The Common Man | Page 8

engagement if I haven't already done it. I hate overpowering men. All
I'm saying is that we'll have to give Don at least a week. One day isn't
enough."

Dr. Braun cocked his head to one side and said uncomfortably, "I'm not
sure but that in a week's time our friend Don might be able.... See here,
Don, do you mind going on down to the hotel's bar while we three talk
this through?"
Crowley obviously took umbrage at that, but there was nothing to be
done. Frowning peevishly, he left.
The doctor looked from one to the other of his associates. "By Caesar,
do you realize the damage friend Don could accomplish in a week's
time?"
Patricia laughed at him. "That's what I keep telling the two of you. Do
you realize the damage any person could do with invisibility? Not to
speak of giving it to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world."
Ross said, "We've started this, lets go through with it. I back Pat's
suggestion, that we give Don sufficient serum to give him twelve hours
of invisibility a day for a full week. However, we will ration it out to
him day by day, so that if things get out of hand we can cut his supply."
"That's an idea," Patricia said. "And I suspect that within half the period
we'll all be convinced that the process will have to be suppressed."
Ross leaned forward. "Good. I suggest we three keep this suite and get
Don a room elsewhere, so he won't be inhibited by our continual
presence. Once a day we'll give him enough serum for one shot and he
can take it any time he wishes to." He ran his beefy hand back through
his red crew cut in a gesture of satisfaction. "If he seems to get out of
hand, we'll call it all off."
Dr. Braun cleared his throat unhappily. "I have premonitions of disaster,
but I suppose if we've come this far we should see the experiment
through."
Patricia said ungraciously, "At least the lout will be limited in his
accomplishments by his lack of imagination. Imagine going into that
French girl's dressing room."

"Yeah," Ross said ludicrously trying to make his big open face look
dreamy.
"You wretch," Patricia laughed. "The wedding is off!"
* * * * *
But Crowley was no lout. He was full of the folk wisdom of his people.
God helps those who help themselves.
It's each man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.
Not to speak of.
Never give a sucker an even break.
If I didn't do it, somebody else would.
Had he been somewhat more of a student he might also have run into
that nugget of the ancient Greek. Morals are the invention of the weak
to protect themselves from the strong.
Once convinced that the three eggheads were incapable of realizing the
potentialities of their discovery, he had little difficulty in arguing
himself into the stand that he should. It helped considerably to realize
that in all the world only four persons, including himself, were aware of
the existence of the invisibility serum.
He spent the first day in what Marx called in "Das Kapital" the
"original accumulation of capital," although it would seem unlikely that
even in the wildest accusations of the most confirmed Marxist, no great
fortune was ever before begun in such wise.
It was not necessary, he found, to walk into a large bank and simply
seemingly levitate the money out the front door. In fact, that would
have meant disaster. However, large sums of money are to be found
elsewhere on Manhattan and for eleven hours Crowley used his native
ingenuity and American know-how, most of which had been gleaned

from watching TV crime shows. By the end of the day he had managed
to accumulate in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand dollars and
was reasonably sure that the news would not get back to his sponsors.
The fact was, he had cleaned out the treasuries of several numbers
rackets and those of two bookies.
It was important, he well realized, that he be well under way before the
three eggheads decided to lower the boom.
The second day he spent making his preliminary contacts, an operation
that was helped by his activities of the day before. He was beginning
already to get the feel of the underworld element with which he had
decided he was going to have to work, at least in the early stages of his
operations.
Any leader, be he military, political or financial, knows that true
greatness lies in the ability to choose assistants. Be you a Napoleon
with his marshals, a Roosevelt with his brain trust, a J. P. Morgan with
his partners, the truism applies. No