A title, "The Parallel Transformations of Equations for Matter,
Energy, and Tensors," had been crossed out with purple ink, and "The
Intimate Relation between Matter and Tensors" substituted. Tony bent
over it and read. He was so fascinated that it did not even occur to
him to speculate on the happy circumstance that the mysteriously
appearing desk had brought its own scientific explanation with it. The
title of the paper told him that its sheets would elucidate the
apparently supernatural phenomenon, and all he did was to plunge
breathlessly ahead in his eager reading. The article was short, about
seven typewritten sheets. He took out his pencil and followed through
the mathematical equations readily. Tony's mind was a brilliant, even
though an erring one.
Under the first article lay a second one. One glance at the title
caused Tony to stiffen. Then he picked up the typewritten script and
carried it across the big room of his laboratory, as far away from the
desk as he could get. He put the girl's photograph in his pocket. Then
he took heaps and armfuls of papers, books and notes and carried them
from the desk to a bench in the far corner. For, as soon as he had
read the title, "A Preliminary Report of Experimental Work in the
Physical Manipulation of Tensors," a sudden icy panic gripped his
heart lest the desk and its papers suddenly disappear before he had
finished reading to the end of the fascinating explanation.
We might add that it did not. For many weeks the desk remained
standing in Tony's shop and laboratory, and he had the opportunity to
study its contents thoroughly. But it took him only a few hours to
grasp its secret, to add his own brilliant conception to it, and to
form his great resolve. Once more Tony faced the world hopefully and
enthusiastically.
PART II
_Vanishing Valuables_
The police understood Tony's share in the exploits of Scarneck Ed
thoroughly, and, chagrined at their failure to produce proof that
would hold in court, they maintained a close and constant watch on
that gifted gentleman long after crime matters in the city seemed to
have been cleaned up and forgotten. For one thing, they still had
hopes that something would turn up to enable them to round off their
work and lock him up with his former pals; for another, they did not
fully trust his future behavior. Nevertheless, for three or four
months it seemed as though Tony had genuinely reformed. He lived in
and for his laboratory and shop. All day the scouts could see him
laboring therein, and far into the night he bent over benches and
machines under shaded lights. Then, some other astonishing occurrences
distracted their attention from Tony to other fields.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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