ng around sniffing like bloodhounds. And _now_ we're finding
out what a thorough job we did. We can't crack it, Ellie. We can't even
get a toe hold. Those antibodies are just doing too good a job."

"Well, maybe you can find some unclebodies to take care of them," Ellie
offered vaguely.

"Look, don't make bad jokes--"

"I'm not making jokes! All I want is a husband back who doesn't complain
about how everything smells, and eats the dinners I cook, and doesn't
stand around in cold showers at six in the morning."

"I know it's miserable," he said helplessly. "But I don't know how to
stop it."

He found Jake and Coffin in tight-lipped conference when he reached the
lab. "I can't do it any more," Coffin was saying. "I've begged them for
time. I've threatened them. I've promised them everything but my upper
plate. I can't face them again, I just can't."

"We only have a few days left," Jake said grimly. "If we don't come up
with something, we're goners."

Phillip's jaw suddenly sagged as he stared at them. "You know what I
think?" he said suddenly. "I think we've been prize idiots. We've gotten
so rattled we haven't used our heads. And all the time it's been sitting
there blinking at us!"

"What are you talking about?" snapped Jake.

"Unclebodies," said Phillip.

"Oh, great God!"

"No, I'm serious." Phillip's eyes were very bright. "How many of those
students do you think you can corral to help us?"

Coffin gulped. "Six hundred. They're out there in the street right now,
howling for a lynching."

"All right, I want them in here. And I want some monkeys. Monkeys with
colds, the worse colds the better."

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" asked Jake.

"None in the least," said Phillip happily, "except that it's never been
done before. But maybe it's time we tried following our noses for a
while."

* * * * *

The tidal wave began to break two days later ... only a few people here,
a dozen there, but enough to confirm the direst newspaper predictions.
The boomerang was completing its circle.

At the laboratory the doors were kept barred, the telephones
disconnected. Within, there was a bustle of feverish--if
odorous--activity. For the three researchers, the olfactory acuity had
reached agonizing proportions. Even the small gas masks Phillip had
devised could no longer shield them from the constant barrage of violent
odors.

But the work went on in spite of the smell