uthority. A little like two schoolboys being punished by the principal,
they lowered their eyes. Defiantly, each told himself that he was a free
citizen and didn't have to take this from Taber, even if he did
represent governmental authority.

Still, they sat and took it.

"Of course," Taber said, "you have the universal alibi. You didn't know
how serious this thing was. So far as you were concerned, you'd located
a man with a reward on his head." He shook his head deprecatingly. "If
we hadn't sent out a top-secret bulletin to all the big-city police
chiefs to be on the lookout for this guy you'd have had it spread in
some tabloid."

"A person has a right to make a buck," King said stubbornly.

"Oh, sure. Again the universal defense. Make the buck first and then
think about your patriotic duty."

"Patriotic duty, hell! There wasn't any as far as I was concerned. When
I found out about that--What the hell did you call him? The android?--he
was already dead."

"And you'll do very well with the pictures you took."

"They're my pictures."

"The hell they are. We're confiscating them and you'll keep your mouth
shut about this."

"Then the people haven't got a right to know--"

"Damn the people!" Brent snarled, and wished instantly that he hadn't
said it. He didn't mean it, of course. He'd just been pressed too hard.
In a sense, he was taking his own frustrations out on these two because
they were handy.

And yet, damn it all, he was right! Nobody gave a hoot for the welfare
of the country!

"You," he said, turning on Frank Corson. "In the course of your duty as
a doctor, you came upon something very strange."

"I wasn't sure!"

"You found a man with two hearts. What should you have done as a doctor?
Reported it through recognized channels. If you'd done that, do you
realize we might have got word? We might have been able to act? We might
have saved that creature's life. That may well have been the difference
between life and death for this country. For this planet."

"Are you sure you're not exaggerating things a little?" King asked the
question and lit a cigarette as his self-confidence began to return.
"Isn't the whole thing pretty far-fetched?"

Brent held his temper. "I suppose you have every right to assume we
aren't really sure ourselves. But please listen to me now and give me
the benefit of the doubt. We have reason to believe that these
creatures--there have been others--are a menace to our surv