etter. You say your name is
Parks--right?"

The man nodded. "Jefferson Haldeman Parks, if that helps any. Haldeman
was my mother's maiden name."

"All right. And you got into town on Friday--right?"

Parks nodded.

"Fine. Now go through the whole story again. What happened first?"

The man thought for a minute. "As I said, first there was a fall. About
twenty feet. I didn't break any bones, but I was shaken up and limping.
The fall was near the highway going to the George Washington Bridge. I
got over to the highway and tried to flag down a ride."

"How did you feel? I mean, was there anything strange that you noticed?"

"_Strange!_" Parks' eyes widened. "I--I was speechless. At first I
hadn't noticed too much--I was concerned with the fall, and whether I
was hurt or not. I didn't really think about much else until I hobbled
up to that highway and saw those cars coming. Then I could hardly
believe my eyes. I thought I was crazy. But a car stopped and asked me
if I was going into the city, and I knew I wasn't crazy."

Morgan's mouth took a grim line. "You understood the language?"

"Oh, yes. I don't see how I could have, but I did. We talked all the way
into New York--nothing very important, but we understood each other. His
speech had an odd sound, but--"

Morgan nodded. "I know, I noticed. What did you do when you got to New
York?"

"Well, obviously, I needed money. I had gold coin. There had been no way
of knowing if it would be useful, but I'd taken it on chance. I tried to
use it at a newsstand first, and the man wouldn't touch it. Asked me if
I thought I was the U.S. Treasury or something. When he saw that I was
serious, he sent me to a money lender, a hock shop, I think he called
it. So I found a place--"

"Let me see the coins."

Parks dropped two small gold discs on the table. They were perfectly
smooth and perfectly round, tapered by wear to a thin blunt edge. There
was no design on them, and no printing. Morgan looked up at the man
sharply. "What did you get for these?"

Parks shrugged. "Too little, I suspect. Two dollars for the small one,
five for the larger."

"You should have gone to a bank."

"I know that now. I didn't then. Naturally, I assumed that with
everything else so similar, principles of business would also be
similar."

Morgan sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Well, then what?"

Parks poured some more coffee. His face was very pale, Morgan thought,
and his hands tremb