"I ... I'm afraid so," the professor said.
Charley sat for a long time, thinking. He pictured the carnival, and the shrinking audiences. Could he explain to them why he couldn't get arms? Would any audience stop to listen and digest the truth? Charley thought of the armless man in the Flea Museum, and decided slowly that no explanation would be good enough. People didn't stop to make small distinctions. Not in a sideshow. Not in a carnival.
No.
There was only one thing he could do; he saw that clearly. But it took him a long time to find the right words. At last he had them.
"Professor," he said, "suppose I go right back to being a sideshow exhibit—but with a limited audience."
Professor Lightning looked puzzled. "What do you mean?" he said.
"Well," Charley said, carefully and with a sudden, surprising feeling of hope, "you don't happen to need a new guinea pig, do you?"
THE END
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction May 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.