course, is predicated on whether or not we have any results by the time MacHinery finds out Colonel Russell is an unauthorized person."
"There's just one other thing," Anne said. "To make good on what I told MacHinery, we're going to have to turn Colonel Russell into a convincing planetary ecologist and tell him just what the Pfitzner project is."
Gunn's face fell momentarily. "Anne," he said, "I want you to observe what a nasty Situation that strong-arm man has gotten us into. In order to protect our legitimate interests from our own government, we're about to commit a real, serious breach of security-which would never have happened if MacHinery hadn't thrown his weight around."
"Quite true," Anne said. She looked, however, rather poker-faced, Paige thought. Possibly she was enjoying Gunn's discomfiture; he was not exactly the first man one would suspect of disloyalty or of being a security risk.
"Colonel Russell, there is no faint chance, I suppose, that you are a planetary ecologist? Most spacemen with ranks as high as yours are scientists of some kind."
"No, sorry," .Paige said. "Ballistics is my field."
"Well, you do have to know something about the planets, at least. Anne, I suggest that you take charge now. I'll have to do some fast covering. Your father would probably be the best man to brief Colonel Russell. And, Colonel, would you bear in mind that from now on, every piece of information that you're given in our plant might have the giver jailed or even shot, if MacHinery were to find out about it?"
"I'll keep my mouth shut," Paige said. "I'm enough at fault in this mess to be willing to do all I can to help-and my curiosity has been killing me anyhow. But there's something you'd better know, too, Mr. Guns."
"And that is—"
"That the time you're counting on just doesn't exist. My leave expires in ten , days. If you think you can make a planetary ecologist out of me in that length of time, I'll do my part."
"Ulp," Gunn said. "Anne, get to work." He bolted through the swinging doors.
The two looked at each other for a starchy moment, and then Anne smiled. Paige felt like another man at once.
"Is it really true-what you said?" Anne said, almost shyly.
"Yes. I didn't know it until I said it, but it's true. I'm really sorry that I had to say it at such a spectacularly bad moment; I only came over to apologize for my part in last night's quarrel. Now it seems that I've a bigger hassle to account for."
"Your curiosity is really your major talent, do you know?" she said, smiling again. "It took you only two days to find out just what you wanted to know-even though it's about the most closely guarded secret in the world."
"But I don't know it yet. Can you tell me here-or is the place wired?"
The girl laughed. "Do you think Hal and I would have cussed each other out like that if the place were wired? No, it's clean, we inspect it daily. I'll tell you the central fact, and then my father can give you the details. The truth is that' the Pfitzner project isn't out to conquer the degenerative diseases alone. It's aimed at the end-product of those diseases, too. We're looking for the answer to death itself."
Paige sat down slowly in the nearest chair. "I don't believe it can be one," he whispered at last.
"That's what we all used to think, Paige. That's what that says." She pointed to the motto in German above the swinging doors. "Wider den Tad in kein Krautlein gewachseñ." 'Against Death doth no simple grow.' That was a law of nature, the old German herbalists thought. But now it's only a challenge. Somewhere in nature there are herbs and simples against death-and we're going to find them."
Anne's father seemed both preoccupied and a little worried to be talking to Paige at all, but it nevertheless took him only one day to explain the basic reasoning behind the project vividly enough so that Paige could understand it. In another day of simple helping around the part of the Pfitzner labs which was running his
"There's just one other thing," Anne said. "To make good on what I told MacHinery, we're going to have to turn Colonel Russell into a convincing planetary ecologist and tell him just what the Pfitzner project is."
Gunn's face fell momentarily. "Anne," he said, "I want you to observe what a nasty Situation that strong-arm man has gotten us into. In order to protect our legitimate interests from our own government, we're about to commit a real, serious breach of security-which would never have happened if MacHinery hadn't thrown his weight around."
"Quite true," Anne said. She looked, however, rather poker-faced, Paige thought. Possibly she was enjoying Gunn's discomfiture; he was not exactly the first man one would suspect of disloyalty or of being a security risk.
"Colonel Russell, there is no faint chance, I suppose, that you are a planetary ecologist? Most spacemen with ranks as high as yours are scientists of some kind."
"No, sorry," .Paige said. "Ballistics is my field."
"Well, you do have to know something about the planets, at least. Anne, I suggest that you take charge now. I'll have to do some fast covering. Your father would probably be the best man to brief Colonel Russell. And, Colonel, would you bear in mind that from now on, every piece of information that you're given in our plant might have the giver jailed or even shot, if MacHinery were to find out about it?"
"I'll keep my mouth shut," Paige said. "I'm enough at fault in this mess to be willing to do all I can to help-and my curiosity has been killing me anyhow. But there's something you'd better know, too, Mr. Guns."
"And that is—"
"That the time you're counting on just doesn't exist. My leave expires in ten , days. If you think you can make a planetary ecologist out of me in that length of time, I'll do my part."
"Ulp," Gunn said. "Anne, get to work." He bolted through the swinging doors.
The two looked at each other for a starchy moment, and then Anne smiled. Paige felt like another man at once.
"Is it really true-what you said?" Anne said, almost shyly.
"Yes. I didn't know it until I said it, but it's true. I'm really sorry that I had to say it at such a spectacularly bad moment; I only came over to apologize for my part in last night's quarrel. Now it seems that I've a bigger hassle to account for."
"Your curiosity is really your major talent, do you know?" she said, smiling again. "It took you only two days to find out just what you wanted to know-even though it's about the most closely guarded secret in the world."
"But I don't know it yet. Can you tell me here-or is the place wired?"
The girl laughed. "Do you think Hal and I would have cussed each other out like that if the place were wired? No, it's clean, we inspect it daily. I'll tell you the central fact, and then my father can give you the details. The truth is that' the Pfitzner project isn't out to conquer the degenerative diseases alone. It's aimed at the end-product of those diseases, too. We're looking for the answer to death itself."
Paige sat down slowly in the nearest chair. "I don't believe it can be one," he whispered at last.
"That's what we all used to think, Paige. That's what that says." She pointed to the motto in German above the swinging doors. "Wider den Tad in kein Krautlein gewachseñ." 'Against Death doth no simple grow.' That was a law of nature, the old German herbalists thought. But now it's only a challenge. Somewhere in nature there are herbs and simples against death-and we're going to find them."
Anne's father seemed both preoccupied and a little worried to be talking to Paige at all, but it nevertheless took him only one day to explain the basic reasoning behind the project vividly enough so that Paige could understand it. In another day of simple helping around the part of the Pfitzner labs which was running his
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