The Skylark of Space | Page 7

put you on it right away. He also said that expense was no object; to set
up an independent laboratory a hundred miles off in the woods, to be
safe in case of an explosion; and to caution you not to use too much
copper at once--that an ounce or so would be plenty!"
"An ounce! Ten thousand tons of nitroglycerin! I'll say an ounce would
be plenty, if the stuff is any good at all, which of course it isn't. Queer,
isn't it, how the old man would fall for anything like that? How did he
explain the failure of the discoverer to develop it himself?"
"He said the discoverer is not available," answered Chambers with a
laugh. "I'll bet he isn't available--he's back in St. Elizabeth's again by
this time, where he came from. I suggested that we get either Seaton or
DuQuesne of Rare Metals to help us on it, and he said that they had
both refused to touch it, or words to that effect. If those two turned
down a chance to work on a thing as big as this would be, there
probably is nothing in this particular solution that is worth a rap. But
what Brookings says goes, around here, so it's you for the woods. And
don't take any chances, either--it is conceivable that something might
happen."
"Sure it might, but it won't. We'll set up that lab near a good trout
stream, and I'll have a large and juicy vacation. I'll work on the stuff a
little, too--enough to make a good report, at least. I'll analyze it, find
out what is in it, deposit it on some copper, shoot an electrolytic current
through it, and make a lot of wise motions generally, and have a darn
good time besides."
CHAPTER III

Seaton Solves the Problem of Power
"Well, Mart," said Seaton briskly, "now that the Seaton-Crane
Company, Engineers, is organized to your satisfaction, let's hop to it. I
suppose I'd better beat it downtown and hunt up a place to work?"
"Why not work here?"
"Your house? You don't want this kind of experimenting going on
around here, do you? Suppose a chunk of the stuff gets away from me
and tears the side out of the house?"
"This house is the logical place to work. I already have a complete
machine shop and testing laboratory out in the hangar, and we can
easily fit up a chemical laboratory for you up in the tower room. You
can have open windows on four sides there, and if you should
accidentally take out the wall there will be little damage done. We will
be alone here, with the few neighbors so thoroughly accustomed to my
mechanical experiments that they are no longer curious."
"Fine. There's another good thing, too. Your man Shiro. He's been with
you in so many tight pinches in all the unknown corners of the world
on your hunting trips and explorations that we can trust him, and he'll
probably come in handy."
"Yes, we can trust him implicitly. As you know, he is really my friend
instead of my man."
During the next few days, while workmen were installing a complete
chemical laboratory in the tower room, Seaton busied himself in
purchasing the equipment necessary for the peculiar problem before
him. His list was long and varied, ranging from a mighty transformer,
capable of delivering thousands of kilovolts down to a potentiometer,
so sensitive that it would register the difference of potential set up by
two men in shaking hands.
From daylight until dark Seaton worked in the laboratory, either alone
or superintending and assisting the men at work there. Every night

when Crane went to bed he saw Seaton in his room in a haze of smoke,
poring over blueprints or, surrounded by abstruse works upon the
calculus and sub-atomic phenomena, making interminable calculations.
Less than two miles away lived Dorothy Vaneman, who had promised
to be his wife. He had seen her but once since "the impossible" had
happened, since his prosaic copper steam-bath had taken flight under
his hand and pointed the way to a great adventure. In a car his friend
was to build, moved by this stupendous power which he must learn to
control, they would traverse interstellar space--visit strange planets and
survey strange solar systems.
While he did not forget his sweetheart--the thought of her was often in
his mind, and the fact that her future was so intimately connected with
his own gave to every action a new meaning--he had such a multitude
of things to do and was so eager to get them all done at once that day
after day went by and he could not find time to call upon her.
Crane remonstrated in vain. His protests against Seaton's