skill he once possessed. The little party snapped twigs and stumbled over stones as they advanced through the wilderness at the dead of night.
"How long?" asked a neuro-muscular specialist.
"About ten minutes more," said a general practitioner.
"Excuse me," said the specialist, who became violently sick in a bush. Returning he said, "'M not ordinarily weak like this, but--"
"I understand," said a civil engineer. "It's a pretty revolting notion at best." He hefted a pick in his hand, and sighed."I don't see why--" began the specialist in loud and irritated tones, only to be cut off by a terrified chorus of "shh!"

"Sorry," he whispered. "I was saying that I don't see why there aren't special bodies of men for this sort of thing. I mean, why pick men like us to do work we haven't studied?"

"Haven't had the opportunity," said a pianist. "And there's good reason why we haven't a body of men as you suggested."

"I can't think of it," whispered the specialist.

"Assume," said the pianist, "that there is a group chosen--by lot, I suppose--to keep in line all eccentrics like the gentlemen on whom we are about to call. Then how do we keep this group in line?"

The general practitioner pondered, and, still pondering, fell into a brook. "Sorry," he gasped, being helped out. "But I have the answer to your question. How to keep them in line, I mean--if they misbehave you stop their salaries. Right?"

"No," said the pianist. "Because if they're trained to inflict suffering as a negative bribe to good conduct how are we to keep them from utilizing their training as a negative bribe to the end of exacting tribute?"

A historian unexpectedly spoke up: "In ancient days that technique was known as the 'shakedown racket'."

"Indeed," said the general practitioner, pondering again. "There must be some way of insuring good conduct," he brooded. "Why not set up two rival bodies of men to check on each other?"

"Because," said the specialist, now quite won over, "they would either join forces--disastrous to the common welfare--or they would struggle openly for supremacy and the victor would assume that he had the _right_ to oppress common folk."

"I see," sighed the general practitioner. "How much farther?"

"As I remember it," said a radio engineer, "the message came from the 

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