Chapter 5

 Dr. Hitz became rather severe with Wehling, towered over him. "You don't believe in population control, Mr. Wehling?" he said.

 

"I think it's perfectly¹ keen," said Wehling tautly².

 

"Would you like to go back to the good old days, when the population of the Earth was twenty billion—about to become forty billion, then eighty billion, then one hundred and sixty billion? Do you know what a drupelet is, Mr. Wehling?" said Hitz.

 

"Nope," said Wehling sulkily.

 

"A drupelet, Mr. Wehling, is one of the little knobs, one of the little pulpy³ grains of a blackberry," said Dr. Hitz. "Without population control, human beings would now be packed on this surface of this old planet like drupelets on a blackberry! Think of it!"

 

Wehling continued to stare at the same spot on the wall.

 

"In the year 2000," said Dr. Hitz, "before scientists stepped in and laid down the law, there wasn't even enough drinking water to go around, and nothing to eat but sea-weed—and still people insisted on their right to reproduce like jackrabbits. And their right, if possible, to live forever."

 

"I want those kids," said Wehling quietly. "I want all three of them."

 

"Of course you do," said Dr. Hitz. "That's only human."

 

"I don't want my grandfather to die, either," said Wehling.

 

"Nobody's really happy about taking a close relative to the Catbox," said Dr. Hitz gently, sympathetically.

 

"I wish people wouldn't call it that," said Leora Duncan.

 

"What?" said Dr. Hitz.

 

"I wish people wouldn't call it 'the Catbox,' and things like that," she said. "It gives people the wrong impression."

 

"You're absolutely right," said Dr. Hitz. "Forgive me." He corrected himself, gave the municipal gas chambers⁴ their official title, a title no one ever used in conversation. "I should have said, 'Ethical⁵ Suicide Studios,'" he said.

 

"That sounds so much better," said Leora Duncan.

 

"This child of yours—whichever one you decide to keep, Mr. Wehling," said Dr. Hitz. "He or she is going to live on a happy, roomy, clean, rich planet, thanks to population control. In a garden like that mural there." He shook his head. "Two centuries ago, when I was a young man, it was a hell that nobody thought could last another twenty years. Now centuries of peace and plenty stretch before us as far as the imagination cares to travel."

 

He smiled luminously⁶.

 

The smile faded as he saw that Wehling had just drawn⁷ a revolver.

 

Wehling shot Dr. Hitz dead. "There's room for one—a great big one," he said.

 

And then he shot Leora Duncan. "It's only death," he said to her as she fell. "There! Room for two."

 

And then he shot himself, making room for all three of his children.

 

Nobody came running. Nobody, seemingly, heard the shots.

 

The painter sat on the top of his stepladder, looking down reflectively on the sorry scene.

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

2 tautly   

adv.绷紧地；紧张地； 结构严谨地；紧凑地

参考例句：

• The rope was tautly stretched. 绳子拉得很紧。 来自互联网

3 pulpy   

果肉状的，多汁的，柔软的； 烂糊； 稀烂

参考例句：

• The bean like seeds of this plant, enclosed within a pulpy fruit. 被包在肉质果实内的这种植物的豆样种子。
• Her body felt bruised, her lips pulpy and tender. 她的身体感觉碰伤了，她的嘴唇柔软娇嫩。

4 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

5 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

6 luminously   

发光的； 明亮的； 清楚的； 辉赫

参考例句：

• an alarm clock with a luminous dial 夜光闹钟
• luminous hands on a clock 钟的夜光指针

7 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。