"Well, you see, I had a big advantage in knowing that cerebrin was the substance involved, and with that knowledge I could carry matters considerably farther than Dunark could in his original model. I can transfer the thoughts of somebody else to a third party or to a record. Dunark's machine couldn't work against resistance--if the subject wasn't willing to give up his thoughts he couldn't get them. This one can take them away by force. In fact, by increasing plate and grid voltages in the amplifier, I can pretty nearly burn out a man's brain. Yesterday, I was playing with it, transferring a section of my own brain to a magnetized tape--for a permanent record, you know--and found out that above certain rather low voltages it becomes a form of torture that would make the best efforts of the old Inquisition seem like a petting party." "Did you succeed in the transfer?" Crane was intensely interested. "Sure. Push the button for Shiro, and we'll start something." "Put your head against this screen," he directed when Shiro had come in, smiling and bowing as usual. "I've got to caliper your brains to do a good job." The calipering done, he adjusted various dials and clamped the electrodes over his own head and over the heads of Crane and Shiro. "Want to learn Japanese while we're at it, Mart? I'm going to." "Yes, please. I tried to learn it while I was in Japan, but it was altogether too difficult to be worth while." Seaton threw in a switch, opened it, depressed two more, opened them, and threw off the power. "All set," he reported crisply, and barked a series of explosive syllables at Shiro, ending upon a rising note. "Yes, sir," answered the Japanese. "You speak Nipponese as though you had never spoken any other tongue. I am very grateful to you, sir, that I may now discard my dictionary." "How about you two girls--anything you want to learn in a hurry?" "Not me!" declared Dorothy emphatically. "That machine is too darn weird to suit me. Besides, if I knew as much about science as you do, we'd probably fight about it." "I do not believe I care to...." began Margaret. She was interrupted by the penetrating sound of an alarm bell. "That's a new note!" exclaimed Seaton, "I never heard that note before." He stood in surprise at the board, where a brilliant purple light was flashing slowly. "Great Cat! That's a purely Osnomian war-gadget--kind of a battleship detector--shows that there's a boatload of bad news around here somewhere. Grab the visiplates quick, folks," as he rang Shiro's bell. "I'll take visiplate area one, dead ahead. Mart, take number two. Dot, three; Peg, four; Shiro, five. Look sharp!... Nothing in front. See anything, any of you?" * * * * * None of them could discover anything amiss, but the purple light continued to flash, and the bell to ring. Seaton cut off the bell.