o Mexico, first. We're
over open water now, headed toward Baja California, so I put on the
autopilot. As soon as we get out over the ocean, we can really make
time. You can watch the sun come up in the west."

"And then?" Elshawe felt dazed.

"And then we head straight up. For empty space."

Elshawe closed his eyes again. He didn't even want to think about it.

* * * * *

"... As you no doubt heard," Terrence Elshawe dictated into the phone,
"Malcom Porter made good his threat to take a spaceship of his own
devising to the Moon. Ham radios all over North America picked up his
speech, which was made by spreading the beam from an eighty-foot
diameter parabolic reflector and aiming it at Earth from a hundred
thousand miles out. It was a collapsible reflector, made of thin foil,
like the ones used on space stations. Paragraph.

"He announced that the trip was made with the co-operation of the United
States Space Force, and that it represented a major breakthrough in the
conquest of space. He--"

"Just a sec," Winstein's voice broke in. "Is that the truth? Was he
really working with the Space Force?"

"Hell, no," said Elshawe. "But they'll have to claim he was now. Let me
go on."

"Shoot."

"... He also beamed a message to the men on Moon Base One, telling them
that from now on they would be able to commute back and forth from Luna
to Earth, just as simply as flying from New York to Detroit. Paragraph.

"What followed was even more astounding. At tremendous acceleration,
Malcom Porter and Terrence Elshawe, your reporter, headed for Mars.
Inside Porter's ship, there is no feeling of acceleration except for a
steady, one-gee pull which makes the passenger feel as though he is on
an ordinary airplane, even though the spaceship may be accelerating at
more than a hundred gravities. Paragraph.

"Porter's ship circled Mars, taking photographs of the Red Planet--the
first close-ups of Mars to be seen by the human race. Then, at the same
tremendous rate of speed, Porter's ship returned to Earth. The entire
trip took less than thirty-six hours. According to Porter, improved
ships should be able to cut that time down considerably. Paragraph."

[Illustration]

"Have you got those pics?" Winstein cut in.

"Sure. Porter gave me an exclusive in return for socking me. It was
worth it. Remember back in the Twenties, when the newspapermen talked
about a scoop? Well, we've got the biggest scoop