Devon put the letter down slowly. As he did so, he felt as if cooling, placid currents had begun to flow through him, quenching the bitter fires that had raged, and smothering the disappointment.
The right component.
Yeah, that applied to men as well as engineering factors and Kennely was right. He was the component for this job, not Devon.
Was there anything that Kennely didn't understand? Devon wondered. The man's genius extended not merely into the broad field of electronics where he was master, but into all the facets of life.
Devon felt sudden, bitter shame for the feelings he'd had. They were both the right components for the jobs they were doing. As a team they'd be great, as long as he could keep from trying to invade Kennely's half of the partnership.
Right now he had a big enough job to keep him busy until Kennely's return. He had to get an entire new model of the weather station out of the model shop by another week. The Weather Bureau could use the prognosticator circuits, all right, but not in the little remote stations. It would be worth plenty to North State. That aspect of it made Devon momentarily unhappy, but there'd be plenty more where that came from — when Kennely came back.
When Kennely came back —
For a single bleak and bitter moment he considered the alternative to Kennely's return. Then he forced the dark vision out of his mind. Kennely'd be back. He was the right component for the job. That was foolproof engineering.
Devon suddenly leaned back and grinned to himself. There was one nice, unlooked for advantage in Kennely's absence. It would be possible now for somebody else to get a job out of the model shop.