you'd take the time to fix them up. That one, the Hupmobile, is
the last--"

"Who bought the others?" the big man interrupted.

"No one," quavered Solomon, terror gripping his throat with a nervous
hand. Had he done wrong to send cars into the sky? Everyone else was
sending things up. Newspapers said Russians and Americans were racing to
send things into the air. What had he done that was wrong? Surely there
was no law he'd broken. Wasn't the air free, like the seas? People
dumped things into the ocean.

"Then where did they go?" snapped his questioner.

"Up there," pointed Solomon. "I needed the space. They were too good to
cut up. No one would buy them. So I sent them up. The newspapers--"

"You did what?"

"I sent them into the sky," quavered Solomon. So this is what he did
wrong. Would they lock him up? What would happen to his cars? And his
business?

"How did you ... no! Wait a minute. Don't say a word. Officer, go and
tell my men to prevent anyone from approaching or leaving this place."
The patrolman almost saluted, thought better of it, and left grumbling
about being left out of what must be something big.

Solomon told the civilians of matching vacuum in intake manifolds to
pressure from exhaust manifolds. A logical way to make an engine that
would run on pressure, like satellite engines he'd read about in
newspapers. It worked on a cracked engine block, so he'd used scrap
manifolds to get rid of old cars no one would buy. It hadn't hurt
anything, had it?

* * *

Well, no, it hadn't. But as you can imagine, things happened rather
fast. They let Solomon get clean denims and his razor. Then without a
bye-your-leave, hustled him to the Ontario airport where an unmarked jet
flew him to Washington and a hurriedly arranged meeting with the
President. They left guards posted inside the fence of Solomon's yard,
so they'll cause no attention while protecting his property. A rugged
individual sits in the office and tells buyers and sellers alike, that
he is Solomon's nephew. "The old man had to take a trip in a hurry."
Because he knows nothing of the business, they'll have to wait until
Solomon returns.

Where's Solomon now? Newspaper stories have him in Nevada showing the
Air Force how to build gigantic intake and exhaust manifolds, which the
Strategic Air Command is planning to attach to a stratospheric
decompression test chamber. They figure if they can throw it into the
sky, they c