ith a curious new
malady, the symptoms of which were--youth.

OAKLAND "BABY-SKIN"
TOLL PASSES 10,000

blared the San Francisco _Examiner_. The New York _News_ found
thousands of cases in Brooklyn. A whole hospital in Dallas was
evacuated to make room for victims of the new plague.

And more.

We looked at each other.

"They're out in force," said Theobald Greco soberly. "And we don't
have the cure."

IV

The world was topsy-turvy, and in the middle of it Minnie disappeared,
talking hysterically about reporting us to the authorities. I don't
mind admitting that I was worried.

And the experiments were not progressing. The trouble seemed to be
that the two varieties of demons--the aging and the youthing--were not
compatible; if one took up residence in a given section of an
organism, the other moved out. The more numerous destroyed the weaker;
there was no balance. We tested it again and again in the mice and
there was no doubt of it.

So far, only the youthing demons were free. But when Minnie left us,
it was only a matter of time. Our carriers--from Grand Rapids and from
the hotel--had spread to California and the East Coast, to the North
and to the South, throughout the country, perhaps by now through the
world. It would be slower with the aging demons--there was only one
of Minnie--but it would be equally sure.

Greco began drinking heavily.

"It's the end," he brooded. "We're licked."

"No, Greek! We can't give up!"

"We _have_ to give up. The demons are loose in the Earth, Virgie!
Those people in the headlines--they'll die of young age. So will
others--even plants and animals, and bacteria, as the demons adapt to
them. And then--why not? The air. The rocks, the ocean, even the Earth
itself. Remember, the entropy of the Universe is supposed to tend to a
maximum not only as a whole, but in each of its parts taken in
isolation. The Earth's evolution--reversed. Spottily, and maybe that's
worse, because some parts will evolve forward and others reverse, as
is happening in my own body. Heaven help the world, Old Virgie! And
not just the Earth, because what can stop them from spreading? To the
Moon, the other planets--out of the Solar System, for that matter; to
the other galaxies, even. Why not? And then--"

"_GRECO._"

An enormous tinny voice, more than human, filled the air. It came from
outside.

I jumped a foot. It sounded like the voice of a demon; then I got a
grip on myself and understood