"What do you mean, better than uranium?" Petersen asked in a puzzled tone. He opened the end of the lead cylinder. "Why, this stuff is bismuth! What is this, a crazy joke?"

Young Thorpe had been staring closely at Kincaid and Norris.

"They're both plastered!" he burst out.

Kincaid drew himself up in an unsteady attitude of outraged dignity.

"Tha's what thanks we get," he accused thickly. "We come here to make a won'erful improvement in your blasted old atomic piles, and we get insulted."

"Thorpe," Petersen said disgustedly, "get them out of here, and ... Look out!"

Doug Norris had casually taken the heavy metal handle off one of the big levers. He tapped Thorpe on the head with it just as Petersen uttered his warning cry. The young technician slumped.

Petersen, suddenly pale, darted toward an alarm button on his desk. But before he reached it, Norris' improvised blackjack tapped his skull. And Petersen also sagged to the floor.

Before Petersen could reach the alarm button, the blackjack hit him.

Norris looked triumphantly at Kincaid, with a warm feeling of righteous virtue.

"They won't bother us now, Mart. I just put them out for a little while without hurting 'em."

"Quick thinking, Doug!" Kincaid approved warmly. "Can't let reactionaries obstruc' course of scientific progress. We'd better tie 'em up in case they come around too soon."

Norris helped tie the two unconscious men with lengths of spare cable. Then he and Kincaid stood swaying a little as they owlishly inspected the controls of the mighty atomic piles.

Norris knew a good bit about those controls. He had been here many times, and Petersen and the other technicians had liked to talk. The trouble was, that right now his thoughts all seemed a little foggy.

"What we got to do," Kincaid said ponderously, "is change 'round the atomic pile setup so it'll handle bismuth instead of uranium. Right?"

"Right!" Norris approved enthusiastically. "That's going right to the heart of the problem, old pal!"

Kincaid seemed to blush in deprecation. "Oh, I jus' got an orderly mind. First thing now, is to shift the 

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