d in the scenic
beauties of San Francisco Bay?"

"No. And I won't, either."

"Not if the Army gets you. I can see the epitaph now:

_Malcom Porter, with vexation,
Thought he could defy the nation.
He shot for space with great elation--
Now he's dust and radiation._

Beneath it, they'll engrave a spaceship argent with A-bombs rampant on a
field sable."

Porter didn't take offense. He grinned. "What are you griping about? It
would make a great story."

"Sure it would," Elshawe agreed. "But not for me. I don't write the
obituary column."

"You know what I like about you, Elshawe?"

"Sure. I lose dart games to you."

"That, yes. But you really sound worried. That means two things. One:
You like me. Two: You believe that my ship actually will take off.
That's more than any of those other reporters who have been prowling
around and phoning in do."

Elshawe shrugged silently and puffed at his pipe. Malcom Porter's ego
was showing through. He was wrong on two counts. Elshawe didn't like
him; the man's arrogance and his inflated opinion of himself as a
scientific genius didn't sit well with the reporter. And Elshawe didn't
really believe there was anything but a rocket motor in that hull
outside. A new, more powerful kind of rocket perhaps--otherwise Porter
wouldn't be trying to take a one-stage rocket to the Moon. But a rocket,
nonetheless.

"I don't want to go back to prison," Porter continued, "but I'll risk
that if I have to. But I won't risk death just yet. Don't worry; the
Army won't know I'm even gone until I'm halfway to the Moon."

"Foo!" said Elshawe. "Every radar base from Albuquerque to the Mexican
border has an antenna focused on the air above this ranch. The minute
you get above those mountains, they'll have a fix on you, and a minute
after that, they'll have you bracketed with Cobras.

"Why don't you let the Government inspectors look it over and give you
an O.K.? What makes you think they're all out to steal your invention?"

"Oh, they won't _steal_ it," Porter said bitterly. "Heaven's-to-Betsy
_no_! But this invention of mine will mean that the United States of
America will be in complete control of the planets and the space
between. When the Government wants a piece of property, they try to buy
it at their price; if they can't do that, they condemn it and pay the
owner what they think it's worth--not what the owner thinks it's worth.
The same thing applies here; they'd give m