try an analysis," he observed. "It would be silly to
try to do anything so complicated if I only need to identify
something. Which I hope is all I do need!"

He brought out an extremely small vacuum device. He cleaned the
garments he'd just removed, drawing every particle of dust from them.
The dust appeared in a transparent tube which was part of the machine.

"I was sprayed with something I suspect the worst of," he added. "The
spray left dust behind. I _think_ it made sure that anybody who left
Government Center would surely be a para. It's another reason for
haste."

The grid operator ground his teeth again. He did not really hear
Calhoun. He was deep in a private hell of shame and horror.

The inside of the ship was quiet, but it was not tranquil. Calhoun
worked calmly enough, but there were times when his inwards seemed to
knot and cramp him, which was not the result of any infection or
contagion or demoniac possession, but was reaction to thoughts of the
imprisoned para in the laboratory. That man had gobbled the
unspeakable because he could not help himself, but he was mad with
rage and shame over what he had become. Calhoun could become like
that--

* * * * *

The loud-speaker tuned to outside frequencies muttered again. Calhoun
turned up its volume.

"_Calling Headquarters_!" panted a voice. "_There's a mob of paras
forming in the streets in the Mooreton quarter! They're raging! They
heard the President's speech and they swear they'll kill him! They
won't stand for a cure! Everybody's got to turn para! They won't have
normals on the planet! Everybody's got to turn para or be killed!_"

The grid operator looked up at the speaker. The ultimate of bitterness
appeared on his face. He saw Calhoun's eyes on him and said savagely:

"That's where I belong!"

Murgatroyd headed straight for his cubbyhole and crawled into it.

Calhoun got out a microscope. He examined the dried glass plates from
the vacuum drier. The fractionator turned itself off and he focused on
and studied the slide it yielded. He inspected a sample of the dust
he'd gotten from the garments that had been sprayed at the south gate.
The dust contained common dust particles and pollen particles and
thread particles and all sorts of microscopic debris. But throughout
all the sample he saw certain infinitely tiny crystals. They were too
small to be seen separately by the naked eye, but they had a definite
crys