The last thing that young Moseley did before enlisting was to puzzle his wits over the missing seventy-second element. Not until January of 1923 did chemists following his method decide that the new element is like zirconium and name it for the harbor of Copenhagen.

Meantime two men were trying in vain to sleep beside the less famous harbor of Jean’s Duckling.

“Move over, Asher! How am I to keep my legs under the blanket when you take up more than your share?”

“Chase, you got your full share of my money this evening, and now you want the whole blanket.”

“Suppose I do. It’s no more than your competitors will want after you are gone. Young Hogg won’t be able to keep your pace. They’ll get most of it away from him. You’d better salt some of it down in that little college to the west of you where Dr. Rich used to teach.”

“Chase, I told them long ago that I’d never do anything for Warrenville or any other college.”

“Asher, what an old fossil you are. You’re worse than Charlie Yerkes, who wouldn’t do a thing for education till Harper had appealed to his childish sense of bigness. Charlie was willing to build the biggest telescope in the world just because it was the biggest.”

“He showed good sense, Chase. When we were canoeing up here, your boy made it clear to me that the stars are the perfection of power. The sun is a star, and coal and oil are starlight. You can call me a fossil if you want to, but I’ve got mind enough to see that much.”

“Asher, you have a very remarkable mind, and it is vision that has made you great. But whether vision entitles you to money I don’t know. Lincoln and Pasteur didn’t make much money out of their visions.”

“Well, Chase, you’ve said some hard things about me, but I don’t mind what you are saying now.”

Asher turned once or twice, somewhat in the manner of a dog seeking a better form in the grass, and then sat up for good.

“I don’t seem able to sleep in this queer place. I think I’ll get up and take a look at Charlie Yerkes’ stars.”

So up he got, and dressed, and went out into the night. Ten minutes passed. Through the door of the tent Chase could see him standing immobile. Then Chase wrapped a blanket around himself and emerged from the tent.

“Asher, do I intrude?”

“No, I hoped you’d come. You know their names, and I don’t.”

Chase glanced up. “The names don’t amount to much. That one up there that they call Arcturus is eleven hundred billion miles away. You can’t buy it, and it doesn’t care how rich you are. But almost all the stars in Orion are helium stars, and Marvin has the notion that some day we shall loose the bands of Orion within the stuff called lead. That will be a bigger achievement, a million times over, than anything Charlie Yerkes ever imagined.”

“I wonder whose name will be associated with that supreme triumph?”

Asher was silent.

“My friend, you stand here under the stars and have no notion of how fast the starlight in your gas-engines is failing.”

Asher remained inarticulate.

“My friend, your family line will stretch out to the crack of doom, and I see them reduced to beggary.”

Asher only smiled at him in the starlight.

“My friend, you are as credulous as a schoolboy. You believed that nonsense about Wall Street, and you believe that you are going to live as long as the Christian era.”

At this point Asher spoke. “Of course I’m not going to live as long as the Christian era. That’s why I want the Christian names of those things up there.”

“They haven’t any.”

“Ain’t that an oversight?”

“Well, Asher, I suppose the Christian astronomers were afraid you’d copyright the names. Are you hunting for a trademark?”

“Not exactly. I want a name for the laboratory that you and I may be going to build right here.” The stars kept still while astonishment ran through Chase and exploded in laughter.

“My wife wins! She told me I was no match for you. Asher, the land over by the creek is a better location. It’s farther away from the newspapers. I will put in two millions, and you will put in one.”

“Not too fast. Chase. All you are going to do just now is to buy a thousand acres surrounding the professor’s farm. You can pay for it yourself.”

“I’ll do it. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to watch those fractions for three years. I don’t doubt the boy’s executive ability, but I want to make sure about his ability to direct research. If you ever get a telegram from me about research, you’ll know I’m ready to go fifty-fifty.”