h. Cleary cleared his throat loudly.

"Oh, Dr. Seaman!" Sylvia cut in, breaking her careful silence. "What a
thrilling opportunity for you!"

I gaped at her. Well, Cleary had said it. She only went out with
astronauts. She was space-happy.

"There are men in the shop who deserve the chance...." I started.

"Nonsense!" she said quickly. "It's your idea, doctor, and you deserve
the fame!"

"And the promotion this will undoubtedly earn--if you can bring it
off," Cleary added.

"Yes!" Dr. Stone said with relish. He didn't think I could, either.
Well, that made three of us, unless Sylvia made four.

"Thank you very much," I started, as a prelude to backing out.

"Good, that's settled," Cleary said. "That's all, Sylvia."

She got up and left. She had done her dirty work. If I hadn't been so
sick at my stomach, I would have had to admire really great teamwork.

Stone shook my hand with an evil kind of relish and followed her out.

That left Paul Cleary and me alone. "This is a great thing, young
man," he said.

I couldn't stand him any longer. "You are a worm!" I told him.

"You're probably right, Mike," he agreed, without any particular heat.
"But a rather just one. I think you'll admit you've been paid off in
your own coin. All you had to do was beg off."

"In front of her? You knew I wouldn't."

"I _figured_ you wouldn't. That's one of the advantages of being
older. You know more about how the young will behave. Come on," he
said, getting up to put on his coat again. "We have to see a man."

"One thing," I said, as I got up, "while we're being so just."

"Yes?"

"I had thought of asking your Sylvia for a date. But she was so snippy
the other night I decided to forget it. Now, she got me into this, and
she'll have to pay and pay! How do I get to her? It'll be quite a
while before I'm an astronaut."

He took his pipe from between his teeth. "This calls for the wisdom of
a Solomon," he decided. "But you might try oysters."

* * * * *

It was pretty good advice. I hung behind him long enough to tell
Sylvia about the Chincoteague oysters they put in the stew at Grand
Central Terminal, and got a dinner date. That was all, just the date,
because Cleary was itching to take me to see a man.

Politics must be an awfully large part of business. The man we went to
see was the government side of COMCORP, and I guess he had had to do
as much explaining about Telstar failures to a