the thousands of others who are standing by and letting the
Yardsticks chop us down, one by one. They say in Nature it's the
survival of the fittest. Well, perhaps you're not fit to survive."

Eric wasn't listening. "She screamed," he said. "You heard her
scream?"

Wolzek nodded. "I can still hear her. I'll always hear her."

"Yes." Eric blinked abruptly. "When do we start?"

Wolzek smiled at him. It was a pretty good smile for a man who can
always hear screaming. "I knew I could count on you," he murmured.
"Nothing like old friends."

"Funny, isn't it?" Eric tried to match his smile. "The way things work
out. You and I being kids together. You marrying my girl. And then, us
meeting up again this way."

"Yes," said Wolzek, and he wasn't smiling now. "I guess it's a small
world."

10. Harry Collins--2032

Harry's son's house was on the outskirts of Washington, near what had
once been called Gettysburg. Harry was surprised to find that it _was_
a house, and a rather large one, despite the fact that almost all the
furniture had been scaled down proportionately to fit the needs of a
man three feet high.

But then, Harry was growing accustomed to surprises.

He found a room of his own, ready and waiting, on the second floor;
here the furniture was of almost antique vintage, but adequate in
size. And here, in an atmosphere of unaccustomed comfort, he could
talk.

"So you're a physician, eh?" Harry gazed down into the diminutive
face, striving to accept the fact that he was speaking to a mature
adult. His own son--his and Sue's--a grown man and a doctor! It seemed
incredible. But then, nothing was more incredible than the knowledge
that he was actually here, in his child's home.

"We're all specialists in one field or another," his son explained.
"Every one of us born and surviving during the early experimental
period received our schooling under a plan Leffingwell set up. It was
part of his conditional agreement that we become wards of the state.
He knew the time might come when we'd be needed."

"But why wasn't all this done openly?"

"You know the answer to that. There was no way of educating us under
the prevailing system, and there was always a danger we might be
singled out as freaks who must be destroyed--particularly in those
early years. So Leffingwell relied on secrecy, just as he did during
his experimentation period. You know how _you_ felt about that. You
believed innocent people were b