"Yes," came from Dangerfield, the editor. "It seems to me that the first
thing anyone else in the world would try to do if he found himself made
into a tin doll like this is get hold of a radio. How about opening up a
broadcasting station?"
"I don't know whether you can get enough power, but you can try. Go to
it. Do you know anything about radio?"
"A little."
"All right. Pick whoever you want for an assistant and try it out. Any
more ideas?"
"What day is it?" asked Ola Mae Roberts.
Nobody had thought of it, and it suddenly dawned on the assemblage that
the last thing they remembered was when the snow on the roof-tops
bespoke a chilly February, while now all the trees were in leaf and the
air was redolent of spring.
"Why--I don't know," said Ben. "Anybody here got any ideas on how to
find out?"
"It would take an experienced astronomer and some calculation to
determine with accuracy," said Beeville. "We'd better set an arbitrary
date."
"O. K. Then it's May 1, 1947. That's two years ahead of time, but it
will take that long to find out what it really is."
The assumption that sleep would be unnecessary proved correct. All night
long, cars roared up to the door and away again on their quests. The
number of people found was small--the cream had apparently been gathered
that morning. O'Hara brought in a metallic scrubwoman from one of the
downtown buildings, the tines that represented her teeth showing stains
of rust where she had incautiously drunk water; Stevens turned up with a
slow-voiced young man who proved to be Georgios Pappagourdas, the
attaché of the Greek consulate whose name had been in the papers in
connection with a sensational divorce case; and Mrs. Roberts came in
with two men, one of them J. Sterling Vanderschoof, president of the
steamship lines which bore his name.
At dawn Dangerfield came in. He had set up a powerful receiving set by
means of storage batteries but could find no messages on the air, and
could find no source of power sufficient for him to broadcast.
The morning, therefore, saw another and somewhat less optimistic
conference. As it was breaking up Ben said, "You Tholfsen, take Stevens,
Vanderschoof and Lee and get a truck, will you? You'll find one about
half a block down the street. Go up to one of the coal pits and get some
fuel for our boilers here. We haven't too large a supply."
There was a clanking of feet as they left and Ben turned into the
laboratory where Beeville was working, with the scrubwoman as a subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account