tion with Haney, Joe worked it out. The all-important point was
that the Major's part was to be done in completely unorthodox fashion.
He would take measures to mesh his actions with those of Mike, the
Chief, Haney, and Joe. Each action the Major took and each order he gave
he would attend to personally. His actions would be restricted to the
last five minutes or less before shift-change time. His orders would be
given individually to individuals, and under no circumstances would he
transmit any order through anybody else. In every instance, his order
would be devised to mean nothing intelligible to its recipient until the
time came for obedience.

It was not an easy scheme for the Major to bind himself to. It ran
counter to every principle of military thinking save one, which was that
it was a good idea to outguess the enemy. At the end he said detachedly:
"This is distinctly irregular. It is as irregular as anything could
possibly be! But that is why I have agreed to it. It will be at
least--unexpected--coming from me!"

Then he smiled without mirth and nodded to Joe and to Haney, and went
striding away down the concrete walk to where his car waited.

Haney left a moment later to carry the list of arrangements to the Chief
and to Mike. And Joe went into the Shed to do his part.

There was little difference in the appearance of the Shed by night. In
the daytime there were long rows of windows in the roof, which let in a
vague, dusky, inadequate twilight. At night those windows were
shuttered. This meant that the shadows were a little sharper and the
contrasts of light and shade a trifle more abrupt. All other changes
that Joe could see were the normal ones due to the taking down of
scaffolding and the fastening up of rocket tubes. It was clear that the
shape of the Platform proper would be obscure when all its rocket tubes
were fast in place.

Joe went to look at the last pushpots, and they were ready to be taken
over to their own field for their flight test before use. There were
extras, anyhow, beyond the number needed to lift the Platform. He found
himself considering the obvious fact that after the Platform was aloft,
they would be used to launch the ferry rockets, too.

Then he moved toward the center of the Shed. A whole level of
scaffolding came apart and its separate elements were bundled together
as he watched. Slings lowered the bundles down to waiting trucks which
would carry them elsewhere. There were