Now I have never been surreptitious or tricky about meeting somebody; I just go right up and introduce myself. But in this case it was so important to meet this man, and I knew that before he would tell me any of his secrets on how to open safes, I would have to prove myself.

I found out where his room was - in the basement of the theoretical physics section, where I worked - and I knew he worked in the evening, when the machines weren't being used. So, at first I would walk past his door on my way to my office in the evening. I'd just walk past. A few nights later, just a "Hi." After a while, when he saw it was the same guy walking past, he'd say "Hi," or "Good evening."

A few weeks of this slow process and I see he's working on the Marchant calculators. I say nothing about them; it isn't time yet.

We gradually say a little more: "Hi! I see you're working pretty hard!"

"Yeah, pretty hard" - that kind of stuff.

Finally, a breakthrough: he invites me for soup. It's going very good now. Every evening we have soup together.

=) I should learn from Feynman, among other things.

-L