final assembly.

Vogel suddenly grunted.

There, half hidden behind a row of stainless-steel basin assemblies,
was a nine-inch bowl. He examined it. The bowl was heavy and shiny.
There was no part number stamp, and the metal was not alclad, not
stainless, not cad nor zinc. Five small copper discs had been welded
to the lower flange.

Vogel carefully scraped off a sample with a file. Then he replaced the
part in the stock rack and went into his office where he placed the
sample in an envelope.

That afternoon he ranged the shop like a hound.

In the shipping crib, he found a half-completed detail that struck a
chord of strangeness. Two twisted copper vanes with a crumpled shop
traveler signed by Amenth. The next operation specified furnace braze.
Vogel squinted at the attached detail print. It was a current job
number.

He spent the next two hours in the ozalid room, leafing through the
print files. The job number called for a deep-freeze showcase, and
there were exactly two hundred and seven detail drawings involved.

Not one of them matched the print in shipping.

After an almost silent dinner at home, he sat smoking his pipe,
waiting for the phone to ring. It rang at eight.

"It's platinum," Carstairs said. Tim Carstairs was a night-shift
chemist. "Anything wrong, Mr. Vogel?"

"No." Vogel paused. "Thanks, Tim." He hung up, glanced at his fingers.
They were shaking.

"You," Alice said, "look ready to call mate in three."

"I'm going over to the shop," he said, kissing her. "Don't wait up."

* * * * *

He was not surprised to see the light on in the parts control section.
Amenth was writing planning sheets.

"I don't believe we authorized overtime," Vogel told him mildly,
hanging up his coat.

"Just loose ends." Amenth's smile was nervous. "Tying up these burden
charts. I'm on my own time."

"Thought I'd set up next month's budget." Vogel sat at his desk. "By
the way, what did you do before you came here?"

"Odd jobs." Amenth's lips twitched.

"Your family live on the coast?"

Sweat glistened on the little man's forehead. "Ah--no. My folks passed
on years ago."

Cat and mouse.

"You've done good work lately." Vogel yawned, studying the progress
chart on the wall. Behind him he heard a soft exhalation of relief,
the furtive rustle of papers as Amenth cleaned off his desk.

When Amenth finally left, Vogel went over to his desk and methodically
ransacked the w