* * *

As luck would have it, I was working late one night on a special
permit. My bench is over in a wing of the lab, and I guess the Chief
forgot I was around. I saw a very pretty scene.

The Chief had built up a habit of staying late so he could stand and
study over the Kenzie gadget. He never touched it, though. He knew
enough not to bother anything, because we all knew how bitter Kenzie
was when anybody touched his things.

The Chief was standing there this evening when the General Manager,
Old Rock Jaw, was showing some important personages through the plant
after hours. They came through the lab door, and I saw scrambled eggs
and fruit salad shining all over bulging uniforms. There was also one
little geezik in a pin-striped suit. Old Rock Jaw was talking, as
usual.

"... and it is from this room, gentlemen," he was saying, "That some
of those revolutionary discoveries emanate!"

Then he caught sight of the Chief, who had hastily picked up a cold
soldering iron and was tentatively touching a random point on the new
mechanism.

"Ah-h!" Old Rock Jaw exclaimed with satisfaction. "Here is our chief
scientist now. Still at work. He watches no clock, gentlemen. He knows
no time. His whole life is wrapped up in his research!"

The Chief didn't look around, but bent closer to the soldering point.
He looked like he hoped they would limit their inspection to a cursory
look about and then retire. I hoped they would too, I didn't want them
to see me.

But Old Rock Jaw, in more of a blowhard mood even than usual, couldn't
let well enough alone. He came up close to the Chief, and looked over
his shoulder at the mechanism. He was even more ignorant than the
Chief, so I knew he wouldn't recognize any of it.

"Don't let us disturb you, Alfred," he breathed in a hushed voice.
"But could you tell the gentlemen what you are working on now?" He
cleared his throat importantly and said, "I might add that everyone
here has been security cleared, Alfred, so you may speak freely."

The Chief still did not lift his eyes from his work. He didn't dare.
He carefully turned an unconnected control knob a hairsbreadth with
utmost deliberation and precision.

"Multimicrofrequidometer," the Chief mumbled, and buried his head
still deeper into the mechanism.

"Ah yes, of course. But you have a new hook up," the General Manager
bluffed. "I hardly recognized it at first. Startling!" he breathed.

He looked around tr