time I’ve ever heard him say right out that he wanted to wash his hands.”
The laboratory consisted of two rooms, one small one fitted with shelves on which were books, notebooks, and files, and a larger one in which were stone-topped tables, stools, and all the varied equipment the Professor needed for his researches.
“Hey, look!” Danny said, as they entered this large room. “Professor Bullfinch has a portable TV set.”
On one of the lab tables stood a small metal case with a glass screen on one side about a foot square, and a blunt, cone-shaped projection on the other.
“I didn’t know the Professor watched television programs,” said Irene.
“Oh, he must be using this for experiments,” Danny said. “Hmm…I wonder if it’s one of those color sets.”
He examined the top of the case, in which were set tuning dials and switches, like those in an ordinary television set. “This dial must show the channels,” he said. “But gosh! this must be an experimental model of some kind, because it goes up to Channel 75.”
He studied the switches for a moment and then snapped one of them. The set began to hum softly, and the screen glowed.
“Let’s try Channel 25,” he said. “Maybe it comes from some foreign country.”
He twiddled the knobs until a picture suddenly came into focus. He and Irene stared at it.
It was obviously a kitchen, although everything was shadowy and indistinct, and no details showed. They could make out a sink, a window, and part of a table. It looked very much like a shadowgraph, in which only the silhouettes of things showed against the light.
“It’s not very clear, is it?” Irene said. “And it’s certainly not in color.”
“I’ll see if I can get it a little sharper,” said Danny. He turned one of the dials.
“Look!” Irene cried. “The picture’s moving.”
As the dial turned, the scene itself moved, as though the invisible camera were traveling. All at once something else came into view.
It was unmistakably a refrigerator. The door stood open. A figure straightened up, holding something which they decided was the leg of a chicken. The figure did a little jig and then began to gnaw at the chicken leg.
“You know,” said Dan, “there’s something awfully familiar about that television actor, even though all you can see is his outline.”
Irene put her hands over her mouth to stifle a scream of laughter.
“The hair—the long nose—the way he moves,” she said. “Of course he looks familiar. It’s Joe!”
CHAPTER FOUR
The See-Ray
Danny rubbed his nose thoughtfully, as he gazed at the image on the screen. “I think you’re right,” he said, slowly. “And you know something else? I don’t think this is a television set.”
“That is correct, my boy,” said the Professor, from behind him.
He had come into the laboratory that instant, with Dr. Tresselt, and he walked over and put a friendly hand on Danny’s shoulder.
“Gosh, Professor, I didn’t mean to fool with it,” Danny said. “But it does look just like a portable television set, and I thought—”
“No harm done,” said Professor Bullfinch. “I can understand your confusion. As a matter of fact, I was just about to demonstrate it to Dr. Tresselt, so you’ve saved me the trouble of turning it on.”
He beckoned to the geologist to come closer. “Look here, Alvin. It is set for a distance of twenty-five feet.”
“Oh,” said Danny. “Not Channel 25.”
“No.” The Professor laughed. “So far, this experimental model has a range of about seventy-five feet. What you are seeing now is—um—the kitchen on the other side of that wall.”
Dr. Tresselt stooped to peer into the screen. “Very interesting,” he said. “So this is the C-ray.”
“A little joke of my own,” smiled the Professor. “See-ray.”
“A kind of X-ray, actually?”
“Well, a radiation operating at the same short wave length as X-ray. But I produce it so that a much smaller amount is easily detectable. I can thus time the reflection of the rays almost like—well—radar. As you see, the screen is similar to that of a radarscope. But the sensitivity is so great that I can detect it easily, and thus there is no radiation danger.”
“I see,” said Dr. Tresselt. “The same job with less juice, you might say.”
“Exactly. I thought it might have some value in geology, or mineralogy, since you can, in effect, see right through solid rock with it.”
The geologist shook his head. “We’d have to try it. It might develop all sorts of bugs under field conditions. And I doubt that it would be able to select between layers of, say, limestone and sandstone.”
“That’s why I wanted to show it to you,” said the Professor. “I thought you might take it with you on your next expedition.”
Dr. Tresselt was looking at the screen again. “Whatever else it does, it certainly shows up icebox raiders very well,” he said. “I presume that’s your friend Joe?”
“Yes, it is,” Danny said. “And—well, don’t you think, Professor, that if the machine can pick out Joe and what he’s eating as well as it does, that it could show fossils, or crystals, in rocks?”
The Professor stroked his chin. “Not quite the same, Dan,” he replied. “In this case, the ray is probing through a solid wall to pick up objects in empty space—the kitchen. But Dr. Tresselt isn’t sure it will be able to select objects buried in another solid, like stone.”
“It was good thinking, though,” said Dr. Tresselt. “You certainly are interested in science, Dan. How about you, Irene? Don’t you sometimes feel left out of things?”
Irene looked indignant. Before she could answer, Danny said, “Gosh, no. She knows more than I do about some branches of science. Not very much, though,” he added, hastily.
“I’m going to be a physicist when I go to college,” Irene said. “You know there are women who are scientists—”
Dr. Tresselt lifted his hands apologetically. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re right. I spoke without thinking.”
Irene looked happier.
“She’s so crazy about science, she even wears it,” Danny grinned.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” said the geologist, looking perplexed. “How can you wear science?”
Professor Bullfinch snapped off his C-ray machine, with a chuckle.
