ed, and this time his jowls bobbled instead of wobbled. "Some
group at Viking is trying to run me out of the managerial business.
They want Viking to be managed by Thurston Enterprises; they evidently
think they can get a better deal from him than they can from me. If
the McGuire project fails, they'll have a good chance of convincing
the stock-holders that the fault lies with Ravenhurst. You follow?"

"So far," I said. "Do you think Thurston's behind this, then?"

"I don't know," he said slowly. "He might be, or he might not. If he
is, that's perfectly legitimate business tactics. He's got a perfect
right to try to get more business for himself if he wants to. I've
undercut him a couple of times.

"But I don't think he's too deeply involved, if he's involved at all.
This smacks of a personal attack against me, and I don't think that's
Thurston's type of play.

"You see, things are a little touchy right now. I won't go into
details, but you know what the political situation is at the moment.

"It works this way, as far as Viking is concerned: If I lose the
managerial contract at Viking, a couple of my other contracts will go
by the board, too--especially if it's proved that I've been lax in
management or have been expending credit needlessly.

"These other two companies are actually a little shaky at the moment;
I've only been managing them for a little over a year in one case and
two years in the other. Their assets have come up since I took over,
but they'd still dump me if they thought I was reckless."

"How can they do that?" I asked. "You have a contract, don't you?"

"Certainly. They wouldn't break it. But they'd likely ask the
Government Inspectors to step in and check every step of the
managerial work. Now, you and I and everybody else knows that you have
to cut corners to make a business successful. If the GI's step in,
that will have to stop--which means we'll show a loss heavy enough to
put us out. We'll be forced to sell the contract for a pittance.

"Well, then. If Viking goes, and these other two corporations go,
it'll begin to look as if Ravenhurst can't take care of himself and
his companies anymore. Others will climb on the bandwagon. Contracts
that are coming up for renewal will be reconsidered instead of
continuing automatically. I think you can see where that would lead
eventually."

I did. You don't go into the managing business these days unless you
have plenty on the ball. You've got to