



                           DANGEROUS QUARRY

                             BY JIM HARMON

                   One little village couldn't have
                   a monopoly on all the bad breaks
                    in the world. They did, though!

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
               Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1962.
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]


They say automation makes jobs, especially if "they" are trying to keep
their own job of selling automation machines. I know the Actuarvac made
one purple passion of a job for me, the unpleasantly fatal results of
which are still lingering with me.

Thad McCain, my boss at Manhattan-Universal Insurance, beamed over
the sprawling automatic brain's silver gauges and plastic toggles as
proudly as if he had just personally gave birth to it. "This will
simplify your job to the point of a pleasant diversion