Harper's greatest fear was that he would do something to annoy
Gault into firing him, thus depriving him of the privilege of
using the mathematical charts and computing machines available in
the laboratory. Right now, he hoped Gault wouldn't notice that
statue in the corner--
"What's _that_!"
Harper's heart leaped. The Professor was glaring at the statue,
as though it were something the cat brought in.
Pillbot looked up from examination of the "doodles" and followed
Gault over to the futuristic statuary.
As Gault made strangled noises, Pillbot stared interestedly.
"Why--its like some of the designs in his doodling," he
exclaimed.
"And made with some of my best modeling clay for reproducing
geometric solids!" rasped Gault. He wheeled upon Harper.
"Get that thing out of here! I won't stand for such rot in this
laboratory. Throw it into the hall for the janitor!"
"Ye-yessir," said Harper, gulping. He took hold of the statue,
pulled at it.
"It--it won't budge," he exclaimed amazedly.
"Eh? Won't move? It's not heavy, is it?" demanded the Professor.
"No--about thirty pounds, but it wont move!"
Gault took hold of one of the angles of the thing, jerked at it
savagely. He gave it up with an oath, returned to Harper's desk
muttering.
Harper suddenly noticed the top portion of the statue. It didn't
seem to be all there! He was positive there had been another
section on top, shooting off at an angle, representing a problem
in tangential stress. What had happened to that top section?
He would figure that out later, when the occasion was more
propitious. Right now, he realized that only the presence of
Dr. Pillbot prevented Gault from firing him. He cast an apprehensive
glance toward his employer.
With trepidation, he saw Gault reach for something projecting
from behind a bench. Gault pulled it out, held it dangling before
him. A strangled exclamation of wrath came from him. His long
nose pointed accusingly toward Harper, like a finger pointing out
a criminal.
"I was afraid of that!" he grated. "Cutting paper dolls!" Gault
was holding up a large paper cutout of a human figure--a long,
rangy man.
"This is the last straw," Gault went on, his voice rising. "I
have stood enough--"
"It--it wasn't me, sir," Harper cried quickly, with visions of
his job and $50,000 vanishing. "It was your ten year old nephew,
Rudolph, when he was here yesterday. He cut it out, said it
looked like--like his uncle--"
Harper stopped as Gault seemed about to explode. Then the
mathematician subsided, a malicious expression crept over his
face.
"H-m-m," he said. "Might be just what I need to explain things to
Dr. Pillbot."
"I shall take this matter before the Psychiatric Society,"
Pillbot was saying excitedly. "Undoubtedly you have some strange
faculty--an instinctive perception of four dimensional laws ...
what was that, Professor?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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