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.This time he added the attempt on his own life at thebaby farm.Leebig said impatiently, "I suppose that was managed by having one robotpoison an arrow without knowing it was using poison, and having a second robothand the poisoned arrow to the boy after telling him that you were anEarthman, without its knowing that the arrow was poisoned.""Something like that.Both robots would be completely instructed.""Very farfetched," said Leebig.Quemot was pale and looked as though he might be sick at any moment."NoSolarian could possibly use robots to harm a human.""Maybe so," said Baley with a shrug, "but the point is that robots can be somanipulated.Ask Dr.Leebig.He is the roboticist."Leebig said, "It does not apply to the murder of Dr.Delmarre.I told you thatyesterday.How can anyone arrange to have a robot smash a man's skull?""Shall I explain how?""Do so if you can."Baley said, "It was a new-model robot that Dr.Delmarre was testing.Thesignificance of that wasn't plain to me until last evening, when I hadoccasion to say to a robot, in asking for his help in rising out of a chair,'Give me a hand!' The robot looked at his own hand in confusion as though hethought he was expected to detach it and give it to me.I had to repeat myorder less idiomatically.But it reminded me of something Dr.Leebig had toldme earlier that day.There was experimentation among robots with replaceablelimbs."Suppose this robot that Dr.Delmarre had been testing was one such, capableof using any of a number of interchangeable limbs of various shapes fordifferent kinds of specialized tasks.Suppose the murderer knew this andsuddenly said to the robot, 'Give me your arm.' The robot would detach its armand give it to him.The detached arm would make a splendid weapon.With Dr.Delmarre dead, it could be snapped back into place."Stunned horror gave way to a babble of objection as Baley talked.His lastsentence had to be shouted, and, even so, was all but drowned Out.Attlebish, face flushed, raised himself from his chair and stepped forward."Even if what you say is so, then Mrs.Delmarre is the murderess.She wasthere, she quarreled with him, she would be watch-ing her husband working with the robot, and would know of the replaceable-limbsituation-which I don't believe, by the way.No matter what you do, Earthman,everything points to her."Gladia began to weep softly.Baley did not look at her.He said, "On the contrary, it is easy to show that,whoever committed the murder, Mrs.Delmarre did not.Jothan Leebig suddenly folded his arms and allowed an expression of contemptto settle on his face.Baley caught that and said, "You'll help me do so, Dr.Leebig.As aroboticist, you know that maneuvering robots into actions such as indirectmurder takes enormous skill.I had occasion yesterday to try to put anindividual under house arrest.I gave three robots detailed instructionsintended to keep this individual safe.It was a simple thing, but I am aclumsy man with robots.There were loopholes in my instructions and myprisoner escaped.""Who was the prisoner?" demanded Attlebish."Beside the point," said Baley impatiently."What is the point is the factthat amateurs can't handle robots well.And some Solarians may be prettyamateurish as Solarians go.For instance, what does Gladia Delmarre know aboutrobotics?.Well, Dr.Leebig?"Page 103ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"What?" The roboticist stared."You tried to teach Mrs.Delmarre robotics.What kind of a pupil was she? Didshe learn anything?"Leebig looked about uneasily."She didn't." and stalled."She was completely hopeless, wasn't she? Or would you prefer not to answer?"Leebig said stiffly, "She might have pretended ignorance.""Are you prepared to say, as a roboticist, that you think Mrs.Delmarre issufficiently skilled to drive robots to indirect murder?""How can I answer that?""Let me put it another way.Whoever tried to have me killed at the baby farmmust have had to locate me by using interrobot communications.After all, Itold no human where I was going and only the robots who conveyed me from pointto point knew of my whereabouts.My partner, Daneel Olivaw, managed to traceme later in the day, but only with considerable difficulty.The murderer, onthe other hand, must have done it easily, since, in addition to locating me,he had to arrange for arrow poisoning and arrow shooting, all before Ileft the farm and move~1 on.Would Mrs.Delniarre have the skill to do that?"Corwin Attlebish leaned forward."Who do you suggest would have the necessaryskill, Earthman?"Baley said, "Dr.Jothan Leebig is self-admittedly the best robot man on theplanet.""Is that an accusation?" cried Leebig."Yes!" shouted Baley.The fury in Leebig's eyes faded slowly.It was replaced not by calm, exactly,but by a kind of clamped-down tension.He said, "I studied theDelmarre robot after the murder.It had no detachable limbs.At least, theywere detachable only in the usual sense of requiring special tools and experthandling.So the robot wasn't the weapon used in killing Delmarre and you haveno argument."Baley said, "Who else can vouch for the truth of your statement?""My word is not to be questioned.""It is here.I'm accusing you, and your unsupported word concerning the robotis valueless.If someone else will bear you out, that would be different.Incidentally, you disposed of that robot quickly.Why?""There was no reason to keep it.It was completely disorganized.It wasuseless.""Why?"Leebig shook his finger at Baley and said violently, "You asked me that oncebefore, Earthman, and I told you why.It had witnessed a murder which it hadbeen powerless to stop.""And you told me that that always brought about complete collapse; that thatwas a universal rule.Yet when Gruer was poisoned, the robot that hadpresented him with the poisoned drink was harmed only to the extent of a limpand a lisp.It had actually itself been the agent of what looked like murderat the moment, and not merely a witness, and yet it retained enough sanity tobe questioned."This robot, the robot in the Delmarre case, must therefore have been stillmore intimately concerned with murder than the Gruer robot.ThisDelmarre robot must have had its own arm used as the murder weapon.""All nonsense," gasped out Leebig."You know nothing about robotics."Baley said, "That's as may be.But I will suggest that Security HeadAttlebish impound the records of your robot factory and maintenance shop.Perhaps we can find out whether you have built robots with detachable limbsand, if so, whether any were sent to Dr.Delmarre, and, if so, when.""No one will tamper with my records," cried Leebig."Why? If you have nothing to hide, why?""But why on Solaria should I want to kill Delmarre? Tell me that.What's mymotive?"Page 104ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"I can think of two," said Baley."You were friendly with Mrs.Delmarre.Overly friendly.Solarians are human, after a fashion [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]