supercilious and smiled
irritatingly. Ardmore felt put in the wrong and was conscious of a warm flush
spreading up toward his face. "Yes, yes," he said hastily, "I know I'm wrongwhatever it was that Ledbetter found, it killed a couple of hundred men.
Therefore it is a potential military weapon-but wasn't he just mugging around
in the dark?"
"Not entirely," Calhoun replied, with a words-of-one-syllable air. "The
very theoretical considerations that predict additional spectra allow of some
reasonable probability as to the general nature of their properties. I know that
Ledbetter had originally been engaged in a search for a means of setting up
tractor and pressor beams-that would be in the magneto-gravitic spectrumbut the last couple of weeks he appeared to be in a condition of intense
excitement and radically changed the direction of his experimentation. He
was close-mouthed; I got no more than a few hints from the transformations
and developments which he had me perform for him. However"-Calhoun
drew a bulky loose-leaf notebook from an inner pocket "he kept complete
notes of his experiments. We should be able to follow his work and perhaps
infer his hypotheses."
Young Wilkie, who was seated beside Calhoun, bent toward him. "Where
did you find these, doctor?" he asked excitedly.
"On a bench in his laboratory. If you had looked you would have seen
them."
Wilkie ignored the thrust; he was already eating up the symbols set down
in the opened book. "But that is a radiation formula-"
"Of course it is-d'you think I'm a fool?"
"But it's all wrong!"
"It may be from your standpoint; you may be sure that it was not to Dr.
Ledbetter."
They branched off into argument that was totally meaningless to
Ardmore; after some minutes he took advantage of a pause to say,
"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! just a moment. I can see that I am simply keeping
you from your work; I've learned all that I can just now. As I understand it,
your immediate task is to catch up with Dr. Ledbetter and to discover what it
is that his apparatus does-without killing yourselves in the process. Is that
right?"
"I would say that is a fair statement," Calhoun agreed cautiously.
"Very well, then-carry on, and keep me advised at your convenience." He
got up; the others followed his example. "Oh just one more thing."
"Yes?"
"I happened to think of something else. I don't know whether it is
important or not, but it came to mind because of the importance that Dr.
Brooks attached to the matter of the rats and mice." He ticked points off on
his fingers.
"Many men were killed; Dr. Wilkie was knocked out and very nearly died;
Dr. Calhoun experienced only a momentary discomfort; the rest of those who
lived apparently didn't suffer any effects of any sort weren't aware that
anything had happened except that their companions mysteriously die d.
Now, isn't that data of some sort?"
He awaited a reply anxiously, being subconsciously afraid that the
scientists would consider his remarks silly, or obvious.
Calhoun started to reply, but Dr. Brooks cut in ahead of him. "Of course,
it is! Now why didn't I think of that? Dear me, I must be confused today. That
establishes a gradient, an ordered relationship in the effect of the unknown
action." He stopped and thought, then went on almost at once. "I really must
have your permission, Major, to examine the cadavers of our late colleagues,
then by examining for differences between them and those alive, especially
those hard hit by the unknown action-" He broke off short and eyed Wilkie
speculatively.
"No, you don't!" protested Wilkie. "You won't make a guinea pig out of
me. Not while I know it!" Ardmore was unable to tell whether the man's
apprehension was real or facetious. He cut it short.
"The details will have to be up to you gentlemen. But remember-no
chances to your lives without notifying me."
"You hear that, Brooksie?" Wilkie persisted.
Ardmore went to bed that night from sheer sense