Simon said, "Let's get to the point, what you wanted to see me about." "I want to hire you to hunt me up some time travelers," the old boy said. Betty was too far in now to maintain her proper role of silent secretary. "Time travelers," she said, not very intelligently. The potential client sat more erect, obviously with intent to hold the floor for a time. He removed the pince-nez glasses and pointed them at Betty. He said, "Have you read much science fiction, Miss?" "Some," Betty admitted. "Then you'll realize that there are a dozen explanations of the paradoxes of time travel. Every writer in the field worth his salt has explained them away. But to get on. It's my contention that within a century or so man will have solved the problems of immortality and eternal youth, and it's also my suspicion that he will eventually be able to travel in time. So convinced am I of these possibilities that I am willing to gamble a portion of my fortune to investigate the presence in our era of such time travelers." Simon seemed incapable of carrying the ball this morning, so Betty said, "But ... Mr. Oyster, if the future has developed time travel why don't we ever meet such travelers?" Simon put in a word. "The usual explanation, Betty, is that they can't afford to allow the space-time continuum track to be altered. If, say, a time traveler returned to a period of twenty-five years ago and shot Hitler, then all subsequent history would be changed. In that case, the time traveler himself might never be born. They have to tread mighty carefully." Mr. Oyster was pleased. "I didn't expect you to be so well informed on the subject, young man." Simon shrugged and fumbled again with the aspirin bottle. * * * * * Mr. Oyster went on. "I've been considering the matter for some time and--" Simon held up a hand. "There's no use prolonging this. As I understand it, you're an elderly gentleman with a considerable fortune and you realize that thus far nobody has succeeded in taking it with him." Mr. Oyster returned his glasses to their perch, bug-eyed Simon, but then nodded. Simon said, "You want to hire me to find a time traveler and in some manner or other--any manner will do--exhort from him the secret of eternal life and youth, which you figure the future will have discovered. You're willing to pony up a part of this fortune of yours, if I can deliver a bona fide time traveler." "Right!" Betty had been looking from one to the other. Now she said, plaintively, "But where are you going to find one of these characters--especially if they're interested in keeping hid?" The old boy was the center again. "I told you I'd been considering it for some time. The _Oktoberfest_, that's where they'd be!" He seemed elated. Betty and Simon waited.