His victory--a Knoug victory.... He frowned. Why had he automatically made a differentiation where there should be none? He realized that the mailing success had released him from nervous preoccupation in Knoug work; for the first time he was free of responsibility, and he could think ... clearly ... about.... He wanted to hammer the terrifying new _doubts_ out of his mind. But they gathered like rain clouds. He went to the mirror and fingered his face. "What's wrong? What's wrong?" Knoug victory had a bitter taste. He suddenly pictured the civilization around him as a vast web held in tension by a vulnerable thread of co-operation, now slowly disintegrating as the thread crumbled. And he took no joy in the thought. He began to let images float in his mind. Imagined scenes, taking place beyond the walls. A man went in to pay off a loan, his pockets stuffed with money. "I'm not taking it." "Whatsa matter? It's legal tender. You _gotta_ take it." Bills on the counter. "You didn't earn that!" "It don't matter." "It isn't any good. Everybody's got it." "That don't _matter_." "It's worthless!" "Yeah? Listen: 'For all debts, public and private....'" Parr's mind reached out to grasp the unsettling immensity of it. He flipped on the radio, half heard an excited announcer. Parr thought: All over the world, each to his own: coins, bills, dollars, rupees, pesos, pounds--how many million parcels were there? Each stuffed with enough to make its owner a man of wealth, as wealth was once measured. Parr thought it was terrifying, somehow. And the headline of the paper admitted: "No Test To Reveal Good Money From Bad." (There was a mob. They were storming a liquor store, while the owner cowered inside. He was waiting for the police. But the police were too busy elsewhere, so finally, to salvage what he could before the mob took his stock for nothing he opened the door, crying, "Form a line! Form a line!") Parr thought of the confusion that would grow. Prices spiraling. (In the United States Senate, a member took the floor to filibuster until California had its mail delivery and its fair share of the free money.) This was the day work stoppages would begin. FAMINE PREDICTED.... PRESIDENT IN APPEAL TO.... GUARD MOBILIZED.... Riots. Celebrations. (A church burned the mortgage gratefully.) Clean shelves. Looming scarcity. By the time the sun dipped into the Pacific, the whole economic structure of the world would be in shambles. Governments doubtless would blame each other (half-heartedly), propose new currency, taxes, and the gold standard again. Industrial gears would come unmeshed as workers took vacations. Electric power, in consequence would begin to fail. (Looting already occupied the attention of the better part of the underworld, and not a few respectable citizens decided to get it now and store it for use when it would be unavailable because others had done likewise.)