e going was going to be rough enough for the old man
without making it worse. But my efforts came to naught when the pics
Jake had taken reached the editor's desk. He hit the ceiling, called me
on the carpet, wanted to know where my news sense had gotten lost. Then
he sent out three other smart boys to do a _good_ job on it.

The paper got out a special edition--and the troubles I had foreseen
began. First, the government stepped in, trying to hush-hush the whole
thing; but too late. The rush had started. For miles around the poor
Prof's fenced-in hideaway, cars and trailers parked in a mad senseless
jumble. People crowded against the fences and the electricity had to be
shut off. Some smart aleck produced wire cutters and made an opening.
The invasion of the new Eden had begun.

Stegner took flight, taking his secret apparatus and files with him. He
declined police escort, and vanished from his mad Eden. Where he went
was impossible to learn, but I supposed the government knew.

The area he had revitalized with his selective field was a nine days
wonder, and after just about that long it was a tramped over, paper
strewn, garbage littered wreck. The oversized animals and birds drifted
away, the huge houseflies perished or were eaten by the birds.
Apparently that was the end of the thing. Humanity had triumphed over
its savior with its usual stupid interference.

A few of us remembered, could not put out of our minds the significance
of what the old man had done. He had pointed the way to a lush
immortality, and he had been shoved aside and pawed over and written
about like some freak. If he had been a notorious criminal, he would
have gotten far better journalistic treatment.

But the years went by--four, five of them. And nothing more was heard of
Stegner and his work. Until, one day coming home from a night shift on
the paper, I found a letter in my box. It was a rather plain looking
envelope, but much larger than the ordinary. The handwritten address was
quite legible, but very big, as if a giant hand had cramped itself to
produce ordinary script:

_Dear old friend:_

_You may have forgotten me, but I do not forget you. If you
would like to join me for a time, insert a notice to Harry F in
the personal column to that effect. I am trusting you to keep
my secret._

_Stegner_

Needless to say, I inserted the notice.

* * * * *

A limousine, drive