were celebrating Mike's brainstorm with salutary indignity, because if
they didn't make a joke of it he might cry with joy.

"Things look better?"

"They do," said Joe. "If it only works...."

Then he hunted in his pocket. He found a quarter and examined it
curiously. On one side he found nothing the major could have referred
to. On the other side, though, just by George Washington's chin----

He put the quarter away and took Sally's arm.

"It'll be all right," he said slowly.

But there were times when it seemed in doubt. Joe's father arrived by
plane at sunset of that same day, and he and three men from the Kenmore
Precision Tool Company instantly closeted themselves with Mike in Major
Holt's quarters. The powder metallurgy men turned up an hour later, and
a three-star general from Washington. They joined the highly technical
discussion.

Joe waited around outside, feeling left out of things. He sat on the
porch with Sally while the moon rose over the desert and stars shone
down. Inside, matters of high importance were being battled over with
the informality and heat with which practical men get things settled.
But Joe wasn't in on it. He said annoyedly, "You'd think my father'd
have something to say to me, in all this mess! After all, I have
been--well, I have been places! But all he said was, 'How are you, Son?
Where's this Mike you talked about?'"