sychiatorium. Just go
and take your pick. However, I will give you one ad lib and sub rosa.
There is more downstairs than Professor Zalpha dreams about. Who is he
to say there is no civilization in inner space as well as outer? How do
we know that there is not a globe inside a globe with some kind of space
or atmosphere in between?"

Exmud R. Zmorro says thanks and leaves in quite a hurry. I snap off the
gadget and head for my rocket jeep, and fifteen seconds later I am
walking into the factory where a hundred citizens are already at work on
the inner spaceship. It is listing a little to port from the quake but
the head mech says it will be all straightened out in a few hours. It
is just a skeleton ship at the moment with the auger already in place
and the point about three feet into the ground.

D'Ambrosia Zahooli comes in and says he has been to see Commander
Bizmuth Aquinox. "He will give just enough of the atom pile for seventy
million miles," he says. "And only enough superhydrogenerated radium to
push us twenty million miles, Sep. I think we should write to Number
One. I explained to the space brass that we have got to come up again
after going down and have to reverse the blast tubes. It is radium we
have to have to make the return trip. I says a half a pound would do it.
You know what I think? I bet they don't believe we'll ever git back. And
was their laughs dirty!"

"Skeptics have lived since the beginnin' of time," I scoff. "They
laughed at Leonardo da Vinci, Columbus, Edison, a guy named Durante.
Even the guy who first sat down at a pianer. We will take what we can
git, pal, and then come back and laugh at them."

"I wish you was more convincin'," D'Ambrosia says. "I have
claustrophobia and would hate to git stuck in an over-sized fountain pen
halfway to the middle of this earth."

"Hand me those plans," I says sharply. "And stop scarin' me."

Three months later we have it made. Technicians come from four planets
to look at the Magnificent Mole. The area is alive with members of the
Interplanetary Press, the Cosmic News Bureau, and the Universe Feature
Service. Two perspiring citizens arrive and tear up two insurance
policies right in front of my eyes. An old buddy of mine in the war
against the Nougatines says he wants to go with me. His name is Axitope
Wurpz. He has been flying cargo between Earth and Parsnipia and says he
is quite unable to explain certain expense items in his book. A
Parsnipian D.