"But not of mine," Peccary responded sourly. "I doubt if you can make it a bit worse by telling me what this is all about and what you plan to do with me." The bearded man showed surprise. "You don't know?" "No! I don't know!" Peccary was losing his detachment. The bearded man considered him thoughtfully. "I shouldn't have let the doctor go so soon. Apparently you were hit harder than we thought. On the other hand it's just possible, living as you have these last seventy years locked up in your palace and isolated from the rest of the world, that you've lost touch with what is going on." "I've lost touch with a great many things. Obviously I'm a prisoner. How long is this going to last?" "Only until my demolition squad is ready. Then we take you to your production plant where you produce the Y Hormone. There will be a gun at your back, of course. You know the combination to get us safely past the automatic guards. Ah, I've waited all my life for this! Once we're in the plant, my men will do the rest." "You're going to blow it up?" "Absolutely!" * * * * * "And what do you gain by that? The formula for the Y Hormone still exists!" The bearded man laughed. "Yes, I can see you've been out of touch with the world. It's been thirty years since the country produced anyone capable of working with that formula. That's when the last university closed down--thirty years ago." "That's shocking," said Dr. Peccary. "But my experiments showed conclusively that the Y Hormone has no deleterious effect upon intelligence. I took every precaution!" "Nothing wrong with anyone's intelligence," said the bearded man, "except that no one's under pressure to use it. When the future stretches on indefinitely, it gets easier and easier to put things off until tomorrow--even education--until finally it's put off forever. There's only one man living who understands that formula." "And who is that?" The bearded man looked down at him hatefully. "Yourself, Dr. Peccary! That's why we're so delighted to capture you--because now you'll never use it again!" Peccary stared at him aghast. "I understand now! You mean to steal it. You mean to force it out of me and start producing the Y Hormone yourself!" This accusation resulted in a violent reaction from the bearded man. He grasped Peccary by the lapels of his jacket and hauled him to his feet. Peccary could feel the man's powerful hands trembling with rage. "You fool! You utter imbecile! Don't you even yet know who we are?" Peccary was so throttled by the man's clutch that he could only waggle his head in the negative. The bearded man's face came close to his.