"We can. I'll have Jim Warren start running the main power bus down here and we'll try it. Meanwhile, we've got a healthy cable from the generator room; we can run the noncommunicating drain of the Station from our plaything here. That should give us an idea. We can use a couple of million watts right there. If this gadget will handle it, we can make one that will take the whole load without groaning. I'm calling Jim right now. He can start taking the load over from the generators as we increase our intake. We'll fade, but not without a flicker." Walt hooked the output terminals of the tube to the huge cable blocks, using sections of the same heavy cable. Jim Warren called: "Are you ready?" "Fade her in," said Walt. He kept one eye on the line voltmeter and opened the anode-coupler slightly. The meter dipped as Warren shunted the Station load over to the tube circuit. Walt brought the line voltage up to above normal, and it immediately dropped as Warren took more load from the solar intake. This jockeying went on for several minutes until Warren called: "You've got it all. Now what?" "Start running the bus down here to take the communications load," said Don. "We're running off of an eight hundred thousand mile cathode now, and his power output is terrific. Or better, Jim, run us a high-tension line down here and we'll save silver. We can ram ten thousand volts up there for transformation. Get me?" "What frequency?" "Yeah," drawled Channing, "have Charley Thomas run us a control line from the primary frequency standard. We'll control our frequency with that. O.K.?" "Right-o." Channing looked at the set-up once more. It was singularly unprepossessing, this conglomeration of iron and steel and plastic. There was absolutely nothing to indicate the two and one third million watts of power that coursed from Sol, through its maze of anodes, and into the electric lines of Venus Equilateral. The cathodes and dynode glowed with their usual dull red glow, but there was no coruscating aura of power around the elements of the system. The gymbals that held the big tube slid easily, permitting the tube to rotate freely as the selsyn motor kept the tube pointing at Sol. The supply cables remained cool and operative, and to all appearances, the set-up was inert. "O.K., fellows," said Channing. "This is it--" He was interrupted by the frantic waving of Kingman, from the other side of the air lock. "I feel slightly conscience-stricken," he said with a smile that showed that he didn't mean it at all. "But let us go and prepare the goat for shearing." * * * * * Kingman's trouble was terrific, according to him. "Mr. Channing," he complained, "you are not following our wishes. And you, Mr. Farrell, have been decidedly amiss in your hobnobbing with the engineers here. You were sent out as my consultant, not to assist them in their endeavors." "What's your grief?" asked Channing.