xion like ashes. He began to talk.

"Ryder, I guess you know I'm no scatterbrain and I guess you know I'm
not one to cry wolf--but there's something damned funny going on in
the old Fisher place on the Range Road. You better send a man down
here, and I mean quick. You have him contact me."

The image faded, the rasping voice ceased. Doak sighed and looked at
his nails.

"Senile, you're thinking?" Ryder said quietly.

"I wasn't thinking at all, Chief," Doak said.

"Not even about that new one, that June?" the Chief asked, smiling.

Doak looked up, startled. "Is there no privacy? Are there no
sanctuaries?"

"Not from Security," Ryder said. "But don't be disturbed. There's no
law against _that_ yet excepting some of the old ones--and who has
time for the old ones?"

"As long as we're being frank," Doak said, "he mentioned the old
Fisher place and a road as though you should know them. Friends of
yours?"

"Friends? That's our home town. Senator Arnold was very instrumental
in my Department climb." Ryder paused. "And no crackpot."

"I'll buy that," Doak agreed. "He was the man who first saw the power
in combining pressure groups. He surely made some strange bedfellows."

"Any lobbyist would be a strange bedfellow, I've been told," the Chief
answered. "The Arnold Law has saved us one hell of a lot of work,
Doak, and saved the Department money."

"Yes, sir," Doak said. "I'm to understand this couldn't be put off
until Monday?"

Ryder nodded.

"And no other Security Officer would do?"

"No other."

Doak rose. "Anything else--_sir_?"

Ryder smiled. "Just one. As a guess, what do you think it is, in the
old Fisher place, on the Range Road?"

"Readers," Doak answered, "or why would the--uh, Mr. Arnold be so
worried."

Ryder chuckled. "I can see them now, in the curtained room, huddling
over an old railroad timetable. I think your guess is sound, Doak." He
rose. "And there'll be other week-ends. That girl can wait. She isn't
going to spoil."

"But _I_ might explode," Doak said. "Well, it will be triple-time.
That's some consolation. Enough for a new video set--I need one in the
bathroom."

It was still a half hour to quitting time and Doak went back to his
desk. He sat there, trying to remember the history of Senator Arnold.
It was all on the tape in the Biography Center, he knew, but he didn't
want that much information.

_Subversive_ kicked around in his memory and the phrase "free press."
And then