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Show 10 studies. Liller has been knocking in his humble way for all but two of^the nearly twenty years Robeck has known him; Robeck still remembers when the knock had changed. It had been aggressive when Liller had first come, almost offensive, as if the knock were intended to dislodge the occupant of a room rather than merely summon his attention; but when it had become apparent to all, and finally to Liller himself, that he would not assume Robeck's position as the head of the unit, the knock had become easier, less strident. But it had not become servile, and Robeck inferred from this that Liller had not actually wanted the position; he had somehow simply thought he ought to try to get it. Since Robeck's official retirement a dozen years ago, they have been intimate colleagues, and in the last three years have been working together on a study of overpopulation behavior in rats. Liller is almost two decades younger than Robeck, and sees this work in a wery different way. "Defending yourself again?" Liller asks, as he sees Robeck's new sheets at the top of the pile of manuscript. "Not from you," Robeck laughs. Liller knows about the Defense, and he knows what is to accompany it. But Liller is the only one of the staff who does know; Robeck had told him at a moment when he had to tell somebody, and has sworn him to a secrecy which he knows he will keep. "The rest of the world, then?" "Heroically," Robeck says. "Up to the end. It may be done quite soon." "Just the manuscript, I hope," Liller says, alarmed. Robeck laughs. "The act doesn't happen until the word has gone forth," he says pontifically, "and publication will take another month or two." |