er's answer.

Baker gave it when Wily had stopped panting and turned to drumming his
fingers on the desk. "Unless your record of achievement is better this
year than it has been in recent years, Great Eastern may not get any
allotment at all next year," he said quietly.

Wily shaded toward deep red, verging on purple, as he rose. "You'll
regret this, Baker! This office belongs to American Science. I refuse to
see it desecrated by your gross mismanagement! Good day!"

[Illustration]

Baker smiled grimly as Wily stormed out. Then he picked up the phone and
asked Doris to get Fenwick at Clearwater. When Fenwick finally came on,
Baker said, "Wily was just here. I expected he would be the one. This is
going to be it. Send me everything you've got for release. We're going
to find out how right Sam Atkins was!"

He called the other maverick schools he'd given grants, and the penny
ante commercial organizations he'd set on their feet. He gave them the
same message.

It wasn't going to be easy or pleasant, he reflected. The biggest guns
of Scientific Authority would be trained on him before this was over.

* * * * *

Drew Pearson had the word even before it reached Baker. Baker read it at
breakfast a week after Wily's visit. The columnist said, "The next big
spending agency to come under the fire of Congressional Investigation is
none other than the high-echelon National Bureau of Scientific
Development. Dr. William Baker, head of the Agency, has been accused of
indiscriminate spending policies wholly unrelated to the national
interest. The accusers are a group of elite universities and top
manufacturing organizations that have benefited greatly from Baker's
handouts in years past. This year, Baker is accused of giving upwards of
five million dollars to crackpot groups and individuals who have no
standing in the scientific community whatever.

"If these charges are true, it is difficult to see what Dr. Baker is up
to. For many years he has had an enviable record as a tight-fisted,
hard-headed administrator of these important funds. Congress intends to
find out what's going on. The watchdog committee of Senator Landrus is
expected to call an investigation early next week."

Baker was notified that same afternoon.

* * * * *

Senator Landrus was a big, florid man, who moved about a committee
hearing chamber with the ponderous smoothness of a luxury liner.