The man who saved New York

A worried hardware salesman brings an unusual problem to a writer named Ray: his personality can slip into another person's body. Porky Jenks describes experiences that leave him frightened about the consequences for himself and others. When Ray's daughter Lisbeth and the cartoonist Baldy Green arrive, the conversation turns toward a demonstration using someone in the street below the study window.

Ray Cummings gives this short science fiction story a comic tone while raising practical questions about an extraordinary ability. In the wartime setting, Ray proposes using Porky's power against enemy submarines, and the group argues over whether such a plan could work safely. Lisbeth challenges the confidence of those urging Porky to take the risk. New York streets, newspaper work and anxious conversation keep the strange premise close to everyday concerns, offering readers speculative fiction built around human judgment and the temptation to make ambitious plans for someone else.