"No. You are. Then Temple. Then there are ..." "Hold it. You know as well as I do that accurate self-judgment is impossible. Second, the jam we're in. Do I, or don't I, want to lay it on the table with you, now and from here on? Bore into that with your Class A Double-Prime brain. Then tell me." He leaned back, half-closed his eyes and smoked lazily. She stiffened; narrowed her eyes in concentration; and thought. Finally: "Yes, you do; and I'm gladder of that than you will ever know." "I think I know already, since you're her best friend and the only other woman I know of in her class. But I came in to kick a couple of things around with you. As you've noticed, that's getting to be my favorite indoor sport. Probably because I'm a sort of jackleg theoretician myself." "You can frame that, Jarve, as the understatement of the century. But first, you are going to answer that question you sidestepped so neatly." "What I did to Bill? I finally convinced him that nobody expected the team to do that big a job overnight. That you could have ten years. Or more, if necessary." "I see." She frowned. "But you and I both know that we _can't_ string it out that long." He did not answer immediately. "We _could_. But we probably won't ... unless we have to. We should know, long before that, whether we'll have to switch to some other line of attack. You've considered the possibilities, of course. Have you got anything in shape to do a fine-tooth on?" "Not yet. That is, except for the ultimate, which is too ghastly to even consider except as an ultimately last resort. Have you?" "I know what you mean. No, I haven't, either. You don't think, then, that we had better do any collaborative thinking yet?" "Definitely not. There's altogether too much danger of setting both our lines of thought into one dead-end channel." "Check. The other thing I wanted from you is your considered opinion as to my job on the organization as a whole. And don't pull your punches. Are we in good shape or not? What can I do to improve the setup?" * * * * * "I have already considered that very thing--at great length. And honestly, Jarve, I don't see how it can be improved in any respect. You've done a marvelous job. Much better than I thought possible at first." He heaved a deep sigh of relief and she went on: "This could very easily have become a God-awful mess. But the Board knew what they were doing--especially as to top man--so there are only about four people aboard who realize what you have done. Alex Kincaid and Sandra Cummings are two of them. One of the three girls is very deeply and very truly in love with you." "Ordinarily I'd say 'no comment', but we're laying on the line ... well ..." "You'll lay _that_ on the line only if I corkscrew it out you, so I'll Q.E.D. it. You probably know that when Sandy gets done playing around it'll be ..."