e aversion
to the smell of butyl mercaptan--even a modified butyl mercaptan--and
it was promptly discovered that no normal who had smelled wood smoke
became a para. So all the towns and even individual farmhouses would
hereafter make sure that there was pungent wood smoke to be smelled
from time to time by everybody.

But Calhoun did not wait for such pleasant news. He could not look for
gratitude. He'd burned part of the city. He'd forced paras to stop
being paras and become ashamed. And those who hadn't become paras
wanted desperately to forget the whole matter as soon as possible.
They couldn't, but gratitude to Calhoun would remind them. He took
appropriate action.

With the grid operator landed again, and after the grid was operable
once more and had sent the Med Ship a good five planetary diameters
into space--some few hours after the ship was in overdrive
again--Calhoun and Murgatroyd had coffee together. Murgatroyd
zestfully licked his emptied tiny mug, to get the last least taste of
the beverage. He said happily, "_Chee!_" He wanted more.

"Coffee," said Calhoun severely, "has become a habit with you,
Murgatroyd! If this abnormal appetite develops too far, you might
start yawning at me, which would imply that your desire for it was
uncontrollable. A yawn caused by what is called a yen has been known
to make a man dislocate his jaw. You might do that. You wouldn't like
it!"

Murgatroyd did not reply.

"You don't believe it, eh?" said Calhoun. Then he said: "Murgatroyd,
I'm going to spend odd moments all the rest of my life wondering about
what happens to Dr. Lett! They'll kill him, somehow. But I suspect
they'll be quite gentle with him. There's no way to imagine a
punishment that would really fit! Isn't that more interesting than
coffee?"

"_Chee! Chee! Chee!_" said Murgatroyd insistently.

"It wasn't wise to stay and try to make an ordinary public-health
inspection. We'll send somebody else when things are back to normal."

"_Chee!!!_" said Murgatroyd loudly.

"Oh, all right!" said Calhoun. "If you're going to be emotional about
it, pass you cup!"

He reached out his hand, Murgatroyd put his tiny mug in it. Calhoun
refilled it. Murgatroyd sipped zestfully.

The Med Ship _Esclipus Twenty_ went on in overdrive, back toward
sector headquarters of the Interstellar Medical Service.

* * * * *

End of Project Gutenberg's The Hate Disease, by William Fitzgera