I was a little rusty on such things but it sounded to me about the same way school children on our planet went about solving problems in algebra. I didn't say anything though. Dalrymple had the pencil racing over the paper, laying out a series of weird symbols the like of which I had never seen. They were neither numbers nor letters; nor the kind of geometric or algebra symbols used on earth either. Of that I was sure. The closest I can come is to compare them to Egyptian hieroglyphics and yet that's far from the mark. But whatever they were, Dalrymple seemed to know exactly what he was doing. After a few minutes, he leaned back and said, "There--the exploratory equation is complete. Now we search it for flaws." Donovan and I had got interested to the point that hostilities were temporarily suspended. Donovan asked, "Search what for which flaws." "You haven't the mental scope to understand even the basics of what I'm doing, but maybe you can understand this: There is no such thing as chance in a civilization or a culture which is properly based upon mathematics. In such a civilization lies and evasions are unheard of because all action and motivation past, present, or future, can be evaluated and revealed in complete exactitude." * * * * * We were trying to follow along. I said, "We've got things like that. Robot brains, we call them. They figure out impossible problems." And it came to me at that moment how we were taking for granted, through our conversation, our statements, and even our thinking, that this Dalrymple was exactly what he'd said he was--a man from another world. He said, "I know what you refer to, but they are so childishly conceived as to be almost useless." The old sneer again. Donovan growled. "You talk a lot but you haven't proved a damn thing." "On the contrary. The flaws in this equation stand out by themselves. For instance, our _zong_ is implicated but must obviously be supplemented in order to balance the _terz_ shading of the exploratory equation." "Are you kidding?" Donovan rasped. "I'll forego technical terms and translate into realities you can grasp. It amounts to this: The bartender poured the actual poison into the glass, but all unknowing. However, as a dominant factor of the equation he must be further developed along the lines of secondary motivation. In other words, a completely unrelated motivation on his part cleared the way for the crime." Dalrymple's fingers were flying. More of the weird symbols were appearing. "The motivation for the weight he bears in the case is made up of two characteristics--habit and greed." "And where does that get us?" I asked. "It reveals the fact that the bartender poured the poison into the bottle. But without knowledge that it was poison nor with malicious intent." "That's impossible!" I said.