"And the return?"

"There we have a much lighter ship, Monsieur. The smaller boosters will lift her easily. The return trip will be slower--much slower, but she will return!"

Michael Bernard was the dissenter. "The Frenchman's crazy! Mad as a hatter, Chief."

"You think it won't work, then?"

"Too d.a.m.n complicated. A dozen units of time and mechanism have to mesh perfectly. The odds are against that happening. After all, you've got to remember, what we're attempting has never been done before."

"But if it did work--?"

"It would be a beauty."

"Better than your idea of a single booster?"

"If it worked--yes. The weight problem would be solved. Five men could ride the rocket. But--"

"Let's try it, Mike. Let's believe in our destiny."

"Okay--you're the boss. But destiny's a hard thing to lay out and a.n.a.lyze on a drawing board."

A man and his dream....

The radar equipment had failed. Burdened with the weight of exhausted booster sections, the rocket curved back into the clutches of gravity.

It crashed on the fringe of the Amazon jungles.

Five Moon pioneers dead. Three uninsured, dependent families. Joshua provided for them, but the critical newspapers overlooked that point.

One editorial observed that Joshua Lake would get a rocket to the Moon and back if it took every able-bodied man in the country. The project would have died right there if Joshua had needed money. No bank in the nation would have loaned him a dime. Fortunately he was not yet broke.

He started over.

_Fortunately?_

At times he had wondered. But always, his faith had returned to buoy him up....

Joshua reached out and took Myra's hand. He looked up into the sky. "You may be wrong, my dear. Possibly it's the other way. A man's ambition--"

he smiled. "Lee called it an obsession once. A man's dream can keep him alive."

"But why does it have to be so hard? Why can't one of the big corporations help you? They'll profit from your success!"

"At least I had no compet.i.tion in the fulfillment of my dream."

They were silent for a time; then Myra said, "But now you can rest.

We'll go away. We don't need much money. We'll have a garden. You can lie in the sun."

He laughed softly; not with humor; rather from a quiet, new-welling courage. "We're talking as though it were all over--finished, done with.

That isn't right."

She glanced at him quickly. "But you just said--"

"I know. But I didn't really mean it that way. We aren't through yet."

"You know where you can raise--more money?"

"I know where it is. I'm going to see Lee Gorman tomorrow."

"Lee Gorman! You aren't serious."

"There's no place else to go."

"You'll be wasting your time, Joshua. He'll--he'll humiliate you."

"He probably will. And I may not get the money. But there's no place else to go."

Tears came into Myra's eyes. "Don't do it, Joshua. Please don't do it."

"It won't be as bad as you think, dear. I guess Lee is ent.i.tled to crow a little."

Lee Gorman looked at the intercom on his desk as though it had snapped at him. "Who?" he barked. But there had been no mistake. Gorman sat in puzzled silence for a few moments. Then he said, "All right, show him in."

Joshua Lake entered the office with his hat in one hand and a briefcase in the other. He paused halfway to Gorman's desk. "You haven't changed much, Lee."

"You have," Gorman answered. "You look like the devil."

"I've been working hard." Joshua Lake covered the intervening distance and stood before the desk. Gorman surveyed him coldly--up and down.

Joshua looked around the office as Gorman sat silent, not inviting him to sit down.

"You've done very well, Lee. This is the first time I've seen your plant."

"I've expanded a little since my bas.e.m.e.nt days. You remember my bas.e.m.e.nt days, don't you Joshua?"

Joshua winced. "Yes, I remember."

"And now you might tell me the purpose of this visit."

"I came to you because I need money."

Gorman's eyes snapped open--wide. He opened his mouth to speak. He failed, tightened his throat and tried again. "You came here after _what_?"

"Money. I'm broke, Lee. I haven't enough to meet my payroll."

"You expect me to bail you out--clean up your debts--put you clear?"

"I came after more than that. Merely bailing me out wouldn't help a bit.