Page:R U R Rossum s Universal Robots.pdf/155

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R. U. R.
133

Domin

[Wiping his forehead]: Perhaps we've been killed these hundred years and are only ghosts. It's as if I had been through all this before; as if I'd already had a mortal wound here in the throat. And you, Fabry, had once been shot in the head. And you, Gall, torn limb from limb. And Hallemeier knifed.

Hallemeier

Fancy me being knifed. [Pause.] Why are you so quiet, you fools? Speak, can't you?

Alquist

And who is to blame for all this?

Hallemeier

Nobody is to blame except the Robots.

Alquist

No, it is we who are to blame. You, Domin, myself, all of us. For our own selfish ends, for profit, for progress, we have destroyed mankind. Now we'll burst with all our greatness.

Hallemeier

Rubbish, man. Mankind can't be wiped out so easily.