THE RAG AND BONE MEN By ALGIS BUDRYS [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Magazine February 1962. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Unfortunate castaway! Marooned far from home--with nothing to share his loneliness but humans! The other one--Charpantier, he called himself--he and I were going back up the hill to the Foundation, carrying our bags, when I happened to remark I didn't think the Veld was sane anymore. (I call myself Maurer.) Charpantier said nothing for a moment. We kept walking, up the gravel path between the unimaginatively clipped hedges. But he was frowning a little, and after a while he said in an absent way: "Now, how would one determine that?" He looked straight into my eyes, which is something that has always upset me, and challenged: "I don't think one could." I felt the shock of inadequacy. Words come out of me--perfectly accurate words, I know; but I never know how, and sometimes when asked I forget. Now I must be very lucid; I must be his kind of man, I thought, and picked my way among my words. "These things he's had us get," I said, putting the burlap bag down and stopping so as to hold Charpantier in one place. "He wants to build something unEarthly," Charpantier said, annoyed because I was playing his kind of trick on him, and so baldly. "What standards do you propose to judge by?" But I was right and he was wrong. Now it remained to make him see how. "Yes. He wants to build something unEarthly. Out of Earthly parts. He wants to take six radio tubes for an Earthly radio, three pieces of Earthly Lucite exactly 1/4 Earthly inch thick, a roll of Earthly 16-gauge wire, a General Electric heat lamp, and all these other things--the polystyrene foam blocks, the polyurethane plastic sheeting, the polyvinyl insulating tape; what have you in your bag, Charpantier? Out of all this, he wants to make a Veldish thing." "He's spent years learning about Earthly things," Charpantier pointed out. "For years, we've brought him books. Men. Everything he needs. Now he's learned what the Earthly equivalents of Veldish materials are, and he's ready to make his new transporter." Charpantier had a dark face--dark hair, dark beard, dark eyes. When his dark brows drew together it was easy to see that his best expression was dark scorn. * * * * *