“Wait a minute. Something’s coming back to me. Eberhard, Eberhard⁠—yes, I’m sure that was the name.”

“Tell me.”

“Eberhard was a Johnny who’d got some patent process he applied to steel. I can’t put the thing properly because I haven’t got the scientific knowledge⁠—but I know the result was that it became so toughened that a wire was as strong as a steel bar had previously been. Eberhard had to do with aeroplanes and his idea was that the weight would be so enormously reduced that flying would be practically revolutionised⁠—the cost of it, I mean. I believe he offered his invention to the German Government, and they turned it down, pointed out some undeniable flaw in it⁠—but they did it rather nastily. He set to work and circumvented the difficulty, whatever it was, but he’d been offended by their attitude and swore they shouldn’t have his ewe lamb. I always thought the whole thing was probably bunkum, but now⁠—it looks differently.”