Railton whitened. Doggedly, he persisted in his story. "I'm telling you just what he told me."
"All right," Tompkins said heavily. "Tell me what happened."
"I went out to see him, and just as you suggested, I asked him if he would accept a ten day extension on the delivery date of part of his order. Chief, as sure as we don't make delivery as per contract, that fellow will sue us for the last dollar in the treasury. He says he has to have delivery on August 21, without fail. He means it. What the hell he is working on, I don't know, but that man is in a hurry and he means business."
"We will make delivery as scheduled unless it is to our interest to do otherwise," Tompkins interrupted. "Get to the point."
"In order to pacify him, I told him we would guarantee delivery. Then I went over his whole order with him, to make certain that everything was right. When we got to those bus-bars, I suggested there must have been some mistake."
"He said, 'No. No mistake. The specifications are right.'"
"I protested that there wasn't a generator made that needed bars of that size to carry its load."
"He said, 'No, but there is going to be one. Those cables aren't any too heavy to carry the power of the bursting atom.' Those are his exact words. 'The power of the bursting atom.'"
Tompkins leaned back in his chair. Viciously he bit the end off of a cigar.
"Then Garth is crazy, instead of you!" he said.