the period, I shall ask them, as a personal
favor, not to discuss the matter outside."

Whitburn didn't take the hint. Instead, he paced back and forth,
storming about the reporter, the newspaper owner, whoever had given
the story to the paper, and finally Chalmers himself. He was livid
with rage.

"You certainly can't imagine that when you made those remarks in class
you actually possessed any knowledge of a thing that was still a month
in the future," he spluttered. "Why, it's ridiculous! Utterly
preposterous!"

"Unusual, I'll admit. But the fact remains that I did. I should, of
course, have been more careful, and not confused future with past
events. The students didn't understand...."

Whitburn half-turned, stopping short.

"My God, man! You _are_ crazy!" he cried, horrified.

The period-bell was ringing as he left Whitburn's office; that meant
that the twenty-three students were scattering over the campus,
talking like mad. He shrugged. Keeping them quiet about a thing like
this wouldn't have been possible in any case. When he entered his
office, Stanly Weill was waiting for him. The lawyer drew him out into
the hallway quickly.

"For God's sake, have you been talking to the papers?" he demanded.
"After what I told you...."

"No, but somebody has." He told about the call to Whitburn's office,
and the latter's behavior. Weill cursed the college president
bitterly.

"Any time you want to get a story in the _Valley Times_, just order
Frank Tighlman not to print it. Well, if you haven't talked, don't."

"Suppose somebody asks me?"

"A reporter, no comment. Anybody else, none of his damn business. And
above all, don't let anybody finagle you into making any claims about
knowing the future. I thought we had this under control; now that
it's out in the open, what that fool Whitburn'll do is anybody's
guess."

Leonard Fitch met him as he entered the Faculty Club, sizzling with
excitement.

"Ed, this has done it!" he began, jubilantly. "This is one nobody can
laugh off. It's direct proof of precognition, and because of the
prominence of the event, everybody will hear about it. And it simply
can't be dismissed as coincidence...."

"Whitburn's trying to do that."

"Whitburn's a fool if he is," another man said calmly. Turning, he saw
that the speaker was Tom Smith, one of the math professors. "I figured
the odds against that being chance. There are a lot of variables that
might affect it one way or anot