"That's the way it goes, Doug," Kincaid said sadly. "You lose your best friend—I mean, your best Proxy—and I lose my Project, just because we can't furnish enough uranium for power over there."
He gestured bitterly toward the distant stacks of New York Power Station that soared like towers of light in the distant darkness.
"You know, I've got an idea in my mind about that," Kincaid added slowly, as he stared at those towers.
Doug Norris nodded emphatically. "You're dead right, Mart. You're absolutely right."
"Now wait, you didn't hear my idea yet," Kincaid protested a little foggily. "It's this—we're losing the Project because we can't furnish enough uranium for power. But suppose they didn't need uranium for power any longer? Then they'd let us keep the Proxy Project!"
"Exactly what I say!" Norris declared firmly. "There's just one thing for us to do. That's to find a way to produce atomic power from some commoner substance than uranium. That'd solve our whole problem."
"I thought I was the one who said that," Kincaid said, puzzled. "But look—what fairly common metal could be used to replace uranium in the atomic piles?"
"Bismuth, of course," Norris replied promptly. "Its atomic number is closest to the radioactive series of elements."
"You took the words right out of my mouth!" Kincaid declared. "Bismuth it is. All we have to do is to make bismuth work in an atomic pile, then we can run the Proxy Project without this everlasting nagging about supplying uranium."
Doug Norris felt a warm, happy relief. "Why, it's simple! We should have thought of it before! Let's get some bismuth out of the supply room and go over to the Power Station right now!" He leaped to his feet, eagerly, if a trifle unsteadily. "No time to waste, if the Council committee's to be on our necks tomorrow!"