tarted work a little
later, mounted slowly and majestically into the cirrus-flecked upper
air, where a steady wind was blowing strongly toward the east.

About one thousand miles farther on in that direction, where a cluster
of stratosphere-tickling towers marked the location of the metropolis of
NewNew York, a tender scene was being enacted in the pressurized
penthouse managerial suite of Puffy Products. Megera Winterly, Secretary
in Chief to the Managerial Board and referred to by her underlings as
the Blonde Icicle, was dealing with the advances of Roger ("Racehorse")
Snedden, Assistant Secretary to the Board and often indistinguishable
from any passing office boy.

"Why don't you jump out the window, Roger, remembering to shut the
airlock after you?" the Golden Glacier said in tones not unkind. "When
are your high-strung, thoroughbred nerves going to accept the fact that
I would never consider marriage with a business inferior? You have about
as much chance as a starving Ukrainian kulak now that Moscow's clapped
on the interdict."

* * * * *

Roger's voice was calm, although his eyes were feverishly bright, as he
replied, "A lot of things are going to be different around here, Meg, as
soon as the Board is forced to admit that only my quick thinking made it
possible to bring the name of Puffyloaf in front of the whole world."

"Puffyloaf could do with a little of that," the business girl observed
judiciously. "The way sales have been plummeting, it won't be long
before the Government deeds our desks to the managers of Fairy Bread and
asks us to take the Big Jump. But just where does your quick thinking
come into this, Mr. Snedden? You can't be referring to the helium--that
was Rose Thinker's brainwave."

She studied him suspiciously. "You've birthed another promotional
bumble, Roger. I can see it in your eyes. I only hope it's not as big a
one as when you put the Martian ambassador on 3D and he thanked you
profusely for the gross of Puffyloaves, assuring you that he'd never
slept on a softer mattress in all his life on two planets."

"Listen to me, Meg. Today--yes, today!--you're going to see the Board
eating out of my hand."

"Hah! I guarantee you won't have any fingers left. You're bold enough
now, but when Mr. Gryce and those two big machines come through that
door--"

"Now wait a minute, Meg--"

"Hush! They're coming now!"

Roger leaped three feet in the air, but manag