the psychologist was silent for some seconds. "the point might be this," he said suddenly. "after my talk with mcallen this morning, i ran an extrapolation on the personality pattern defined for chard five years ago on the basis of his background. results indicate he went insane and suicided within a year."

"how reliable are those results?" fredericks inquired absently.

"no more so than any other indication in individual psychology. but they present a reasonable probability ... and not a very pleasant one."

fredericks said, "oliver wasn't unaware of that as a possible outcome. one reason he selected base eighteen for the experiment was to make sure he couldn't interfere with the process, once it had begun.

"his feeling, after talking with chard for some hours, was that chard was an overcondensed man. that is oliver's own term, you understand. chard obviously was intelligent, had a very strong survival drive. he had selected a good personal survival line to follow—good but very narrow. actually, of course, he was a frightened man. he had been running scared all his life. he couldn't stop."

simms nodded.

"base eighteen stopped him. the things he'd been running from simply no longer existed. ollie believed chard would go into a panic when he realized it. the question was what he'd do then. survival now had a very different aspect. the only dangers threatening him were the ones inherent in the rigid personality structure he had maintained throughout his adult existence. would he be intelligent enough to understand that? and would his survival urge—with every alternative absolutely barred to him for five years—be strong enough to overcome those dangers?"

"and there," simms said dryly, "we have two rather large questions." he cleared his throat. "the fact remains, however, that oliver b. mcallen is a good practical psychologist—as he demonstrated at the meeting."

"i expected ollie would score on the motions," fredericks said. "how did that part of it come off?"

"not too badly. the first motion was passed unanimously. a vote of censure against dr. mcallen."

fredericks looked thoughtful. "his seventeenth—i believe?"

"yes. the fact was mentioned. mcallen admitted he could do no less than vote for this one himself. however, the next motion to receive a majority was, in effect, a generalized agreement that men with such ... ah ... highly specialized skills as barney chard's and with comparable intelligence actually would be of great value as members of the association, if it turned out that they could be sufficiently relieved of their more flagrant antisocial tendencies. considering the qualification, the psychology department could hardly avoid backing that motion. the same with the third one—in effect again that psychology is to make an unprejudiced study of the results of dr. mcallen's experiment on base eighteen, and report on the desirability of similar experiments when the personality of future subjects appears to warrant them."

"well," fredericks said, after a pause, "as far as the association goes, ollie got what he wanted. as usual." he hesitated. "the other matter—"

"we'll know that shortly." simms turned his head to listen, added in a lowered voice, "they're coming now."