around there after the
big fight. Anyway, that wasn't so very uncommon. That was one of the
reasons that for a long time--four or five years, at any rate--we
stayed away from big cities.

We holed up in a big farmhouse in Lehigh County. It had its own
generator from a little stream, and that took care of Arthur's power
needs; and the previous occupants had been just crazy about stashing
away food. There was enough to last a century, and that took care of
the two of us. We appreciated that. We even took the old folks out and
gave them a decent burial. I mean they'd all been in the family car,
so we just had to tow it to a gravel pit and push it in.

The place had its own well, with an electric pump and a hot-water
system--oh, it was nice. I was sorry to leave but, frankly, Arthur was
driving us nuts.

We never could make the television work--maybe there weren't any
stations near enough. But we pulled in a couple of radio stations
pretty well and Arthur got a big charge out of listening to them--see,
he could hear four or five at a time and I suppose that made him feel
better than the rest of us.

He heard that the big cities were cleaned up and every one of them
seemed to want immigrants--they were pleading, pleading all the time,
like the TV-set and vacuum-cleaner people used to in the old days;
they guaranteed we'd like it if we only came to live in Philly, or
Richmond, or Baltimore, or wherever. And I guess Arthur kind of hoped
we might find another pross. And then--well, Engdahl came up with this
idea of an ocean liner.

It figured. I mean you get out in the middle of the ocean and what's
the difference what it's like on land? And it especially appealed to
Arthur because he wanted to do some surface sailing. He never had when
he was real--I mean when he had arms and legs like anybody else. He'd
gone right into the undersea service the minute he got out of school.

And--well, sailing was what Arthur knew something about and I suppose
even a prosthetic man wants to feel useful. It was like Amy said: He
could be hooked up to an automated factory--

Or to a ship.

* * * * *

HQ for the Major's Temporary Military Government--that's what the sign
said--was on the 91st floor of the Empire State Building, and right
there that tells you something about the man. I mean you know how much
power it takes to run those elevators all the way up to the top? But
the Major must have liked bei