led them to bring Joe from the past.
Joe didn't know how they'd done it, and he didn't care. Joe was a
realist. He was here. The thing was to adapt.

There didn't seem to be any hurry. Once the deal was made, they left it
up to him to make the decisions.

They drove him around the town, when he wished to check the traffic
arteries. They flew him about the whole vicinity. From the air, Southern
California looked much the same as it had in his own time. Oceans,
mountains, and to a lesser extent, deserts, are fairly permanent even
against man's corroding efforts.

It was while he was flying with Brett-James on the second day that Joe
said, "How about Mexico? Could I make the get to Mexico?"

The physicist looked at him questioningly. "Get?" he said.

Joe Prantera said impatiently, "The getaway. After I give it to this
Howard Temple-Tracy guy, I gotta go on the run, don't I?"

"I see." Brett-James cleared his throat. "Mexico is no longer a separate
nation, Mr. Prantera. All North America has been united into one unit.
Today, there are only eight nations in the world."

"Where's the nearest?"

"South America."

"That's a helluva long way to go on a get."

"We hadn't thought of the matter being handled in that manner."

Joe eyed him in scorn. "Oh, you didn't, huh? What happens after I give
it to this guy? I just sit around and wait for the cops to put the arm
on me?"

Brett-James grimaced in amusement. "Mr. Prantera, this will probably be
difficult for you to comprehend, but there are no police in this era."

Joe gaped at him. "No police! What happens if you gotta throw some guy
in stir?"

"If I understand your idiom correctly, you mean prison. There are no
prisons in this era, Mr. Prantera."

Joe stared. "No cops, no jails. What stops anybody? What stops anybody
from just going into some bank, like, and collecting up all the bread?"

Brett-James cleared his throat. "Mr. Prantera, there are no banks."

"No banks! You gotta have banks!"

"And no money to put in them. We found it a rather antiquated method of
distribution well over a century ago."

Joe had given up. Now he merely stared.

Brett-James said reasonably, "We found we were devoting as much time to
financial matters in all their endless ramifications--including bank
robberies--as we were to productive efforts. So we turned to more
efficient methods of distribution."

* * * * *

On the fourth day, Joe said, "O