"The secret of immortality has been
in our possession for quite some time."

"I see. Then you want to keep immortality from the public in order to
safeguard your damned undertaking business!"

"Isn't that rather a naive view?" Mr. Bennet asked, smiling. "As it
happens, my associates and I are _not_ undertakers. We took on the
disguise in order to present an understandable motive if our plan to
capture you had misfired. In that event, others would have believed
exactly--and only--what you thought: that our purpose was to safeguard
our business."

Dennison frowned and watchfully waited.

"Disguises come easily to us," Mr. Bennet said, still smiling. "Perhaps
you have heard rumors about a new carburetor suppressed by the gasoline
companies, or a new food source concealed by the great food suppliers,
or a new synthetic hastily destroyed by the cotton-owning interests.
That was us. And the inventions ended up here."

"You're trying to impress me," Dennison said.

"Certainly."

"Why did you stop me from patenting my immortality serum?"

"The world is not ready for it yet," said Mr. Bennet.

"It isn't ready for a lot of things," Dennison said. "Why didn't you
block the atom bomb?"

"We tried, disguised as mercenary coal and oil interests. But we failed.
However, we have succeeded with a surprising number of things."

"But what's the purpose behind it all?"

"Earth's welfare," Mr. Bennet said promptly. "Consider what would happen
if the people were given your veritable immortality serum. The problems
of birth rate, food production, living space all would be aggravated.
Tensions would mount, war would be imminent--"

"So what?" Dennison challenged. "That's how things are right now,
_without_ immortality. Besides, there have been cries of doom about
every new invention or discovery. Gunpowder, the printing press,
nitroglycerin, the atom bomb, they were all supposed to destroy the
race. But mankind has learned how to handle them. It had to! You can't
turn back the clock, and you can't un-discover something. If it's there,
mankind must deal with it!"

"Yes, in a bumbling, bloody, inefficient fashion," said Mr. Bennet, with
an expression of distaste.

"Well, that's how Man is."

"Not if he's properly led," Mr. Bennet said.

"No?"

* * * * *

"Certainly not," said Mr. Bennet. "You see, the immortality serum
provides a solution to the problem of political power. Rule by a
perma