“Looks like a six-cylinder radial type, equipped with a supercharger...

That, my boy, is not an engine. That is an animal, a nice, synthetic animal.”

“Animal! A six-cylinder animal? With a gear-box and ignition system?”

“No, six-muscle animal. The supercharger is not a supercharger; it’s a blower, a mechanical lung. The fuel tank contains not gasoline, but a sugar solution. I tasted it. The ignition system, on the other hand, is made up of synthetic nervous tissue, and a few, miniature electric cells for stimulation. Muscles, my friend, don’t need a high oxygen concentration; they repair themselves, renew themselves, and grow stronger with use.

“I didn’t have time to look, but I suspect that that animal engine also has a series of synthetic kidneys to remove waste products, and probably some oil-secreting cells, like the oil glands in your elbow, to supply lubrication. Six muscles pulling on tendons connected to a slip-ring — probably made of non-poisoning silver — a metal crankshaft geared direct to the wheels. The speedometer reads to the equivalent of eighty miles an hour; about the speed of a greyhound in good training.”

Blake looked thoughtfully at the streamlined vehicle.

“I wonder, would it answer to the name of Rover, do you suppose?”