He watched them as they ripped the top from the crate, eagerly began hauling out its contents. Four large, wide-bladed fans, each perhaps sixteen inches in diameter, and each driven by a compact electric motor. They were coaxially mounted on tall, slender chromium plated racks and could be adjusted on them to meet any conceivable experiment in ventilation engineering. Doug said nothing, let them continue. It might not even be necessary to tell them that their discovery was nothing more than two ingeniously designed air conditioning units. He wondered why they had come at all. The Prelatinate-Attorney's idea, perhaps, of a not-too-subtle jest. That, or even a veiled warning. There was more squawking of wood, and in a few moments Mike and Terry had each of the units placed beside each other on the cellar floor. "There's other junk here too," Terry was saying. "Pulleys and stuff, Dad. And a sheet of directions or something. Here, look Dad ... maybe it'll help." Doug looked at the smudged sheet of plastisheet that Terry had thrust in his hand. Only simple diagrams, indicating the use and assembly of the pulleys for desired variations in blower speeds. Even the simple rheostat, Doug mused, was taboo.... He crumpled the sheet, let it fall to the floor. And suddenly grabbed it up again, smoothed it, looked again at the last sentence! ... _each motor operates on regular household direct current of 250 Kemps, as authorized by_ ... Two hundred fifty Kemps--and there were four of the motors! "Dot! Dot those tools by the Contraption! And any scrap wire there--hurry!" * * * * * He worked with inhuman swiftness of desperation. Dot knelt beside him, handed him tool by tool as he asked for it, as though she were a scrub nurse and he the surgeon, with a patient that might have but moments to live. And silently, Terry and Mike watched, eyes wide with wonderment. They watched as Doug equipped two of the motors with the large pulleys, the two others with pulleys of less than half their diameter. Then he linked them with the flat rubber belts. "See if you can get the insulation off the ends of those wires--the ones a couple feet long are all right." He moved the racks next to the bench, brought them close together, and when Dot handed him the wire, he had the two motors on which he had placed the small pulleys denuded of their streamlined jackets. It was between those two that he made a simple connection in series. "Terry, Mike--while I'm making connections to the Contraption, see if you can get the fan blades off their shafts." Two connections--two simple connections.... He finished the second connection. "One more fan to go, Dad--" He plugged the two outer motors with the large pulleys into the wall outlets above the bench. Then his fingers waited on the switches. "But Doug, the fan motors will only work on house current--"