"You know how the fresheners work!" said Sandringham. "They pump sea water in at one end, and at the other, one pipe yields fresh water, and another heavy brine. They dump the heavy brine back overboard and the fresh water's pumped up and distributed through the irrigation systems."
"It's too bad some of the salts weren't stored," said Hardwick. "Could a freshener be started up again?"
Sandringham said with irony:
"Oh, the civilians would love that! No! If any man started up a water-freshener, the civilians would kill him and smash it!"
"But I think we'll need one. We'll want to irrigate some ground up here."
"My God! What for?" demanded Sandringham. Then he said shortly: "No! Don't tell me! Let me try to work it out."
There was silence. The brown dog blinked at Hardwick. He held out his hand. The dog came sedately to him and bent his head to be scratched. Hardwick scratched.
After a considerable time, the Sector Chief growled:
"I give up. Do you want to tell me?"