WEAK ON SQUARE ROOTS

As his coach sped through dusk-darkened Jersey meadows, Ronald Lovegear,
fourteen years with Allied Electronix, embraced his burden with both
arms, silently cursing the engineer who was deliberately rocking the
train. In his thin chest he nursed the conviction that someday there
would be an intelligent robot at the throttle of the 5:10 to
Philadelphia.

He carefully moved one hand and took a notebook from his pocket. That
would be a good thing to mention at the office next Monday.

Again he congratulated himself for having induced his superiors to let
him take home the company's most highly developed mechanism to date. He
had already forgiven himself for the little white lie that morning.

"Pascal," he had told them, "is a little weak on square roots." That had
done it!

Old Hardwick would never permit an Allied computer to hit the market
that was not the absolute master of square roots. If Lovegear wanted to
work on Pascal on his own time it was fine with the boss.

Ronald Lovegear consulted his watch. He wondered if his wife would be on
time. He had told Corinne twice over the phone to bring the station
wagon to meet him. But she had been so forgetful lately. It was probably
the new house; six rooms to keep up without a maid was quite a chore.
His pale eyes blinked. He had a few ideas along that line too. He smiled
and gave the crate a gentle pat.