."

Moss pointed a finger at the Personnelovac.

"I'm rounding up all the aptitude records of the department heads.
They'll be in your hands in the next couple of days. Feed 'em in! Root
'em out! Spot the deadwood, Colihan! ACT!"

"ACT!" echoed Colihan, his face flushed.

The old man got up and went over to the Brain.

"Marvelous machine," he said. "Honest. That's what I like about it."

As Moss went out the door, Colihan could have sworn he saw the
Personnelovac wink. He walked over to it and fingered the lever. It was
turned off, all right.

* * * * *

It was an interesting week for Colihan.

Morgan, the production man, was fired.

Grimswitch came up to see the Personnel man and tried to punch him in
the nose. Fortunately, he was a little too drunk, and the blow went
wild.

Seegrum, the Shipovac operator, was fired.

Douglas, the Treasurer, was permitted to keep his job, but the
Personnelovac issued a dire threat if improvement wasn't rapidly
forthcoming.

Wilson, the firm's oldest employee, was fired.

In fact, seven out of General Product's twelve department heads were
greeted by the ominous pink card.

Colihan, no longer plagued by doubt, felt that life was definitely worth
living. He smiled all the time. His memos were snappier than ever. His
heels clicked merrily down the office hallways. He had p-e-p.

Then, the most obvious thing in the world happened--and Colihan just
hadn't foreseen it.

_His_ record card came up.

* * * * *

"Have you run through the stack yet?" Miss Blanche asked.

"Er--just about." Colihan looked at her guiltily. He pushed his glasses
back on the bridge of his nose. "Couple more here," he said.

"Well, we might as well finish up. Mr. Moss would like to have the
schedule completed this afternoon."

"It will be. That's _all_, Miss Blanche."

His secretary shrugged and left. Colihan went to the Personnelovac with
the record in his hand. The file number was 630.

"Don't let me down," he told the Brain.

He placed the pin-holed card into the machine and flipped the lever. It
winked, chittered, chortled, and chuckled with almost sinister softness.
When the card was burped out at the other end, Colihan took it out with
his eyes firmly shut.

* * * * *

He walked over to the Action Chute mechanically. His hand hesitated
before he dropped it inside. Then he changed his mi