n-Post_ and
asked for its science columnist.

Sam Sokolski's puffy face eventually faded in.

Larry said to him sourly, "You drink too much. You can begin to see the
veins breaking in your nose."

Sam looked at him patiently.

Larry said, "How'd you like to come over and toss back a few tonight?"

"I'm working. I thought you were on vacation."

Larry sighed. "I am," he said. "O.K., so you can't take a night off and
lift a few with an old buddy."

"That's right. Anything else, Larry?"

"Yes. Look, have you ever heard of an inventor named Ernest Self?"

"Sure I've heard of him. Covered a hassle he got into some years ago. A
nice guy."

"I'll bet," Larry said. "What does he invent, something to do with
printing presses, or something?"

"Printing presses? Don't you remember the story about him?"

"Brief me," Larry said.

"Well--briefly does it--it got out a couple of years ago that some of our
rocketeers had bought a solid fuel formula from an Italian research outfit
for the star probe project. Paid them a big hunk of Uncle's change for it.
So Self sued."

Larry said, "You're being _too_ brief. What d'ya mean, he sued? Why?"

"Because he claimed he'd submitted the same formula to the same agency a
full eighteen months earlier and they'd turned him down."

"Had he?"

"Probably."

Larry didn't get it. "Then why'd they turn him down?"

Sam said, "Oh, the government boys had a good alibi. Crackpots turn up all
over the place and you have to brush them off. Every cellar scientist who
comes along and says he's got a new super-fuel developed from old coffee
grounds can't be given the welcome mat. Something was wrong with his math
or something and they didn't pay much attention to him. Wouldn't even let
him demonstrate it. But it was the same formula, all right."

Larry Woolford was scowling. "Something wrong with his math? What kind of
a degree does he have?"

Sam grinned in memory. "I got a good quote on that. He doesn't have any
degree. He said he'd learned to read by the time he'd reached high school
and since then he figured spending time in classrooms was a matter of
interfering with his education."

"No wonder they turned him down. No degree at all. You can't get anywhere
in science like that."

Sam said, "The courts rejected his suit but he got a certain amount of
support here and there. Peter Voss, over at the university, claims he's
one of the great intuitive scientists, whatever that is, of