watchmakers.”
“Oh? How do you know that?”
“I saw an announcement about it when he came to England.”
Emerson Drew raised his eyebrows. “So? Well, you’re a better-informed secretary than I realized, Miss Kayne. I still say I never heard of him, and I don’t suppose he’s got anything any better than the rest of these crazy inventors who think the Drew Combine is the gateway to El Dorado. But, anyway, show him in. Never know until you try.”
Janet Kayne nodded and went to the door. She was a thin, bony girl with high cheekbones and untroubled blue eyes. There were times when Emerson Drew wondered if anything would ever make her show emotion.
“Quinton,” he muttered, rubbing his flabby jaw. “Of all the damned silly names!” He heaved back into his chair and sat down heavily to wait. It was not long before the door opened and Janet Kayne announced the visitor. Then she retired.
Drew sat with his brows down contemplating the man. He was middle-aged, short, well but quietly dressed, his white hair brushed back firmly from a broad forehead. In one hand he carried his soft black hat and in the other a briefcase.
“Mr. Quinton.…” Drew rose, hand extended. “Glad to know you. Take a seat. Have a cigar?”
“Thank you, no. I’m a non-smoker.” Rajek Quinton had a well-modulated voice and spoke English perfectly. “And I’m glad you could see me.”
“See you? But of course!” Drew beamed genially, selected a cigar for himself, lit it, and then returned to his chair. “Nobody has any trouble seeing me! Now, sir, what’s on your mind?”
“First, I think I had better make it clear to you that I am a Swiss.” Quinton laid the briefcase on the desk and Drew noted the remarkably slender hand. “Until recently I carried on business as a watchmaker in my native country, and during this occupation I had the opportunity—the exact details of which I shall not divulge—to come into possession of certain plans. They were crude, undeveloped, at that time. I—er—made a point of developing them thoroughly.”
“So?” Drew was nodding sideways in his big chair, the cigar smoldering between his fingers.
“Despite my perfecting of the plans, I found that in my own country there was little use for them. I had reason to come to England, chiefly for the sake of my daughter, who needs milder air than our home country. I’ve been in London now for about a month, and I came to hear of you as a financier, and interested in matters capable of—of, shall I say, producing a good monetary return?”
Drew puffed at his cigar for a while.
“Certainly this is the Drew Financial Trust,” he assented finally, “and we are definitely interested in worthwhile inventions, finance, international barters, and so on. But it all depends on what you have to offer.”
“I have the Quinton self-sinking atomic bomb,” the Swiss said, without so much as a blink of his mild blue eyes.
“The…what?” Drew tried, with difficulty, to sound politely interested.
“In these days of science, Mr. Drew, any invention ahead of the general run—like electronics, rocket propulsion, atomic power, and so on—should be welcome.” Quinton unzipped his briefcase as he talked. “I don’t have to tell you that, though the world is at peace, there are deadly factions waiting for a convenient moment to start trouble again.”
“No,” Drew admitted heavily. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“Therefore we must be one jump ahead of everybody else, as our American friends would phrase it. I have asked the War Office here to interest themselves, but there were such delays, so much difficulty in getting to the fountain head, I decided to see if I could get some action out of you. Here, sir, is the plan—or rather the blueprint.”
Drew took it and flattened its curling ends with the palms of his hands. Wheezing, he spread it out on the desk and gazed at it. Quinton got to his feet and came over to him, began tracing out important details with a long, immaculate finger.
“You may or may not be scientist enough to grasp the idea, sir,” he said presently. “Stated briefly, it is this: an atom, as all scientists agree and as many laymen know, is analogous—at least in the matter of scale—to a kind of miniature solar system, a nucleus like a sun, with a greater or lesser number of electrons moving round it like planets. You understand?”
“Go on, anyway,” Drew suggested.
“In ordinary iron, for instance, the molecules have north and south poles like all other molecules, but they point in every possible direction, indiscriminately. The molecules have magnetism in them, but it isn’t organized. Pointing haphazardly though each is a small magnet; they tend in the mass to cancel each other out. It is when the whole mass is magnetized that all the poles point in one particular direction.…”
Drew shifted uncomfortably and considered the end of his cigar.
“This explanation, sir, is essential,” Quinton said, noting the ill-concealed irritability. “Not only atoms possess poles, but molecules as well—and they are just as indiscriminate. But, if all the poles point in one direction only, it means that they become parallel, blocking so small a portion of the space they normally occupy that they can pass right through ordinary matter. Matter becomes penetrable and, to the bomb, has about the same resistance as very thick oil. If the bomb is placed on the floor, say, with its magnetic apparatus working, it will sink into that floor, drawn by the force of gravity. Wherever it may settle—and it vanishes from sight immediately it sinks below surface—it remains as a deadly hidden danger until the time-fuse fires it. You must see the advantages! The bombs can go anywhere, through anything, and remain hidden!”
Drew sat back in his chair again and considered.
“Have you a working model, Mr. Quinton?”
“Er—yes, but—well, naturally, I don’t want to put all my cards on the table at once.”
“Quite! Wise man!” Drew nodded vigorously. “I’ll tell you frankly, you seem to have an idea here which is years ahead of present scientific progress, as far as military armament is concerned anyway.”
“You can be sure of one thing, Mr. Drew, and that is that I have spoken the truth. I have been a master-watchmaker since the age of twenty, and the making of this intricate bomb with its small magnet controls and scientific devices is one of the finest things I ever did. Of course it took me a long time to work out the model. Now it has been done, the duplicating will be easy. I’m quite certain it will do all that I claim for it.”
“I’m not doubting it—but I don’t pretend to be a scientist. I am the financial head of this organization, not the man with the brains.…” Drew grinned widely and showed his strong white teeth for a moment. “I’m interested—definitely interested—but you’ll have to leave this plan with me for study by my experts before I can go any further. If they are satisfied, that’s good enough for me. We’ll soon come to terms.”
Quinton returned to his chair thoughtfully, and seemed to reflect for a moment or two.
“Your experts can, of course, arrive at only one conclusion,” he said finally. “And that being so, you might as well know my terms now. I shall want a million pounds in advance royalties, and the balance of terms
