he Platform
turned precisely and exactly back to its original position, and Joe's
heart pounded in his throat, because he knew that the turning had been
done with the gyros, and they had been handled by the pilot gyros for
which he was responsible.

Then the Platform moved again. It lifted by inches and swayed forward.
It checked, and lurched again, and went staggering toward the great
opening before it. A part of its base gouged a deep furrow in the
earthen floor.

The noise increased from the incredible to the inconceivable. It seemed
as if all the thunders since time began had returned to bellow because
the Platform moved.

And it floated and bumped out of the Shed. It staggered toward the east.
Its keel was perhaps, at this point, as much as three feet above the
ground, but the jet motors cast up blinding clouds of dust and smoke and
even those afoot could not be sure.

There was confusion. The smoke and vapor splashed out in every possible
direction. Joe saw frantic movement, and he realized that the uniforms
and the frock coats were scrambling to escape the fumes. The
khaki-tinted specks which were men seemed to run. The frock coats ran.
The carefully-thought-out brighter specks which were women ran gasping
and choking from the smoke. One stout figure toppled, scrambled up, and
scuttled frantically for safety.

But the Platform was in motion now. It was a hundred yards beyond the
Shed wall. Two hundred. Three.... It slowly gathered speed. A half-mile
from the Shed it was definitely clear of the ground. It left a trail of
scorched, burnt desert behind....

It moved almost swiftly, now. Two miles from the Shed it was fifteen
feet above the earth. Three miles, and a clear strip of sunlight showed
beneath it. And it was still accelerating. At four miles and five and
six....

It was aloft, climbing with seemingly infinite slowness, with all the
hundreds of straining, thrusting, clumsy pushpots clinging to it and
pushing it ever ahead and upward.

It went smoothly toward the east. It continued to gain speed. It did not
seem to dip toward the horizon at all. It went on and on, dwindling from
a giant to a spot and then to a little dark speck in the sky that still
went on and on until even Joe could not pretend to himself that he still
saw it. Even then there was probably a tiny droning noise in the air,
but nobody who had watched the take-off could possibly hear it.

Then Joe looked at Sally and she at him. An