Railton whitened. Doggedly, he persisted in his story. "I'm telling you just what he told me." "All right," Tompkins said heavily. "Tell me what happened." "I went out to see him, and just as you suggested, I asked him if he would accept a ten day extension on the delivery date of part of his order. Chief, as sure as we don't make delivery as per contract, that fellow will sue us for the last dollar in the treasury. He says he has to have delivery on August 21, without fail. He means it. What the hell he is working on, I don't know, but that man is in a hurry and he means business." "We will make delivery as scheduled unless it is to our interest to do otherwise," Tompkins interrupted. "Get to the point." "In order to pacify him, I told him we would guarantee delivery. Then I went over his whole order with him, to make certain that everything was right. When we got to those bus-bars, I suggested there must have been some mistake." "He said, 'No. No mistake. The specifications are right.'" "I protested that there wasn't a generator made that needed bars of that size to carry its load." "He said, 'No, but there is going to be one. Those cables aren't any too heavy to carry the power of the bursting atom.' Those are his exact words. 'The power of the bursting atom.'" Tompkins leaned back in his chair. Viciously he bit the end off of a cigar. "Then Garth is crazy, instead of you!" he said. Railton's face turned white. "Well--" He made futile noises deep in his throat. "Well, you may be right. Because, well--if Garth has discovered atomic power--it--it doesn't mean much to him. He isn't interested in it. He isn't working on it. He's working on something else, something bigger, and atomic power is just one of the little things he needs to reach the goal he wants...." Railton's voice trailed off. He was a slickie, a smoothie. He knew all about electricity, and the power industry. He knew all about uranium 235, and why it wouldn't work. He knew what atomic power would do to the power industry. He was wondering if Garth _was_ crazy. Or what was Garth trying to do? What purpose was so vast that atomic power was only incidental to it? There was silence in the room. The clamor of traffic outside did not penetrate here. The only sound was the soft whisper of a fan pushing cool air through the conditioning apparatus. Tompkins cleared his throat. "Thank you. You may go." "You mean--that's all?" "That's all." "But what do you think?" Tompkins stirred restlessly. "I don't know what to think." Railton left. Tompkins sat without moving. Garth, Lee Garth. Atomic power. He didn't dare take a chance. Too much was at stake. He had to know. He picked up the phone. His secretary got the connection for him.