uckled as he came back. "That's the one I like
to hear," he said. "That 'Scandahoovian' accent is real cute. Just as
soon as things get rolling again I'm coming out there to see what else
goes with it."

"He's an idiot," Maria said.

"But probably a pretty nice guy," Ken said.

They listened carefully as the Berkeley operator read a number of pages
of reports by Dr. French and his associates, concerning experiments run
in the university laboratories. These gave Ken a picture of the present
stage of the work on the comet dust. He felt disheartened. Although the
material had been identified as a colloidal compound of a new,
transuranic metal, no one had yet been able to determine its exact
chemical structure nor involve it in any reaction that would break it
down.

It seemed to Ken that one of the biggest drawbacks was lack of
sufficient sample material to work with. Everything they were doing was
by micromethods. He supposed it was his own lack of experience and his
clumsiness in the techniques that made him feel he was always working in
the dark when trying to analyze chemical specimens that were barely
visible.

When the contact was completed and the stations signed off, Maria told
Ken what she had heard over the air during the time he was in the
hospital. Several other amateur operators in various parts of the
country had heard them with their own battery-powered sets. They had
asked to join in an expanded news net.

Joe and Al had agreed to this, and Ken approved as he heard of it. "It's
a good idea. I was hoping to reach some other areas. Maybe we can add
some industrial laboratories to our net if any are still operating."

"We've got three," said Maria. "General Electric in Schenectady, General
Motors in Detroit, and Hughes in California. Amateurs working for these
companies called in. They're all working on the dust."

Through these new amateur contacts Maria had learned that Chicago had
been completely leveled by fire. Thousands had died in the fire and in
the rioting that preceded it.

New York City had suffered almost as much, although no general fire had
broken out. Mob riots over the existing, scanty food supplies had taken
thousands of lives. Other thousands had been lost in a panicky exodus
from the city. The highways leading into the farming areas in upstate
New York and New England areas were clogged with starving refugees.
Thousands of huddled bodies lay under the snow.

Westward into Pennsy