the
project again. From time to time they interviewed and tested a few of
those waiting in the compounds. There was too much time to just sit
around--even this activity was a welcome diversion.

As the year passed, the number of prospective colonists stopped
decreasing and held steady at about five a day. But slowly something
else changed. Among the new arrivals there began to appear engineers who
had tossed up good jobs to emigrate, farmers with their families,
school-teachers, storekeepers, lawyers, even doctors. All of them young.
Not in any great number; but their appearance was a surprise still. Then
there came two former colonists who had resigned on one of the earlier
attempts, now trying to get back to Venus without inducement of bonus,
high pay or guaranteed return.

That was the day Rod decided to call on Jaimie.

* * * * *

"I have here a bottle of eight-year-old rye, Jaimie," he began. "I think
you're entitled to a drink, and I'm entitled to an explanation. Want to
swap?"

"Rod!" Jaimie's bony face lit up. "It's good to see you. I've been
afraid to call you until we could admit to the hoax. Come in, come in."

"Well, you did it," Rod said, after they had settled down. "I met two
former colonists in the compound today. They know there isn't gold on
Venus, and still they want to go out for free. No contract. And lately
we've been getting professional people. There was even a kid fresh out
of journalism school who wants to start up a paper. Jaimie, how did you
do it? Were we so far wrong as that?"

"You did it yourself, Rod. You told me how--but you wouldn't have
believed, then. Or if you had, we never would have sold it to Carlson.
Remember, you said if there were only a recent pioneer civilization
around, you'd run to them with ink-blots and vocabulary tests? All you
needed to do was duplicate the kind of person who settled America or
Australia or California.

"Well, as a historian I _knew_ those people. And I knew what brought
them. So I merely put out the same kind of bait."

"The same kind of bait!" Rod exclaimed. "What about freedom of religion
and freedom from oppression? Isn't that what brought people to this
country? There's no oppression to flee from these days! And even if it
was the same bait, why weren't the same kind of people attracted? You
saw that first compound full--where in that cesspool was Thomas Paine,
or Franklin, or Miles Standish?"

"Franklin