"That's a woman's mind for you," grinned Channing. "Always making things complicated. Arden, my lovely but devious-minded woman, let's wait until we have the spry beastie by the ears before we start to make rabbit pie." "It's not as simple as it sounds," warned Walt. "But it's there to worry about." "But later. I doubt that we can reason that angle out." "I can," said Arden. "Can we tap the power beams?" "Wonderful is the mind of woman!" praised Don. "Positively wonderful! Arden, you have earned your next fur coat. Here I've been thinking of radio transmission all the time. No, Arden, when you're set up for sheer energy transmission, it's strictly no dice. The crimped-up jobs we use for communications can be tapped--but not the power-transmission beams. If you can keep the gadget working on that line, Walt, we're in and solid." "I predict there'll be a battle. Are we shipping energy or communications?" "Let Kingman try and find a precedent for that. Brother Blackstone himself would be stumped to make a ruling. We'll have to go to work with the evidence as soon as we get a glimmer of the possibilities. But I think we have a good chance. We can diddle up the focus, I'm certain." Arden glowered. "Go ahead--have your fun. I see another couple of weeks of being a gadgeteer's widow." She looked at Walt Franks. "I could stand it if the big lug only didn't call every tool, every part, and every effect either _she_ or _baby_!" Walt grinned. "I'd try to keep you from being lonely, but I'm in this too, and besides, you're my friend's best wife." "Shall we drag that around a bit? I think we could kill a couple of hours with it sometime." "Let it lie there and rot," snorted Channing cheerfully. "We'll pick it up later. Come on, Walt. We've got work to do." Mark Kingman glowered at the 'gram and swore under his breath. He wondered whether he might be developing a persecution complex; it seemed as though every time he turned around, Venus Equilateral was in his hair, asking for something or other. And he was not in any position to quibble about it. Kingman was smart enough to carry his tray very level. Knowing that they were waiting for a chance to prove that he had been connected with the late Hellion Murdoch made him very cautious. There was no doubt in any mind that Murdoch was written off the books. But whether Murdoch had made a sufficiently large impression on the books of Terran Electric to have the connection become evident--that worried Kingman. So he swore at each telegram that came in, and then sent the desired object out with the next ship. Compared to his former attitude toward Venus Equilateral, Mark Kingman was behaving like an honor student in a Sunday school. Furthermore, behaving himself did not make him feel good. He punched the buzzer, told his secretary to call in the shop foreman, and then sat back and wondered about the 'gram.