apparatus destroyed, none of his notes remains. So said Time magazine and all the
newspapers. All this happened last year, 1951. That envelope has been in your
custody since July 1947, four years ago. How did I do it?’
He answered mildly, ‘I wondered about that. Are you going to tell me?’
(Certainly, George. This man from the stars and the future came home and made love
to me and told me these things because he thought they could help me. And then he
died, killed in a war that wasn’t his. For me. [Only now I know that he went back to
the stars and I lost him… and found him… and now I’m lost again, in a darkened
lorry with a screwball cat: Pixel, don’t go away again!])
‘George, I’m a soothsayer.’
‘A soothsayer. That’s a fortune-teller.’
‘Literally it means one who speaks the truth. But I am a prophet, rather than a
fortune-teller. All those envelopes contain prophecies. Now for envelope number two.
Don’t opera it quite yet. George, have I been in your office in the past month?’
‘Not to my knowledge. The only time you were ever in it, that I can recall, was
about two years ago. We had a dinner date and it suited you to stop by my office
rather than be picked up.’
‘That’s right. You read the Wall Street journal, I’m sure. You are a director of the
corporation managing the Paradise atomic power plant; I suspect that you read the
journal pretty carefully concerning public power matters.’
‘That’s true. Managing business involves studying all sorts of finicky details.’
‘What is new in the public power business lately?’
‘Nothing much. The usual ups and downs.’
‘Any new power sources?’
‘No, nothing significant. Some experimental windmills, but windmills, even improved
ones, can’t be classed as new.’
‘How about sunpower, George?’
‘Sunpower? Oh! Yes, there was a feature story in the Wall Street Journal. Eh…
sunpower screens. Direct conversion of sunlight to electricity. Uh, two long-hair
scientists, Dr Archibald Douglas and Dr M. L. Martin. Maureen, their gadget will
never amount to anything. If you are considering it, don’t risk any money on it. Do
you realise how much of the time it is cloudy, how many hours are dark, how smog
cuts into the potential? You wind up with -‘
‘George. Open the second envelope.’
Page 193
Heinlein, Robert A – To Sail Beyond the Sunset.txt
He did so. ‘”Two scientists, Douglas and Martin, will develop conversion of sunlight
into electricity at high efficiency. Douglas-Martin Sunpower Screens will
revolutionise public power and strongly affect everything else for the rest of the
twentieth century.” Maureen, I just can’t see how such an inefficient source -‘
‘George, George! How. did I know, in 1947, about these sunpower gadgets disclosed
just this year? How did I get the names right? Douglas. Martin.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘I told you and now I’ll repeat it. I am a prophet. Envelope number three tells
Harriman Industries how to cash in on the Douglas-Martin Sunpower Screens. The next
three envelopes concern power, public power, big power – and the changes coming that
you won’t believe. But you will have to believe when we open those envelopes one by
one. The question is: will we open them after the fact, as with these two – and then
all I could say is “I told you so” – or do we open each one long enough before the
fact that my prophecy is useful to you?’
‘I’m getting chilly. Shall I get dressed, or come back to bed?’
‘Oh, dear! I’ve talked business too long. Come to bed, George, and let me try to
make it up to you.’
He did and we cuddled, but the essential miracle did not take place. At last I said,
‘Shall I apply a little direct magic? Or would you rather rest?’
‘Maureen, what is it you want from Harriman Industries? You have not dope this just
to perplex me.’
‘Of course not, George. I want to be elected a director of Harriman Industries, the
holding company. Later on you will need me on the board of some of the corporations
being held by it. However I will continue to decide how to time prophecies… as