"Opening up a new appliance line with real innovations. I hear they got a new refrigerator. All open. Just shelves--no doors or sides. They want a revolutionary garbage disposal too." "Do you own stock in the company? Is that how you know?" "I own stock in a competitor. That's how I know," Carmen informed me. "Listen, Professor, you can sell to Arcivox and still keep control of the patents through a separate corporation. And I'll give you 49% of its stock." This was Carmen's idea of a magnanimous offer for my invention. It _was_ a pretty good offer--49% and my good health. "But will the government let Arcivox have the machine for commercial use?" "The government would let Arcivox have the hydrogen bomb if they found a commercial use for it." There was a sturdy knock on the door, not a shrill ring of the bell. "That must be Arcivox now," Carmen growled. "They have the best detectives in the business. You know what to tell them?" I knew what to tell them. * * * * * I peeled off my wet shirt and threw it across the corner of my desk, casting a reproving eye at the pastel air-conditioner in the window. It wasn't really the machine's fault--The water department reported the reservoir too low to run water-cooled systems. It would be a day or two before I could get the gas type into my office. Miss Brown, my secretary, was getting a good look at my pale, bony chest. Well, for the salary she got, she could stand to look. Of course, she herself was wearing a modest one-strap sun dress, not shorts and halters like some of the girls. "My," she observed "it certainly is humid for March, isn't it, Professor Venetti?" I agreed that it was. She got her pad and pencil ready. "Wheedling form letter to Better Mousetraps. Where are our royalties for the last quarter of the year? We know we didn't have a full three months with our Expendable Field in operation on the new traps, but we want the payola for what we have coming. "Condescending form letter to Humane Lethal Equipment. Absolutely do not send the California penal system any chambers equipped with our patented field until legislature officially approves them. We got away with it in New Mexico, but we're older and wiser now. "Rush priority telegram to President, United States, any time in the next ten days. Thanks for citation, et cetera. Glad buddy system working out well in training battlefield disintegrator teams. "Indignant form letter to Arcivox. We do not feel we are properly a co-respondent in your damage suits. Small children and appliances have always been a problem, viz ice boxes and refrigerators. Suggest you put a more complicated latch on the handles of the dangerously inferior doors you have covering our efficient, patented field."