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                             AIDE MEMOIRE

                            BY KEITH LAUMER

                 The Fustians looked like turtles--but
                 they could move fast when they chose!

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


Across the table from Retief, Ambassador Magnan rustled a stiff sheet
of parchment and looked grave.

"This aide memoire," he said, "was just handed to me by the Cultural
Attache. It's the third on the subject this week. It refers to the
matter of sponsorship of Youth groups--"

"Some youths," Retief said. "Average age, seventy-five."

"The Fustians are a long-lived people," Magnan snapped. "These matters
are relative. At seventy-five, a