The tunnel was open, and at 1:18 they passed through
* * *
Pusey was floodlit, carpeted, and vibrating with a disconcerting electronic hum. It also seemed completely empty. Not being Pusey habituees, they explored. At first the wide-open entrance doors and quietly blinking monitors got on their nerves, but at 2:30 they happened on a luxurious lounge area equipped with two cushioned chairs, a complete 15-volume Oxford English Dictionary, a picture window overlooking Pusey's under ground courtyard, and a Centrex phone. They used the Centrex for duty calls to several home bases and then relaxed It was time for some reading.
"You know, this is too easy. We could stay in Pusey all night."
"You're right--like cheating."
At 4:15 a.m. they pledged not to leave the stacks again.
* * *
Between 4:30 and dawn, five or six near-encounters with guards left them terrorized One of these guards had casually strolled up the corridor 10 feet from where Jack and Jill were sitting under a large carrel, backs against the wall and legs stretched out parallel with two concealing rows of books. Most of the guard activity, it seemed, took place on Levels One through Four, making it all but impossible to retrieve the books and candy Jack and Jill had left on Three. It remained unclear whether the guards always walk so briskly and purposefully or whether they had heard Jack and Jill and were looking for them.
Jack and Jill never found out for sure. But they hid behind stacks on D West, in carrel B-20 under the archives of the World Zionist Organization, and on C near Mass Ave (Educ 1028.2) In carrel B-20 after a prolonged skulk up to Level Two, they fell asleep and were awakened rudely at 5:45 by a radio.
A guard on A level or maybe One was moving around again to the tune of soft Latin rock. Jack and Jill were soon awake enough to get down to strategy. According to what they'd heard and the unexpected difficulty of staying hidden, the mass janitorial onslaught at 7 a.m. was going to be a serious problem. Bluntly put, if they tried to go upstairs they were probably dead. The noises increased upstairs. As the chances of actually making it to the 9 a.m. survival deadline improved. Jack and Jill, perversely, became more and more scared.
* * *
Things ended fast. At 7 a.m., doors seemed to open everywhere, and at least 30 janitors swooped in upstairs and started turning on lights, moving downward. "We're going to get squeezed out," Jill told Jack. "We'd better get down to D and delay it as long as possible."
D level has no carrels. They hunched over between two stacks, discussing their fast diminishing options. Jack wanted to play it bold and take the horrendously clanking elevator all the way up to Five--"It's like James Bond, it suits my image." Jill thought it was too dangerous. While they were debating it, the light suddenly went on in the stack next to them. Mindlessly, they hightailed it around the stack and managed to keep the obstacle between them and the janitor, who heard the racket but was able to catch only a glimpse of Jill on the way to the stairs. They switched stair-cases at C level and, out of habit, made for One and home base, which was still dark. Shortly thereafter, the same janitor came along snapping on lights and looked at them pretending to be asleep on desks. He said, "What are you doing here?" and added without waiting for an answer, "Come on with me, I'll let you out."
Jack and Jill trailed downstairs with him and waited while a couple of genial Cambridge cops scrutinized their bursar's cards and warned them never to get locked in again ("You take one of these guards by surprise in the night, he'll probably hit you with the first thing he sees"). One officer winked at Jack, patted him on the back a couple of times, and assured him that others had done the same thing before him.
They walked out the back door onto Mass Ave, checking their watches--7:21. Jack still thinks they would have made it if they had taken the elevator. Jill still thinks they would have made it if they had run upstairs three more floors and hidden in the men's room. But next time they want a serene and uninterrupted night of study, they'll try Grand Central Station.