The Men Who Wouldn't Talk, also known as Pigeon English, is a mystery short story by Isaac Asimov.
Part of the Union Club series, it was first published in the November 1980 issue of Gallery magazine. Later collected in The Union Club Mysteries.
Summary[]
At the Union Club, Griswold recounts a story about his friend, a penologist named George Plumb. Plumb specialized in preventing prison riots by identifying and transferring the inmate leaders who orchestrated them. He was consulted by a prison where tensions were high and a riot seemed imminent, yet the warden and guards could not identify any single leader among the inmates.
Plumb explained that the prisoners' code of silence made it impossible to get anyone to talk, even those who were afraid of violence. He interviewed many prisoners, including an intelligent, well-educated man working in the library who was serving a short term for fraud. This man was humiliated by his incarceration and avoided the other inmates. During his interview, he remained largely silent, only speaking at the end to say, "No, I haven't. It was Greek to me," in a deliberately insolent tone.
Frustrated, Plumb told Griswold about the failure. Griswold, focusing on the librarian's specific phrase, recognized it as a quotation from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, spoken by the conspirator Casca. Reasoning that the educated librarian was using this quote to secretly communicate the leader's name, Griswold examined the prison roster. He found an inmate named Benny W. Kasker, a name resembling "Casca." Kasker was an intelligent, unscrupulous prisoner serving a life sentence. Griswold identified him as the likely leader. Kasker was transferred, the riot was averted, and the librarian was quietly rewarded with a pardon and an expunged record after his release.
Characters[]
- Griswold
- Club Member (the narrator)
- Baranov
- Jennings
- George Plumb
- The Prison Librarian
- Benny W. Kasker
- The Prison Guards
Historical Figures Mentioned[]
- Napoleon
- Lenin
- Hitler
- George Washington
- George Washington
- Philip of Macedon
- Philip of Macedon
- Alexander the Great
- Cicero
- Casca
- Shakespeare