The following morning Venus Equilateral had nine rush telegrams. Three were from cranks who wanted to go to Sirius and set up a restorer there to take people; four were from superstitious nuts who called Channing's attention to the fact that he was overstepping the rights given to him by his Creator; one was from a gentleman who had a number of ideas, all of which were based on the idea of getting something for nothing, and none of which were legal; and the last one was a rather curt note from Terran Electric, pointing out that this device came under the realm of the power-transmission tube and its developments and that they wanted a legal discussion. "Have they got a leg to stand on?" asked Walt. "I doubt it." "Then to the devil with them," snapped Walt. "We'll tell 'em to go jump in the lake." "Nope. We're going in to Terra and slip them the slug. If we clip them now, they'll have nothing to go on. If we wait until they get started, they'll have a fighting chance. Besides, I think that all they want to do is to have the facts brought out. Are we or are we not under the terms of that contract?" "Are we?" "We're as safe as Sol. And I know it. That contract pertained to the use of the Solar beam only, plus certain other concessions pertaining to the use of the power-transmission tubes and other basic effects as utilized in communications." "Why can't we tell 'em that?" "It's got to be told in a court of law," said Don. "Kingman's mind runs to legal procedure like Blackstone." "We'll take the gadgets?" "Right. What are you using for power?" "What other? Solar beams, of course. We don't bother about running stuff around any more. We plug it in the 115-volt line, it energizes the little fellows just long enough to make them self-sustaining from Sol. All the 115-volt line does is to act as a starting circuit." "You and Farrell had better dream up a couple of power supplies, then. We can't use the Solar beam on Terra." "I know. We're a little ahead of you on that. Wes and one of the Thomas boys cooked up a beam-transducer power supply that will get its juice from any standard 115-volt, sixty-cycle line socket. We've two of them--and they run the things easily." "Good. I'll 'gram Terran Electric and let 'em know we're on our way for the legal tangle. You load up the _Relay Girl_ and we'll be on our way. Stock up the usual supply of bars, blocks, gadgets, and traps. Might include a bar magnet. When we show that it is still magnetized, we'll gain a point for sure." "If we take a magnet, we'd better take the fluxmeter to show that the magnetic field hasn't dropped." "Right. Take anything you can think of for a good show. We can knock them dead!" * * * * * Mark Kingman put his assistant legal counsel on the witness stand. "You will state the intent of the contract signed between Terran Electric and Venus Equilateral."