Herbert found it hard to think against the clatter of the typewriters. "I'm ashamed to admit," he said, "that I feel a kind of envy, they seem to compose with such ease." Hartridge laughed. "No trouble at all! I tell you, my pretty typewriters are going to put you out of business. You can see for yourself, Carre, that there's no need for you human writers. We are doing a perfect job here, and we could supply all the material--novels, stories, fact articles, biographies--that the country could read. AFE has been using more and more of our scripts, as you probably know." "I know." "I can't say exactly why it is, but we do seem to be able to hit the public taste better than you Writers." He reached over and patted one of the plastic cases, as though it had been an affectionate dog. "Do your machines do nothing but write new material?" asked Carre, as he strolled on. "That depends on the demand. Sometimes we have a call for some out-of-print item, or some work which is so hard to get hold of that we simply have the machines re-do it. After Number Twelve, here, produced the entire English translation of 'War and Peace' without a single semantic error, we were not afraid to trust them with anything. As a matter of fact, we've got Number Eight re-writing some nineteenth-century items that have not been available for years--things that were destroyed or banned during the Atomic Wars, but which the present government finds acceptable. Would you like to see?" Carre stood in front of Number Eight in fascination as the metal arms hammered out the words and lines. After a moment, he frowned. "I seem to remember this! I must have read it in my early boyhood. It seems so long ago. Joan of Arc! But I don't remember its happening just this way." "Just goes to show you can't trust your memory, Carre. You know the machines are perfectly logical, and they can't make a mistake." "No, of course not. Odd, though." He brushed his hand over a forehead grown wet. The knife flashed down, cut the paper, and the page fell into its basket. Hartridge picked it up. "Would you like this sheet, as a memento? Number Eight can easily re-do it." "Thank you." "And is there anything else I can show you? I don't mind admitting I'm very proud of my machines." "Well," said Carre, "perhaps you might let me have some of your current manuscripts, just for tonight? I can make a comparative study, for Ludwig, and return them sometime tomorrow." "Nothing easier." He assembled a bundle of stapled sheets and put them in a box, and then rang for the guards, to show him out. "Take care of yourself, Carre. See you tomorrow." * * * * * Herbert sat, that evening, in his book-lined room, reading manuscripts. He looked more and more puzzled, and ill at ease. He got up, after a time, to pace the room, and on a sudden impulse he left the apartment and hurried up the street.