the first atomic bomb. Since then, the appropriation has been added to once, and it's due foi renewal again now.

"Pfitzner holds the major contract on that project, and we're well enough staffed and equipped to handle it so that we've had to do very little subcontracting. We simply share the appropriation with three other producers of biologicals, two of whom are producers only and so have no hand in the research; the third firm has done as much research as we have, but we know because this is supposed to be a coordinated effort with sharing of knowledge among the contractors that they're far gone down another blind alley. We would have told them so, but after one look at what we'd found, the government decided that the fewer people who know about it, the better. We didn't mind; after all, we're in business to make a profit, too. But that's one reason why you saw so many government people on our necks this afternoon."

The girl broke off abruptly and delved into her pocketbook, producing a fiat compact which she opened and inspected intently. Since she wore almost no makeup, it was hard to imagine the reason for the sudden examination; but after a brief, odd smile at one corner of her mouth, she tucked the compact away again.

"The other reason," she said, "is even simpler, now that you have the background. We've just found what we think may be a major key to the whole problem."

"Wow," Paige said, inelegantly but aft etuoso.

"Or zowie, or biffbamkrunk," Anne agreed calmly, "or maybe Godhelpuseveryone. But so far the thing's held up. It's passed, every test. If it keeps up that performance, Pfitzner will get the whole of the new appropriation and if it doesn't, there may not be any appropriation at all, not only for Pfitzner, but for the other firms that have been helping on the project.

"The whole question of whether or not we lick the degenerative diseases hangs on those two things: the validity of the solution we've found and the money. If one goes, the other goes. And we'll have to tell Horsefleld and MacHinery and the others what we've found some time this month, because the old appropriation lapses after that."

The girl leaned back and seemed to notice for the first time that she hail finished her dinner. "And that," she said, pushing regretfully at the sprig of parsley with her fork, "isn't exactly public knowledge yet! I think I'd better shut up."

"Thank you," Paige said gravely "It's obviously more than I deserve to know"

"Well," Anne said, "you can tell me something, if you will. It's about this Bridge that's being built on Jupiter. Is it worth all the money that they're pouring into it? Nobody seems to be able to explain what it's good for. And now there's talk that another Bridge'll be started on Saturn, when this one's finished!"

"You needn't worry," Paige said. "Understand, I've no connection with the Bridge, though I do know some people on the Bridge gang, so I haven't any inside information. I do have some public knowledge, just like yours meaning knowledge that anyone can have, if he has the training to know where to look for it. As 1 understand it, the Bridge on Jupiter is a research project, designed to answer some questions just what questions, nobody's bothered to tell me, and I've been careful not to ask; you can see Francis X. MacHinery's face in the constellations if you look carefully enough. But this much I know: the conditions of the research demand the use of the largest planet in the system. That's Jupiter, so it would be senseless to build another Bridge on a smaller planet, like Saturn. The Bridge gang will keep the present structure going until they've found out what they want to know. Then the project. will almost surely be discontinued not because the bridge is 'finished,' but because it will have served its purpose."