Load by loa, the surviving Libray of Man passed beneath Frost'sscanner. Frost was eager to have them all, and he complained becauseDivcom would not transmit their contents directly to him. Mordelexplained that it was because Divcom chose to do it that way. Frostdecided it was so that he could not obtain a precise fix on Divcom'slocation.

Still, at the rate of one hundred to one hundred-fifty volumes a week,it took Frost only a little over a century to exhaust Divcom's supply ofbooks.

At the end of the half-century, he laid himself open to monitoring andtheir was no conclusion of failure.

During this time, Solcom made no comment upon the course of affairs.Frost decied this was not a matter of unawareness, but one of waiting.For what? He was not certain.

There was the day Mordel closed his turret and said to him, "Those werethe last. You have scanned all the existing books of Man."

"So few?" asked Frost. "Many of them contained bibliographies of booksI have not yet scanned."

"Then those books no longer exist," said Mordel. "It is only byaccident that my master succeeded in preserving as many as there are."

"Then there is nothing more to be learned of Man from His books. Whatelse have you?"

"There were some films and tapes," said Mordel, "which my mastertransferred to solid-state record. I could bring you those for viewing."

"Bring them," said Frost.

Mordel departed and returned with the Complete Drama Critics' LivingLibrary. This could not be speeded-up beyond twice natural time, so ittook Frost a little over six months to view it in its entirety.

Then, "What else have you?" he asked.

"Some artifacts," said Mordel.

"Bring them."

He returned with pots and pans, gameboards and hand tools. He broughthairbrushes, combs, eyeglasses, human clothing. He showed Frost