The story is epistolary in nature, taking the form of a scientist's journal entry. The scientist is a member of a race of air-driven mechanical beings. The race obtains air from swappable lungs filled with pressurized air (argon) from underground. When it is realized that a number of clocks simultaneously appear to be running fast but they do not appear to be malfunctioning, the narrator decides to explore the explanation that people's brains are computing slower. The scientist dissects their own brain and discovers that it operates based on the movement of air through gold leaves. The scientist hypothesizes that others' brains are computing slower because rising atmospheric pressure causes air to pass through the leaves at a slower rate, and that the subterranean supply of argon will eventually be depleted, equalizing the pressure between the two atmospheres.
The fact that Atticus takes this case so seriously is disgraceful to most of the citizens of Maycomb. There is an onslaught of rumors and insults being hurled at both him and his children.
I think its: But what else could we do? We could not give her those glib assurances that naive souls make so easily to others concerning their after state.
