"Of course I mean it. I don't waste my time with foolish jokes."
"You have the secret of material energy?"
"Not that," the scientist growled, "but I have something else as
valuable. I have the secret of Manning's drive: I know what it is that
enables him to exceed the speed of light ... to go ten thousand times as
fast as light ... the Lord knows how much faster if he wanted to."
"No ordinary drive would do that," said Chambers. "It would take more
than power to make a ship go that fast."
"You bet your life it would, and Manning is the boy who's got it. He
uses a space field. I think I can duplicate it."
"And how long will it take you to do this work?"
"About a week," Craven told him. "Perhaps a little longer, perhaps a
little less. But once we go, we'll go as fast as Manning does. We'll be
short on power, but I think I can do something about that, too."