such a report," he said finally. "There's never been any question--"

"No question at all," said Baker. "I just need to tally up the
achievements made under recent grants. I shall also require some new
information for the Index. I'll send forms as soon as they're ready."

"We'll be more than glad to co-operate," said Wily. "It's just that
concrete achievement in a research program is sometimes hard to pin
point, you know. So many intangibles."

"I know," said Baker.

When Wily was gone, Baker continued sitting at his desk for a long time.
He wished fervently that he could talk with Sam Atkins for just five
minutes now. And he hoped Sam hadn't gotten too blistered by his mentors
when he returned home after fluffing the inquiry he was sent out on.

There was no chance, of course, that Baker would ever be able to talk
with Sam again. That one fortuitous encounter would have to do for a
lifetime. But Sam's great cryptic statement was slowly beginning to make
sense: When you cease to be fearful of Authority, you become Authority.

Neither Baker or Wily, or any of the members of Wily's lock-step staff
were Authority. Rather, they all gave obeisance to the intangible
Authority of Science, and stood together as self-appointed vicars of
that Authority, demanding penance for the slightest blasphemy against
it. And each one stood in living terror of such censure.

The same ghost haunted the halls of Government. The smallest civil
servant, in his meanest incivility, could invoke the same reverence for
that unseen mantle of Authority that rested, however falsely, on his
thin shoulders.

The ghost existed in but one place, the minds of the victims of the
Plague. William Baker had ceased to recognize or give obeisance to it.
He was beginning to understand the meaning of Sam Atkins' words.

He was quite sure the grants to Great Eastern were going to diminish
severely.

* * * * *

Within six months, the output from Clearwater College was phenomenal.
The only string that Baker had attached to his grants was the provision
that the National Bureau of Scientific Development be granted the
privilege of announcing all new inventions, discoveries, and significant
reports. This worked to the advantage of both parties. It gave the
college the prestige of association in the press with the powerful
Government agency, and it gave Baker the association with a prominent
scientific discovery.

During the fi