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a fortnight after New Year's Day, Marek was sitting in Bondy's business office.

"How far have you got?" Bondy had just asked, raising his head from some papers over which he was bending.

"I've finished," said the engineer. "I've given your engineers detailed drawings of the Karburator. That bald-headed fellow—what's his name"

"Krolmus."

"Yes, Krolmus has simplified my atomic motor amazingly—the transformation of electronic energy into motor power, you know. He's an able fellow, my boy, is Krolmus. And what other news is there?"

G. H. Bondy went on writing assiduously.

"We're building," he said after a while. "Seven thousand bricklayers on the job. A factory for Karburators."

"At Vysočany. And we've increased our share capital. A billion and a half. Our new invention's getting into the papers. See for yourself," he added, tipping half a hundredweight of Czech and foreign