lass tubing.

"Oh. Permit me to introduce Dr. Ishie's adaptation of a French
invention of some years previous, which permits the development of
high voltages by the application of heat to the evaporation of a fluid
medium such as water--of which we have plenty aboard and you won't
miss the little that I requisitioned--causing these molecules to
separate and pass at high speed through these various grids, providing
electrostatic potentials in their passage which can be added quite
fantastically to produce the necessary D.C. field which...."

As he spoke, Mike's finger moved nearer a knob-headed bolt that seemed
to be one of the two holding the glass device to its mounting board,
and an inch and a half spark spat forth and interrupted the
dissertation with a loud "Yipe!"

"Confusion say," Ishie continued as Mike stuck his finger in his
mouth, "he who point finger of suspicion should be careful of lurking
dragons!

"Anyhow, that's what it does. There are two thousand separate little
grids, each fed by its capillary jet, and each grid provides about
ninety volts."

Tombu took the opportunity to inquire, "Have you got that RF
field-phase generator under control yet?" He pointed to still another
section of the chassis.

"Oh, yes." The physicist nodded. "See, I have provided a feedback
circuit to co-ordinate the pick-up signal with the three-phase RF
output. The control must be precise. Can't have it skipping around or
we don't get a good alignment."

There was a gurgling churkle from the innocent-looking maze as the
"borrowed" aerator pump from the FARM supplies began returning the
condensate back to the boiler.

* * * * *

Major Steve Elbertson stood on the magnetic stat-walk of the south
polar loading lock, gazing along the anchor tube to Project Hot Rod
five miles away.

"There are no experts in the ability to maneuver properly in free
fall," he told himself, quieting his dissatisfaction with his own
self-conscious efforts at maintaining the military dignity of the
United Nations Security Forces in a medium in which a man inevitably
lost the stances that to him connotated that dignity.

Awkwardly, he attached the ten-pound electric device affectionately
known to spacemen as the scuttlebug, to the flat ribbon-cable that
would both power and guide him to Hot Rod.

As the wheels of the scuttlebug clipped over the ribbon-cable, one
above and two below, and made contact with the t