CHAPTER 1THE FICTIONAL hero, who whips up a necessary invention on the spur of the immediate moment, is frequently cursed by his true-life counterpart, sadly embound and restricted by reality and his own human limitations. Probably none, however, has cursed so wildly well as did a certain knowledge trader by the name of Feliz Gebrod, on that unfortunate occasion when, halfway from the strait-laced world of Congerman, a Mark III plastic converter he had thrown together from memory, ran wild and vaporized most of his hat.
You see here the disadvantages of being a modern man. Had Feliz lived in the bad old days when all clothing was made of animal or vegetable fiber, he could have ripped up some other item of apparel and sewed or tied or glued it into some sort of head covering. Cast plastic
