d. "He us

[Bisanz Vanmetre <pripet at nopets dot com>]

any of those other reporters who have been prowling
around and phoning in do." Elshawe shrugged silently and puffed at his
pipe. Malcom Porter's ego was showing through. He was wrong on two
counts. Elshawe didn't like him; the
man's arrogance and his inflated opinion of himself as a scientific
genius
didn't sit well
with the

reporter. And Elshawe didn't really believe there was

anything but a rocket motor in that hull outside. A new, more powerful
kind of rocket perhaps--otherwise Porter wouldn't be trying to take a
one-stage rocket to the Moon. But a rocket, nonetheless. "I don't want
to go back to prison," Porter continued, "but I'll risk
that if I have to. But I won't risk
death just yet. Don't worry; the Army won't know I'm even gone until
I'm halfway to the Moon." "Foo!" said Elshawe. "Every radar base from
Albuquerque
to the Mexican border has an antenna focused on the air above
this ranch. The minute you get above those mountains, they'll have a
fix on you, and a minute after that, they'll have you bracketed with
Cobras.
"Why don't you let the Government inspectors look it over and give you
an O.K.? What makes you think they're all out to steal your invention?"
"Oh, they won't _steal_ it," Porter said bitterly. "Heaven's-to-Betsy
_no_! But this invention of mine will mean that
the United States of America
will be in complete
control of the planets and the space between. When the Government wants
a piece of property,

they try to buy it at their
price; if they can't do that, they condemn
it and pay the owner what they think it's worth--not what the owner
thinks it's worth. The same thing applies here; they'd give me what
they thought I ought

to have--in ten years or so. Look what happened to Fermi. "No, Elshawe;
when the Government comes begging

to me for this invention, they
can have it--on _my_ terms." "Going to
keep it a secret, eh? You can't keep a thing like
that secret. Look what happened with atomic energy
after World W

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