"That's easy," said Don. "First, we had a jam session. Second, we've come to the conclusion that the longest way around is often the shortest way home. We're now in the throes of building something with which to dazzle the bright-minded management of Terran Electric and thus make them susceptible to our charm. We want a free hand at the transmission tubes, and this looks like a fair bit of bait." "I get it. Quote: 'Why buy power from Terran Electric? Hang a Channing Power Beam on your chimney pot and tap the sun!' Whoa, Maizie. Bring on the needle, Watson. Hang out the flags, fire the cannon, ring the bells; for Venus Equilateral is about to hang a pipeline right into four million tons of energy per second! Don, that's a right, smart bit of power to doodle with. Can you handle it?" "Sure," said Channing with a wave of his hand, "we'll hang a fuse in the line!" "O.K.," said Walton, sweeping the tablecloth off the table like Mysto, the Magician; right out from under the glasses, "I'll be back--wearing my asbestos pants!" Wes Farrell looked dreamily at the ceiling. "This _is_ a screwy joint," he said idly. "What do we do for the next ten hours?" "Red Herring stuff," said Channing with what he hoped was a Machiavellian leer. "Such as?" "Making wise moves with the transmission tubes. Glomming the barrister's desk with proposed ideas for his approval; as many as we can think of so that he'll be kept busy. We might even think of something that may work, meanwhile. Come, fellow conspirators, to horse!" Channing picked up his glass and drained it, making a wry face. "Rotten stuff--I wish I had a barrel of it!" Channing surveyed the set-up in the blister. He inspected it carefully, as did the others. When he spoke, his voice came through the helmet receivers with a slightly tinny sound: "Anything wrong? Looks O.K. to me." "O.K. by me, too," said Farrell. "Working in suit is not the best," said Don. "Barney, you're the bright-eyed lad, can you align the plates?" "I think so," came the muffled booming of Barney's powerful voice. "Gimme screwdriver!" Barney fiddled with the plate-controls for several minutes. "She's running on dead center alignment, now," he announced. "Question," put in Wes, "do we get power immediately, or must we wait whilst the beam gets there and returns?" "You must run your power line before you get power," said Walt. "My money is on the wait." "Don't crack your anode-coupling circuit until then," warned Wes. "We don't know a thing about this; I'd prefer to let it in easy-like instead of opening the gate and letting the whole four million tons per second come roaring in through this ammeter." "Might be a little warm having Sol in here with us," laughed Channing. "This is once in my life when we don't need a milliammeter, but a million-ammeter!" "Shall we assign a pseudonym for it?" chuckled Walt. "Let's wait until we see how it works."