well ... looking for me, sir."

"Looking for you!" the Party head bleated, his rage ebbing in all but
uncontrollably. For a moment he couldn't find words.

Pekic said, his voice jittering, "I had some research to do. You see,
sir, this ... this project you and Kardelj started me off on--"

"I had nothing to do with it! It was Kardelj's scheme, confound his
idiocy!" Number One all but screamed.

"Oh? Well ... well, I had gathered the opinion that both of you
concurred. Anyway, like I say, the project from the first didn't come
off quite the way it started. I ... well ... we, were thinking in
terms of finding out why waiters were surly, why workers and
professionals and even officials tried to, uh, beat the rap, pass the
buck, look out for themselves and the devil take the hindmost, and all
those Americanisms that Kardelj is always using."

Jankez simmered, but let the other go on. Undoubtedly, his police
chief, Lazar Jovanovic was even now tracing the call, and this young
traitor would soon be under wraps where he could do no more damage to
the economy of the People's Democratic Dictatorship.

"But, well, I found it wasn't just a matter of waiters, and
truckdrivers and such. It ... well ... ran all the way from top to
bottom. So, I finally felt as though I was sort of butting my head
against the wall. I thought I better start at ... kind of ...
fundamentals, so I began researching the manner in which the
governments of the West handled some of these matters."

"Ah," Jankez said as smoothly as he was able to get out. "Ah. And?"
This fool was hanging himself.

The younger man frowned in unhappy puzzlement. "Frankly, I was
surprised. I have, of course, read Western propaganda to the extent I
could get hold of it in Zagurest, and listened to the Voice of the
West on the wireless. I was also, obviously, familiar with our own
propaganda. Frankly ... well ... I had reserved my opinion in both
cases."

* * * * *

This in itself was treason, but Number One managed to get out, almost
encouragingly, "What are you driving at, Josip Pekic?"

"I found in one Western country that the government was actually
paying its peasants, that is, farmers, not to plant crops. The same
government subsidized other crops, keeping the prices up to the point
where they were hard put to compete on the international markets."

Young Pekic made a moue, as though in puzzlement. "In other countries,
in South A