There is no enemy so hard to fight as a dull gray fog. It's not solid enough to beat, too indefinite to kill, and too omnipresent to escape. [Transcribers Note: This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction February 1962. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Dr. William Baker was fifty and didn't mind it a bit. Fifty was a tremendously satisfying age. With that exact number of years behind him a man had s

"And this keeps us from getting a research grant in physics? What did our progenitors do, anyway? Get hung for being horse thieves?" "No criminal activities were reported by your people, but there is a record of singular restlessness and dissatisfaction with established conditions." "What did they do?" "They were constantly on the move, for the most part. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they were primarily pioneers, frontiersmen, settlers of new country. But when the country was estab

"Do you see it yet?" Fenwick asked. "No, I'm afraid I don't!" Baker was snappish. "This is one of the most devilish things I've ever come across!" "You don't think it's working the way Jim and Sam say it is?" "Of course not. The thing is utterly impossible! I am convinced a hypnotic condition is involved, but I must admit I don't see how." "You may figure it out when you go through Ellerbee's lab." Baker was obviously shaken. He spoke in subdued tones as Ellerbee started the tour of the crystal

Jim Ellerbee nodded agreement. "When we got there," Fenwick went on, "we saw that the front door of the house was open as if the storm had blown it in. We called Sam, but he didn't answer, so we went on in. Things were a mess. We thought it was because of the storm, but then we saw that drawers and shelves seemed to have been opened hastily and cleaned out. Some things had been dropped on the floor, but most of the stuff was just gone. "It was that way all through the house. Sam's bed hadn't bee