"Andy—" I said.
"It's okay, Mike. Sit down and eat your supper. I didn't wait for the fish."
"Andy—I'll get you another camera—"
"I said, it's okay. Now, damn it, eat."
He didn't speak again for a long time; but as I stretched back for a second mug of coffee, he got up and began to walk around the room, restlessly. "Mike—" he said entreatingly, "you came here for a rest! Why can't you lay off your everlasting work for a while and relax?" He looked disgustedly over his shoulder at the work table where the light spilled over a confused litter of wires and magnets and coils. "You've turned this place into a branch office of General Electric!"
"I can't stop now!" I said violently. "I'm on the track of something—and if I stop I'll never find it!"
"Must be real important," Andy said sourly, "if it makes you act like bughouse bait."
I shrugged without answering. We'd been over that before. I'd known it when they threw me out of the government lab, just after the big blowup. I thought, angrily. I'm heading for another one, but I don't care.
"Sit down, Andy," I told him. "You don't know what happened down there. Now that the war's over, it's no military secret, and I'll tell you what happened."
I paused, swallowing down the coffee, not knowing that it scalded my mouth. "That is—I will if I can."