ey would have talked like that if it had
been discovered that the girl were pregnant; a couple of centuries
before that, they would have been equally horrified if she had been
discovered to have been a Protestant, or a Catholic, or whatever the
locally unpopular religion happened to be. By noon, this would be all
over Penn-Jersey-York; coming on top of Slade Gardner's accusations--

* * * * *

He ran up the spiral escalator, stumbling and regaining his footing as
he left it. Bayne and his striking Literates were all gone; he saw a
sergeant of Pelton's store police and went toward him, taking his
spare identity-badge from his pocket.

"Here," he said, handing it to the sergeant. "Get another officer, and
go down to Pelton's office. Show it to Miss Pelton, and tell her I
sent you. There's been an attempt on Chester Pelton's life; you're to
stay with him. Use your own judgment, but don't let anybody, and that
definitely includes Russell Latterman, get at him. If you see anything
suspicious, shoot first and ask questions afterwards. What's your
name, sergeant?"

"Coccozello, sir. Guido Coccozello."

"All right. There'll be a medic or a pharmacist--a Literate,
anyhow--with medicine for Mr. Pelton. He'll ask for you, by name, and
mention me. And there'll be another Literate, maybe; he'll know your
name, and use mine. Hurry, now, sergeant."

He jumped into his 'copter, pulled forward the plexiglass canopy, and
took off vertically to ten thousand feet, then, orienting himself,
swooped downward toward a landing stage on the other side of the East
River, cutting across traffic levels with an utter contempt for
regulations.

The building on which he landed was one of the principal pharmacies;
he spiraled down on the escalator to the main floor and went directly
to the Literate in charge, noticing that he wore on his Sam Browne not
only the badges of retail-merchandising, pharmacist and graduate
chemist but also that of medic-in-training. Snatching a pad and pencil
from a counter, he wrote hastily: _Your private office, at once;
urgent and important._

Looking at it, the Literate nodded in recognition of Cardon's
Literacy.

"Over this way, sir," he said, guiding Cardon to his small cubicle
office.

"Here." Cardon gave him the prescription. "Nitrocaine bulbs. They're
for Chester Pelton; he's had a serious heart attack. He needs these
with all speed. I don't suppose I need tell you how man