Lest Darkness Fall Read Online Free PDF Page B

copied down the figures and began checking
grimly. When after a long time he finished, he threw down his stylus.
"That man's a sorcerer of some sort," he growled. "He does the
operations in his head, and puts down all those silly marks just to fool
us."
     
                "Not at all," said
Padway urbanely. "I can teach you to do the same."
     
                "What? Me take
lessons from a long-trousered barbarian? I —" he started to say more, but
Thomasus cut him off by saying that he'd do as he was told, and no back talk.
"Is that so?" sneered the man. "I'm a free Roman citizen, and
I've been keeping books for twenty years. I guess I know my business. If you
want a man to use that heathen system, go buy yourself some cringing Greek
slave. I'm through!"
     
                "Now see what you've
done!" cried Thomasus when the clerk had taken his coat off the peg and
marched out. "I shall have to hire another man, and with this labor
shortage —"
     
                "That's all
right," soothed Padway. "These two boys will be able to do all the
work of three easily, once they learn American arithmetic. And that isn't all;
we have something called double-entry bookkeeping, which enables you to tell
any time how you stand financially, and to catch errors —"
     
                "Do You hear that, God?
He wants to turn the whole banking business upside down! Please, dear sir, one
thing at a time; or you'll drive us mad! I'll grant your loan, I'll help you
buy your equipment. Only don't spring any more of your revolutionary methods
just now!" He continued more calmly: "What's that bracelet I see you
looking at from time to time?"
     
                Padway extended his wrist.
"It's a portable sundial, of sorts. We call it a watch."
     
                "A vatcha , hm?
It looks like magic. Are you sure you aren't a sorcerer after all?" He
laughed nervously.
     
                "No," said Padway.
"It's a simple mechanical device, like a — a water clock."
     
                "Ah. I see. But why a
pointer to show sixtieths of an hour? Surely nobody in his right mind would
want to know the time as closely as that?"
     
                "We find it
useful."
     
                "Oh, well, other lands,
other customs. How about giving my boys a lesson in your American arithmetic
now? Just to assure us that it is as good as you claim."
     
                "All right. Give me a
tablet." Padway scratched the numerals 1 to 9 in the wax, and explained
them. "Now," he said, "this is the important part." He drew
a circle. "This is our character meaning nothing ."
     
                The younger clerk scratched
his head. "You mean it's a symbol without meaning? What would be the use
of that?"
     
                "I didn't say it was
without meaning. It means nil, zero — what you have left when you take two away
from two."
     
                The older clerk looked
skeptical. "It doesn't make sense to me. What is the use of a symbol for
what does not exist?"
     
                "You have a word for it, haven't you? Several words, in fact. And you find them useful, don't
you?"
     
                "I suppose so,"
said the older clerk. "But we don't use nothing in our calculations.
Whoever heard of figuring the interest on a loan at no per cent? Or renting a
house for no weeks?"
     
                "Maybe," grinned
the younger clerk, "the honorable sir can tell us how to make a profit on
no sales —"
     
                Padway snapped: "And
we'll get through this explanation sooner with no interruptions. You'll learn
the reason for the zero symbol soon enough."
     
                It took an hour to cover the
elements of addition. Then Padway said the clerks had had enough for one day;
they should practice addition for a while every day until they could do it
faster than by Roman numerals.