"Go ahead," said Channing. "Be funny. You just heard the man say that dissimilar dynode-cathodes do not work. What we need for our solar beam is a dynode of Russell's Mixture so that it will be similar to our cathode--which in this case is Sol. Follow me?" "Yeah," said Walt. "I follow, but brother I'm a long way behind. But I'll catch up," he promised as he made connection between his suit-radio and the Station communicator system. "Riley," he said, "Here we go again. Can you whip us up a batch of Russell's Mixture?" Riley's laugh was audible to the others, since it was broadcast by Walt's set. "Yeah, man, we can--if it's got metal in it? What, pray tell, is Russell's Mixture?" Walt explained the relation between Russell's Mixture and the composition of Sol. "Sun makers, hey?" asked Riley. "Is the chief screwball there?" "Yup," said Walt, grinning at Don. "Sounds like him. Yeah, we can make you an alloy consisting of Russell's Mixture. Tony's got it here, now, and it doesn't look hard. How big a dynode do you want?" Walt gave him the dimensions of the dynode in the solar tube. "Cinch," said Riley. "You can have it in two hours." "Swell." "But it'll be hotter than hell. Better make that six or seven hours. We may run into trouble making it jell." "I'll have Arden slip you some pectin," said Walt. "Tomorrow morning then?" "Better. That's a promise." Walt turned to the rest. "If any of us can sleep," he said, "I'd suggest it. Something tells me that tomorrow is going to be one of those days that mother told me about. I'll buy a drink." * * * * * Walt opened the anode-coupler circuit, and the needle of the output ammeter slammed across the scale and wound the needle halfway around the stop pin. The shunt, which was an external, high-dissipation job, turned red, burned the paint off of its radiator fins, and then proceeded to melt. It sputtered in flying droplets of molten metal. Smoke spewed from the case of the ammeter, dissipating in the vacuum of the blister. Walt closed the coupler circuit. "Whammo!" he said. "Mind blowing a hundred-amp meter?" "No," grinned Don. "I have a thousand amp job that I'll sacrifice in the same happy-hearted fashion. Get an idea of the power?" "Voltmeter was hanging up around ten thousand volts just before the amp-meter went bye-bye." "Um-m-m. Ten thousand volts at a hundred amps. That is one million watts, my friends, and no small potatoes. To run the Station's communicating equipment we need seven times that much. Can we do it?"