Jim told him the whole story of how Duchess and I got caught, then went into great detail about the plastic plate, the kinds of metal he had used, and the different settings on the transformer. He finished by telling how Duchess had sailed off into space. At this, Professor Jordan looked more closely at the transformer hookup. "You say the settings are still the same?" "Yes, sir, it's still the same. I haven't changed a thing except to pull the plate out in the hall." "Have you tried it since your father was caught?" "No, sir ... in all the excitement I haven't gotten around to fooling with it again." The professor walked out in the hall, reached in his pocket for a handkerchief, tossed it over the plate. It rose! Straight up, and stuck to the ceiling! "My gosh!" Jim blurted. "Somebody must have plugged that thing in again!" Mary and Johnny, who were watching in silence, both spoke up to say that neither of them had. Jim reached down and picked up the AC line. Sure enough, it _wasn't_ plugged in! "Well, this is going to take some studying," Professor Jordan muttered, looking rather awed at Jim's gadget. "Jim, let's start at the beginning again, and be sure you tell me everything you did, every move you made, what kind of metal you used, how finely divided it was, what concentration you used and what voltages and frequencies you used." "I'll try, Professor," Jim said, "But it's going to be sort of a hit or miss proposition because I fiddled with this thing for an hour or so before accidentally dropping my cigarettes on the plate. When they went up, I was surprised, to say the least, so I tried other things." "What we've got to figure put first of all, is whether it was caused by a combination of changes, or whether it was the last setting you used," Professor Jordan said. "If it was a combination of voltage and frequency changes, then we've certainly got a problem on our hands." All this time of course, Mary and Johnny had been standing more or less open-mouthed, listening, and I, from my vantage point high on the ceiling, had been taking it all in too. "Can you think of any way to run the experiment over?" The professor asked. "Do you think you can remember the formula for the plastic plate?" Jim thought a moment, snapped his fingers and said, "By golly, I believe I've got another piece of that plastic around here somewhere. I made it up at school and had to cut a little piece off so I could get it in my suitcase. I'll see if I can find it." And stepping gingerly around the plate in the hall he came back into the room and started rummaging around in his luggage. * * * * * The professor looked at me. "Mr. Wilson, what sort of sensation did you have when you stepped on the plate?" "Well, as near as I can remember, I _don't_ remember," I said. "I started to reach up and pull Duchess down, and the next thing I knew my head hit the ceiling. Still got a bump big as an Easter egg."