nee here,
foot with the toe pointed, calf, thigh, and the near arm hanging.
Remarkable, once you see it...."

"You're crazy. All I can see is a closed loop with some wrinkles in
it."

"Why, it's nearly as plain as a photograph! I can't understand...."

"Plain, my eye! If that's the arm hanging down, and this the hand,
where are the fingers? That 'hand' is just an oval. You got some
imagination if you can get a reclining figure out of that."

"Not a nude of the beer-garden type, I grant you. This is real art.
Know what this means? Have you any idea how complex a formula must be
to trace a curve like this? Just a plain hyperbola is bad enough. This
is a test of the machine. Those Mugu boys have worked out this formula
to see if she could break it down and draw the equivalent curve,
though I don't see how they did it. Even the larger digitals would
find this a tough nut to crack, but our baby is a whiz at curves, see?
I wonder how they justified the machine-time on it. Of course it is
barely possible that they derived the equation themselves, but it
must have taken weeks if they did."

"Maybe it took us long as you say, but I still can't see any reclining
figure in that curve. It's just a closed curve with some wiggles and
bumps on it."

"In any case, I'm going to send this to Mugu right away. They'll want
to know how long it took."

"I wouldn't, if I were you."

"Why not?"

"Maybe trouble developed in the machine. Better run some more cards
through it first. But right now I'm going home. We're having a roast
tonight. Say, why don't you come to supper with us? Alice would be
delighted--she was just wondering what happened to you. I'll phone
her...."

"No, no! I have to--look, I got to find out what this means, you see?
It isn't that--explain it to Alice, will you? We need this contract,
need all the work we can get, you understand?"

"Sure, sure. How about next week? OK? Well, see you in the morning."
Charley left, grinning to himself as he closed the door behind him.

* * * * *

Norm didn't see the grin. He was already puzzled enough; ICWEA behaved
herself perfectly on the next five cards, and kept her mind on her
business. Meanwhile, Norm studied the first curve again. Funny Charley
couldn't see it--the figure was puzzling at first, until you got the
idea, but then it was so clear. Or was it?

Suddenly, he couldn't see it himself. He turned it upside down and
sideways; i