e as good as mine."

Frank Corson did not volunteer the information that he had personally
taken William Matson to his furnished room in Greenwich Village and that
Matson was there at this very moment, awaiting Frank's return.

"I think there must be some mistake on your part," Frank said.

"No mistake. But something very definitely got crossed up. Maybe we
ought to have a little talk--the two of us."

Anger stirred in Frank Corson. Did this Les King character think a
beaten-up camera gave him the right to walk in and make demands. "I'm
busy now. And I can't see what we'd have to talk about."

"A hell of a lot, maybe. There are some things you may not know about
this deal. You might have let a big thing slip through your fingers."

"Look here, I'm not interested in anything you've got to say. And I
think you've got a hell of a nerve, coming in here and cross-examining
me on something that's--"

King reacted with weary patience. "Take it easy. I'm just trying to get
some information that can help both of us, maybe."

"How could it possibly help me?"

"To make it simple, there's a standing ten-thousand-dollar reward for
knowledge of the whereabouts of a Judge Sam Baker who disappeared ten
years ago from a little upstate New York town. Now, if you aren't
interested--"

"Are you telling me that William Matson is Sam Baker?"

"Let's say a hell of a lot indicates it. Matson left here without giving
a home address. If you know what it is, we can do business. If you
don't--"

"I'm off duty in an hour," Frank Corson said. "Maybe we should talk it
over."

"That's better. In the meantime, if you'll tell me where I can find
Matson--"

Frank smiled. "Wait an hour. Then I'll show you. But we'll talk about it
first."

* * * * *

The tenth android, one of the two so earnestly sought after by Brent
Taber, had observed the accident at 59th Street and Park Avenue on the
previous night. He'd stood on the curb, lost in the crowd that gathered,
and had watched the proceedings carefully. A man who was not a man, a
machine that was not a machine, he incorporated, in many respects, the
best qualities of both. Now, as the leader of the group deposited from
space for a specific purpose, he exhibited these qualities excellently.

He waited. He observed. He added the accident to the several other
unforeseen incidents that endangered the project and its objective, and
stored them in his memory-ban