Henry darted a quick glance at his partner. Saw that the professor's face once more was placid; that the storm was over. Unconsciously, the little man's goatee perked up. He readjusted his steel-rimmed glasses to a more stable position. "Honestly, Joseph, this time my invention can't do any harm," he ventured. "Really it can't." For a moment fire flashed in the scientist's eyes. Then faded again. "All right, Henry. What is it this time?" Henry extended the binoculars. "Here, Joseph. Look at the nudist camp." "But the fence--" "Please, Joseph. Go ahead and look." "Oh, all right--" The professor raised the field glasses. The next instant he nearly dropped them. "What on earth--!" "See, Joseph?" shrilled Henry. "Isn't it a wonderful invention? Isn't it?" His tall partner took down the binoculars and stared at them in blank amazement, his face a puzzled mask. "I'd swear I saw right through that fence!" he gasped. "I looked right into the middle of a whole pack of nudists!" "Of course!" Henry was bubbling with delight. "That's why I call them my X-ray eyeglasses. You can see through anything with them." He took the glasses from the professor. Again leveled them at the nudist colony. Then, giggling: "Doesn't that blonde girl have the cutest--" "Henry!" "Oh, all right." The little man returned the binoculars to his partner, who studied them with interest. "Just what principle do these things work on, Henry?" he asked curiously. Henry beamed. His goatee was at its jauntiest, most confident angle. The light of triumph played in his eyes. "Really, Joseph, it's quite simple," he proclaimed. "There are lots of rays that go through anything, you know, except maybe lead. So I just developed a special glass that translated those rays into images, instead of just using the light rays. It was easy. The only thing you have to be careful of is to focus real close, because otherwise you'll look right through the thing you want to see--" "Simple!" choked the scientist. "Easy! Henry, I hope you kept complete notes this once." He raised the glasses again. Studied a signboard on the nearby road. "Oh, yes, I've got good notes, Joseph--" "And you still need a concave eyepiece, so that the images won't reverse," Professor Paulsen interrupted. "The way it works now, pictures are all right, but 'CAMELS' are spelled 'SLEMAC'." * * * * * Henry sniffed contemptuously. "That's nothing," he retorted. "I've got it figured out already. Only it'll take a special lens, not just a concave one. Because now it doesn't just reverse letters like a mirror; it transposes them--" "All right, all right!" The professor threw up his hands in despair. "This is one time you've invented something worth while, and you seem to have some kind of notion of how it works, for a change." "How you talk!" Henry was suddenly cocky. He sneered. "I always know how my inventions work--" His gaunt friend glowered.