Dr. Pollard nodded. "Tomorrow?" he pleaded. "Why?" Pollard knew that the wish to aid Carroll would fall on deaf ears. Carroll did not care to be helped. There were other ways. "Because I must do my job or I shall be released," said Pollard. "You must permit me to try, at least. Will you?" "I--yes." "Good. No one will know that I am not trying hard. But we'll make it look good?" "Yes." "Do you know where your home is?" asked Pollard with his mental fingers crossed. "No." Pollard sighed. "Then you stay here. Miss Farragut will show you a quiet room where you can sleep. Tomorrow we'll find your home from the files. Then you can go home." Pollard got out of there. He knew that Carroll would not leave--could not leave. He prescribed a husky sedative to be put in Carroll's last drink of water for the night and went home himself, his mind humming with speculation. * * * * * The conference was composed of Pollard, Majors, and most of the other key men in the Lawson Laboratory. Pollard spoke first. "James Carroll is a victim of a rather deep-seated amnesia," he said. "Amnesia is, of course, a mechanism of the mind set up to avoid some bitter reality. In Carroll's case, not only is the amnesia passive--some warning agency in Carroll's amnesiac mind warns him that regaining his true identity will result in great pain. "It is something concerned with his work. We'd like to know what about the study of the Lawson Radiation could produce such a painful reality." "We all get a bit fed up at times," remarked Tom Jackwell. "It's heartbreaking to sit daily and try things that never do anything." "We are like an aborigine, born on an isolated island three hundred yards in diameter who has just discovered that certain blackish rocks tend to attract one another and point north. Amusing for a time, but what is it good for and what ungodly mechanism causes it?" said Majors with a shrug. "Just what is the latest theory on the Lawson Radiation?" asked Pollard. "You guess," said John Majors ruefully. "We've had too many theories already. The Lawson Radiation is a strange creation out of Boötes by Arcturus, and borne like Zephyr on the wind. "Certain elemental minerals, when in contact with other minerals, produce a pulsing radiofrequency current which can be detected after more amplification than the human mind can contemplate sensibly. "The frequency output depends upon the type of minerals used, and it is completely random so far as any consistent pattern goes. Some elemental minerals are no good, some are excellent." "You've made determinant charts?" "Naturally. But there's no determinant. After I said elemental minerals, I should have said that this was the original premise. Now we have a detector working with helium gas surrounding a block of lead bromide.