A futuristic old man asks the taxi dispatcher specifically for Denny Holt’s cab. When the man gets in the cab, he offers Denny $1000 to protect him from pursuit for just one night and to steal a brown notebook with a secret formula from the War Department.
Now, shielding the bills with his body, he took them out for a closer examination. They looked all right. They weren’t counterfeit; the serial numbers were O.K.; and they had the same odd musty smell Holt had noticed before.

“You must have been hoarding these,” he hazarded.

Smith said absently, “They’ve been on exhibit for sixty years—” He caught himself and drank rye.

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Variants

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  1. “Endowment Policy,” as by Lewis Padgett, Astounding, August 1943.
  2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Henry Kuttner as by Lewis Padgett