"It sure would," agreed Channing heartily. "But think of the trouble in aligning a beam of that distance. I don't know--there's this two hundred mile restriction, you know. They don't transmit worth a hoot over that distance, and it would be utterly impossible to maintain stations in space a couple of hundred miles apart, even from Venus, from which we maintain a fairly close tolerance. We might try a hooting big one, but the trouble is that misalignment of the things results in terrible effects." * * * * * The door opened and Charley Thomas and Walt Franks entered. "How's our playthings?" asked Walt. "Cockeyed looking gadgets," commented Charley. "Take a good look at 'em," said Channing. "Might make some working X-ray plates, too. It was a lucky day that these got here before the boys from Terran Electric. I doubt that they'd permit that." "O.K.," said Charley. "I'll bring the X-ray up here and make some pix. You'll want working prints; Walton will have to take 'em and hang dimensions on to fit." "And we," said Channing to Walt Franks, "will go to our respective offices and wait until the Terran Electric representatives get here." The ship that came with the tubes took off from the landing stage, and as it passed their observation dome, it caught Don's eye. "There goes our project for the week," he said. "Huh?" asked Walt. "He's been like that ever since we tracked him down with the _Relay Girl_," said Arden. "I mean the detection of driver radiation," said Channing. "Project for the week?" asked Walt. "Brother, we've been tinkering with that idea for months, now." "Well," said Don, "there goes four drivers, all batting out umpty-ump begawatts of something. They can hang a couple of G on a six-hundred foot hull for hours and hours. The radiation they emit must be detectable; don't tell me that such power is not." "The interplanetary companies have been tinkering with drivers for years and years," said Walt. "They have never detected it?" "Could be, but there are a couple of facts that I'd like to point out. One is that they're not interested in detection. They only want the best in driver efficiency. Another thing is that the radiation from the drivers is sufficient to ionize atmosphere into a dull red glow that persists for several minutes. Next item is the fact that we on Venus Equilateral should be able to invent a detector; we've been tinkering with detectors long enough. Oh, I'll admit that it is secondary-electronics--" "Huh? That's a new one on me." "It isn't electronics," said Channing. "It's subetheric or something like that. We'll call it sub-electronics for lack of anything else. But we should be able to detect it somehow." "Suppose there is nothing to detect?" "That smacks of one hundred percent efficiency," laughed Don. "Impossible." "How about an electric heater?" asked Arden. "Oh Lord, Arden, an electric heater is the most ineffic--"