a rather smelly
laboratory.

There was the Greek. Tall, thin, wide-eyed and staggering, he
appeared to be chasing butterflies.

I cleared my throat, but he didn't hear me. He was racing around the
laboratory, gasping and muttering to himself, sweeping at empty air
with what looked to me like an electric toaster on a stick. I looked
again and, no, it wasn't an electric toaster, but exactly what it was
defied me. It appeared to have a recording scale on the side of it,
with a needle that flickered wildly.

I couldn't see what he was chasing.

The fact was that, as far as I could see, he wasn't chasing anything
at all.

You have to get the picture: Here was Greco, racing around with one
eye on the scale and one eye on thin air; he kept bumping into things,
and every now and then he'd stop, and stare around at the gadgets on
the lab benches, and maybe he'd throw a switch or turn a dial, and
then he'd be off again.

He kept it up for ten minutes and, to tell you the truth, I began to
wish that I'd made some better use of Pudge Detweiler's cab fare. The
Greek looked as though he'd flipped, nothing less.

But there I was. So I waited.

And by and by he seemed to get whatever it was he was looking for and
he stopped, breathing heavily.

I said, "Hi there, Greek."

He looked up sharply. "Oh," he said, "Old Virgie."

He slumped back against a table, trying to catch his breath.

"The little devils," he panted. "They must have thought they'd got
away that time. But I fixed them!"

"Sure you did," I said. "You bet you did. Mind if I come in?"

He shrugged. Ignoring me, he put down the toaster on a stick, flipped
some switches and stood up. A whining sound dwindled and disappeared;
some flickering lights went out. Others remained on, but he seemed to
feel that, whatever it was he was doing, it didn't require his
attention now.

In his own good time, he came over and we shook hands. I said
appreciatively, "Nice-looking laboratory you have here, Greek. I don't
know what the stuff is for, but it looks expen--it looks very
efficient."

He grunted. "It is. Both. Expensive and efficient."

I laughed. "Say," I said, "you were pretty loaded last night. Know
what you told me you were doing here?"

He looked up quickly. "What?"

"You said you were in transmutation." I laughed harder than ever.

* * * * *

He stared at me thoughtfully, and for a second I thought--well, I
don't know w