ouble lay in finding an opportunity, he thought--and then he
corrected himself.

Not _finding_ it--_making_ it. Nobody was going to hand him anything
on a silver serving salver.

He punched the intercom again and got the Records office.

"Yes, sir?" a familiar voice said.

"Potter?" Malone said. "This is Malone. I want facsimiles of
everything we have on the Psychical Research Society, on Sir Lewis
Carter, and on Luba Vasilovna Garbitsch. Both of those last are
connected with the Society."

"Right," Potter said. "They'll be up at once."

Then he punched again, and asked for the latest copy of the Washington
_Post_. He gave the article on Governor Flarion one quick glance, but
it didn't contain anything in the way of facts that he hadn't already
had from Wolf. After that, he left it and concentrated on the more
prosaic, human-interest news, the smaller stories.

FIFTH SPLINTER GROUP FORMS IN DCA BATTLE

That was an interesting one, he thought. The Daughters of Colonial
Americans had about reached the point of diminishing returns in their
battle over the claims of Rose Carswell Elder, a descendant of a Negro
freedman named William Elder who had lived in Boston in 1776 and
fought on the side of the Colonies during the Revolution. One more
splinter group, Malone thought, and there'd be as many splinters as
members. Rose Carswell Elder was pressing her claim for membership,
and the ladies were replying by throwing crockery and hard words at
each other.

Then there was the Legion of American War Veterans. The headline on
this one read:

LAWV OUSTS 'ROWDIES': AID MEETING CONTINUES

The "rowdies," Malone discovered, were a large minority group that
wanted the good old days of electric canes, paper hats, whistles and
pretty girls. "The Legion has grown up," a spokesman told them. "This
convention is being held to discuss the possibility of increased
technological aid to India and Africa. There is no place for
tomfoolery or high jinks."

The expulsion order had been carried by a record majority.

And then there were two items, on different pages, that seemed to
contradict each other. The first was a small headline on page
fourteen:

RESIGNATIONS REACH NEW HIGH IN U.S. COLLEGE FACULTIES

Teachers were apparently resigning all over the place, in virtually
every department of virtually every college. That made sense. And the
other item, on page three, made just as much sense:

HIGHER TAXES V