Brookings sank back into his chair, shaking visibly. "What are you, anyway? You look like DuQuesne, and yet--" His voice died away. "That's better, Brookings. Don't ever start anything that you can't finish. You are and always were a physical coward. You're one of the world's best at bossing dirty work from a distance, but as soon as it gets close to you you fold up like an accordion. "As to what this is that I am talking and seeing from, it is technically known as a projection. You don't know enough to understand it even if I should try to explain it to you, which I have no intention of doing. It's enough for you to know that it is something that has all the advantages of an appearance in person, and none of the disadvantages. None of them--remember that word. "Now I'll get down to business. When I left here I told you to hold your cockeyed ideas in check--that I would be back in less than five years, with enough stuff to do things in a big way. You didn't wait five days, but started right in with your pussyfooting and gumshoeing around, with the usual result--instead of cleaning up the mess, you made it messier than ever. You see, I've got all the dope on you--I even know that you were going to try to gyp me out of my back pay." "Oh, no, doctor; you are mistaken, really," Brookings assured him. He was fast regaining his usual poise, and his mind was again functioning in its wonted devious fashion. "We have really been trying to carry on until you got back, exactly as you told us to. And your salary has been continued in full, of course--you can draw it all at any time." "I know I can, in spite of you. However, I am no longer interested in money. I never cared for it except for the power it gave, and I have brought back with me power far beyond that of money. Also I have learned that knowledge is even greater than power. I have also learned, too, however, that in order to increase my present knowledge--yes, even to protect that which I already have--I shall soon need a supply of energy a million times greater than the present peak output of all the generators of Earth. As a first step in my project I am taking control of Steel right now, and I am going to do things the way they should be done." "But you can't do that, doctor!" protested Brookings volubly. "We will give you anything you ask, of course, but--" "But nothing!" interrupted DuQuesne. "I'm not asking a thing of you, Brookings--I'm _telling_ you!" "You think you are!" Brookings, goaded to action at last, pressed a button savagely, while DuQuesne looked on in calm contempt. * * * * *