"Oh, dear," everybody at the Institute said to everybody, "I'm sure I don't know what ails the man. A lovely wife and two lovely grown children and she had to tell him 'either you go or I go.' And _drinking_! And this is rather subtle, but it's a well-known fact that neurotics seek out low company to compensate for their guilt-feelings. The _places_ he frequents. Doctor Francis Bowman, the man who made space-flight a reality. The man who put the Bomb Base on the Moon! Really, I'm sure I don't know what ails him." The hell with them all. --C. M. KORNBLUTH Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from _Galaxy Science Fiction_ November 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. End of Project Gutenberg's The Altar at Midnight, by Cyril M. Kornbluth