The Black Star Passes

by Jr. John W. Campbell

  IV

  Again Morey and Arcot were looking at the great Jersey aerodrome, out onthe fields that had been broad marshes centuries before. Now they hadbeen filled in, and stretched for miles, a great landing field, close tothe great city across the river.

  The men in the car above were watching the field, hanging inert, a pointof glistening metal, high in the deep velvet of the purple sky, forfifteen miles of air separated them from the Transcontinental machinebelow. Now they saw through their field glasses that the great plane waslumbering slowly across the field, gaining momentum as it headedwestward into the breeze. Then it seemed to be barely clearing the greatskyscrapers that towered twenty-four hundred feet into the air, archingover four or five city blocks. From this height they were toys made ofcolored paper, soft colors glistening in the hot noon sunlight, andaround and about them wove lines of flashing, moving helicopters, theindividual lost in the mass of the million or so swiftly movingmachines. Only the higher, steadily moving levels of traffic werevisible to them.

  "Just look at that traffic! Thousands and thousands coming back into thecity after going home to lunch--and every day the number of helicoptersis increasing! If it hadn't been for your invention of this machine,conditions would soon be impossible. The airblast in the cities isunbearable now, and getting worse all the time. Many machines can't getenough power to hold themselves up at the middle levels; there is a downcurrent over one hundred miles an hour at the 400-foot level in downtownNew York. It takes a racer to climb fast there!

  "If it were not for gyroscopic stabilizers, they could never live inthat huge airpocket. I have to drive in through there. I'm always afraidthat somebody with an old worn-out bus will have stabilizer failure andwill really smash things." Morey was a skillful pilot, and realized, asfew others did, the dangers of that downward airblast that the countlesswhirring blades maintained in a constant roar of air. The officebuildings now had double walls, with thick layers of sound absorbingmaterials, to stop the roar of the cyclonic blast that continued almostunabated twelve hours a day.

  "Oh, I don't know about that, Morey," replied Arcot. "This thing hassome drawbacks. Remember that if we had about ten million of thesemachines hung in the air of New York City, there would be a noticeabledrop in the temperature. We'd probably have an Arctic climate year inand year out. You know, though, how unbearably hot it gets in the cityby noon, even on the coldest winter days, due to the heating effect ofthe air friction of all those thousands of blades. I have known thetemperature of the air to go up fifty degrees. There probably will haveto be a sort of balance between the two types of machines. It will be aterrific economic problem, but at the same time it will solve thedifficulties of the great companies who have been fermenting grainresidues for alcohol. The castor bean growers are also going to bringdown their prices a lot when this machine kills the market. They willalso be more anxious to extract the carbon from the cornstalks forreducing ores of iron and of other metals."

  As the ship flew high above the Transcontinental plane, the mendiscussed the economic values of the different applications of Arcot'sdiscoveries from the huge power stations they could make, to the coolingand ventilating of houses.

  "Dick, you mentioned the cooling effect on New York City; with themillions on millions of these machines that there will be, with hugepower plants, with a thousand other different applications in use, won'tthe terrific drain of energy from the air cause the whole world tobecome a little cooler?" asked Fuller.

  "I doubt it, Bob," said Arcot slowly. "I've thought of that myself.Remember that most of the energy we use eventually ends up as heatanyway. And just remember the decillions of ergs of energy that the sunis giving off! True, we only get an infinitesimal portion of thatenergy--but what we do get is more than enough for us. Power houses canbe established very conveniently in the tropics, where they will coolthe air, and the energy can be used to refine metals. That means thatthe surplus heat of the tropics will find a use. Weather control willalso be possible by the direction-control of great winds. We could sethuge director tubes on the tops of mountains, and blow the winds inwhatever direction best suited us. Not the blown wind itself, but thevast volume of air it carried with it, would be able to cool thetemperate zones in the summer from the cold of the poles, and warm it inwinter with the heat of the tropics."

  After a thoughtful silence, Arcot continued, "And there is another thingit may make possible in the future--a thing that may be hard to acceptas a commercial proposition. We have a practically inexhaustible sourceof energy now, but we have no sources of minerals that will lastindefinitely. Copper is becoming more and more rare. Had it not been forthe discoveries of the great copper fields of the Sahara and in Alaska,we wouldn't have any now. Platinum is exhausted, and even iron isbecoming more and more valuable. We are facing a shortage of metals. Doyou realize that within the next two centuries we will be unable tomaintain this civilization unless we get new sources of certain basicraw materials?

  "But we have one other chance now. The solution is--there are nineplanets in this solar system! Neptune and Uranus are each far vasterthan Earth; they are utterly impossible for life as we know it, but asmall colony might be established there to refine metals for the distantEarth. We might be able to build domed and sealed cities. But first wecould try the nearer planets--Mars, Venus, or some satellites such asour Moon. I certainly hope that this machine will make it possible."

  For some time they sat in silence as they sped along, high above thegreen plains of Indiana. Chicago lay like some tremendous jewel far offon the horizon to the right and ahead. Five miles below them the hugebulk of the Transcontinental plane seemed a toy as it swung slowlyacross the fields--actually traveling over six hundred miles an hour.At last Morey spoke.

  "You're right, Arcot. We'll have to think of the interplanetary aspectsof this some day. Oh, there's Chicago! We'd better start the vacuum gasprotector. And the radar. We may soon see some action."

  The three men immediately forgot the somewhat distant danger of themetal shortage. There were a number of adjustments to be made, and thesewere quickly completed, while the machine forged evenly, steadily ahead.The generator was adjusted to maximum efficiency, and the various tubeswere tested separately, for though they were all new, and each good fortwenty-five thousand hours, it would be inconvenient, to say the least,if one failed while they were in action. Each tested perfect; and theyknew from the smooth functioning of the various relays that governed thegenerator, as the loads on it varied, that it must be working perfectly,at something less than one-half maximum rating.

  Steadily they flew on, waiting tensely for the first sign of a glow fromthe tiny neon tube indicator on the panel before Morey.

  "This looks familiar, Dick," said Morey, looking about at the fields andthe low line of the blue mountains far off on the western horizon. "Ithink it was about here that we took our little nap in the 'Flying Wheelchair', as the papers called it. It would be about here th-- LOOK! It isabout here! Get ready for action, Fuller. You're taking the machine gun,I'll work the invisibility disrupter, and Arcot will run the ship. Let'sgo!"

  On the board before him the tiny neon tube flickered dully, glowedbriefly like a piece of red-hot iron, then went out. In a moment it wasglowing again, and then quickly its brilliance mounted till it was aline of crimson. Morey snapped the switch from the general radar to thebeam receiver, that he might locate the machine exactly. It was fully aminute before the neon tube flashed into life once more. The pirate wasflying just ahead of the big plane, very likely gassing them. Allaround him were the Air Guardsmen, unaware that the enemy was so near.As the disrupter beam could be projected only about a mile, they wouldhave to dive down on the enemy at once; an instant later the great planebeneath them seemed to be rushing upward at a terrific speed.

  The two radar beams were kept focused constantly on the Pirate's craft.When they were about two miles from the two planes, the neon tube blazedbrilliantly with a clash of opposing energy. The Pirate was trying tomain
tain his invisibility, while the rapidly growing strength of themachine above strove to batter it down. In moments the ammeter connectedwith the disrupter beam began to rise so rapidly that Morey watched itwith some concern. Despite the ten-kilowatt set being used to projectthe beam, the resistance of the apparatus on board the pirate ship wasamazing.

  Abruptly the three became aware of a rapidly solidifying cloud beforethem. The interference of the beam Morey was sending had begun breakingdown the molecular oscillation that permitted the light to pass freelythrough the pirate's craft. Suddenly there was a circle of blue lightabout the shadow form, and a moment later the ionized air relapsed intonormal condition as the pirate's apparatus broke down under the strain.At once Morey shut off his apparatus, convinced by the sudden changethat the pirate's apparatus had blown out. He glanced up quickly asArcot called to him, "Morey--look at him go!"

  Too late. Already the plane had shot off with terrific speed. It hadflashed up and to their left, at a rate of climb that seemedunbelievable--except that the long trail of flaming gas told the story!The plane was propelled by rockets! The terrific acceleration carried itout of their range of vision in an instant, and as Arcot swung the shipto bring him again within sight of the windows, they gasped, for alreadyhe was many miles away.

  There was a terrific wrench as Arcot threw on all the power he dared,then quickly leveled the machine, following the pirate at lightningspeed. He increased the acceleration further as the men grew accustomedto the force that weighed them down. Ahead of them the pirate was racingalong, but quickly now they were overhauling him, for his machine hadwings of a sort! They produced a tremendous amount of head resistance attheir present velocity, for already the needle of the radio speedometerhad moved over to one mile a second. They were following the fleet planeahead at the rate of 3600 miles an hour. The roar of the air outside wasa tremendous wave of sound, yet to them, protected by the vacuum of thedouble walls, it was detectable only by the vibration of the car.

  Rapidly the pirate's lead was cut down. It seemed but a moment before hewould be within range of their machine gun. Suddenly he nosed down andshot for the ground, ten miles below, in a power dive. Instantly Arcotswung his machine in a loop that held him close to the tail of thepirate. The swift maneuvers at this speed were a terrific strain on bothmen and machines--the acceleration seemed crushing them with the weightof four men, as Arcot followed the pirate in a wide loop to the rightthat ended in a straight climb, the rocket ship standing on its tail,the rocket blast roaring out behind a stream of fire a half mile long.

  The pirate was climbing at a speed that would have distanced any othermachine the world had ever seen, but the tenacious opponent behind himclung ever tighter to the tiny darting thing. He had released greatclouds of his animation suspending gas. To his utter surprise, the shipbehind him had driven right through it, entirely unaffected! He, whoknew most about the gas, had been unable to devise a material to stopit, a mask or a tank to store it, yet in some way these men hadsucceeded! And that hurtling, bullet-shaped machine behind! Like someminiature airship it was, but with a speed and an acceleration that puteven his ship to shame! It could twist, turn, dive, rise and shoot offon the straight-away with more flashing speed than anything aloft. Timeand again he tried complicated maneuvers that strained him to theutmost, yet that machine always followed after him!

  There was one more thing to do. In outer space his rockets would supporthim. In a straight climb he shot up to the blazing sun above, out intospace, while the sky around him grew black, and the stars shone insolemn splendor around him. But he had eyes for only one thing, theshining car that was rising with more than equal speed behind him. Heknew he must be climbing over two thousand miles an hour, yet thetracker came ever closer. Just out of sighting range for the machine gunnow ... in a moment ... but, she was faltering!

  The men in the machine behind sat white-lipped, tense, as the whirlingshocks of sudden turns at terrific speed twisted the gyroscopic seatsaround like peas in a rolling ball. Up, down, left, right, the dartingmachine ahead was twisting with unbelievable speed. Then suddenly thenose was pointed for the zenith again, and with a great column of flameshooting out behind him, he was heading straight toward space!

  "If he gets there, I lose him, Morey!" said Arcot. The terrificacceleration of the climb seemed to press them to their seats with adeadly weight. It was labor to talk--but still the car ahead shoton--slowly they seemed to be overhauling him. Now that the velocitieswere perforce lowered by the effects of gravity, and the air resistanceof the atmosphere was well nigh gone, only the acceleration that thehuman body could stand was considered. The man ahead was pushing hisplane ahead with an acceleration that would have killed many men!

  Slowly the acceleration of the machine was falling. Arcot pushed thecontrol over to the last ampere, and felt the slight surge, as greaterpower rushed through the coils momentarily. Soon this was gone too, asthe generator behind faltered. The driving power of the atmospheric heatwas gone. More than sixty miles below them they could see the Earth as agreenish brown surface, slightly convex, and far to the east they coulddistinguish a silvery line of water! But they had no eyes but for thecolumn of shooting flame that represented the fleeing raider! Out inairless space now, he was safe from them. They could not follow. Arcotturned the plane once more, parallel to the Earth, watching the planeabove through the roof window. Slowly the machine sank to the fifty-milelevel, where there was just sufficient air to maintain it in efficientoperation.

  "Well, he beat us! But there is only one thing for us to do. He musthang there on his rockets till we leave, and we can hang hereindefinitely, if we can only keep this cabin decently warm. He has noair to cool him, and he has the sun to warm him. The only thing that isworrying him right now is the heat of his rockets. But he can throw mostof that out with the gases. Lord, that's some machine! But eventuallyhis rockets will give out, and down he will come, so we'll just hanghere beneath him and--whoa--not so fast--he isn't going to stay there,it seems; he is angling his ship off a bit, and shooting along, so that,besides, holding himself up, he is making a little forward progress.We'll have to follow! He's going to do some speeding, it seems! Well, wecan keep up with him, at our level."

  "Dick, no plane ever made before would have stood the terrific pulls andyanks that his plane got. He was steering and twisting on the standardtype air rudders, and what strains he had! The unique type of plane mustbe extremely strong. I never saw one shaped like his before, though--itis the obvious shape at that! It was just a huge triangular arrowhead!Did you ever see one like it?"

  "Something like it, yes, and so have you. Don't you recognize that asthe development of the old paper gliders you used to throw around as akid? It has the same shape, the triangular wings with the point in thelead, except that he undoubtedly had a slight curve to the wings toincrease the efficiency. Something like the flying wings of fifty yearsago. I hope that man is only a kleptomaniac, because he can be cured ofthat, and I may then have a new laboratory partner. He has someexceedingly intelligent ideas!

  "He's an ingenious man, but I wish he didn't store quite so much fuelin his rocket tubes! It's unbearably cold in here, and I can't sacrificeany power just for comfort. The rocket ship up there seems to be gettingmore and more acceleration in the level. He has me dropping steadily toget air to run the generator. He is going fast enough!"

  They followed beneath the pirate, faster and faster as the rockets ofthe ship began to push it forward more and more.

  "Dick, why is it he didn't use all his rockets at first instead ofgradually increasing the power this way?"

  "If you were operating the ship, Morey, you'd understand. Look at thespeedometer a moment and see if you can figure it out."

  "Hmmm--4.5 miles per second--buzzing right along--but I don't see whatthat--good Lord! We never will get him at this rate! How do you expectto get him?"

  "I have no idea--yet. But you missed the important point. He is going4.5 miles a second. When he reaches 5 miles a s
econd he will never comedown from his hundred and fifty mile high perch! He will establish anorbit! He has so much centrifugal force already that he has very littleweight. We are staying right beneath him, so we don't have much either.Well, there he goes in a last spurt. We are falling behind prettyfast--there we are catching up now--no--we are just holding parallel!He's done it! Look!"

  Arcot pulled out his watch and let go of it. It floated motionless inthe air for a moment, then slowly drifted back toward the rear of theroom. "I am using a bit of acceleration--a bit more than we need tomaintain our speed. We are up high enough to make the air resistancealmost nothing, even at this velocity, but we still require some power.I don't know--"

  There was a low buzz, repeated twice. Instantly Morey turned the dialsof the radio receiving set--again the call signal sounded. In a moment avoice came in--low, but distinct. The power seemed fading rapidly.

  "I'm Wade--the Pirate--help if you can. Can you get outside theatmosphere? Exceed orbital speed and fall out? Am in an orbit and can'tget out. Fuel reserve gage stuck, and used all my rockets. No morepower. Can not slow down and fall. I am running out of compressed airand the generator for this set is going--will take animation suspendinggas--will you be able to reach me before entering night?"

  "Quick, Morey--answer that we will."

  "We will try, Pirate--think we can make it!"

  "O.K.--power about gone--"

  The last of his power had failed! The pirate was marooned in space! Theyhad seen his rockets go out, leaving the exhaust tube glowing for amoment before it, too, was dark, and only the sun shining on the silveryship made it visible.

  "We have to hurry if we want to do anything before he reaches night!Radio the San Francisco fields that we will be coming in soon, and weneed a large electro-magnet--one designed to work on about 500 voltsD.C., and some good sized storage cells; how many will have to bedecided later, depending on the room we will have for them. I'll startdecelerating now so we can make the turn and circle back. We aresomewhere west of Hawaii, I believe, but we ought to be able to do thetrick if we use all the power we can."

  Morey at once set to work with the radio set to raise San Franciscoairport. He was soon in communication with them, and told them that hewould be there in about an hour. They promised all the necessarymaterials; also that they would get ready to receive the pirate once hewas finally brought in to them.

  It was nearer an hour and a quarter later that the machine fell to thegreat San Francisco landing field, where the mechanics at once set towork bolting a huge electro-magnet on the landing skids on the bottom ofthe machine. The most serious problem was connecting the terminalselectrically without making holes in the hull of the ship. Finally oneterminal was grounded, and the radio aerial used as the other. Fullerwas left behind on this trip, and a large number of cells were installedin every possible position. In the power room, a hastily arranged motorgenerator set was arranged, making it possible to run the entire shipfrom the batteries. Scarcely had these been battened down to preventsliding under the accelerations necessary, than Arcot and Morey wereoff. The entire operation had required but fifteen minutes.

  "How are you going to catch him, Arcot?"

  "I'll overtake him going west. If I went the other way I'd meet himgoing at over 10 miles a second in relation to his machine. He had theright idea. He told me to fall out to him at a greater than orbitalspeed. I will go just within the Earth's atmosphere till I get justunder him, holding myself in the air by means of a downward accelerationon the part of the regular lifting power units. I am going to try toreach eight miles a second. We will be overhauling him at three asecond, and the ship will slow down to the right speed while falling outto him. We must reach him before he gets into the shadow of the Earth,though, for if he reaches 'night' he will be without heat, and he'll dieof cold. I think we can reach him, Dick!"

  "I hope so. Those spare cells are all right, aren't they? We'll needthem! If they don't function when we get out there, we'll fall clear offinto space! At eight miles a second, we would leave Earth forever!"

  The ship was accelerating steadily at the highest value the men aboardcould stand. The needle of the speedometer crept steadily across thedial. They were flying at a height of forty miles that they might haveenough air and still not be too greatly hindered by air resistance. Theblack sky above them was spotted with points of glowing light, theblazing stars of space. But as they flew along, the sensation of weightwas lost; they had reached orbital speed, and as the car steadilyincreased its velocity, there came a strange sensation! The Earth loomedgigantic above them! Below them shone the sun! The direction of up anddown was changed by the terrific speed! The needle of the speedometerwas wavering at 7.8 miles a second. Now it held steady!

  "I thought you were going to take it up to eight miles a second, Dick?"

  "Air resistance is too great! I'll have to go higher!"

  At a height of fifty miles they continued at 8.1 miles a second. Itseemed hours before they reached the spot where the pirate's machineshould be flying directly above them, and they searched the black skyfor some sign of the shining dot of light. With the aid of field glassesthey found it, far ahead, and nearly one hundred miles above.

  "Well, here we go! I'm going to fall up the hundred miles or so, tillwe're right in his path; the work done against gravity will slow us downa little, so I'll have to use the power units somewhat. Did you noticewhat I did to them?"

  "Yes, they're painted a dull black. What's the idea?"

  "We'll have no air from which to get heat for power out here, so we'llhave to depend on the sunlight they can absorb. I'm using it now to slowus down as much as possible."

  At last the tiny silver dot had grown till it became recognizable as thepirate plane. They were drawing up to it now, slowly, but steadily. Atlast the little machine was directly beneath them, and a scant hundredyards away. They had long since been forced to run the machine on thestorage batteries, and now they applied a little power to the verticalpower units. Sluggishly, as they absorbed the sun's heat, the machinewas forced lower, nearer to the machine below. At last a scant ten feetseparated them.

  "All right, Morey."

  There was a snap, as the temporary switch was closed, and the currentsurged into the big magnet on the keel. At once they felt the ship jumpa little under the impulse of the magnet's pull on the smaller machine.In a moment the little plane had drifted up to the now idle magnet,touched it and was about to bounce off, when Morey again snapped theswitch shut and the two machines were locked firmly together!

  "I've got him, Dick!" Morey exclaimed. "Now slow down till it falls.Then we can go and wait for it. Being a glider, it ought to be quitemanageable!"

  Now the energy of the power units on the roof of the machine began toslow down the two machines, the magnet grinding slightly as the momentumof the plane was thrust upon it. They watched the speedometer drop. Thespeed was sinking very slowly, for the area of the absorbing fins wasnot designed to absorb the sun's heat directly, and was veryinefficient. The sun was indeed sinking below their horizon; they werejust beginning to watch that curious phenomenon of seeing dawn backward,when they first struck air dense enough to operate the power unitsnoticeably. Quickly the power was applied till the machines sank rapidlyto the warmer levels, the only governing factor being the tendency ofthe glider to break loose from the grip of the magnet.

  At fifty miles the generator was started, and the heaters in the car atonce became more active. There was no heat in the car below, but thatwas unavoidable. They would try to bring it down to warm levels quickly.

  "Whew, I'm glad we reached the air again, Dick. I didn't tell yousooner, for it wouldn't have done any good, but that battery was aboutgone! We had something like twenty amp-hours left! I'm giving therecharge generator all she will take. We seem to have plenty of powernow."

  "I knew the cells were low, but I had no idea they were as low as that!I noticed that the magnet was weakening, but thought it was due to theadded air strain.
I am going to put the thing into a nose dive and letthe glider go down itself. I know it would land correctly if it had achance. I am going to follow it, of course, and since we are over themiddle of Siberia we'd better start back."

  The return trip was necessarily in the lower level of the atmosphere,that the glider might be kept reasonably warm. At a height of but twomiles, in the turbulent atmosphere, the glider was brought slowly home.It took them nearly twenty hours to go the short distance of twelvethousand miles to San Francisco, the two men taking turns at thecontrols. The air resistance of the glider forced them to go slowly;they could not average much better than six hundred an hour despite thefact that the speed of either machine alone was over twelve hundredmiles an hour.

  At last the great skyscrapers of San Francisco appeared on theirhorizon, and thousands of private planes started out to meet them.Frantically Arcot warned them away, lest the air blast from their propstear the glider from the magnet. At last, however, the Air Guard wasable to force them to a safe distance and clear a lane through one ofthe lower levels of the city traffic. The great field of theTranscontinental lines was packed with excited men and women, waiting tocatch a glimpse of two of the greatest things the country had heard ofin the century--Arcot's molecular motion machine and the Air Pirate!

  The landing was made safely in the circle of Air Guardsmen. There was asmall hospital plane standing beside it in a moment, and as Arcot's shipreleased it, and then hung motionless, soundless above it, the peoplewatched it in wonder and excitement. They wanted to see Arcot perform;they clamored to see the wonderful powers of this ship in operation. AirGuardsmen who had witnessed the flying game of tag between these twosuper-air machines had told of it through the press and over the radio.

  * * * * *

  Two weeks later, Arcot stepped into the office of Mr. Morey, senior.

  "Busy?"

  "Come on in; you know I'm busy--but not _too_ busy for you. What's onyour mind?"

  "Wade--the pirate."

  "Oh--hmm. I saw the reports on his lab out on the Rockies, and also thepsychomedical reports on him. And most particularly, I saw the requestfor his employment you sent through channels. What's your opinion onhim? You talked with him."

  Arcot frowned slightly. "When I talked to him he was still two differentidentities dancing around in one body. Dr. Ridgely says the problem'ssettling down; I believe him. Ridgely's no more of a fool in his linethan you and Dad are in your own lines, and Ridgely's business ishealing mental wounds. We agreed some while back that the Pirate must beinsane, even before we met him.

  "We also agreed that he had a tremendously competent and creative mind.As a personality in civilization, he'd evidently slipped several cogs.Ridgely says that is reparable.

  "You know, Newton was off the beam for about two years. Faraday was in acomplete breakdown for nearly five years--and after his breakdown, cameback to do some monumental work.

  "And those men didn't have the help of modern psychomedical techniques.

  "I think we'd be grade A fools ourselves to pass up the chance to getWade's help. The man--insane or not--figured out a way of stabilizingand storing atomic hydrogen for his rockets. If he could do that in theshape he was then in...!

  "I'd say we'd be smart to keep the competition in the family."

  Mr. Morey leaned back in his chair and smiled up at Arcot. "You've got agood case there. I'll buy it. When Dr. Ridgely says Wade's got thoseslipped cogs replaced--offer him a job in your lab staff.

  "I'm a bit older than you are; you've grown up in a world where thepsychomedical techniques really work. When I was growing up,psychomedical techniques were strictly rule of thumb--and the doctorswere all thumbs." Mr. Morey sighed. Then, "In this matter, I think yourjudgment is better than mine."

  "I'll see him again, and offer him the job. I'm pretty sure he'll takeit, as I said. I have a suspicion that, within six months, he'll be alot saner than most people around. The ordinary man doesn't realize whata job of rechecking present techniques can do--and Wade is, naturally,getting a very thorough overhaul.

  "Somewhat like a man going in for treatment of a broken arm; in anydecent hospital they'll also check for any other medical problems, andhe'll come out healthier than if he had never had the broken arm.

  "Wade seems to have had a mind that made friends with molecules, andtalked their language. After Ridgely shows him how to make friends withpeople--I think he'll be quite a man on our team!"