id that he'd invented
something. After beating all around the bush, he finally admitted that
his invention was a development of my little toy. He offered me a
million dollars if I'd keep my mouth shut and forget all about the
thing."

"And you accepted?" Elshawe asked incredulously.

"Certainly! I made him buy me a tax-paid annuity that pays me more than
enough to get by on. I don't want wealth, Mr. Elshawe--just comfort. And
that's why I gave it to him."

* * * * *

"I don't follow you."

"Let me tell you about Malcom Porter. He is one of that vast horde of
people who want to be _someone_. They want to be respected and looked up
to. But they either can't, or won't, take the time to learn the basics
of the field they want to excel in. The beautiful girl who wants to be
an actress without bothering to learn to act; the young man who wants to
be a judge without going through law school, or be a general without
studying military tactics; and Malcom Porter, the boy who wanted to be
a great scientist--but didn't want to take the trouble to learn
science."

Elshawe nodded. He was thinking of the "artists" who splatter up clean
canvas and call it "artistic self-expression." And the clodheads who
write disconnected, meaningless prose and claim that it's free verse.
The muddleminds who forget that Picasso learned to paint within the
strict limits of classical art before he tried new methods, and that
James Joyce learned to handle the English language well before he wrote
"Finnegan's Wake."

"On the other hand," Skinner continued, "I am ... well, rather a shy
man. As soon as Malcom told me what the device would do when it was
properly powered, I knew that there would be trouble. I am not a
fighter, Mr. Elshawe. I have no desire to spend time in prison or be
vilified in the news or called a crackpot by orthodox scientists.

"I don't want to fight Malcom's claim, Mr. Elshawe. Don't you see, he
_deserves_ the credit! In the first place, he recognized it for what it
was. If he hadn't, Heaven only knows how long it would have been before
someone rediscovered it. In the second place, he has fought and fought
hard to give it to humanity. He has suffered in prison and spent
millions of dollars to get the Polarizer into the hands of the United
States Government. He has, in fact, worked harder and suffered more than
if he'd taken the time and trouble to get a proper education. And it got
him what h