roved that
he had the equipment to rebuild the rocket and the fuel to run it.

"Then they got a battery of high-powered physicists up on the stands to
prove that nothing else but a rocket could have driven the thing that
way.

"Porter's attorney hammered at them in cross-examination, trying to get
one of them to admit that it was possible that Porter had discovered a
new principle of physics that could fly a missile without rockets, but
the Attorney General's prosecutor had coached them pretty well. They all
said that unless there was evidence to the contrary, they could not
admit that there was such a principle.

"When the prosecutor presented his case to the jury, he really had
himself a ball. I'll give you a transcript of the trial later; you'll
have to read it for yourself to get the real flavor of it. The gist of
it was that things had come to a pretty pass if a man could claim a
scientific principle known only to himself as a defense against a crime.

"He gave one analogy I liked. He said, suppose that a man is found
speeding in a car. The cops find him all alone, behind the wheel, when
they chase him down. Then, in court, he admits that he was alone, and
that the car was speeding, but he insists that the car was steering
itself, and that he wasn't in control of the vehicle at all. And what
was steering the car? Why, a new scientific principle, of course."

Elshawe burst out laughing. "Wow! No wonder the jury didn't stay out
long! I'm going to have to dig the recordings of the newscasts out of
the files; I missed a real comedy while I was in Africa."

Winstein nodded. "We got pretty good coverage on it, but our worthy
competitor, whose name I will not have mentioned within these sacred
halls, got Beebee Vayne to run a commentary on it, and we got beat out
on the meters."

"Vayne?" Elshawe was still grinning. "That's a new twist--getting a
comedian to do a news report."

"I'll have to admit that my worthy competitor, whose name et cetera,
does get an idea once in a while. But I don't want him beating us out
again. We're in on the ground floor this time, and I want to hog the
whole thing if I can."

"Sounds like a great idea, if we can swing it," Elshawe agreed. "Do you
have a new gimmick? You're not going to get a comedian to do it, are
you?"

"Heaven forbid! Even if it had been my own idea three years ago, I
wouldn't repeat it, and I certainly won't have it said that I copy my
competitors. No, what I