* * * * *

Olcott shook his head. "Mr. Bending, you know the value of such a device
as well as I do. You're an intelligent man, and so am I. Haggling will
get us nothing but wasted time. We want that machine--we _must_ have
that machine. And you know it. And I know you know it. Why should we
quibble?

"I can't say: 'Name your price'; this thing is obviously worth a great
deal more than even Power Utilities would be able to pay. Not even a
corporation like ours can whip up a billion dollars without going
bankrupt. What we pay you will have to be amortized over a period of
years. But we--"

"Just a minute, Mr. Olcott," Bending interrupted. "Exactly what do you
intend to do with the Converter if I sell it to you?"

Olcott hesitated. "Why ... ah--" He paused. "Actually, I couldn't say,"
he said at last. "A decision like that would have to be made by the
Board. Why?"

"How long do you think it would take you to get into production?"

"I ... ah ... frankly couldn't say," Olcott said cautiously. "Several
years, I imagine..."

"Longer than that, I dare say," Bending said, with more than a touch of
sarcasm. "As a matter of fact, you'd pretty much have to suppress the
Converter, wouldn't you?"

Olcott looked at Bending, his face expressionless. "Of course. For a
while. You know very well that this could ruin us."

"The automobile ruined the buggy-whip makers and threw thousands of
blacksmiths out of work," Bending pointed out. "Such things are
inevitable. Every new invention is likely to have an effect like that if
it replaces something older. What do you think atomic energy would have
done to coal mining if it weren't for the fact that coal is needed in
the manufacture of steel? You can't let considerations like that stand
in the way of technological progress, Mr. Olcott."

"Is it a question of money?" Olcott asked quietly.

Bending shook his head. "Not at all. We've already agreed that I could
make as much as I want by selling it to you. No; it's just that I'm an
idealist of sorts. I intend to manufacture the Converter myself, in
order to make sure it gets into the hands of the people."

"I assure you, Mr. Bending, that Power Utilities would do just that--as
soon as it became economically feasible for us to do so."

"I doubt it," Sam Bending said flatly. "If any group has control over
the very thing that's going to put them out of business, they don't
release it; they sit on it. Dic