Hanging by a Thread Page 7

the metalwith?"

  Jayjay's smile became broader. "Carbon steel. What else?"

  "Oh?" said Smith. "And where do we get these tools, Mr. Kelvin? Fromthe circumambient ether?"

  "Not at all," said Jayjay. "Did you ever chip flint?"

  "What?"

  "Never mind. All we have to do is use that quarter-inch bit."

  Smith still looked confused. "I don't get it. A bit that big won't fitin."

  "We simply crack a piece off that hard carbon steel," Jayjay said. "Wecan make a lathe tool that will fit into the small space between theinner and outer tubes. The fractured edge will be sharp enough to takeout the excess metal. The male plug can move in, and we'll havecontact."

  "Well, I'll be--" Smith used another French word.

  Captain Atef Al-Amin cast his eyes upwards. "_Creatio ex nihilo_," hesaid softly.

  * * * * *

  When the Interplanetary Police ship took the five men and the cargofrom the wreck of the _Persephone_, the major in command of the ship,who knew that he had rescued the great J. J. Kelvin, asked him: "Mr.Kelvin, what do you plan to do when you return to Ceres City?"

  And Jayjay, who knew that both he and the major were speaking for thenewsfacs and for posterity, said:

  "I'm going to make sure that Kelvin Associates learns to makeemergency equipment properly. We will never again put faulty equipmentaboard a ship."

  The major looked perplexed. "What?"

  "I'm going to have some designer's head!" said Jayjay Kelvin.

  THE END

  * * * * *