"Yes," I said bitterly, "I'm going. You got me licked; I'm through." "I was just trying to point out to you the absurdity of some of your new devices," he said. "Okay," I said, "you win. Guys like you make a business of going around the country breaking print-shops and printing-office managers." High-Pockets' booming voice came from the ceiling. "You are mistaken. I did not try to break you." "Well, you broke me, anyway." I blurted out the whole thing to him, how the receivers were about to close us up, how the Legal Printing Company job was weeks behind and was supposed to be delivered today. Then I apologized. "It isn't your fault," I told him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I just--well, I wanted to make good on this job." High-Pockets was very thoughtful. "I feel kind of sorry for you," he said. "Oh, you don't need to. I earned it; I've got it coming. I was just a little too ambitious, that's all. I didn't know a man could be _too_ ambitious." High-Pockets looked at me. His deep eyes were thoughtful. I could almost see the neurons buzzing around in his head. "If I could get this job out for you on time, would that save the day?" "Probably." I laughed--or tried to. "But it is now a physical impossibility. There isn't enough time." High-Pockets said sharply, "Call a truck," and wheeled out of the office. I called the delivery truck before I realized what I had done. Well, it didn't make any difference. They could start hauling out the machinery. I finished cleaning out my desk and took a wastebasket full of papers to the back shop. And there, I give you my word, three High-Pocketses were busy carrying galleys from the type-dump to the proof-press. And as fast as they could carry a galley of type from the dump, another galley would just materialize there. I stood and stared. Galleys of type were coming out of thin air at the rate of about four galleys a minute. I went over to where High-Pockets--the original High-Pockets, I suppose--was sitting at his machine. "Would you please tell me what is going on?" I asked. "Well," said High-Pockets, "it isn't so complicated. I just sent the other five back in time to set this job, that's all. They've gone back about twelve weeks; and of course there isn't much time, so I had to make them double up. I've got them split up into shifts, along with a double of the chairman there, to cover the six machines. It's a little hard to explain, whether they are split up in time, or the time-split ones are split up in place, or just what." "It's insane," I said weakly. "Well, at any rate, you see you have the equivalent of twelve night shifts running at once, plus twelve graveyard shifts. That's twenty-four times six--you have six machines--times twelve--that's the number of galleys a day for each machine. I think it comes out to seventeen hundred for a day's work." * * * * *