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Full download Fundamentals of Investing 12th Edition Smart Test Bank all chapter 2024 pdf
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Fundamentals of Investing, 12e (Smart/Gitman/Joehnk)
Chapter 5 Modern Portfolio Concepts
2) A portfolio that offers the lowest risk for a given level of return is known as an efficient
portfolio.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
3) By plotting the efficient frontier, investors can find the unique portfolio that is ideal for all
investors.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
5) If the actual rate of return on an investment portfolio is constant from year to year, the
standard deviation of that portfolio is zero.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
1
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
6) An efficient portfolio maximizes the rate of return without consideration of risk.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
7) Melissa owns the following portfolio of stocks. What is the return on her portfolio?
A) 8.0%
B) 9.0%
C) 9.8%
D) 10.9%
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
8) Marco owns the following portfolio of stocks. What is the expected return on his portfolio?
A) 4.7%
B) 6.6%
C) 8.4%
D) 8.7%
Answer: B
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
2
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
9) A portfolio consisting of four stocks is expected to produce returns of 9%, 11%, 3% and 17%,
respectively, over the next four years. What is the standard deviation of these expected returns?
A) 5.00%
B) 5.77%
C) 25.00%
D) 33.33%
Answer: B
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
10) The stock of a technology company has an expected return of 15% and a standard deviation
of 20%. The stock of a pharmaceutical company has an expected return of 13% and a standard
deviation of 18%. A portfolio consisting of 50% invested in each stock will have an expected
return of 14 % and a standard deviation
A) less than the average of 20% and 18%.
B) the average of 20% and 18%.
C) greater than the average of 20% and 18%.
D) the answer cannot be determined with the information given.
Answer: A
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
11) The statement "A portfolio is less than the sum of its parts." means:
A) it is less expensive to buy a group of assets than to buy those assets individually.
B) portfolio returns will always be lower than the returns on individual stocks.
C) a diversified group of assets will be less volatile than the individual assets within the group.
D) for reasons that are not well understood, the value of a portfolio is less than the sum of the
values of its components.
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
1) Negatively correlated assets reduce risk more than positively correlated assets.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
3
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
2) Correlation is a measure of the relationship between two series of numbers.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
3) Risk can be totally eliminated by combining two assets that are perfectly positively correlated.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
5) Studies have shown that investing in different industries as well as different countries reduces
portfolio risk.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
4
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
8) In severe market downturns different asset classes become less correlated.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
11) If there is no relationship between the rates of return of two assets over time, these assets are
A) positively correlated.
B) negatively correlated.
C) perfectly negatively correlated.
D) uncorrelated.
Answer: D
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
5
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
13) Two assets have a coefficient of correlation of -.4.
A) Combining these assets will increase risk.
B) Combining these assets will have no effect on risk.
C) Combining these assets may either raise or lower risk.
D) Combining these assets will reduce risk.
Answer: D
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
16) Over the long term, a portfolio consisting of an S&P 500 index and an EAFE index will
generally produce ________ returns and have ________ risk than a portfolio comprised solely of
the S&P 500 index.
A) higher; more
B) higher; less
C) lower; more
D) lower; less
Answer: B
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
6
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
17) Which one of the following will provide the greatest international diversification?
A) directly purchasing a foreign stock
B) purchasing stock of a U.S. multinational firm
C) purchasing an ADS
D) purchasing shares of an international mutual fund
Answer: D
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
18) American investors have several alternatives available to diversify their portfolios
internationally. In terms of transaction costs, which of the alternatives below is least attractive?
A) mutual funds with an international focus.
B) stocks of U.S. based companies with extensive foreign sales and/or operations.
C) direct investment in foreign stocks.
D) American Depositary Shares
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
20) Explain the relationship between correlation, diversification, and risk reduction.
Answer: Correlation is a statistic that measures the relationship between returns on assets.
Positively correlated assets move together; negatively correlated opposites move in opposite
directions. Diversification reduces risk most effectively when the assets have low or negative
coefficients of correlation.
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
7
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
21) Returns on the stock of First Boston and Midas Metals for the years 2010-2013 are shown
below.
First Boston Midas Metals Portfolio
2010 -18.00% 26.00%
2011 32.00% -5.00%
2012 18.00% 3.00%
2013 1.00% 10.00%
a. Compute the average annual return for each stock and a portfolio consisting of 50% First
Boston and 50% Midas.
b. Compute the standard deviation for each stock and the portfolio.
c. Are the stocks positively or negatively correlated and what is the effect on risk?
Answer:
First Boston Midas Metals Portfolio
2010 -18.00% 26.00% 4.00%
2011 32.00% -5.00% 13.50%
2012 18.00% 3.00% 10.50%
2013 1.00% 10.00% 5.50%
a. Avg. 8.25% 8.50% 8.38%
b. St.
Dev. 21.61% 13.18% 4.40%
c. The two stocks are negatively correlated. The return on the 50/50 portfolio is half way
between the returns for each stock, but the standard deviation is much lower than for either stock,
indicating that the portfolio has much less risk than the individual stocks.
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
2) Standard deviation is a measure that indicates how the price of an individual security responds
to market forces.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
8
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
3) Market return is estimated from the average return on a large sample of stocks such as those in
the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Composite Index.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Revised
5) A negative beta means that on average a stock moves in the opposite direction of the market.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
6) A beta of 0.5 means that a stock is half as risky the overall market.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
7) The index used to represent market returns is always assigned a beta of 1.0.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Revised
9
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
9) A stock with a beta of 1.3 is less risky than a stock with a beta of 0.42.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
10) For stocks with positive betas, higher risk stocks will have higher beta values.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
11) Adding stocks with higher standard deviations to a portfolio will necessarily increase the
portfolio's risk.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
12) Beta measures diversifiable risk while standard deviation measures systematic risk.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
13) Historical betas are always reliable predictors of future return fluctuations.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
10
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
14) Which of the following represent unsystematic risks?
I. the president of a company suddenly resigns
II. the economy goes into a recessionary period
III. a company's product is recalled for defects
IV. the Federal Reserve unexpectedly changes interest rates
A) I, II and IV only
B) II and IV only
C) I and III only
D) I, II and III only
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
11
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
17) Which one of the following conditions can be effectively eliminated through portfolio
diversification?
A) a general price increase nationwide
B) an interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve
C) increased government regulation of auto emissions
D) change in the political party that controls Congress
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
Question Status: Previous Edition
18) Which one of the following types of risk cannot be effectively eliminated through portfolio
diversification?
A) inflation risk
B) labor problems
C) materials shortages
D) product recalls
Answer: A
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
19) Which one of the following conditions can be effectively eliminated through portfolio
diversification?
A) a general price increase nationwide
B) an interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve
C) increased government regulation of auto emissions
D) change in the political party that controls Congress
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
12
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
21) A measure of systematic risk is
A) standard deviation.
B) correlation coefficient.
C) beta.
D) variance.
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Revised
22) Beta can be defined as the slope of the line that explains the relationship between
A) the return on a security and the return on the market.
B) the returns on a security and various points in time.
C) the return on stocks and the returns on bonds.
D) the risk free rate of return versus the market rate of return.
Answer: A
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
24) Which of the following best describes the relationship between a stock's beta and the
standard deviation of the stock's returns?
A) The higher the standard deviation, the higher the beta.
B) The higher the standard deviation, the lower the beta.
C) There is no particular relationship between a stock's standard deviation of returns and it's beta.
D) Standard deviation and beta are different ways of measuring the same thing.
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
13
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
25) A stock's beta value is a measure of
A) interest rate risk.
B) total risk.
C) systematic risk.
D) diversifiable risk.
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
27) When the stock market has bottomed out and is beginning to recover, the best portfolio to
own is the one with a beta of
A) 0.0.
B) +0.5.
C) +1.5.
D) +2.0.
Answer: D
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
28) The best stock to own when the stock market is at a peak and is expected to decline in value
is one with a beta of
A) +1.5.
B) +1.0.
C) -1.0.
D) -0.5.
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
14
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
29) Security A has a beta of .99, security B has a beta of 1.2, and security C has a beta of -1.0.
This information indicates that
A) security A has the highest degree of market risk.
B) security B has 20% more systematic risk than the market.
C) security C has the highest degree of market risk.
D) security C would be the best investment if a strong bull market is expected.
Answer: B
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
30) Beta is the slope of the best fit line for the points with coordinates representing the ________
and the ________ for each one of several years.
A) rate of return; level of risk for an individual security
B) rate of inflation; rate of return for an individual security
C) risk level of a stock; market rate of return
D) market rate of return; security's rate of return
Answer: D
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
31) The stock of ABC, Inc. has a beta of 1.10. The market rate of return is expected to increase
in value by 5%. ABC stock should
A) increase in value by 0.5%.
B) increase in value by 5.5%.
C) decrease in value by 0.5%.
D) decrease in value by 5.5%.
Answer: B
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
15
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
33) The market rate of return increased by 8% while the rate of return on XYZ stock increased
by 4%. The beta of XYZ stock is
A) -2.0.
B) -0.40.
C) 0.50.
D) 2.0.
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
35) Explain what beta measures and how investors can use beta.
Answer: Students should mention some or all of the following.
∙ Beta measures nondiversifiable (market) or systematic risk.
∙ Beta measures how a security will perform in relation to the market.
∙ The higher the beta, the riskier the security.
∙ The beta for the market is 1; stocks may have positive or negative betas.
∙ Stocks with betas greater than 1 are more responsive to changes in the market than is the
market.
∙ Beta is derived from the slope of the "characteristic line."
The CAPM shows that as beta increases, the required return for an investment increases.
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
16
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
5.4 Learning Goal 4
1) The basic theory linking portfolio risk and return is the Capital Asset Pricing Model.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Revised
2) The CAPM estimates the required rate of return on a stock held as part of a well diversified
portfolio.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
3) The Dow Jones Industrial Average of thirty stocks is a suitable proxy for market returns in the
CAPM.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
4) In the Capital Asset Pricing Model, beta measures a stock's sensitivity to overall market
returns.
Answer: TRUE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
5) According to the CAPM, the required rate of a return on a stock can be estimated using only
beta and the risk-free rate.
Answer: FALSE
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
17
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
6) You have gathered the following information concerning a particular investment and
conditions in the market.
According to the Capital Asset Pricing Model, the required return for this investment is
A) 8.85%.
B) 11.48%.
C) 13.98%.
D) 14.85%.
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Revised
7) OKAY stock has a beta of 0.73. The market as a whole is expected to decline by 20% thereby
causing OKAY stock to
A) decline by 14.6%.
B) decline by 20.7%.
C) increase by 14.6%.
D) increase by 20.7%.
Answer: A
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
8) The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is a mathematical model that depicts the
A) positive relationship between risk and return.
B) standard deviation between a risk premium and an investment's expected return.
C) exact price that an investor should be willing to pay for any given investment.
D) difference between a risk-free return and the expected rate of inflation.
Answer: A
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
18
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
9) When the Capital Asset Pricing Model is depicted graphically, the result is the
A) standard deviation line.
B) coefficient of variation line.
C) security market line.
D) alpha-beta line.
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
11) The Franko Company has a beta of 1.09. By what percent will the rate of return on the stock
of Franko Company increase if the market rate of return rises by 3%?
A) 1.91%
B) 2.75%
C) 3.27%
D) 4.09%
Answer: C
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
19
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
12) What is the expected return on a stock with a beta of 1.09, a market risk premium of 8%, and
a risk-free rate of 4%?
A) 4.36%
B) 8.36%
C) 8.72%
D) 12.72%
Answer: D
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
13) According to MSN money, the stock of Orange Corporation has a beta of 1.5, but according
to Yahoo Finance it is 1.75. The expected rate of return on the market is 12% and the risk free
rate is 2%. What is the difference between the required rates of return calculated using each of
these betas?
A) 1.50%
B) 1.75%
C) 2.0%
D) 2.5%
Answer: D
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: New Question
14) The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) includes which of the following in its base
assumptions?
I. Investors should earn a minimum return equal to the risk-free rate.
II. Investors in the market should earn a return greater than the return on the overall market.
III. Investors should be rewarded for the amount of risk they assume.
IV. Investors should earn a return located above the Security Market Line.
A) I and III only
B) II and IV only
C) I, II and III only
D) I, III and IV only
Answer: A
Learning Outcome: F-12 Discuss the implications of systematic risk in financial markets and its
role in shaping investment choices
AACSB: 3 Analytic Skills
Question Status: Previous Edition
20
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Akkra case
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.
Language: English
Illustrated by ADKINS
The first step, of course, was to fling a dragnet around all known or
suspected Naturists in the district. In a series of flying raids they
were rounded up; and since there no longer exist those depositories
for offenders formerly known as prisons, they were kept
incommunicado in the psychiatric wards of the various hospitals. For
good measure, Pol Akkra was included. Margret, at 13, was old
enough to take care of herself.
Next, all Madolin's classmates at the Technicum, the operators of her
teach-communicators, and members of other classes with whom it
was learned she had been on familiar terms, were subjected to an
intensive electronic questioning. (Several of these were themselves
discovered to be tainted with Naturism, and were interned with the
rest.) One of the tenets of Naturism is a return to the outworn system
of monogamy, and the questioning was directed particularly to the
possibility that Madolin had formed half of one of the notorious
Naturist "steady couples," who often associate without or before
actual mating. But day after day the investigators came up with not
the slightest usable lead.
Please do not think I am underrating Fedpol. Nothing could have
been more thorough than the investigation they undertook. But this
turned out in the end to be a case which by its very nature
obfuscated the normal methods of criminological science. Fedpol
itself has acknowledged this, by its formation in recent months of the
Affiliated Assistance Corps, made up of amateurs who volunteer for
the detection of what are now called Class X crimes—those so far off
the beaten path that professionals are helpless before them.
For it was an amateur who solved Madolin Akkra's murder—her own
little sister. When Margret Akkra reaches the working age of 25 she
will be offered a paid post as Newyork Area Co-ordinator of the AAC.
Left alone by her father's internment, Margret began to devote her
whole time out of school hours to the pursuit of the person or
persons who had killed her sister. She had told Kazazian all she
actually knew; but that was only her starting-point. Though she
herself, as she had told the Inspector, believed that the murder might
be traced to Madolin's connection with the Naturist (and though she
probably at least suspected her father to be involved with them also),
she did not confine herself to that theory, as the Fedpol, with its
scientific training, was obliged to do.
Concealed under a false floor in her father's bedroom—mute
evidence of his Naturist affiliation—she found a cache of printed
books—heirlooms which should long ago have been presented to a
museum for consultation by scholars only. They dated back to the
20th century, and were of the variety then known as "mystery
stories." Margret of course could not read them. But she
remembered now, with revulsion, how, when she and Madolin were
small children, their mother had sometimes (with windows closed
and the videophone turned off) amused them by telling them ancient
myths and legends that by their very nature Margret now realized
must have come from these contraband books.
Unlike her father and her sister, and apparently her mother as well,
Margret Akkra had remained a wholesome product of a civilized
education. She had nothing but horror and contempt for the
subversive activities in the midst of which, she knew now, she had
grown up. The very fact, which became plain to her for the first time,
that her parents had lived together, without changing partners, until
her mother had died, was evidence enough of their aberration.
But, stricken to the heart as the poor girl was, she could not cease to
love those she had always loved, or to be diverted from her
resolution to solve her sister's murder. Shudder as she might at the
memory of those subversive books, she yet felt they might
inadvertently serve to assist her.
It was easy to persuade the school authorities that her shock and
distress over Madolin's death had slowed up her conscious mind,
and to get herself assigned to a few sessions with the electronic
memory stimulator. It took only two or three to bring back in detail the
suppressed memories, and to enable her to extrapolate from them.
Margret crouched behind the thickest part of the shrubbery, her infra-
red camera at the alert. The tape-attachment was already activated.
The second boy still held back. "I told you then," he muttered, "that
we shouldn't have reported it at all. We should have got out of here
and never said a word to anyone."
"We couldn't," the first boy said, shocked. "It would have been anti-
social. Haven't you ever learned anything in school?"
"Well, it's anti-social to kill somebody, too, isn't it?"
Margret pressed the button on the camera. Enlarged enough, even
the identification discs on the boys' wristlets would show.
"How could we guess there was a human being there, except us?
What was she doing here, anyway? Come on, Harri, we've got to
find that thing. It's taken us long enough to get a chance to sneak in
here."
"Maybe they've found it already," said Harri fearfully.
"No, they haven't; if they had, they'd have taken us in as soon as
they dusted the fingerprints."
"All right, it's not anywhere on the path. Put the beamer on the
ground where it will shine in front of us, and let's get down on our
stomachs and hunt underneath the bushes."
Grabbing her camera, Margret jumped to her feet and dashed past
the startled boys. She heard a scream—that would be Harri—and
then their feet pounding after her. But she had a head start, and her
eyes were more accustomed to the dark than theirs could be. She
reached a tree, shinnied up it, jumped from one of its limbs to
another on a higher tree beneath the mobilway, chinned herself up,
and made her way out safely.
She went straight to Fedpol headquarters and asked for Inspector
Kazazian.
The frightened boys were picked up at once. They were brought into
headquarters, where they had been praised and thanked before, and
as soon as they saw the pictures and heard the tape-recording they
confessed everything.
That night, they said, they were being initiated into one of those
atavistic fraternities which it seems impossible for the young to
outgrow or the authorities to suppress. As part of their ordeal, they
had been required to sneak into Central Park and to bring back as
proof of their success a captured robot gardener. Between them they
had decided that the only way they could ever get their booty would
be to disassemble the robot, for though it could not injure them, if
they took hold of it, its communication-valve would blow and the
noise would bring others immediately; so they had taken along what
seemed to them a practical weapon—a glass brick pried out of the
back of a locker in the school gym. Hurled by a strong and practiced
young arm, it could de-activate the robot's headpiece.
When, as they waited in the darkness for a gardener to appear, they
saw a figure moving about in the shrubbery bordering the path, one
of them—neither would say which one it was—let fly. To their horror,
instead of the clang of heavy glass against metal, they heard a
muffled thud as the brick struck flesh and bone. They started to run
away. But after a few paces they forced themselves to return.
It was a girl, and the blow had knocked her flat. Her head was
bleeding badly and she was moaning. Terrified, they knelt beside
her. She gasped once and lay still. One of the boys laid a trembling
hand on her breast, the other seized her wrist. There was no heart-
beat and there was no pulse. On an impulse, the boy holding her
wrist wrenched away her identification disc.
Panic seized them, and they dashed away, utterly forgetting the
brick, which at their first discovery one of them had had the foresight
to kick farther into the shrubbery, out of view. Sick and shaking, they
made their way out of the park and separated. The boy who had the
disc threw it into the nearest sewer-grating.
The next day, after school, they met again and talked it over. Finally
they decided they must go to Fedpol and report; but to protect
themselves they would say only that they had found a dead body.
Day after day, they kept seeing and hearing about the case on the
videaud, and pledged each other to silence. Then suddenly one of
the boys had a horrible thought—they had forgotten that the brick
would show their fingerprints!... They had come desperately to
search for it when Margret overheard them. Kazazian's men found it
without any difficulty; it had been just out of the gardeners' regular
track.
In view of the accidental nature of the whole affair, and the boys' full
confession, they got off easy. They were sentenced to only five
years' confinement in a psychiatric retraining school.
The suspects against whom nothing could be proved were released
and kept under surveillance. Pol Akkra, and all the proved Naturists,
were sentenced to prefrontal lobotomies. Margret Akkra, in return for
her help in solving the mystery, secured permission to take her father
home with her. A purged and docile man, he was quite capable of
the routine duties of housekeeping.
The killing of Madolin Akkra was solved. But one question remained:
how and why had she been in Central Park at all?
The answer, when it came, was surprising and embarrassingly
simple. And this is the part that has never been told before.
Pol Akkra, a mere simulacrum of the man he had been, no longer
knew his living daughter or remembered his dead one. But in the
recesses of his invaded brain some faint vestiges of the past
lingered, and occasionally and unexpectedly swam up to his
dreamlike consciousness.
One day he said suddenly: "Didn't I once know a girl named
Madolin?"
"Yes, father," Margret answered gently, tears in her eyes.
"Funny about her." He laughed his ghastly Zombie chuckle. "I told
her that was a foolish idea, even if it was good Nat—Nat-something
theory."
"What idea was that?"
"I—I've forgotten," he said vaguely. Then he brightened. "Oh, yes, I
remember. Stand barefoot in fresh soil for an hour in the light of the
full moon and you'll never catch cold again.
"She was subject to colds, I think." (About the only disease left we
have as yet no cure for.) He sighed. "I wonder if she ever tried it."
THE END
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AKKRA
CASE ***
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.