e? I'm Malcom Porter." His grip was firm and friendly. "I'm
glad to see you. Glad you could make it."

"Glad to be here, Dr. Porter," Elshawe said in his best manner. "It's
quite a privilege." He knew that Porter liked to be called "Doctor"; all
his subordinates called him that.

But, surprisingly, Porter said: "Not 'Doctor,' Mr. Elshawe; just
'Mister.' My boys like to call me 'Doctor,' but it's sort of a nickname.
I don't have a degree, and I don't claim one. I don't want the public
thinking I'm claiming to be something I'm not."

"I understand, Mr. Porter."

Bill Rodriguez's voice broke in. "Where do you want me to put all this
stuff, Doc?" He had unloaded Elshawe's baggage from the station wagon
and set it carefully on the ground. Skinner picked up his single
suitcase and looked at Porter inquiringly.

"My usual room, Malcom?"

"Yeah. Sure, Sam; sure." As Skinner walked off toward one of the other
buildings, Porter said: "Quite a load of baggage you have there, Mr.
Elshawe. Recording equipment?"

"Most of it," the reporter admitted. "Recording TV cameras, 16mm movie
cameras, tape recorders, 35mm still cameras--the works. I wanted to get
good coverage, and if you've got any men that you won't be using during
the take-off, I'd like to borrow them to help me operate this stuff."

"Certainly; certainly. Come on, Bill, let's get this stuff over to Mr.
Elshawe's suite."

* * * * *

The suite consisted of three rooms, all very nicely appointed for a
place as far out in the wilderness as this. When Elshawe got his
equipment stowed away, Porter invited him to come out and take a look at
his pride and joy.

"The first real spaceship, Elshawe," he said energetically. "The first
real spaceship. The rocket is no more a spaceship than a rowboat is an
ocean-going vessel." He gestured toward the sleek, shining, metal ship.
"Of course, it's only a pilot model, you might say. I don't have
hundreds of millions of dollars to spend; I had to make do with what I
could afford. That's an old Grumman _Supernova_ stratojet. I got it
fairly cheap because I told 'em I didn't want the engines or the wings
or the tail assembly.

"But she'll do the job, all right. Isn't she a beauty?"

Elshawe had his small pocket recorder going; he might as well get all
this down. "Mr. Porter," he asked carefully, "just how does this vessel
propel itself? I understand that, at the trial, it was said that you
claimed