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university paying for abstract knowledge—that’s how I came here the first time.”
    The doctor nodded. “Exactly. That’s what they claimed. But they weren’t scholars, I could tell; I’ve lived and worked with academic people most of my life.
    “Oh, they could identify themselves, and they seemed to know their subjects adequately, but… you know that zombie thing the Confederación is supposed to use with its agents?”
    “Vaguely—isn’t it just plastic surgery and hypnolearning?”
    “Oh, I suppose. Anyhow, that’s what I think these fellows were; a couple of agents they’d made to walk, talk, and act like geologists. But they went to all the wrong places; like the mines—they’ve been analyzed and the analyses published down to the last molecule. And they never stuck to one place long enough to get any serious work done.”
    “You’re probably right.”
    “You think so? Have another drink. Everybody else around here thinks I’m getting paranoid in my old age.”
    “Maybe we’re both falling apart together.” Isaac smiled. “Thanks for the offer, but I’d better pick up the Pandroxin and be getting back to my place before I collapse. It’s been a long day.”
    “I can imagine. Well, good to see you again, Isaac. Still play chess?”
    “Better than ever.” Especially with Otto’s help.
    “Well, drop by some evening and we’ll go a round or two.”
    “I’ll do that. Take care.”
    5.
     
    Isaac didn’t go to the pharmacy right away. He went to his billet and made a radiophone call.
    “Biological lab. Struckheimer here.”
    “Waldo, this is Isaac Crowell. Could I ask a favor?”
    “Fire away.”
    “I’m going down to Dr. Norman’s office now, to get some Gravitol. Those tablets you gave me today seemed just about right—could you look up the dosage?”
    “Don’t have to look it up, it’s five milligrams. But look, Isaac, he’ll probably want you on a smaller dose—the older you get, the less they give you.”
    “Really? Well, I’ll try to talk him out of it. Seems to me it should go the other way around!”
    “You’ll never talk Willy out of anything. He’s the most stubborn creature I’ve ever argued with.”
    “I know; we were good friends. Maybe he’ll have pity on a fellow geriatrics-ward case.”
    “Well, good luck. See you again soon?”
    “I’ll be down your way tomorrow, checking out the mines.”
    “Stop in for a beer.”
    “Glad to.” They rang off.
    Crowell emptied his suitcase and flipped up the false bottom. He selected a stylus that was an ordinary ball-feed pen on one side and an ultrasonic ink eradicator on the other. Luckily, the doctor had used a black ball-feed to write the prescription; he wouldn’t have to forge the signature.
    He practiced writing “5 mg. Gravitol, quant suff 30 days” a couple of dozen times, then buzzed the Pandroxin prescription into invisibility and scrawled the counterfeit one over the signature.
    The Company store was dark except for one light over the prescription desk. The front door was locked and Crowell dragged himself over to a side door. It slid open when he put his foot on the treadle-mat, and a bell rang.
    A clerk came from behind the shelves of reagents, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “Something I can do for you?”
    “Yes, I’d like this filled, please.”
    “Sure thing.” The young man took it and walked back behind the shelves. “Say,” he yelled back, “this isn’t for you, is it?”
    All Otto now. “Of course not. I use Pandroxin. That’s for Dr. Struckheimer.”
    The clerk came back in a minute with a little green vial. “I could have sworn Waldo was in here for Gravitol just last week. Maybe I ought to call up Dr. Norman.”
    “I don’t think these are for his own use,” Crowell said slowly. “They’re for some experiment on the natives.”
    “Okay. I’ll just put it on his account, then.”
    “That’s funny. He gave me cash to pick them up.”
    The clerk looked at him. “How