o myself."

The reporter remained dead-pan. "For instance?"

"Well, I have to choose something that won't reveal how it's done now,
but--ah--for example, a way of cheaply mass-producing specific
antitoxins against any germ. It sounds harmless if you don't think
about it, but actually it would make germ warfare the most deadly and
inexpensive weapon yet developed, for it would make it possible to
prevent the backspread of contagion into a country's own troops,
without much expense. There would be hell to pay if anyone ever let
that out." Then he had added, trying to get the reporter to understand
enough to change his cynical unimpressed expression, "You understand,
germs are cheap--there would be a new plague to spread every time
some pipsqueak biologist mutated a new germ. It isn't even expensive
or difficult, as atom bombs are."

The headline was: "Scientist Refuses to Give Secret of Weapon to
Government."

* * * * *

Government men came and asked him if this was correct, and on having
it confirmed pointed out that he had an obligation. The research
foundations where he had worked were subsidized by government money.
He had been deferred from military service during his early years of
study and work so he could become a scientist, instead of having to
fight or die on the battlefield.

"This might be so," he had said. "I am making an attempt to serve
mankind by doing as much good and as little damage as possible. If you
don't mind, I'd rather use my own judgment about what constitutes
service."

The statement seemed too blunt the minute he had said it, and he
recognized that it had implications that his judgment was superior to
that of the government. It probably was the most antagonizing thing
that could have been said, but he could see no other possible
statement, for it represented precisely what he thought.

[Illustration]

There were bigger headlines about that interview, and when he
stepped outside his building for lunch the next day, several small
gangs of patriots arrived with the proclaimed purpose of persuading
him to tell. They fought each other for the privilege.

The police had rescued him after he had lost several front teeth and
had one eye badly gouged. They then left him to the care of the prison
doctor in protective custody. Two days later, after having been
questioned several times on his attitude toward revealing the parts of
his research he had kept secre