ask?"

"I suppose that's all true--but you draw only about six thousand a year
for personal expenses--a good clerk could get that--and you, admittedly
the most brilliant physicist of the Earth, are satisfied! I don't feel
we're paying you properly!"

Arcot's expression became suddenly serious. "You can repay me this
time," he said, "for this latest discovery has made a new thing
possible. I've always wanted to be able to visit other planets--as has
many a scientist for the last three centuries. This machine has made it
possible. If you are willing--we could start by the spring of 2117. I'm
quite serious about this. With your permission, I want to start work on
the first interplanetary ship. I'll need Fuller's help, of course. The
proposition will be expensive, and that's where I must ask you to help
me. I think, however, that it may be a paying proposition, at that, for
there will certainly be something of commercial value on the other
planets."

They had walked out to the shed where Arcot's private molecular motion
car stood, the first machine ever built that used the heat of the sun to
drive it. Thoughtfully the president of the great Transcontinental Lines
looked at it. It was small compared with the great machine that had just
brought them east, but of the same swift type. It was a thing of
graceful beauty even on the ground, its long curving streamlines giving
it wonderful symmetry. They stood in thoughtful silence for a
minute--the young men eager to hear the verdict of their prospective
backer. Morey, always rather slow of speech, took an unusually long
time to answer.

"If it were only money you asked for, Arcot, I'd gladly give you double
the sum, but that isn't the case. I know perfectly well that if you do
go, my son will go with you, and Fuller and Wade will naturally go too."
He looked at each in turn. "Each of you has come to mean a lot to me.
You and Fuller have known Bob since college days. I've known Wade only
three months, but every day I grow to like him more. There's no denying
the fact that any such trip is a terrifically dangerous proposition. But
if you were lost, there would be more than my personal loss. We would
lose some of the most brilliant men on Earth. You, for instance, are
conceded as being the world's most brilliant physicist; Fuller is one of
the greatest designing engineers; Wade is rapidly rising into prominence
as a chemist and as a physicist; and my son is certainly a good
ma