e
he first arrived."

"Fine," said the little guy, Carr. "It can't be too soon. He's very
hungry."

I glanced around and noticed for the first time that there was nobody
else in the restaurant. It was past the dinner hour, but, even so,
there are always late diners. We had the place all to ourselves and it
bothered me. They could have ganged up on me....

But they didn't. A light gong sounded, and the waiter and manager
hurried over to a slot of a door and brought out a couple of trays
loaded with covered dishes.

"Your dinner, Mr. Weldon," the manager said, putting the plates in
front of me and removing the lids.

I stared down at the food.

"This," I told them angrily, "is a hell of a trick to play on a
starving man!"

* * * * *

They all looked unhappy.

"Mashed dehydrated potatoes, canned meat and canned vegetables," Carr
replied. "Not very appetizing. I know, but I'm afraid it's all we can
allow you to eat."

I took the cover off the dessert dish.

"Dried fruits!" I said in disgust.

"Rather excessively dried, I'm sorry to say," the manager agreed
mournfully.

I sipped the blue stuff in a glass and almost spat it out. "Powdered
milk! Are these things what you people have to live on?"

"No, our diet is quite varied," Carr said in embarrassment. "But we
unfortunately can't give you any of the foods we normally eat
ourselves."

"And why in blazes not?"

"Please eat, Mr. Weldon," Carr begged with frantic earnestness.
"There's so much to explain--this is part of it, of course--and it
would be best if you heard it on a full stomach."

I was famished enough to get the stuff down, which wasn't easy;
uninviting as it looked, it tasted still worse.

When I was through, Carr pushed several buttons on the glowing menu.
Dishes came up from an opening in the center of the table and he
showed me the luscious foods they contained.

"Given your choice," he said, "you'd have preferred them to what you
have eaten. Isn't that so, Mr. Weldon?"

"You bet I would!" I answered, sore because I hadn't been given that
choice.

"And you would have died like the pathetic old people you were
investigating," said a voice behind me.

I turned around, startled. Several men and women had come in while I'd
been eating, their footsteps as silent as cats on a rug. I looked
blankly from them to Carr and back again.

"These are the clothes we ordinarily wear," Carr said. "An 18th
Century