more he found himself in the office late at night. Alone.
Poring over the lab reports that had come in that afternoon, turning
them over in his mind and hoping, he supposed, for a nice intuitive
flash, free of charge.

As a matter of fact the analysis of the vaccine he'd lifted from
Wilcox's dispensary was not without significance. There was definitely
an extraneous substance. The only question was just what this substance
might be. Take a little longer to find that out, the report said.

It made Pell think of the corny sign World Government officials always
had on their desks, the one about doing the difficult right away and
taking a little longer for the impossible. Some day, when he was a
big-shot, he would have a sign on his desk saying: _Why make things
difficult when with even less effort you can make them impossible?_ Of
course, ideas like that were probably the very reason he'd never be a
big-shot....

The Identifier humming. Someone coming again.

He looked up, and then had the curious feeling of being jerked back in
time to several nights ago. Chief Larkin and Theodor Rysland entered.

"Hello, Dick," said Larkin, with a touch of studied democracy. He
glanced at the government adviser as if to say: _See? Knew we'd find him
here._

Pell made a sour face. "Some day I'm going to stop giving all this free
overtime. Some day I'm not going to show up at all."

Rysland smiled, dislodging some of the rock strata of his curiously pale
face. He seemed a little weary this evening. He moved slowly and with
even more than his usual dignity. He said, "I hope, Mr. Pell, that
you'll wait at least until you finish this job for us. I understand
you've made some progress."

Pell shrugged and gestured at the lab report. "Progress, maybe--but I
don't know how far. Just a bunch of new puzzles to be perfectly frank."

Rysland sat down at the other desk and drummed on it with his
fingertips. He looked at Pell gravely. "As a matter of fact, since we
last talked to you the situation has become even more urgent. A
Supremist congressman introduced a bill today before the world delegates
which may prove very dangerous. Perhaps you know the one I refer to."

"I was too busy to follow the news today," said Pell, looking
meaningfully at Larkin.

Larkin didn't seem to notice.

Rysland said, "I'll brief you then. The bill purports to prohibit
material aid of any kind to a non-Terran government. That means both
credit and goods. A