'Boy, these Class D pictures are really overdoing it.' About a week later I opened my morning paper, and there was the same smashup on page one. It took a long time to get anybody interested."

He stopped suddenly as the Captain came charging out of his office.

"Brooklyn," he called. "Gregory was living in a rooming house in Brooklyn. He left three weeks ago."

A lead with a dead end. No one knew where he'd gone. It proved that he was somewhere in the vicinity of New York City, but I don't think any of us ever doubted that.

"One thing is interesting," the Captain said. "He's using his own name. No reason why he shouldn't, of course. He's not a criminal—but he is a potential criminal, and he doesn't know that."

I saw, suddenly, that we had a double problem. We had to protect Stella from Gregory, but we also had to protect Gregory from himself. If we could find him.

"There's not much we can do," I said, "but keep on looking."

It was what Walker called the Critical Period. Something had to happen on this day or the next, or Cronus was a monkey's dutch uncle.

"If we could only pick Gregory up and hold him for a couple of days, maybe we could beat this," I told the Captain. "We've eliminated Stella Emerson, we've locked the apartment, and caging Gregory should snap the last thread."

He laughed sarcastically. "You think that would solve the problem? Listen. We spotted a holdup, and I recognized the crook. He had a long record. I had him picked up, and he was carrying a gun so we slapped him in jail on a concealed weapons charge. He escaped, got another gun, and committed the holdup right on schedule. I'm telling you, Cronus shows exactly how the future is. We can't change it. I'm working as hard as anyone else to prevent this, but I know for a certainty that sometime today or tomorrow the girl and Gregory are going to meet in that apartment—or in one exactly like it."

"We're going to change it this time," I said. On my way out I stopped for a good look at Cronus. Nothing but a monster would give you a murderer, and a victim, and the place and approximate time, and make you completely helpless to do anything about it. I felt like giving Cronus a firm kick in a vital part of its anatomy.

I called off my dinner date with Stella and prowled around Manhattan looking for a big man with a pronounced 

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