THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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new companies were being formed; unlike Litchfield Exploration &
Salvage, they were all offering their stock to the public. A week after
the opening of Force Command, the Stock Exchange reported the first
half-million-share day since the War. A week after that, there were two
million-share days in succession.

Some of the L. E. & S. stockholders who had come out on the first day
began drifting back to Litchfield. Lester Dawes was the first to defect;
there was nothing he could do at Force Command, and a great deal that
needed his personal attention at the bank. Morgan Gatworth and Lorenzo
Menardes and one or two others followed. Kurt Fawzi, however, refused to
leave. Merlin was somewhere here at Force Command, he was sure of it,
and he wasn't leaving till it was found. Neither were Franz Veltrin or
Dolf Kellton or Judge Ledue. Tom Brangwyn resigned as town marshal; Klem
Zareff was too busy even to think of Merlin; he had almost as many men
under his command, and twice as much contragravity, as he had had when
the System States Alliance Army had surrendered.