"Heard of it," he had grumbled. "Shows how the country is going to the dogs. Now they need machines to do their thinking with. If their own brains were gas they couldn't back a car out of the garage. So you're mixed up with that outfit; well--how about a drink?" "Rather," he had answered, feeling the need for washing down a bitterness; thinking, too, that it might break the ice between him and his father. And then there was that painful moment when they had stood, glasses in hand and remembered.... The selfsame situation fifteen years ago as the Bomb fell upon Hiroshima. He had been on convalescence furlough. They had been alone when the news came and there had been a drink between them just as now. And after the announcer stopped he had cried out hysterically like a child in a nightmare. "Those fools, that's the end of civilization, that's no longer war." "Shut up," his father had shouted, "how dare you insult the Commander in Chief to my face. Get out of here and _stay_ out." A highball glass had crashed against the floor. And that had been the end. He hadn't returned after the war. Yes, it was most unfortunate that now, after so many years, they should read that memory in their faces; that it was only the glasses and not the minds which clicked. They had put them down awkwardly with frozen smiles on their lips and his father had said: "Sorry. But an old dog won't learn new tricks. Guess it's too late in the day for me and you to get together, son." "It's never too late, Dad," he had wanted to say, but the words died on his lips. So it had been the failure of a mission; but then it closed an old and painful chapter with finality and he was free to open a new leaf. * * * * * Lee looked ahead again. The speedometer needle trembled around the 150 mark. The sun drenched sand shot by, Joshua trees gesticulating wildly in the tricky perspectives of the speed, out-crops of rocks getting bigger now and more numerous, the road ahead starting to coil into a maze of natural fortresses, giant pillars and bizarre pyramids looking like the works of a titan race from another planet shone in unearthly color schemes of black and purple and amber and green. With the winding of the road and the waftings of the heat it was hard to make out a course, but the Sierra Mountains now were towering almost up to the zenith; like a giant surf they seemed to race against the car. "Mind if I close the windows, sir?" The chauffeur's question was rhetoric; he had already pushed a button, the glass went up and within the next second the inside of the car turned completely dark. "Man," Lee shouted, gripping the front seat, "are you crazy?" There suddenly was light again, but it was only the electric light inside the car. The blackout of the world without remained complete, and the speedometer needle still edged over the 150 mark.