THE THOUGHT-FEEDERS By R. R. WINTERBOTHAM (_Author of "The Time Maker", "Status Quo", etc._) High in the stratosphere the two pilots encountered the living clouds and found out what it meant to eat your words--literally! [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Future combined with Science Fiction October 1941. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] The inventor, Dr. Kempster Duerkes, was in his best spirits, which made him nearly as sparkling as a sphinx. His new airplane, the stratosphere scout, had risen from the ground eight miles in the air. "It works!" he beamed in ecstasy, watching the altimeter. "It's a neat job," admitted the pilot, Captain Lewis Hawes, condescendingly. Inventors were nice, but they were vastly over-rated. The men who flew the planes, not the men who built them, made all the discoveries in aviation. "Neat job?" Dr. Duerkes frowned at the understatement. "My boy, it's perfection! The ship is faultless as the logic of the universe!" Dr. Duerkes regarded pilots as being mentally under-aged people who did their best to retard aviation by regarding all new inventions and refinements as crackpot ideas. With this gulf of disrespect lurking between them it was strange that these two men should have become companions. However, they did have a few things in common. Although Dr. Duerkes called Captain Hawes a boy, there was scarcely any difference in actual ages--with exception noted for Dr. Duerkes' idea of the captain's mental age. Besides, both men had a high regard for the stratosphere and the stratosphere scout formed a bond between them. It was a strange companionship, but stranger things were about to happen. "If I tried to imitate the logic of the universe," the captain retorted, "I'd never be able to do a thing. The only real logic in the universe is man's. He invented the sport of making one and one equal two." "Nonsense!" Dr. Duerkes replied stiffly. "The universe is an orderly thing. It obeys fixed laws. It never varies in its course. The universe is one thing we can depend upon." "If you ask me," Captain Hawes said, sending the plane up another thousand feet, "anything can happen." The heating equipment and the artificially sustained atmosphere of the plane's cabin made the men quite comfortable as the craft skimmed along at close to 45,000 feet. Dr. Duerkes clasped his hands over his knees and beamed. He was about to say something, but he never got the words out of his mouth. For at that moment the plane lurched. "Ump!" grunted Dr. Duerkes. "Air pocket," Captain Hawes explained. "There are no air pockets here," the doctor retorted. "We're in the stratosphere--the region of weatherless atmosphere. There might be winds, but no air pockets."