e were in danger, he wanted to be on
hand.

"About Sally, sir----"

"Sally," said the Major tiredly, "is going to have to restrict herself
to the point where she'll feel that jail would be preferable. But she
will see the need for it. She will be guarded a good deal more carefully
than before--and you may not know it, but she has been guarded rather
well."

Joe saw Sally smiling ruefully at him. What the Major had said was
unpleasant, but he was right. This was one of those arrangements that
nobody likes, an irritating, uncomfortable, disappointing necessity. But
such necessities are a part of every actual achievement. The difference
between things that get done and things that don't get done is often
merely the difference between patience and impatience with tedious
details. This arrangement would mean that Joe couldn't see Sally very
often. It would mean that the Chief and Haney and Mike would do the
actual work of getting the gyros ready. It would take all the glamour
out of Joe's contribution. These deprivations shouldn't be necessary.
But they were.

"All right, sir," said Joe gloomily. "When do I go over to the field?"

"Right away," said the Major. "Tonight." Then he added detachedly:
"Officially, the excuse for your presence there will be that you have
been useful in uncovering sabotage methods. You have. After all, through
you a number of planes that would have been blown up have now had their
booby traps removed. I know you do not claim credit for the fact, but it
is an excuse for keeping you where I want you to be for another reason
entirely. So it will be assumed that you are at the pushpot field for
counter-sabotage inspection."

The Major nodded dismissal with an indefinable air of irony, and Joe
went unhappily out of his office. He telephoned his father at length.
His father did not share Joe's disappointment at being removed to a
place of safety. He undertook to begin the castings for an entire new
set of pilot gyros at once.

A little later Sally came out of her father's office.

"I'm sorry, Joe!"

He grinned unhappily.

"So am I. I don't feel very heroic, but if this is what has to be done
to get the Platform out of the Shed and on the way up--it's what has to
be done. I suppose I can phone you?"

"You can," said Sally. "And you'd better!"

They had talked a long time that afternoon, very satisfyingly and
without any cares at all. Neither could have remembered much of what had
been sai