table.main {}
tr.row {}
td.cell {}
div.block {}
div.paragraph {}
.font0 { font:9.00pt "Arial", sans-serif; }
.font1 { font:16.00pt "Arial", sans-serif; }
.font2 { font:9.00pt "Times New Roman", serif; }




ISAAC ASIMOV
Among his many other accomplishments, Isaac Asimov is recognized as the man who proved you can foo mix the science fiction and mystery genres. Best-known in this connection are his novels THE CAVES OF STEEL and THE NAKED SUN, but Asimov can write a good extrapolative mystery even at short story length, as he demonstrates here.
I
James PbissI suppose I ought to say Professor James Priss, though everyone is sure to know who I mean even without the titlealways spoke slowly.
I know. I interviewed him often enough. He had the greatest mind since Einstein, but it didn't work quickly. He admitted his slowness often. Maybe it was because he had so great a mind that it didn't work quickly.
He would say something in slow abstraction, then he would think, and then he would say something more. Even over trivial matters, his giant mind would hover uncertainly, adding a touch here and then another there.
Would the sun rise tomorrow? I can imagine him wondering. What do we mean by "rise"? Can we be certain that tomorrow will come? Is the term "sun" completely unambiguous in this connection?
Add to this habit of speech a bland countenance, rather pale, with no expression except for a general look of uncertainty; gray hair, rather thin, neatly combed; business suits of an invariably conservative cut; and you have what Pro-
94