y." Olcott didn't look
particularly impressed. Why should he? Anyone can build a machine that
can generate high voltage.

"Is that AC or DC?" he asked.

"DC," said Bending. "But it can easily be converted to AC. Depends on
what you want to use it for."

Olcott nodded. "How much power does that thing deliver?"

Sam Bending had been waiting for that question. He delivered his answer
with all the nonchalance of a man dropping a burnt match in an ash tray.

"Five hundred horsepower."

Olcott's face simply couldn't hold its expressionless expression against
something like that. His lips twitched, and his eyes blinked. "Five
hundred _what_?"

"I will not make the obvious pun," said Bending. "I said 'five hundred
horsepower'--unquote. About three hundred and seventy-five kilowatts,
maximum."

Olcott appeared to be unable to say anything. He simply stared at the
small, innocuous-looking Converter. Bending was unable to decide whether
Olcott was overawed by the truth or simply stricken dumb by what must
sound like a monstrous lie.

Olcott licked his lips with the tip of his small, pink tongue. "Five
hundred horsepower. Hm-m-m." He took a deep breath. "No wonder those
copper studs are so thick."

"Yeah," said Bending. "If I short 'em across at low voltage, they get
hot."

"_Short them across?_" Olcott's voice sounded harsh.

Bending was in his seventh heaven, and he showed it. His grin was
running as high an energy output as that he claimed for the Converter.
"Sure. The amperage is self-limiting. You can only draw about four
hundred amps off the thing, no matter how low you put the voltage. When
I said five hundred HP, I meant at a thousand volts. As a matter of
fact, the available power in horsepower is roughly half the voltage. But
that only applies to this small model. A bigger one could supply more,
of course."

"What does it weigh?" asked Olcott, in a hushed voice.

"Little over a hundred pounds," Bending said.

Olcott tore his eyes away from the fantastic little box and looked into
Sam Bending's eyes. "May I ask where you're getting power like that?"

"Sure. Hydrogen fusion, same as the stellarator."

"It's powered by deuterium?"

Bending delivered his bombshell. "Nope. Water. Plain, ordinary
aitch-two-oh. See those little vents at the side? They exhaust oxygen
and helium. It burns about four hundred milligrams of water per hour at
maximum capacity."

Olcott had either regained control of himself o