now we're onto them, and we certainly can't
use this stuff."

"No, but we will go ahead and build this ship, anyway, so that they will
think that we are going ahead with it. At the same time we will build
another one, about four times this size, in absolute secrecy, and...."

"What d'you mean, absolute secrecy? How can you keep steel castings and
forgings of that size secret from Steel?"

"I know a chap who owns and operates a small steel plant, so
insignificant, relatively, that he has not yet been bought out or frozen
out by Steel. I was able to do him a small favor once, and I am sure
that he will be glad to return it. We will not be able to oversee the
work, that is a drawback. We can get MacDougall to do it for us,
however, and with him doing the work we can rest assured that there will
be nothing off color. Even Steel couldn't buy _him_."

"MacDougall! The man who installed the Intercontinental plant? He
wouldn't touch a little job like this with a pole!"

"I think he would. He and I are rather friendly, and after I tell him
all about it he will be glad to take it. It means building the first
interplanetary vessel, you know."

"Wouldn't Steel follow him up if he should go to work on a mysterious
project? He's too big to hide."

"No. He will go camping--he often does. I have gone with him several
times when we were completely out of touch with civilization for two
months at a time. Now, about the ship we want. Have you any ideas?"

"It will cost more than our entire capital."

"That is easily arranged. We do not care how much it costs."

Seaton began to object to drawing so heavily upon the resources of his
friend, but was promptly silenced.

"I told you when we started," Crane said flatly, "that your solution and
your idea are worth far more than half a million. In fact, they are
worth more than everything I have. No more talk of the money end of it,
Dick."

"All right. We'll build a regular go-getter. Four times the size--she'll
be a bear-cat, Mart. I'm glad this one is on the fritz. She'll carry a
two-hundred-pound bar--Zowie! Watch our smoke! And say, why wouldn't it
be a good idea to build an attractor--a thing like an object-compass,
but mounting a ten-pound bar instead of a needle, so that if they chase
us in space we can reach out and grab 'em? We might mount a machine-gun
in each quadrant, shooting X-plosive bullets, through pressure gaskets
in the walls. We should have something for defense-