and
forceful speech of one of their number.

"I tell you I'm through, gentlemen," averred the speaker. "I'm fed up
with the job, that's all. Since 2317 you've had me sitting at the helm
of International Airways and I've worked my fool head off for you.
Now--get someone else!"

"Made plenty of money yourself, didn't you, Carr?" asked one of the
directors, a corpulent man with a self-satisfied countenance.

"Sure I did. That's not the point. I've done all the work. There's not
another executive in the outfit whose job is more than a title, and
you know it. I want a change and a rest. Going to take it, too. So, go
ahead with your election of officers and leave me out."

"Your stock?" Courtney Davis, chairman of the board, sensed that Carr
Parker meant what he said.

"I'll hold it. The rest of you can vote it as you choose: divide the
proxies pro rata, based on your individual holdings. But I reserve the
right to dump it all on the market at the first sign of shady
dealings. That suit you?"

The recalcitrant young President of International Airways had risen
from the table. The chairman attempted to restrain him.

"Come on now, Carr, let's reason this out. Perhaps if you just took a
leave of absence--"

"Call it anything you want. I'm done right now."

Carr Parker stalked from the room, leaving eleven perspiring
capitalists to argue over his action.

* * * * *

He rushed to the corridor and nervously pressed the call button of the
elevators. A minute later he emerged upon the roof of the Airways
building, one of the tallest of New York's mid-town sky-scrapers. The
air here, fifteen hundred feet above the hot street, was cool and
fresh. He walked across the great flat surface of the landing stage to
inspect a tiny helicopter which had just settled to a landing. Angered
as he was, he still could not resist the attraction these trim little
craft had always held for him. The feeling was in his blood.

His interest, however, was short lived and he strolled to the
observation aisle along the edge of the landing stage. He stared
moodily into the heavens where thousands of aircraft of all
descriptions sped hither and yon. A huge liner of the Martian route
was dropping from the skies and drifting toward her cradle on Long
Island. He looked out over the city to the north: fifty miles of it he
knew stretched along the east shore of the Hudson. Greatest of the
cities of the world, it hous