The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Mixture of Genius, by Arnold Castle

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: A Mixture of Genius

Author: Arnold Castle

Illustrator: Paul Orban

Release Date: May 2, 2010 [EBook #32207]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MIXTURE OF GENIUS ***

Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction June 1958.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

A Mixture of Genius

BY ARNOLD CASTLE

_Illustrated by Paul Orban_

_Who, but the imaginative young, shall inherit the stars?_

* * * * *

The sleek transcontinental airliner settled onto one of the maze of
runways that was Stevenson Airport. With its turbojets fading into a
dense roar, it taxied across the field toward the central building.
Inside the plane a red light went off.

Senator Vance Duran unhooked the seat belt, reached for his briefcase,
and stepped into the crowded aisle. The other passengers were all
strangers, which had meant that for nearly an hour he had been able to
give his full attention to the several hundred pages of proposed
legislation and reports presented to the Committee on Extraterrestrial
Development, of which he was chairman. But now there would be
reporters, local political pleaders, the dinner at the Governor's, and
the inevitable unexpected interruptions which were a part of every
trip home.

As he strode through the door and onto the mobile escalator, he donned
his smile of tempered confidence in the economic future of the nation.
A television camera went into action at once and news-men formed a
small circle at the bottom of the ramp.

"That was a great little debate you put on with Ben Wickolm last
week," one of the reporters said. "You really tied him up."

"You can thank Senator Wickolm for arousing me," Duran answered,
observing t