imself a second
helping of Five-Star Hennessy, Captain Lacey returned to the table
with an army officer wearing the insignia of a bird colonel.

"Colonel Dower," the captain said, "I'd like you to meet a friend of
mine--Mr. Richard Thorn, the top research man with North American
Carbide & Metals. Mr. Thorn, this is Colonel Edward Dower." The men
shook hands. A third brandy snifter was brought and a gentleman's
potation was poured for the colonel.

"Ed," said Captain Lacey as soon as his fellow officer had inhaled a
goodly lungful of the heady fumes, "do you remember you were telling
me a couple of years ago about some test you were in on out in the
Mojave Desert?"

Colonel Dower frowned. "Test? Something to do with cars?"

"No, not that one. Something to do with a power supply."

"Power supply. Oh!" His frown faded and became a smile. "You mean the
crackpot with his little suitcase."

Thorn looked startled, and Captain Lacey said: "That's the one."

"Sure I remember," said the colonel. "What about it?"

"Oh, nothing," Lacey said with elaborate unconcern, "I just thought
Mr. Thorn, here, might like to hear the story--that is, if it isn't
classified."

Colonel Dower chuckled. "Nothing classified about it. Just another
crackpot inventor. Had a little suitcase that he claimed was a
marvelous new power source. Wanted a million dollars cash for it, tax
free, no strings attached, but he wouldn't show us what was in it. Not
really very interesting."

"Go ahead, colonel," said Thorn. "I'm interested. Really I am."

"Well, as I said, there's nothing much to it," the colonel said. "He
showed us a lot of impressive-looking stuff in his laboratory, but it
didn't mean a thing. He had this suitcase, as I told you. There were a
couple of thick copper electrodes coming out of the side of it, and he
claimed that they could be tapped for tremendous amounts of power.
Well, we listened, and we watched his demonstrations in the lab. He
ran some heavy-duty motors off it and a few other things like that.
I don't remember what all."

"And he wanted to sell it to you sight-unseen?" Thorn asked.

"That's right," said the colonel. "Well, actually, he wasn't trying to
sell it to the Army. As you know, we don't buy ideas; all we buy is
hardware, the equipment itself, or the components. But the company he
was trying to sell his gadget to wanted me to take a look at it as an
observer. I've had experience with that sort of thing, and th