He spends every morning in the office anyway, and 'morning' to him begins with the rising of the sun. It keeps the clerks and stenos on their toes, and it's no hardship to Fowler. In our office it is Fowler's custom to hold the weekly Board conference fifteen minutes before the regular opening of the business day. Fortunately-and unprecedentedly-Fowler Schocken was late too. She didn't answer the phone and I was late getting into the office. But I lost the five minutes again by trying to call Kathy. I saved five minutes by wearing yesterday's shirt instead of studding a clean one and by leaving my breakfast juice to grow warm and sticky on the table. Which certainly would not help mollify the Board. It looked as though I was going to be late again.

I switched it off when the quarter-hour time signal chimed over the audio band. the President's speech of last night, a brief glimpse of the Venus rocket squat and silvery on the Arizona sand, rioting in Panama. The morning newscast above the shaving mirror caught me for a moment. Loyalty raids were being held throughout the New York Water Supply Corporation so far they hadn't done any good. It had been happening lately some people blamed Consie saboteurs. I swore a little and finished rinsing with salt. Before the last of the greasy stubble was quite washed away the trickle stopped and didn't start again.

Wasteful, of course, but I pay taxes and salt water always leaves my face itchy.

I rubbed depilatory soap over my face and rinsed it with the trickle from the fresh-water tap. But the Board wasn't likely to take that as an excuse. My section-Production-had been plagued with a long series of illnesses and resignations, and you can't get work done without people to do it. As I dressed that morning I ran over in my mind the long list of statistics, evasions, and exaggerations that they would expect in my report.

The space merchants