rivers left their cars and jumped to the waters below.

As the wreckage neared Earth, the computers narrowed their circle of
error until it was certain at last that the city would not be struck.
But the damage was done. The fear remained, and now was congealing in
angry determination that another Wheel would not be built.

Paul finished his meal, wondering what effect this would have on the
plans to build a new Wheel--and on Project Superman. Maybe Congress
would react in anger that would cut off all appropriations to the
Project.

He wondered, in sudden weariness, if this would not be an unmixed
blessing, after all.

* * * * *

The next three days were spent in telephone and telegraph communication
with members of his profession as he proceeded to recruit a staff.

On Friday, Betty arrived with the kids. By the end of the following
week, laboratory furniture had been installed and the first trickle of
potential staff members was coming in to see what Superman was all
about. Nat, too, had been busy forming his own staff and setting up
basic equipment.

Paul had the feeling that they were opposing camps setting up on the
same site of exploration. He tried to tell himself it was completely
irrational, until Nat approached him a few days later.

"Quite a crew you're getting in here," the technician said. "You'll have
to take Oglethorpe up on his offer of new buildings if you expect to
find couch space for all your boys."

"That's what you're here for," Paul suggested mildly, "to do away with
couches."

"Right." Nat nodded. "Anything a couch can do, a meter can do twice as
efficiently."

"Sometimes both are necessary. You forget my specialty is psychometry."

"No, I'm not forgetting," said Nat. "But that's what makes it so hard
for me to figure out. You're attempting to span two completely
incompatible fields: science and humanities. Man behaves either as a
machine or as a creature of unstable emotion. To function as one you
have to suppress the other."

"Splitting Man in two has never produced an answer to anything. It has
been tried even longer than couches--and with far less result."

"I'll make you a small side bet. We're going to have to work together on
Superman, and coordinate all our procedures and results. But I'll bet
the final answer turns up on the side of a completely mechanistic man,
shorn of all other responses and motivations."

"I'll take that!" Paul said wi