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yourself, why—perhaps it will keep the members out of worse mischief. I’m feeling so generous this morning that I won’t even insist on a visiscope screen in your new restaurant. Now you’d better leave, Baque, before I change my mind.“ Baque got to his feet. At that moment Marigold Manning swept into the room, radiantly lovely, exotically perfumed, her glistening blonde hair swept up into a new and tantalizing hair style. ”Jimmy, darling—oh!“ She stared at Baque, stared at the multichord, and stammered, ”Why, you’re—you’re—Erlin Baque! Jimmy, why didn’t you tell me?“ ”Mr. Baque has been favoring me with a private performance,“ Denton said brusquely. ”I think we understand each other, Baque. Good morning.“ ”You’re going to put him on visiscope!“ Marigold exclaimed. ”Jimmy, that’s wonderful. May I have him first? I can work him in this morning.“ Denton shook his head. ”Sorry, darling. We’ve decided that Mr. Baque’s talent is not quite suitable for visiscope.“ ”At least I can have him for a guest. You’ll be my guest, won’t you, Mr. Baque? There’s nothing wrong with giving him a guest spot, is there, Jimmy?“ Denton chuckled. ”No. After all the fuss you stirred up, it might be a good idea for you to guest him. It’ll serve you right when he bombs.“ ”He won’t bomb. He’ll be wonderful on visiscope. Will you come in this morning, Mr. Baque?“ ”Well—“ Baque began. Denton was nodding at him emphatically. ”We’ll be opening a new restaurant soon. I wouldn’t mind being your guest on opening day.”
    “A new restaurant? That’s wonderful. Does anyone know? I’ll give it out this morning as an exclusive!” “It isn’t exactly settled, yet,” Baque said apologetically. “We haven’t found a place yet.” “Lankey found a place yesterday,” Denton said. “He’s having a contractor check it over this morning, and if no snags develop he’ll sign a lease. Just let Miss Manning know your opening date, Baque, and she’ll arrange a spot for you. Now if you don’t mind—” It took Baque half an hour to find his way out of the building, but he plodded aimlessly along the corridors and disdained asking directions. He hummed happily to himself, and now and then he broke into a laugh. The overlords of business and industry—and their scientists—knew nothing about overtones.
     
    “So That’s the way it is,” Lankey said. “You seem to have no notion of how lucky you were—how lucky we were. Denton should have made his move when he had a chance. Now we know what to expect, and when he finally wises up it’ll be too late.” “What could we do if he decided to put us out of business?” “I have a few connections myself, Baque. They don’t run in high society, like Denton, but they’re every bit as dishonest, and Denton has a lot of enemies who’ll be happy to back us. Said he could close me down in an hour, eh? Unfortunately there’s not much we could do that would hurt Denton, but there’s plenty we can do to keep him from hurting us.” “I think we’re going to hurt Denton,” Baque said. Lankey moved over to the bar and came back with a tall glass of pink, foaming liquid. “Drink it,” he said. “You’ve had a long day, and you’re getting delirious. How could we hurt Denton?” “Visiscope depends on Coms. We’ll show the people they can have entertainment without Coms. We’ll make our motto NO COMS AT LANKEY’S!” “Great,” Lankey drawled. “I invest a thousand in fancy new costumes for the girls—they can’t wear those plastic things in our new place, you know—and you decide not to let them sing.” “Certainly they’re going to sing.” Lankey leaned forward, caressing his nose. “And no Coms. Then what are they going to sing?” “I took some lyrics out of an old school book my grandfather had. Back in those days they were called poems. I’m setting them to music. I was going to try them out here,