Near the center of the city, many plodding hours later, he walked into the base of one of the great towers. There was a door he suspected was an elevator and he went in and pressed a button. It took him to the top. He got out and entered the first door he came to. A woman sat behind a desk. She said. "Vey fanis vu?" Donay said "Nuts," and slapped her face. She promptly rose from her seat and knocked him down. When he arose he found a man on either side of him. They gripped his arms with fingers of steel and led him from the room, back down the tower and out on the street. He gathered this was very unusual, for three different people along the way stopped to glance curiously at him. His face was very sore where the woman had struck him. She had a hand like a lead pipe. The men took him into a place just across the square from the tower he had entered. In and up the elevator and into a great chamber. Steve saw a very big bed. The person in the bed was very small. Very old, too. He said, "Vey fanis vu?" Donay shrugged dispiritedly and answered, "From Earth, and I don't like this planet of yours a little bit." The little man in the bed smiled a very human smile and reached out to a thing beside the bed and turned a knob. A glow came from the box, and Steve could suddenly hear a thought--"From Earth, eh? I wonder now where that would be if you could tell me." Startled, Steve thought where Earth was and the little old creature in the bed nodded. Then Donay asked, "Why does every one act so odd ... like robots, or like they were wound up and couldn't stop or change...." The old man sighed and leaned back. "That is a long story, stranger. Sit down and I will try to explain...." Donay sat down and listened. The thought in his head told him of a great world of people who had become very tired of everything and wanted to have something new. They did not want to die. They wanted life to be more satisfying, wanted to be more contented. The old man smiled sadly. "There arose among them a great scientist who promised them immortality and contentment. He had devised a treatment...." The old man leaned back and looked at Donay. His eyes were tragic. "That's what ails the people, Steve Donay. They're treated ... and the treatment did everything he said it would. It's really a new factor introduced into the human metabolism. You know something of chemistry?"