That was how it started. It went on for a week, passed through a huge peak of catch, and then tapered off abruptly. A month later, the trap had passed no mouse into--nothingness--for three days. The Better Mousetrap was placed back in the cabinet and forgotten. For this was during the days of War, when he who was not fighting was working to provide the fighting man with what he needed. And Peter Manton's laboratory had too much to do in too short a time to permit even an hour's wonder or work on anything not directly concerned with the problem at hand. The months passed. Peter Manton nodded knowingly when Hiroshima heralded the atomic age. He made penciled notes on the margin of the paper correcting some of the reporter's errata in describing radar. He wrote a hot letter to OSRD complaining that the news release on the proximity fuse had been mishandled, that he knew the real facts. He followed sonar and loran with interest. More months passed, and the peace which was raging all over the world continued, but Peter Manton's laboratory was disbanded. Much of the stuff was sold as scrap, and among it was the Better Mousetrap. It no longer worked. Its magnets were mere bits of metal alloy; its permanent wax-electrets were discharged. The crystal no longer vibrated molecularly, and besides, the wire loop was crushed beneath a pile of scrap metal. The next time Peter Manton remembered his Better Mousetrap was when a friend of his mentioned that he wanted to move. "Move?" asked Peter. "Where to?" "That's the point," grumbled Tony Andrews. "There's no place. But I'm not going to stay where I am!" "It looks like a nice enough place. What's wrong?" "Mice. The place is lousy with 'em." "Oh? Thought that was a fairly respectable place." "It was," replied Andrews. "But lately--the mouse population has increased. Probably due to the lack of traps created by the war." Peter nodded. "We had a mousetrap at the lab," he said with a fond smile of reminiscence. Then he told Tony about it, and the other man blinked hungrily. "That good?" he exclaimed. Peter nodded. "Can you build another?" "Sure." Andrews smiled. "Look," he said. "You are the man who built the Better Mousetrap. But the old platitude isn't good enough. The world will not beat a path to your door unless you make yourself known. This should make you famous." Peter frowned a bit. "Is it that good?" he asked. "It has one feature that will outdo all other traps," said Andrews. "In any trap, there is the corpse to dispose of. In this one, there is the disposal system built in. Look, you build one for me, and we'll form a company to build them." "If you think so." "I think so. How long will it take?" "To build another? About an hour once I get the parts. Luckily there's a section of the Central Scientific Company handy. They have most of the stuff." * * * * *