"But that wasn't enough. He didn't have, apparently, any legitimate excuse for keeping it under wraps that way, so everyone was suspicious." "But why tell _you_ it was a battery?" asked Captain Lacey. "That was probably suggested by Colonel Dower's reaction to the tests he saw," Thorn said. "Somebody--I think it was George Gamow, but I'm not certain--once said that just having a theory isn't enough; the theory has to make sense. "Well, Sorensen's theory of hydrogen fusion producing electric current didn't make sense. It was _true_, but it didn't make sense. "So he came up with a theory that _did_ make sense. If everyone wanted to think it was 'nothing but a battery', then, by Heaven, he'd sell it as a battery. And _that_, gentlemen, was a theory we were perfectly willing to believe. It wasn't true, but it did make sense. "As far as I was concerned, it was perfectly natural for a man who had invented a new type of battery to keep it under wraps that way. "Naturally, after we had invested a million dollars in the thing, we _had_ to investigate it. It worked, and we had to find out why and how." "Naturally," said Colonel Dower, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "I presume this is all under wraps, eh? What about the Russians? Couldn't they get hold of the patent papers?" "They could have," Thorn admitted, "but they didn't. They dismissed him as a crackpot, too, if they heard about him at all. Certainly they never requested a copy of his patent. The patent number is now top secret, of course, and if anyone does write in for a copy, the Patent Office will reply that there are temporarily no copies available. And the FBI will find out who is making the request." "Well," said Colonel Dower, "at least I'm glad to hear that I was not the only one who didn't believe him." Captain Lacey chuckled. "And Mr. Thorn here believed a lie." "Only because it made more sense than the truth," Thorn said. "And," he added, "you shouldn't laugh, captain. Remember, we suckered the Navy in almost the same way." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Errata could talk openly and at ease. [final . missing] Question: What is in the Little Black Box? [: missing]