the watchtowers?’
‘The what—?’ Distracted by one of the carpenters, Mulvaney turned away for a moment, then rejoined him. ‘Yes, you’ll be able to watch everything going on from up here, Mr Renthall.’
Puzzled, Renthall made his way back to his room. Had Mulvaney misheard his question, or was this a fatuous attempt to provoke the towers? Renthall grimly visualized his responsibility if a whole series of petty acts of defiance took place. Perhaps he had accidentally tapped all the repressed resentment that had been accumulating for years?
To Renthall’s amazement, a succession of creaking ascents of the staircase the next morning announced the first party of residents to use the sun deck. Just before lunch Renthall went up to the roof, found a group of at least a dozen of the older guests sitting out below the watch-tower, placidly inhaling the cool air. None of them seemed in the least perturbed by the tower. At two or three points around the crescent sun-bathers had emerged, as if answering some deep latent call. People sat on makeshift porches or leaned from the sills, calling to each other.
Equally surprising was the failure of this upsurge of activity to be followed by any reaction from the watch- towers. Half-hidden behind his blinds, Renthall scrutinized the towers carefully, once caught what seemed to be a distant flicker of movement from an observation window half a mile away, but otherwise the towers remained silent, their long ranks receding to the horizon in all directions, motionless and enigmatic. The haze had thinned slightly, and the long shafts protruded further from the sky, their outlines darker and more vibrant.
Shortly before lunch Hanson interrupted his scrutiny. ‘Hello, Charles. Great news! The school opens tomorrow. Thank heaven for that, I was getting so bored I could hardly stand up straight.’
Renthall nodded. ‘Good. What’s galvanized them into life so suddenly?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. I suppose they had to reopen some time. Aren’t you pleased?’
‘Of course. Am I still on the staff?’
‘Naturally. The Council doesn’t bear childish grudges. They might have sacked you a week ago, but things are different now.’
‘What do you mean?’
Hanson scrutinized Renthall carefully. ‘I mean the school’s opened. What is the matter, Charles?’
Renthall went over to the window, his eyes roving along the lines of sun-bathers on the roofs. He waited a few seconds in case there was some sign of activity from the watch-towers.
‘When’s the Watch Committee going to hear my case?’
Hanson shrugged. ‘They won’t bother now. They know you’re a tougher proposition than some of the people they’ve been pushing around. Forget the whole thing.’
‘But I don’t want to forget it. I want the hearing to take place. Damn it, I deliberately invented the whole business of the fte to force them to show their hand. Now they’re furiously back-pedalling.’
‘Well, what of it? Relax, they have their difficulties too.’ He gave a laugh. ‘You never know, they’d probably be only too glad of an invitation now.’
‘They won’t get one. You know, I almost feel they’ve outwitted me. When the fte doesn’t take place everyone will assume I’ve given in to them.’
‘But it will take place. Haven’t you seen Boardman recently? He’s going great guns, obviously it’ll be a tremendous show. Be careful he doesn’t cut you out.’
Puzzled, Renthall turned from the window. ‘Do you mean Boardman’s going ahead with it?’
‘Of course. It looks like it anyway. He’s got a big marquee over the car park, dozens of stalls, bunting everywhere.’
Renthall drove a fist into his palm. ‘The man’s insane!’ He turned to Hanson. ‘We’ve got to be careful, something’s going on. I’m convinced the Council are just biding their time, they’re deliberately letting the reins go so we’ll overreach ourselves. Have you seen all these people on the roof-tops? Sun-bathing!’
‘Good idea. Isn’t that what you’ve wanted all along?’
‘Not so blatantly as this.’ Renthall pointed to the nearest watch-tower. The windows were sealed, but the light reflected off them was far brighter than usual. ‘Sooner or later there’ll be a short, sharp reaction. That’s what the Council are waiting for.’
‘It’s nothing to do with the Council. If people want to sit on the roof whose business is it but their own? Are you coming to lunch?’
‘In a moment.’ Renthall stood quietly by the window, watching Hanson closely. A possibility he had not previously envisaged crossed his mind. He searched for some method of testing it. ‘Has the gong gone yet? My watch has stopped.’
Hanson glanced at his wristwatch. ‘It’s twelve-thirty.’ He looked out through the window towards the clock tower in the distance over the Town Hall. One of Renthall’s long-standing grievances against his room was that the tip of the nearby watch-tower hung directly over the clock-face, neatly obscuring it. Hanson nodded, re-setting his watch. ‘Twelve-thirty-one. I’ll see you in a few minutes.’
After Hanson had gone Renthall sat on the bed, his courage ebbing slowly, trying to rationalize this unforeseen development.
The next day he came across his second case.
Boardman surveyed the dingy room distastefully, puzzled by the spectacle of Renthall hunched up in his chair by the window.
‘Mr Renthall, there’s absolutely no question of cancelling it now. The fair’s as good as started already. Anyway, what would be the point?’
‘Our arrangement was that it should be a fte,’ Renthall pointed out. ‘You’ve turned it into a fun-fair, with a lot of stalls and hurdy-gurdies.’
Unruffled by Renthall’s schoolmasterly manner, Boardman scoffed. ‘Well, what’s the difference? Anyway, my real idea is to roof it over and turn it into a permanent amusement park. The Council won’t interfere. They’re playing it quiet now.’
‘Are they? I doubt it.’ Renthall looked down into the garden. People sat about in their shirt sleeves, the women in floral dresses, evidently oblivious of the watch-towers filling the sky a hundred feet above their heads. The haze had receded still further, and at least two hundred yards of shaft were now visible. There were no signs of activity from the towers, but Renthall was convinced that this would soon begin.
‘Tell me,’ he asked Boardman in a clear voice. ‘Aren’t you frightened of the watch-towers?’
Boardman seemed puzzled. ‘The what towers?’ He made a spiral motion with his cigar. ‘You mean the big slide? Don’t worry, I’m not having one of those, nobody’s got the energy to climb all those steps.’
He stuck his cigar in his mouth and ambled to the door. ‘Well, so long, Mr Renthall. I’ll send you an invite.’
Later that afternoon Renthall went to see Dr Clifton in his room below. ‘Excuse me, Doctor,’ he apologized, ‘but would you mind seeing me on a professional matter?’
‘Well, not here, Renthall, I’m supposed to be off-duty.’ He turned from his canary cages by the window with a testy frown, then relented when he saw Renthall’s intent expression. ‘All right, what’s the trouble?’
While Clifton washed his hands Renthall explained. ‘Tell me, Doctor, is there any mechanism known to you by which the simultaneous hypnosis of large groups of people could occur? We’re all familiar with theatrical displays of
