Inventions -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Spy stories; World War, 1939-1945 -- Fiction
"Yes. Red hair." The savant eyed Henry suspiciously. "Why does that
surprise you so?"
"Why ... er ... oh, it doesn't. I mean--"
"What do you mean?"
"Really, Joseph, it's nothing." The little man squirmed nervously, his
goatee hanging guiltily to one side. "I'm not surprised at all. Really
I'm not!"
"Oh, you're not, aren't you?" Professor Paulsen started across the room
with grim determination, his eyes sharp. "Well, then--"
"Joseph--"
The scientist reached for his colleague's shoulder. But the shoulder
slipped away. Henry dived frantically for the doorway.
"Oh, no, you don't!"
* * * * *
Spinning about with surprising agility, the professor's hand speared
out. It stabbed home to its goal on Henry's chin with deadly aim. Caught
the little man's goatee in a grip that stopped his headlong rush dead
still.
"Joseph!" screamed Henry, his eyes filling with tears. "Stop it! You're
hurting!"
"And I intend to keep right on hurting until I get the truth out of you,
you amoeba-brained atom!" thundered the other. "I can smell your lies a
block away--and this is one time you're not going to get away with it!
Now: tell me who the red-headed man was."
"I don't know, Joseph! Really--"
Professor Paulsen gave his colleague's chin-whiskers a savage jerk.
"I want the truth!" he rapped. "Hurry up! Tell me!" He jerked again.
"Oh! Ow! Joseph, please! Oh, let me go! I'll tell--"
"You bet you'll tell!" grated his friend. "It's one thing to let you get
away with making a fool of me. But when it comes to tampering with the
United States Army--" And then, breaking off: "All right. Why did you
jump so when I mentioned the spy was believed to have red hair?"
"Well...." Henry squirmed some more. He tried hard to look dignified
despite the professor's grip on his goatee, but failed miserably.
"Out with it!"
"It's really nothing, Joseph--"
"Out with it, I say!"
"Ow! Joseph, stop!" And then: "It's just ... the man who bought my X-ray
glasses had red hair--"
"The man who bought your X-ray glasses!"
"Joseph! You're hurting!"
"What do you mean, 'the man who bought your X-ray glasses'?" The
professor thrust his gaunt face to within an inch of Henry's, his eyes
like steel gimlets. "If you tell me you've sold those glasses, you
misbegotten moron--"
"But Joseph!" Henry struggled to free himself. "You told me to get rid
of them. You warned me not to use them."
"I never told you to sell them! You knew I wanted to talk to Coggleston
about their use to the army--"
"Yes, but you didn't tell me _not_ to sell them. And I had all my notes,
and knew just how to make another pair, and so when the red-headed man
offered me fifty dollars for them--"
But Professor Paulsen had ceased to listen. Already he was on the
telephone and calling Major Coggleston. Tersely he explained the
situation.
Then:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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