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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29060-8.txt b/29060-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb99837 --- /dev/null +++ b/29060-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1515 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Einstein See-Saw, by Miles John Breuer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Einstein See-Saw + +Author: Miles John Breuer + +Release Date: June 7, 2009 [EBook #29060] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EINSTEIN SEE-SAW *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Astounding Stories April 1932. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the + U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + [Illustration: _For a while it was kick backwards, then a shove + at the safe._] + + + + The Einstein See-Saw + + + By Miles J. Breuer + + * * * * * + + + + +[Sidenote: In their pursuit of an unscrupulous scientist, Phil and +Ione are swung into hyperspace--marooned in a realm of strange sights +and shapes.] + + +Tony Costello leaned glumly over his neat, glass-topped desk, on which +a few papers lay arranged in orderly piles. Tony was very blue and +discouraged. The foundations of a pleasant and profitable existence +had been cut right out from under him. Gone were the days in which the +big racket boss, Scarneck Ed, generously rewarded the exercise of +Tony's brilliant talents as an engineer in redesigning cars to give +higher speed for bootlegging purposes, in devising automatic electric +apparatus for handling and concealing liquor, in designing +beam-directed radios for secret communication among the gangs. Yes, +mused Tony, it had been profitable. + +Six months ago the Citizens' Committee had stepped in. Now the police +department was reorganized; Scarneck Ed Podkowski was in jail, and his +corps of trusty lieutenants were either behind the bars with him or +scattered far and wide in flight. Tony, always a free spender, had +nothing left but the marvelous laboratory and workshop that Scarneck +Ed had built him, and his freedom. For the police could find nothing +legal against Tony. They had been compelled to let him alone, though +they were keeping a close watch on him. Tony's brow was as dark as the +mahogany of his desk. He did not know just how to go about making an +honest living. + +With a hand that seemed limp with discouragement, he reached into his +pocket for his cigarette-case. As he drew it out, the lackadaisical +fingers failed to hold it firmly enough, and it clattered to the floor +behind his chair. With the weary slowness of despondence, he dragged +himself to his feet and went behind his chair to pick up the +cigarette-case. But, before he bent over it, and while he was looking +fully and directly at it, his desk suddenly vanished. One moment it +was there, a huge ornament of mahogany and glass; the next moment +there was nothing. + + * * * * * + +Tony suddenly went rigid and stared at the empty space where his desk +had stood. He put his hand to his forehead, wondering if his financial +troubles were affecting his reason. By that time, another desk stood +in the place. + +Tony ran over this strange circumstance mentally. His mental processes +were active beneath, though dazed on the surface. His desk had stood +there. While looking fully at it, all his senses intact, he had seen +it vanish, and for a moment there had been nothing in its place. While +he stared directly at the empty space from which the desk had +disappeared, another desk had materialized there, like a flash. +Perhaps, there had been a sort of jar, a tremor, of the floor and of +the air, of everything. But the point was that his own desk, at which +he had been working one moment, had suddenly vanished, and at the next +moment another desk had appeared in its place. + +And what a desk! The one that now stood there was smaller than his own +palatial one, and shabbier. A raw, unpleasant golden-oak, much +scratched and scuffed. Its top was heaped and piled full of books and +papers. In the middle of it stood a photograph of a girl, framed in +red leather. Irresistibly, the sunny beauty of the face, the bright +eyes, the firm little chin, the tall forehead topped by a shining mass +of light curly hair, drew Tony's first glance. For a few moments his +eyes rested delightedly on the picture. + +In a moment, however, Tony noticed that the books and papers on the +desk were of a scientific character; and such is the nature of +professional interest, that for the time he forgot his astonishment at +how the desk had got there, in his absorption in the things heaped on +top of it. + +Perhaps it isn't fair to give the impression that the desk was in +disorder. It was merely busy; just as though someone who had been +deeply engaged in working had for the moment stepped away. There was a +row of books across the back edge, and Tony leaned over eagerly to +glance at the titles. + +"'Theory of Parallels,' Lobatchevsky; 'Transformation of Complex +Functions,' Riemann; 'Tensors and Geodesics,' Gauss," Tony read. +"Hm--old stuff. But here's modern dope along the same line. 'Tensors,' +by Christoffel; 'Absolute Differential Calculus,' by Ricci and Levi +Civita. And Schrödinger and Eddington and D'Abro. Looks like +somebody's interested in Relativity. Hm!" + + * * * * * + +He bent over, his constantly increasing interest showing in the +attitude of his body; he turned over papers and opened notebooks +crowded full of handwritten figures. Last of all he noted the batch of +manuscript directly in front of him in the middle of the front edge of +the desk. It was typewritten, with corrections and interlineations all +over it in purple ink. + +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. + +One morning Mr. Ambrose Parakeet, private jewel broker, walked briskly +out of the elevator on the fourteenth floor of the North American +Building and unlocked the door of his office. He flung it open and +started in, but stopped as if shot, uttered a queer, hoarse gurgle, +and staggered against the door-casing. In a moment he recovered and +began to shout: + +"Help! Help! Robbers!" + +Before long, several people had gathered. He stood there, gasping, +pointing with his hand into the room. The eagerly peering onlookers +could see that beside his desk stood an empty crate. It was somewhat +old and weatherbeaten and looked as though it might have come from a +buffet or a bookcase. He stood there and pointed at it and gasped, and +the gathering crowd in the corridor wondered what sort of strange +mental malady he had been seized with. The elevator girl, with trained +promptness had at once summoned the manager of the building, who +elbowed his way through the crowd and stood beside Mr. Parakeet. + + * * * * * + +"There! There! Look! Where is it?" Mr. Parakeet was gasping slowly and +gazing round in a circle. He was a little gray man of about sixty, and +seemed utterly dazed and overcome. + +"What's wrong, Mr. Parakeet?" asked the building manager. "I didn't +know you had your safe moved out." + +"But, no!" panted the bewildered old man. "I didn't. It's gone. Just +gone. Last night at five o'clock I locked the office, and it was +there, and everything was straight. What did you do? Who took it?" + +The building manager conducted the poor old man into the office, shut +the door, and asked the crowd to disperse. He sat Mr. Parakeet down +into the most comfortable chair he could find, and then barked +snappily into the telephone a few times. Then he sat and stared about +him, stopping occasionally to reassure the old man and ask him to be +patient until things could be investigated. + +The building manager was an efficient man and knew his building and +his tenants. He knew, as thoroughly as he knew his own office, that +Mr. Parakeet had a medium-sized A. V. & L. Co.'s safe weighing about +three tons, that could not be carried up the elevator when Mr. +Parakeet had moved in, and had been hoisted into the window with block +and tackle. He knew that it was physically impossible for the safe to +go down any of the elevators, and knew that none of the operators +would dare move any kind of a safe without his permission. +Nevertheless, with the aid of a police-sergeant, his night-shift, and +the night-watchmen of his building and adjacent ones, it was +definitely established that nothing had been moved in or out of the +North American Building during the preceding twenty-four hours, either +by elevator or through a window to the sidewalk. + + * * * * * + +The newspapers took up the mystery with a shout. The prostrating loss +suffered by Mr. Parakeet, amounting to over a hundred thousand +dollars, added no little sensation to the story. A huge safe, +disappearing into thin air, without a trace, and in its place an old +wooden crate! What a mouthful for the scareheads! For several days +newspapers kept up items about it, dwindling in size and strategic +importance of position; for nothing further was ever found. Every bit +of investigation, including that by scientific men from the University +of Chicago, was futile; not a trace, not a suggestion did it yield. + +Six days later the tall scareheads leaped out again: "Another Safe +Disappears! Absolutely No Trace! Some time during the night, the +six-foot steel safe of the Simonson Loan Company vanished into thin +air. In the morning a dilapidated iron oil-cask was found in its +place. The safe was so large and heavy that it could not have been +moved without a large truck, special hoisting apparatus, a crew of +men, and some hours of time. The store was brightly lighted during the +entire night, and two watchmen patrolled it regularly. They report +that they saw and heard nothing unusual, and were very much amazed +when shown the oil-cask standing where the safe had been the night +before." The accounts in the various papers were substantially the +same. + +Newspaper readers throughout the city and its environs were very much +intrigued. Such a thing was very exciting and mystifying; but it was +so far out of touch with their own lives that it did not affect them +very much at any time except when they were reading the paper or +discussing it in conversation. The police were the ones who were doing +the real worrying. And, when the following week two more safes +disappeared, insurance companies began to take an interest in the +matter; and everyone who had any considerable amount of valuables in +store began to feel panicky. + + * * * * * + +The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the last of the +series, the fourth, were especially amazing. This was also a jewelry +safe. Canzoni's is a popular firm that rents a quarter of a floor in a +big department store, and does a large volume of moderate-priced +business. The receipts are stored in a heavy portable safe in a corner +of the silverware section until evening, when they are carried to the +large vault of the big store. One Saturday afternoon after a +particularly busy day, Mr. Shipley, Canzoni's manager, was watching +the hands of the clock creep toward five-thirty. He leaned on a +counter and watched the clerks putting away goods for the night; he +glanced idly toward the safe which he intended to open in a few +minutes. The doormen had already taken their stations to keep out +further customers. Then he glanced back at the safe, and it wasn't +there! + +Mr. Shipley drew a deep breath. The safe disappearances he had read +about flashed through his mind. But he didn't believe it. It couldn't +be! Yet, there was the empty corner with the birch panels forming the +back of the show-windows, and no safe. In a daze, he walked over to +the corner, intending to feel about with his hands and make sure the +safe was really gone. Before he got there, there flashed into sight in +place of the safe, a barrel of dark wood; and in a moment there was a +strong odor of vinegar. + +Things spun around with Mr. Shipley for a few moments. He grasped a +counter and looked wildly about him. Clerks were hurrying with the +covering of counters; no one seemed to have noticed anything. He stood +a moment, gritted his teeth, and breathed deeply, and soon was master +of himself. He stood and waited until the last customer was gone, and +then called several clerks and pointed to where the safe had stood. + +Within the space of a month, thirteen safes and three million dollars +worth of money or property had disappeared. The police were dazed and +desperate, and business was in a panic. Scientific men were appealed +to, to help solve the riddle, but were helpless. Many of them agreed +that though in theory such things were explainable, science was as yet +far from any known means of bringing them about in actuality. +Insurance companies spent fabulous sums on investigation, and, failing +to get results, raised their premiums to impossible levels. + + +PART III + +_The Lady of the Picture_ + +Phil Hurren, often known as "Zip" Hurren, reporter on the _Examiner_, +felt, on the day the managing editor called him into the sanctum, that +fortune could smile on him no more brightly. There wasn't anything +brighter. + +"You stand well with the detective bureau," his boss had said; "and +you've followed this safe-disappearing stuff pretty closely. You're +relieved of everything else for the time being. Get on that business, +and see that the public hears from the _Examiner_!" + +Phil knew better than to say any more, for before he recovered from +his surprise, the editor had turned his back, buried himself in his +work on the desk, and forgotten that Phil was there. Nor did Phil +waste any real time in rejoicing. That is why he was called "Zip." +When things happened, whether it was luck or system, Phil was usually +there. In sixty seconds more, Phil was in a taxicab, whirling toward +police headquarters. + +Luck or system, he didn't know, but he struck it again. The big wagon +was just starting away from the station door when he arrived, crowded +inside with bluecoats and plainclothes-men. The burly, red-faced man +with chevrons on his sleeve, sitting beside the driver, saw Phil jump +out, and motioned with his hand. Phil leaped up on the back step of +the vehicle and hung on for dear life with his fingers through the +wire grating as they careened through the streets. The men on the +inside grinned at him; a number of them knew him and liked him. +Gradually the door was opened and he crowded in. He found Sergeant +Johnson and eyed him mutely. + +"How the hell do you find these things out, I'd like to know," the +sergeant exclaimed. "Are you a mind-reader?" + +"I don't really know anything," Phil admitted with that humility which +the police like on the part of newspaper men and seldom meet with. "Do +you mind?" + +"No objection," grunted the sergeant. "Been watching all the old +crooks since these safes have been popping. Nothin' much on any of +them, except this slippery wop, Tony Costello. No, we haven't caught +him at anything. Seems to be keeping close and minding his own +business. Working in his laboratory. Ought to make a good living if he +turned honest; clever guy, he seems. But he's been too prosperous +lately. Lots of machinery delivered to his place; we traced it to the +manufacturers and find it cost thousands. Big deposits in his banks. +But, no trace of his having sold anything or worked at anything +outside his own place. So, we're running over to surprise him and help +him get the cobwebs out of his closets." + + * * * * * + +The raid on Tony Costello's shop and laboratory disclosed nothing +whatever. They surrounded the place effectively and surprised Tony +genuinely. But a thorough search of every nook and cranny revealed +nothing whatever of a suspicious nature. There was merely a tremendous +amount of apparatus and machinery that none of the raiding party +understood anything about. Tony's person was also thoroughly searched, +and the leather-framed photograph of the beautiful unknown girl was +found. + +"Who's this?" the sergeant demanded. "She don't look like anyone that +might belong to your crowd." + +"I don't know," Tony replied. + +"Whad'ya mean, don't know?" The sergeant gave him a rough shake. +"What'ya carryin' it for, then?" + +"I had really forgotten that it was in my pocket," Tony replied +calmly, at his ease. "I found it in a hotel room one day, and liked +the looks of it." + +"I know you're lying there," the sergeant said, "though I'm ready to +believe that you don't know her. Too high up for you. Well, it looks +suspicious and we'll take the picture." + +"Boy!" gasped Phil. "What a girl she must be in person! Even the +picture would stand out among a thousand. May I have the picture, +Sergeant?" + +"You can come and get a copy of it to-morrow. We'll have it copied and +see if we can trace the subject of it. That might tell us something." + + * * * * * + +The following morning Phil was at Police Headquarters to pick up +further information, and to get a copy of the girl's photograph. Like +the police, he could not keep his mind off the idea that there was +some association between the crooked engineer and the disappearance of +the safes. It seemed to fit too well. The scientific nature of the +phenomena, Tony Costello's well known reputation for scientific +brilliance, and his recent affluence; what else could it mean? In some +way, Tony was getting at these safes. But how? And how prove it? Most +exhaustive searches failed to reveal any traces of the safes anywhere. +If any fragment of one of them had appeared in New York or San +Francisco, the news would have come at once, such was the sensation +all over the country that the series of disappearances had caused. +Tony's calm insolence during the raid, his attitude of waiting +patiently till the police should have had their fun and have it over +with so that he might be left at peace again, showed that he must be +guilty, for anyone else would have protested and felt deeply injured +and insulted. He seemed to be enjoying their discomfiture, and +absolutely confident of his own safety. + +"There's got to be some way of getting him," Phil mused; and he mused +almost absent-mindedly, for he was gazing at the photograph of the +girl. For many minutes he looked at it, and then put it silently into +his pocket. + +Five o'clock in the evening of that same day came the news of another +safe disappearance. Phil got his tip over the phone, and in fifteen +minutes was at the scene. It was too much like the others to go into +detail about; a six-foot portable safe had suddenly disappeared right +in front of the eyes of the office staff of The Epicure, a huge +restaurant and cafeteria that fed five thousand people three times a +day. In its place stood a ragged, rusty old Ford coupe body. He went +away from there, shaking his head. + +Then suddenly in the midst of his dinner, he jumped up, and ran. An +idea had leaped into his head. + +"Right after one of these things pops is the time to take a peek at +Tony," he said to himself, and immediately he was on the way. + + * * * * * + +But how to get his peep was not so easy a problem. When he alighted +from his cab a block away from Tony's building, he was hesitant about +approaching it. Tony knew him, and might see him first. Phil circled +the brick building, keeping under cover or far enough away; all around +it was a belt of thirty feet of lawn between the building and the +sidewalk. Ought he have called the police and given them his idea? Or +should he wait till darkness and see what he could do alone? + +Then suddenly he saw her. Across the street, standing in the shelter +of a delivery truck in front of an apartment, she was observing Tony's +building intently. The aristocratic chin, the brightness of the eyes, +the waves of her hair, and the general sunny expression! It could not +be anyone else. Post haste he ran across the street. + +"Pardon me!" he cried excitedly, lifting his hat and then digging +hastily into his inner pocket. "I'm sure you must be the--" + +"Well, the nerve!" the young woman said icily, and pointing her chin +at the opposite horizon she walked haughtily away. + +By that time Phil had dug out his picture and was running after her. + +"Please," he said, "just a moment!" And he held the picture out in +front of her face. + +"Now, where in the world--?" She looked at him in puzzled and +indignant inquiry, and then burst out laughing. + +"It _is_ you, isn't it?" Phil asked. "What are you laughing at?" + +"Oh, you looked so abject. I'm sure your intentions must be good. Now +tell me where you got my picture." + +"Let us walk this way," suggested Phil, leading away from Tony's +building. + + * * * * * + +And, as they walked, he told her the story. When he got through she +stood and looked at him a long time in silence. + +"You look square to me," she said. "You're working on my side already. +Will you help me." + +"I'll do anything--anything--" Phil said, and couldn't think of any +other way of expressing his willingness, for the wonderful eyes bore +radiantly upon him. + +"First I must tell you my story," she began. "But before I can do so, +you must promise me that it is to remain an absolute secret. You're a +newspaper man--" + +Phil gave his promise readily. + +"My father is Professor Bloomsbury at the University of Chicago. He +has been experimenting in mathematical physics, and I have been +assisting him. He has succeeded in proving experimentally the concept +of tensors. A tensor is a mathematical expression for the fact that +space is smooth and flat, in three dimensions, only at an infinite +distance from matter; in the neighborhood of a particle of matter, +there is a pucker or a wrinkle in space. My father has found that by +suddenly removing a portion of matter from out of space, the pucker +flattens out. If the matter is heavy enough and its removal sudden +enough, there is a violent disturbance of space. By planning all the +steps carefully my father has succeeded in swinging a section of +space on a pivot through an angle of 180 degrees, and causing two +portions of space to change places through hyperspace, or as you might +express it popularly, through the fourth dimension." + + * * * * * + +Phil held his hands to his head. + +"It is not difficult," she went on smiling. "Loan me your pocket knife +and a piece of paper from your notebook. If I cut out a rectangular +piece of paper from this sheet and mount it on a pivot or shaft at A +B, I can rotate it through 180 degrees, just like a child's +teeter-totter, so that X will be where Y originally was. That is in +two dimensions. Now, simply add one dimension all the way round and +you will have what daddy is doing with space. He does it by shoving +fifty or a hundred pounds of lead right out of space; the sudden +flattening out of the tensors causes a section of space to flop +around, and two portions of space change places. The first time he +tried it, his desk disappeared, and we've never seen it again. We've +thought it was somewhere out in hyperspace; but this terrible story of +yours about disappearing safes, and the fact that you have this +picture, means that someone has got the desk." + +"Surely you must have suspected that long ago, when the disappearances +first began?" Phil suggested. + +"I've just returned from Europe," said Miss Bloomsbury. "I was +tremendously puzzled when I got my first newspapers in New York and +read about the safes. Gradually I gathered all the news on the +subject, and it seemed most reasonable to suspect this gangster +engineer." + +"Great minds and same channels," Phil smiled. "But your father. Why +didn't he speak up when the safes began to pop?" + +"Ha! ha!" she laughed a tinkly little laugh. "My father doesn't know +what safes are for, nor who is President, nor that there has been a +war. Mother and I take care of him, and he works on tensors. He has +probably never heard about the safes." + + * * * * * + +"What were you going to do around here?" Phil asked, marveling at the +courage of the girl who had come to look the situation over +personally. + +"I hadn't formed any definite plans. I just wanted to look about +first." + +"Well," said Phil, "as you will soon see by the papers, another safe +has puffed out. It occurred to me that we might find out something by +spying about here immediately after one of the disappearances. That's +why I'm here. If you'll tell me where you live, or wait for me at some +safe place, I'll come and report to you as soon as I find out +anything." + +"Oho! So that's the kind of a girl you think I am!" She laughed +sunnily again. "No, Mr. Reporter. Either we reconnoiter together, or +each on our own." + +"Oh, together, by all means," said Phil so earnestly that she laughed +again. "And since we'd better wait for darkness, let's have something +to eat somewhere. I didn't finish my dinner." + +Phil found Ione Bloomsbury in person to be even more wonderful than +her photograph suggested. Obviously she had brains; it was apparent, +too that she had breeding. Her cheerful view of the world was like a +tonic for tired nerves; and withal, she had a gentle sort of courtesy +in her manner that may have been old-fashioned, but it was almost too +much for Phil. Before the dinner was over, he would have laid his +heart at her feet. It gave him a thrill that went to his head, to have +her by his side, slipping along through the darkness toward Tony's +building. + +This building was a one-story brick affair with a vast amount of +window space. From the sidewalk they could see faint lights glowing +within, but could make out no further details. They therefore selected +the darkest side of the building, and made their way hurriedly across +the lawn. Here, they found, they could see the crowding apparatus +within the one long room fairly well. They looked into one window +after another, making a circuit around the building, until Phil +suddenly clutched the girl's arm. + +"Look!" he whispered. "Straight ahead and a little to the left!" + +At the place he indicated stood a tall safe. Across the top of its +door were painted in gold letters, the words: "The Epicure." + +"That's the safe that went to-night," whispered Phil. "That's all we +need to know. Now, quick to a telephone!" + +"Oh," said a gentle, ironic voice behind them, "not so quick!" + + * * * * * + +They whirled around and found themselves looking into two automatic +pistols, and behind them in the light of the street lamps, the +sardonic smile of Tony Costello. + +"Charmed at your kind interest in my playthings, I'm sure," he purred. +"Only it leaves me in an embarrassing position. I'm not exactly sure +what to do about it. Kindly step inside while I think." + +Phil made a move sidewise along the wall. + +"Stop!" barked Costello sharply. "Of course," his voice was quiet +again, "that might be the simplest way out. I think I am within my +legal rights if I shoot people who are trying to break into my +property. Yet, that would be messy--not neat. Better step in. The +window swings outward." + +At the point of his pistols they clambered through the window, and he +came in after them. He kept on talking, as though to himself, but loud +enough for them to hear. + +"Yes, we want some way out that is neater than that. Hm! Violence +distresses me. Never liked Ed's rough methods. Yet, this is +embarrassing." + +He turned to them. + +"What did you really want here? I see that you are the _Examiner's_ +reporter, and that you are the lady of the photograph. What did you +come here for? Ah, yes, the safe. Well, go over and look at it." + +As they hesitated, he stamped his foot and shrilled crankily: + +"I mean it! Go, look at the safe! Is there anything else you want to +know?" + +"Yes," said Phil coolly, his self-control returning, "where are the +other safes?" + +"Oh. Anything to oblige. Last requests are a sort of point of honor, +aren't they. Ought to grant them. Stand close to that safe!" + + * * * * * + +He backed away, his guns levelled at them. He laid down the right one, +keeping the left one aimed, and moved some knobs on a dial and threw +over a big switch. A muffled rumbling and whirring began somewhere; +and then, slowly, a block of tables and apparatus ten feet square rose +upward toward the ceiling. A section of the floor on which they stood +came up, supported by columns, and now formed the roof of a room that +had risen out of the floor. In it were four safes. + +"Poor old Ed!" sighed Tony. "There was a time when he had a lot of +good stuff put away down there. I've got six rooms like that. Well, +the good old times are over." + +He threw out the switch and the whole mass sank slowly and silently +downward till the floor was level and there was no further sign of it. +Then he backed away to another table, across the room from them, +keeping his gun levelled. + +"Too bad," he said. "I don't like to do these things. But--" he sighed +deeply, "self-preservation. Now I'm going to flip you out, yes, +_out_, into a strange region. I've never been there. I don't know if +there is food or drink there. I hope so, for you'll never get back +here." + +Phil stiffened. He determined to leap and risk a shot. But he was too +late. Tony's hand came down on a switch. There was a sudden, +nauseating jar. The laboratory vanished. + +There was only the safe, Ione Bloomsbury and himself, and a small +circle of concrete floor extending to a dim little horizon a dozen +feet away. Beyond that, nothing. Not blue, as the sky is. Not black, +as dark, empty spaces are. It suggested black, because there was no +impression of light or color on the eyes; but it wasn't black. It was +nothingness. + + +PART IV + +_Marooned in Hyperspace_ + +"I suppose you realize what he has done?" Miss Bloomsbury inquired. + +"Couldn't be too sure, but it looks like plenty. What's the equation +for it?" Beneath his jocularity, Phil felt a tremendous sinking within +him. It looked serious, despite the fact that he did not understand it +at all. + +"He has swung us out into hyperspace, or into the fourth dimension, as +your newspaper readers might understand it, and has let us hang there. +Remember our slip of paper. Suppose X and Y were swung out of the +plane of the paper and allowed to remain at an angle with it. We are +at an angle with space, out in hyperspace." + +There was a period of bewilderment, almost panic, in which they both +felt so physically weak that they had to sit down on the concrete and +stare at each other mutely. But this passed and their natural courage +soon reasserted itself. Their first thought was to take stock of what +information they could get on their situation; and their first step +was to venture as close as possible to the queer little horizon which +lay almost at their very feet. It gave them a frightened feeling, as +though they were standing high up on a precipice or tower. + +To their surprise, the horizon receded as they walked toward it, +always remaining about a dozen feet away from them. At first they +walked on concrete and then came to a crumbly edge of it and found +themselves stepping on hard, sandy earth. Later there was rock, +sometimes granite-like, sometimes black and shiny. But what they saw +underfoot was nothing, compared with the glimpses of things they got +out in the surrounding emptiness. First there was a vast space in +which a soft light shone, and in which there were countless spheres of +various sizes, motionlessly suspended. The spheres seemed to be made +of wood, a green, sap-filled, unseasoned wood. The scene was visible +for a few seconds, and vanished suddenly as they walked on. This +astonished them; so they stepped back a pace or two and saw it again; +and as they moved on, it disappeared again. + + * * * * * + +Then there was a great stretch of water in which the backs of huge +monsters rolled and from which a hot wind blew for a few instants +until they passed on and the scene vanished. There was a short walk +with nothing but emptiness, and then there appeared huge, oblique, +cubistic looking rows of jagged rocks in wild, dizzy formations that +didn't look possible; and farther on, after another interval of +emptiness, a tangle of brown, ropey vines with black-green leaves on +them, an immense space filled with serpentine swinging loops and +lengths of innumerable vines. Several loops projected so near them +that they could have reached out and touched them had they wished. + +"This is too much for me!" Phil gasped. "Have we gone crazy? Or did +he kill us, and is this Purgatory?" + +Ione smiled and shook her little head in which she had a goodly store +of modern mathematics stored away. + +"These must be glimpses of other 'spaces' besides our own space. If we +could see in four dimensions we could see them all spread out before +us. But we can only perceive in three dimensions; therefore, as we +walk through hyperspace, past the different 'spaces' which are ranged +about in it, we get a glimpse into such of them as are parallel with +our own space. Can you understand that?" + +"Oh, yes," groaned Phil. "It sounds just about like it looks. But, +don't mind me. Go on, have your fun." + +"I've been thinking about those wooden spheres," continued Ione. "I'm +sure they must be sections of trees that are cut crosswise by our +'space;' they grow in three dimensions, but only two of them are our +dimensions and a third is strange to us. We see only three-dimensional +sections of them, which are spheres. There is more of them, that we +cannot see, in another dimension." + +"Yes, yes. Just as plain as the Jabberwock!" + +"Look! There's a real Jabberwock!" exclaimed Ione. + +On ahead of them they saw a number of creatures that seemed to be made +of painted wooden balls in different colors, joined together. + +"Tinkertoys!" exclaimed Phil. "Live ones! Big ones!" + +The animals, though they looked for all the world as though they were +made of painted wood, moved with jerky motions and clattered and +snarled. + +"There is probably more to _them_ in another dimension," Ione said. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly one of the beasts approached them with a leap. There were two +big eyes and two rows of teeth that came together with a snap, right +on Phil's trouser-leg. He jerked himself away, sacrificing some square +inches of trouser-leg, and, whirling around, kicked at the thing with +all his force. It almost paralyzed his foot, for the animal seemed to +be made of wood or bone. But it disappeared, and, as it did, both of +them felt a queer, nauseating jolt. A few more minutes' walk brought +them back to the safe without seeing any more spaces; and the sight of +its black iron bulk filled them with a home-like relief, which in a +moment they recognized as a mockery. + +"Are we on a sphere of some sort?" Phil asked. + +"Probably on an irregular mass of matter," Ione replied, "part of +which is Tony's concrete floor, and part of which comes out of some +other dimension. This mass of matter is at one end of a long, bar-like +portion of space, the middle of which is pivoted in our world, +somewhere in Chicago, and both ends of which are free in hyperspace." + +"Then," suggested Phil, "why can't we walk down to the axle on which +it is balanced, and step out into Chicago?" + +"Because there isn't any _matter_ for us to walk on. We are not able +to move about in space, in three dimensions, you know. We can only get +around in two dimensions, on the surface of _matter_." + +"Well, let's try another exploration trip at right angles to our first +one. After all, these 'spaces' are an interesting show, and I want to +see some more." + +They started out in the selected direction, and after a short walk got +a glimpse of a vast space dotted with stars and nebulae, with two +bright moons sailing overhead. A few steps farther on was a wall of +solid granite, near enough to touch with their hands. Again, there was +an intensely active mass of weaving bright stripes and loops and +circles, seeming to consist of light only, and making them dizzy in a +few seconds. Ione wondered if it might not be something like an +organic molecule on a large scale. Again, odd, queer, indescribable +shapes and outlines would appear and disappear, obviously +three-dimensional sections of multi-dimensional things, cut by space. +Once they passed a place of intense cold and terrific noise and +escaped destruction or lunacy only because it took them the merest +instant to get past. + +They arrived back at the safe, very much fatigued from the strain, +their minds woefully confused. Hunger and thirst were beginning to +thrust up their little reminders; and for the first time the terrors +of their position, flung out into hyperspace on a small, barren piece +of matter, began to seem real. + + * * * * * + +After a rest they started out again. As Phil had touched, in kicking +it, a creature from another "space," perhaps they might find water and +even food somewhere. They retraced their first steps to the spot where +they had at first seen water. They found it again and were able to dip +their hands into it. It was warm, and too salty to drink. They came to +the place with the creepers or vines, and Phil reached out and seized +one of them. It was heavy, rubbery, and elastic, stretching readily as +he pulled it. + +"These little lurches that we feel must be the snapping back of the +space-puckers as expressed by tensors," Ione remarked. "Every time +matter goes in or out of space, the nature of space is altered." + +"Well," observed Phil, releasing the vine, "I'd better be careful. If +one of these things hauls me off here, our last bond with home is +gone. I don't want to get lost in some other space." + +As he released the vines they snapped back to their places, and the +forest of them dimmed a little and reappeared. + +They made the round again, dodging cautiously past the point where +they had previously found the "Tinkertoy" animals, and succeeded in +getting past their snapping teeth. But no promise of food or water did +they find anywhere. + +"Looks like we're sunk," observed Phil, as they dropped down on the +concrete to rest, leaning their backs against the safe. + +How time counted in hyperspace, neither Phil nor Ione could tell; Phil +knew that his watch was running. He knew that it was ages and ages +that he sat with his back against the safe, reviewing all the events +of his put life, and thinking of this ignominious end to a lively +career! He swore half aloud; then suddenly looked at Ione, ready to +apologize. He found her weeping silently. + +"I should never have let you come into the building with me," he +stammered in confusion at her tears. + +"Oh, what do I care what becomes of _me_!" she exclaimed angrily. "But +who will take care of poor daddy? He doesn't even know when it's time +to eat." And she burst into a fresh fit of weeping. + +Phil bent his head in the dumbness of profound despair. + + +PART V + +_The Reversible Equation_ + +Despair, however, is a luxury. Necessity is a stimulus. With the +parchings of thirst and the gnawings of hunger, the two young people +ceased swearing and weeping. Phil got up and paced about and sat down +again. Ione's tears stopped and dried, and she sat and thought. + +In the back of her mind there had been forming a vague sort of an +idea, which had signalled ahead of itself that there was hope. She sat +there and desperately drove her reason to its utmost efforts, to find +that idea and bring it to the surface of consciousness. Hand to hand +fights with wild animals, battles between ships of the line, vicious +duels between ace-aviators in the clouds are tense fights; but they +cannot compare in anxious difficulty with the struggle to bring up an +unformed idea out of the subconscious mind--especially when one knows +that the idea is there, and that it must be found to save one's life. + +"Ione!" exclaimed Phil. It was the first time he had used the name. +"What is the matter? You are as tense as a--" + +"Ah!" cried Ione, springing up. "Tense! Tensors! I have it!" + +Phil gazed at her in alarm. She laughed; at first it was a strained +laugh, but gradually it melted into her sunny one. + +"No, I'm not crazy. I knew there was a way out, and I've been trying +to reason it out. How simple. You remember the little jolts when you +pulled at the vines and when you kicked the funny animal? Tensors. +Matter and space are so closely interrelated that you can't move +matter in or out of space without causing disturbance, recoils, and +tremors in space. Those bits of matter were small, and produced only a +slight disturbance. It takes about a hundred pounds of lead to swing +this segment--" + +"Oho! Got you!" exclaimed Phil. "Not so dumb! The safe!" + +"Yes. The safe!" Ione cried. + +"Throw it off and watch us swing, eh? What would happen?" + +"I might calculate it if I knew the weight of the safe." + +"No calculating when I'm around," Phil said. "It couldn't make things +any worse. Try it first and calculate afterwards." + + * * * * * + +They got behind the safe and pushed, and their combined strength +against it was about as effective as it would have been in moving the +Peoples' Gas Building. They sat down again in despair. + +"Suppose we _could_ budge it," Ione said. "All we could do would be to +push it around, this piece of matter we are on. That wouldn't help. +We've got to get it out of space. We can't push it hard enough to do +that. It's got to be shot out suddenly--" + +"And we haven't got a gun handy," Phil remarked droopingly. + +"Not exactly a gun. A sort of sling--" + +Phil leaped to his feet. + +"A sling. Why! To be sure! The vines!" + +Without another word, both of them got up and ran. They hastened in a +direction opposite to the one they had at first taken on their trip of +exploration, and this brought them first past the "space" of the +Tinkertoy-like animals. As they went by, several of these beasts +darted at them, one of them snapping at Ione's heels. She uttered a +scream, causing Phil to turn about and kick right and left among them. +He drove them back and escaped from them, rejoining Ione. + +"Wait," he said, when they reached the vines. "Remember those wooden +balls. If I could get a few to throw at those critters--" + +In a moment they were off, and finally arrived at the point from which +they first saw the balls. Odd it seemed, how they hung suspended in +space, thousands of them, all sizes. Phil reached out and grasped one +about the size of a baseball and drew it toward himself. He felt a +dizzy lurch and heard Ione scream. + +"Let go!" she screamed again. + +When he suddenly realized what was going on, he found himself +prostrate on the ground, with Ione across him, her arms about his +knees. + +"Do you realize," she panted, disentangling herself, "that you were +pulling yourself out of this space into that one?" + +"Thanks!" said Phil. "Never say die. More careful this time, and a +smaller one." + + * * * * * + +He reached out and grasped a ball smaller than a golf-ball, and pulled +carefully, keeping an eye upon Ione. There was resistance to his pull, +but gradually the ball came. It seemed heavy. There was a crack as of +breaking wood, and he fell backward, with a wave of nausea sweeping +strongly over him. He gazed in amazement at a heavy wooden stick that +he held in his hands. The only thing about it that suggested the ball +for which he had reached was its diameter. + +"Can't understand it, but appreciate it just the same," he said. He +broke the stick in two, and had two excellent clubs. + +"Simple," Ione replied. "The balls are cross-sections of these trees +or sticks which grow in a 'space' at right angles to our own; and we +only see their three-dimensional cross-sections." + +"Yes," said Phil. "Cabbages and kings. I'm for you and the party." + +A short walk brought them to the "space" of the vines. After testing +the matter out carefully, they found that they could each pull two of +them at a time. The vines stretched amazingly when they found those +whose far ends were fixed firmly in the tangle, permitting them to +carry their own ends along with them toward the safe. Phil wound his +vines around his left arm and stuck one club through his belt. The +other he got ready for the wooden animals. + +He needed it. The size of the pack was doubled, and he rapped them +till his hand was numb before he and Ione got by. Their vines drew out +thin, but held until they were firmly tied about the safe. They went +back after four more. + +"I should judge," said Phil, "that by the time we get thirty or forty, +the elastic pull will be strong enough to drag the safe back with +them as they snap back home." + + * * * * * + +Trip after trip they made, fighting the wooden animals with their +clubs each time. Their clothes were torn, and their legs bleeding; +their throats were dry and lips cracked. The hard animals seemed to +have a persistent, mechanical ferocity that was undismayed by +hammering with the clubs and by repeated repulses. Phil could not seem +to hurt them; he merely knocked them away. Finally, on the ninth trip, +Ione collapsed when she reached the safe. As she fell, the elasticity +of the vines began slowly to drag her back with them. Phil was forced +to sit across her knees while he tied his own vines about the safe. +Then he released her and added her vines to the great cable about the +safe. + +An overbold hard animal rattled up and snapped at her. Goaded to fury, +Phil swung at it with his club and hurled it through the air. He could +feel the lurch as it left his space and entered another. Then he +pushed with his mightiest effort against the safe. It budged, and slid +a few inches. He used his stick as a lever. It moved again, a little +faster. Ione struggled to her feet and tried to help, but her efforts +were ineffectual. + +With one arm about her, Phil pried again under the safe, knowing that +another trip after vines was out of question. Another animal snapped +at their heels. For a while, it was kick backwards, then a shove at +the safe. Each time the safe moved. The sight of its movement revived +Ione, so that she was able to push also. Gradually it acquired a +steady motion, pulled by the contraction of the vines; its progress +soon became faster and faster. Phil was about to follow it and give it +another push, when Ione drew him back. + +Suddenly they experienced a sinking sensation and a fearful vertigo. +The snapping animals faded. Ahead of them was the forest of vines, and +they saw the safe hurled into it, crashing, plunging into the tangled +mass. The whole view crumpled and moved upwards like a swirl of leaves +in a wind, and then vanished with a snap. + + * * * * * + +They were sick and dizzy, but tremendously curious to see everything. +The water, the cubistic cliffs, the vast space full of balls, all +curiously blurred, appeared in succession. There were blank spaces and +then blurred sights of things which they did not recognize, never +having seen them before. Then the dizziness and the nausea abated, and +ahead of them was a vast yellow blue, a huge nebula, and in it were +double-colored suns and ringed planets with swarms of moons; this +glorious sight remained for many seconds, as they gazed at it in +panting astonishment, half reclining on the concrete; and then it +faded. Again the nausea came on; again the succession of blurred +views. Eventually the myriad spheres, the water with the leviathans, +the forest of vines, each succeeding scene grew more blurred. Their +nausea was correspondingly increased, till they were forced to lie +down on the ground from illness. + +When their giddiness abated, there were blurring views again. There +was an impression as though the speed of a train were decreasing as +one looks out of the window. And how one view held for several +seconds, a vast and wild mountain-range with glaciers and snow peaks +by moonlight. When this faded gradually, the scenes began to flick by, +more and more rapidly, and grew blurred. Phil and Ione were attacked +by nausea until, again, they had to lie down. After that came the +familiar succession: the wooden animals, the tangle of vines, the vast +sea, the spheres, and more blurred scenes. Then came a pause, with +the nebula and the glorious suns swinging into view once again. + +"Oh, I understand!" Ione exclaimed; "We're swinging. The safe was so +heavy that we swung too violently, too far, and back again--" + +"And we keep going till it knocks us out, or till the old cat dies," +added Phil. + + * * * * * + +However, they found that after a number of repetitions of the same +program, their giddiness was becoming less; and instead of lying down +in the middle of the swing, they could look about. Then it occurred to +Phil to time the interval between the nebula and the mountain-range. +When the exact halfway point was determined, and after several more +swings, they could see dimly the windows and machinery of Tony's +laboratory flash by when they passed the middle. + +"I don't mean to be a crepe-hanger, but how do you know we will stop +at the right point?" Phil asked. + +"I don't," replied Ione cheerfully. "But mathematics says so. A freely +oscillating segment of space would naturally come to equilibrium in a +position parallel to the rest of its own space, would it not?" + +There came a swing when they did not reach the nebula on the one hand +and the mountain-range on the other. After that, views dropped off +from either end of the swing quite rapidly, and before many minutes, +they looked into Tony's laboratory a large portion of the time. For +many seconds the laboratory held; then it would gradually fade, and +reappear again, only to fade into empty nothingness all around. + +"The old cat's dead," Phil finally announced. + +They sat and stared about them as the laboratory held steady and no +further intervening periods of blankness intervened. They both sighed +deeply and slumped over on the ground to rest. + +"Bang! bang! bang!" + + * * * * * + +Some sort of hammering woke them up. They looked about them in a daze. +It was broad daylight, and things looked queer in the laboratory. +There was a smell of scorched rubber and hot oil. Great loops of wire +sagged down from above. Several nondescript heaps stood about that +might once have been machinery, but now suggested melting snow-men, +all fused into heaps. At a table sprawled a queer, misshapen figure +that suggested human origin. Both of its hands were burned to cinders +to the elbows. Great holes were scorched into the clothes. But the +face was recognizable. Tony's playthings had got him at last. + +"Looks like something's happened in here!" Phil gasped, in amazement. + +"I'll bet it has, too," Ione exclaimed. "This is the first time it +occurred to me that our recoil from throwing the safe overboard and +the oscillation of our space-segment must have created a tremendous +electrical field in the tetra-ordinate apparatus. The reaction is +reversible, you see. The field swings the space-segment, or the +swinging of the space-segment creates the field. And the field was too +much for Tony." + +At this point the door fell under the blows of the police, and the +raiding squad rushed into the room. + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Einstein See-Saw, by Miles John Breuer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EINSTEIN SEE-SAW *** + +***** This file should be named 29060-8.txt or 29060-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/0/6/29060/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Breuer + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.f2 { font-size:x-large; font-weight:bold; } + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Einstein See-Saw, by Miles John Breuer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Einstein See-Saw + +Author: Miles John Breuer + +Release Date: June 7, 2009 [EBook #29060] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EINSTEIN SEE-SAW *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Astounding Stories April 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="500" height="576" alt="For a while it was kick backwards, then a shove at the +safe." /> +<span class="caption">For a while it was kick backwards, then a shove at the +safe.</span> +</div> + + +<h1>The Einstein See-Saw</h1> + +<h2>By Miles J. Breuer</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="sidenote">In their pursuit of an unscrupulous scientist, Phil and +Ione are swung into hyperspace—marooned in a realm of strange sights +and shapes.</div> + + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>ony Costello leaned glumly over his neat, glass-topped desk, on which +a few papers lay arranged in orderly piles. Tony was very blue and +discouraged. The foundations of a pleasant and profitable existence +had been cut right out from under him. Gone were the days in which the +big racket boss, Scarneck Ed, generously rewarded the exercise of +Tony's brilliant talents as an engineer in redesigning cars to give +higher speed for bootlegging purposes, in devising automatic electric +apparatus for handling and concealing liquor, in designing +beam-directed radios for secret communication among the gangs. Yes, +mused Tony, it had been profitable.</p> + +<p>Six months ago the Citizens' Committee had stepped in. Now the police +department was reorganized; Scarneck Ed Podkowski was in jail, and his +corps of trusty lieutenants were either behind the bars with him or +scattered far and wide in flight. Tony, always a free spender, had +nothing left but the marvelous laboratory and workshop that Scarneck +Ed had built him, and his freedom. For the police could find nothing +legal against Tony. They had been compelled to let him alone, though +they were keeping a close watch on him. Tony's brow was as dark as the +mahogany of his desk. He did not know just how to go about making an +honest living.</p> + +<p>With a hand that seemed limp with discouragement, he reached into his +pocket for his cigarette-case. As he drew it out, the lackadaisical +fingers failed to hold it firmly enough, and it clattered to the floor +behind his chair. With the weary slowness of despondence, he dragged +himself to his feet and went behind his chair to pick up the +cigarette-case. But, before he bent over it, and while he was looking +fully and directly at it, his desk suddenly vanished. One moment it +was there, a huge ornament of mahogany and glass; the next moment +there was nothing.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>ony suddenly went rigid and stared at the empty space where his desk +had stood. He put his hand to his forehead, wondering if his financial +troubles were affecting his reason. By that time, another desk stood +in the place.</p> + +<p>Tony ran over this strange circumstance mentally. His mental processes +were active beneath, though dazed on the surface. His desk had stood +there. While looking fully at it, all his senses intact, he had seen +it vanish, and for a moment there had been nothing in its place. While +he stared directly at the empty space from which the desk had +disappeared, another desk had materialized there, like a flash. +Perhaps, there had been a sort of jar, a tremor, of the floor and of +the air, of everything. But the point was that his own desk, at which +he had been working one moment, had suddenly vanished, and at the next +moment another desk had appeared in its place.</p> + +<p>And what a desk! The one that now stood there was smaller than his own +palatial one, and shabbier. A raw, unpleasant golden-oak, much +scratched and scuffed. Its top was heaped and piled full of books and +papers. In the middle of it stood a photograph of a girl, framed in +red leather. Irresistibly, the sunny beauty of the face, the bright +eyes, the firm little chin, the tall forehead topped by a shining mass +of light curly hair, drew Tony's first glance. For a few moments his +eyes rested delightedly on the picture.</p> + +<p>In a moment, however, Tony noticed that the books and papers on the +desk were of a scientific character; and such is the nature of +professional interest, that for the time he forgot his astonishment at +how the desk had got there, in his absorption in the things heaped on +top of it.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it isn't fair to give the impression that the desk was in +disorder. It was merely busy; just as though someone who had been +deeply engaged in working had for the moment stepped away. There was a +row of books across the back edge, and Tony leaned over eagerly to +glance at the titles.</p> + +<p>"'Theory of Parallels,' Lobatchevsky; 'Transformation of Complex +Functions,' Riemann; 'Tensors and Geodesics,' Gauss," Tony read. +"Hm—old stuff. But here's modern dope along the same line. 'Tensors,' +by Christoffel; 'Absolute Differential Calculus,' by Ricci and Levi +Civita. And Schrödinger and Eddington and D'Abro. Looks like +somebody's interested in Relativity. Hm!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">H</span>e bent over, his constantly increasing interest showing in the +attitude of his body; he turned over papers and opened notebooks +crowded full of handwritten figures. Last of all he noted the batch of +manuscript directly in front of him in the middle of the front edge of +the desk. It was typewritten, with corrections and interlineations all +over it in purple ink.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<h2>PART II</h2> + +<h2><i>Vanishing Valuables</i></h2> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he 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.</p> + +<p>One morning Mr. Ambrose Parakeet, private jewel broker, walked briskly +out of the elevator on the fourteenth floor of the North American +Building and unlocked the door of his office. He flung it open and +started in, but stopped as if shot, uttered a queer, hoarse gurgle, +and staggered against the door-casing. In a moment he recovered and +began to shout:</p> + +<p>"Help! Help! Robbers!"</p> + +<p>Before long, several people had gathered. He stood there, gasping, +pointing with his hand into the room. The eagerly peering onlookers +could see that beside his desk stood an empty crate. It was somewhat +old and weatherbeaten and looked as though it might have come from a +buffet or a bookcase. He stood there and pointed at it and gasped, and +the gathering crowd in the corridor wondered what sort of strange +mental malady he had been seized with. The elevator girl, with trained +promptness had at once summoned the manager of the building, who +elbowed his way through the crowd and stood beside Mr. Parakeet.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">"T</span>here! There! Look! Where is it?" Mr. Parakeet was gasping slowly and +gazing round in a circle. He was a little gray man of about sixty, and +seemed utterly dazed and overcome.</p> + +<p>"What's wrong, Mr. Parakeet?" asked the building manager. "I didn't +know you had your safe moved out."</p> + +<p>"But, no!" panted the bewildered old man. "I didn't. It's gone. Just +gone. Last night at five o'clock I locked the office, and it was +there, and everything was straight. What did you do? Who took it?"</p> + +<p>The building manager conducted the poor old man into the office, shut +the door, and asked the crowd to disperse. He sat Mr. Parakeet down +into the most comfortable chair he could find, and then barked +snappily into the telephone a few times. Then he sat and stared about +him, stopping occasionally to reassure the old man and ask him to be +patient until things could be investigated.</p> + +<p>The building manager was an efficient man and knew his building and +his tenants. He knew, as thoroughly as he knew his own office, that +Mr. Parakeet had a medium-sized A. V. & L. Co.'s safe weighing about +three tons, that could not be carried up the elevator when Mr. +Parakeet had moved in, and had been hoisted into the window with block +and tackle. He knew that it was physically impossible for the safe to +go down any of the elevators, and knew that none of the operators +would dare move any kind of a safe without his permission. +Nevertheless, with the aid of a police-sergeant, his night-shift, and +the night-watchmen of his building and adjacent ones, it was +definitely established that nothing had been moved in or out of the +North American Building during the preceding twenty-four hours, either +by elevator or through a window to the sidewalk.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he newspapers took up the mystery with a shout. The prostrating loss +suffered by Mr. Parakeet, amounting to over a hundred thousand +dollars, added no little sensation to the story. A huge safe, +disappearing into thin air, without a trace, and in its place an old +wooden crate! What a mouthful for the scareheads! For several days +newspapers kept up items about it, dwindling in size and strategic +importance of position; for nothing further was ever found. Every bit +of investigation, including that by scientific men from the University +of Chicago, was futile; not a trace, not a suggestion did it yield.</p> + +<p>Six days later the tall scareheads leaped out again: "Another Safe +Disappears! Absolutely No Trace! Some time during the night, the +six-foot steel safe of the Simonson Loan Company vanished into thin +air. In the morning a dilapidated iron oil-cask was found in its +place. The safe was so large and heavy that it could not have been +moved without a large truck, special hoisting apparatus, a crew of +men, and some hours of time. The store was brightly lighted during the +entire night, and two watchmen patrolled it regularly. They report +that they saw and heard nothing unusual, and were very much amazed +when shown the oil-cask standing where the safe had been the night +before." The accounts in the various papers were substantially the +same.</p> + +<p>Newspaper readers throughout the city and its environs were very much +intrigued. Such a thing was very exciting and mystifying; but it was +so far out of touch with their own lives that it did not affect them +very much at any time except when they were reading the paper or +discussing it in conversation. The police were the ones who were doing +the real worrying. And, when the following week two more safes +disappeared, insurance companies began to take an interest in the +matter; and everyone who had any considerable amount of valuables in +store began to feel panicky.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the last of the +series, the fourth, were especially amazing. This was also a jewelry +safe. Canzoni's is a popular firm that rents a quarter of a floor in a +big department store, and does a large volume of moderate-priced +business. The receipts are stored in a heavy portable safe in a corner +of the silverware section until evening, when they are carried to the +large vault of the big store. One Saturday afternoon after a +particularly busy day, Mr. Shipley, Canzoni's manager, was watching +the hands of the clock creep toward five-thirty. He leaned on a +counter and watched the clerks putting away goods for the night; he +glanced idly toward the safe which he intended to open in a few +minutes. The doormen had already taken their stations to keep out +further customers. Then he glanced back at the safe, and it wasn't +there!</p> + +<p>Mr. Shipley drew a deep breath. The safe disappearances he had read +about flashed through his mind. But he didn't believe it. It couldn't +be! Yet, there was the empty corner with the birch panels forming the +back of the show-windows, and no safe. In a daze, he walked over to +the corner, intending to feel about with his hands and make sure the +safe was really gone. Before he got there, there flashed into sight in +place of the safe, a barrel of dark wood; and in a moment there was a +strong odor of vinegar.</p> + +<p>Things spun around with Mr. Shipley for a few moments. He grasped a +counter and looked wildly about him. Clerks were hurrying with the +covering of counters; no one seemed to have noticed anything. He stood +a moment, gritted his teeth, and breathed deeply, and soon was master +of himself. He stood and waited until the last customer was gone, and +then called several clerks and pointed to where the safe had stood.</p> + +<p>Within the space of a month, thirteen safes and three million dollars +worth of money or property had disappeared. The police were dazed and +desperate, and business was in a panic. Scientific men were appealed +to, to help solve the riddle, but were helpless. Many of them agreed +that though in theory such things were explainable, science was as yet +far from any known means of bringing them about in actuality. +Insurance companies spent fabulous sums on investigation, and, failing +to get results, raised their premiums to impossible levels.</p> + + +<h2>PART III</h2> + +<h2><i>The Lady of the Picture</i></h2> + +<p><span class="f2">P</span>hil Hurren, often known as "Zip" Hurren, reporter on the <i>Examiner</i>, +felt, on the day the managing editor called him into the sanctum, that +fortune could smile on him no more brightly. There wasn't anything +brighter.</p> + +<p>"You stand well with the detective bureau," his boss had said; "and +you've followed this safe-disappearing stuff pretty closely. You're +relieved of everything else for the time being. Get on that business, +and see that the public hears from the <i>Examiner</i>!"</p> + +<p>Phil knew better than to say any more, for before he recovered from +his surprise, the editor had turned his back, buried himself in his +work on the desk, and forgotten that Phil was there. Nor did Phil +waste any real time in rejoicing. That is why he was called "Zip." +When things happened, whether it was luck or system, Phil was usually +there. In sixty seconds more, Phil was in a taxicab, whirling toward +police headquarters.</p> + +<p>Luck or system, he didn't know, but he struck it again. The big wagon +was just starting away from the station door when he arrived, crowded +inside with bluecoats and plainclothes-men. The burly, red-faced man +with chevrons on his sleeve, sitting beside the driver, saw Phil jump +out, and motioned with his hand. Phil leaped up on the back step of +the vehicle and hung on for dear life with his fingers through the +wire grating as they careened through the streets. The men on the +inside grinned at him; a number of them knew him and liked him. +Gradually the door was opened and he crowded in. He found Sergeant +Johnson and eyed him mutely.</p> + +<p>"How the hell do you find these things out, I'd like to know," the +sergeant exclaimed. "Are you a mind-reader?"</p> + +<p>"I don't really know anything," Phil admitted with that humility which +the police like on the part of newspaper men and seldom meet with. "Do +you mind?"</p> + +<p>"No objection," grunted the sergeant. "Been watching all the old +crooks since these safes have been popping. Nothin' much on any of +them, except this slippery wop, Tony Costello. No, we haven't caught +him at anything. Seems to be keeping close and minding his own +business. Working in his laboratory. Ought to make a good living if he +turned honest; clever guy, he seems. But he's been too prosperous +lately. Lots of machinery delivered to his place; we traced it to the +manufacturers and find it cost thousands. Big deposits in his banks. +But, no trace of his having sold anything or worked at anything +outside his own place. So, we're running over to surprise him and help +him get the cobwebs out of his closets."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he raid on Tony Costello's shop and laboratory disclosed nothing +whatever. They surrounded the place effectively and surprised Tony +genuinely. But a thorough search of every nook and cranny revealed +nothing whatever of a suspicious nature. There was merely a tremendous +amount of apparatus and machinery that none of the raiding party +understood anything about. Tony's person was also thoroughly searched, +and the leather-framed photograph of the beautiful unknown girl was +found.</p> + +<p>"Who's this?" the sergeant demanded. "She don't look like anyone that +might belong to your crowd."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Tony replied.</p> + +<p>"Whad'ya mean, don't know?" The sergeant gave him a rough shake. +"What'ya carryin' it for, then?"</p> + +<p>"I had really forgotten that it was in my pocket," Tony replied +calmly, at his ease. "I found it in a hotel room one day, and liked +the looks of it."</p> + +<p>"I know you're lying there," the sergeant said, "though I'm ready to +believe that you don't know her. Too high up for you. Well, it looks +suspicious and we'll take the picture."</p> + +<p>"Boy!" gasped Phil. "What a girl she must be in person! Even the +picture would stand out among a thousand. May I have the picture, +Sergeant?"</p> + +<p>"You can come and get a copy of it to-morrow. We'll have it copied and +see if we can trace the subject of it. That might tell us something."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he following morning Phil was at Police Headquarters to pick up +further information, and to get a copy of the girl's photograph. Like +the police, he could not keep his mind off the idea that there was +some association between the crooked engineer and the disappearance of +the safes. It seemed to fit too well. The scientific nature of the +phenomena, Tony Costello's well known reputation for scientific +brilliance, and his recent affluence; what else could it mean? In some +way, Tony was getting at these safes. But how? And how prove it? Most +exhaustive searches failed to reveal any traces of the safes anywhere. +If any fragment of one of them had appeared in New York or San +Francisco, the news would have come at once, such was the sensation +all over the country that the series of disappearances had caused. +Tony's calm insolence during the raid, his attitude of waiting +patiently till the police should have had their fun and have it over +with so that he might be left at peace again, showed that he must be +guilty, for anyone else would have protested and felt deeply injured +and insulted. He seemed to be enjoying their discomfiture, and +absolutely confident of his own safety.</p> + +<p>"There's got to be some way of getting him," Phil mused; and he mused +almost absent-mindedly, for he was gazing at the photograph of the +girl. For many minutes he looked at it, and then put it silently into +his pocket.</p> + +<p>Five o'clock in the evening of that same day came the news of another +safe disappearance. Phil got his tip over the phone, and in fifteen +minutes was at the scene. It was too much like the others to go into +detail about; a six-foot portable safe had suddenly disappeared right +in front of the eyes of the office staff of The Epicure, a huge +restaurant and cafeteria that fed five thousand people three times a +day. In its place stood a ragged, rusty old Ford coupe body. He went +away from there, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly in the midst of his dinner, he jumped up, and ran. An +idea had leaped into his head.</p> + +<p>"Right after one of these things pops is the time to take a peek at +Tony," he said to himself, and immediately he was on the way.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">B</span>ut how to get his peep was not so easy a problem. When he alighted +from his cab a block away from Tony's building, he was hesitant about +approaching it. Tony knew him, and might see him first. Phil circled +the brick building, keeping under cover or far enough away; all around +it was a belt of thirty feet of lawn between the building and the +sidewalk. Ought he have called the police and given them his idea? Or +should he wait till darkness and see what he could do alone?</p> + +<p>Then suddenly he saw her. Across the street, standing in the shelter +of a delivery truck in front of an apartment, she was observing Tony's +building intently. The aristocratic chin, the brightness of the eyes, +the waves of her hair, and the general sunny expression! It could not +be anyone else. Post haste he ran across the street.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me!" he cried excitedly, lifting his hat and then digging +hastily into his inner pocket. "I'm sure you must be the—"</p> + +<p>"Well, the nerve!" the young woman said icily, and pointing her chin +at the opposite horizon she walked haughtily away.</p> + +<p>By that time Phil had dug out his picture and was running after her.</p> + +<p>"Please," he said, "just a moment!" And he held the picture out in +front of her face.</p> + +<p>"Now, where in the world—?" She looked at him in puzzled and +indignant inquiry, and then burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> you, isn't it?" Phil asked. "What are you laughing at?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you looked so abject. I'm sure your intentions must be good. Now +tell me where you got my picture."</p> + +<p>"Let us walk this way," suggested Phil, leading away from Tony's +building.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">A</span>nd, as they walked, he told her the story. When he got through she +stood and looked at him a long time in silence.</p> + +<p>"You look square to me," she said. "You're working on my side already. +Will you help me."</p> + +<p>"I'll do anything—anything—" Phil said, and couldn't think of any +other way of expressing his willingness, for the wonderful eyes bore +radiantly upon him.</p> + +<p>"First I must tell you my story," she began. "But before I can do so, +you must promise me that it is to remain an absolute secret. You're a +newspaper man—"</p> + +<p>Phil gave his promise readily.</p> + +<p>"My father is Professor Bloomsbury at the University of Chicago. He +has been experimenting in mathematical physics, and I have been +assisting him. He has succeeded in proving experimentally the concept +of tensors. A tensor is a mathematical expression for the fact that +space is smooth and flat, in three dimensions, only at an infinite +distance from matter; in the neighborhood of a particle of matter, +there is a pucker or a wrinkle in space. My father has found that by +suddenly removing a portion of matter from out of space, the pucker +flattens out. If the matter is heavy enough and its removal sudden +enough, there is a violent disturbance of space. By planning all the +steps carefully my father has succeeded in swinging a section of +space on a pivot through an angle of 180 degrees, and causing two +portions of space to change places through hyperspace, or as you might +express it popularly, through the fourth dimension."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">P</span>hil held his hands to his head.</p> + +<p>"It is not difficult," she went on smiling. "Loan me your pocket knife +and a piece of paper from your notebook. If I cut out a rectangular +piece of paper from this sheet and mount it on a pivot or shaft at A +B, I can rotate it through 180 degrees, just like a child's +teeter-totter, so that X will be where Y originally was. That is in +two dimensions. Now, simply add one dimension all the way round and +you will have what daddy is doing with space. He does it by shoving +fifty or a hundred pounds of lead right out of space; the sudden +flattening out of the tensors causes a section of space to flop +around, and two portions of space change places. The first time he +tried it, his desk disappeared, and we've never seen it again. We've +thought it was somewhere out in hyperspace; but this terrible story of +yours about disappearing safes, and the fact that you have this +picture, means that someone has got the desk."</p> + +<p>"Surely you must have suspected that long ago, when the disappearances +first began?" Phil suggested.</p> + +<p>"I've just returned from Europe," said Miss Bloomsbury. "I was +tremendously puzzled when I got my first newspapers in New York and +read about the safes. Gradually I gathered all the news on the +subject, and it seemed most reasonable to suspect this gangster +engineer."</p> + +<p>"Great minds and same channels," Phil smiled. "But your father. Why +didn't he speak up when the safes began to pop?"</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha!" she laughed a tinkly little laugh. "My father doesn't know +what safes are for, nor who is President, nor that there has been a +war. Mother and I take care of him, and he works on tensors. He has +probably never heard about the safes."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">"W</span>hat were you going to do around here?" Phil asked, marveling at the +courage of the girl who had come to look the situation over +personally.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't formed any definite plans. I just wanted to look about +first."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Phil, "as you will soon see by the papers, another safe +has puffed out. It occurred to me that we might find out something by +spying about here immediately after one of the disappearances. That's +why I'm here. If you'll tell me where you live, or wait for me at some +safe place, I'll come and report to you as soon as I find out +anything."</p> + +<p>"Oho! So that's the kind of a girl you think I am!" She laughed +sunnily again. "No, Mr. Reporter. Either we reconnoiter together, or +each on our own."</p> + +<p>"Oh, together, by all means," said Phil so earnestly that she laughed +again. "And since we'd better wait for darkness, let's have something +to eat somewhere. I didn't finish my dinner."</p> + +<p>Phil found Ione Bloomsbury in person to be even more wonderful than +her photograph suggested. Obviously she had brains; it was apparent, +too that she had breeding. Her cheerful view of the world was like a +tonic for tired nerves; and withal, she had a gentle sort of courtesy +in her manner that may have been old-fashioned, but it was almost too +much for Phil. Before the dinner was over, he would have laid his +heart at her feet. It gave him a thrill that went to his head, to have +her by his side, slipping along through the darkness toward Tony's +building.</p> + +<p>This building was a one-story brick affair with a vast amount of +window space. From the sidewalk they could see faint lights glowing +within, but could make out no further details. They therefore selected +the darkest side of the building, and made their way hurriedly across +the lawn. Here, they found, they could see the crowding apparatus +within the one long room fairly well. They looked into one window +after another, making a circuit around the building, until Phil +suddenly clutched the girl's arm.</p> + +<p>"Look!" he whispered. "Straight ahead and a little to the left!"</p> + +<p>At the place he indicated stood a tall safe. Across the top of its +door were painted in gold letters, the words: "The Epicure."</p> + +<p>"That's the safe that went to-night," whispered Phil. "That's all we +need to know. Now, quick to a telephone!"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said a gentle, ironic voice behind them, "not so quick!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hey whirled around and found themselves looking into two automatic +pistols, and behind them in the light of the street lamps, the +sardonic smile of Tony Costello.</p> + +<p>"Charmed at your kind interest in my playthings, I'm sure," he purred. +"Only it leaves me in an embarrassing position. I'm not exactly sure +what to do about it. Kindly step inside while I think."</p> + +<p>Phil made a move sidewise along the wall.</p> + +<p>"Stop!" barked Costello sharply. "Of course," his voice was quiet +again, "that might be the simplest way out. I think I am within my +legal rights if I shoot people who are trying to break into my +property. Yet, that would be messy—not neat. Better step in. The +window swings outward."</p> + +<p>At the point of his pistols they clambered through the window, and he +came in after them. He kept on talking, as though to himself, but loud +enough for them to hear.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we want some way out that is neater than that. Hm! Violence +distresses me. Never liked Ed's rough methods. Yet, this is +embarrassing."</p> + +<p>He turned to them.</p> + +<p>"What did you really want here? I see that you are the <i>Examiner's</i> +reporter, and that you are the lady of the photograph. What did you +come here for? Ah, yes, the safe. Well, go over and look at it."</p> + +<p>As they hesitated, he stamped his foot and shrilled crankily:</p> + +<p>"I mean it! Go, look at the safe! Is there anything else you want to +know?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Phil coolly, his self-control returning, "where are the +other safes?"</p> + +<p>"Oh. Anything to oblige. Last requests are a sort of point of honor, +aren't they. Ought to grant them. Stand close to that safe!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">H</span>e backed away, his guns levelled at them. He laid down the right one, +keeping the left one aimed, and moved some knobs on a dial and threw +over a big switch. A muffled rumbling and whirring began somewhere; +and then, slowly, a block of tables and apparatus ten feet square rose +upward toward the ceiling. A section of the floor on which they stood +came up, supported by columns, and now formed the roof of a room that +had risen out of the floor. In it were four safes.</p> + +<p>"Poor old Ed!" sighed Tony. "There was a time when he had a lot of +good stuff put away down there. I've got six rooms like that. Well, +the good old times are over."</p> + +<p>He threw out the switch and the whole mass sank slowly and silently +downward till the floor was level and there was no further sign of it. +Then he backed away to another table, across the room from them, +keeping his gun levelled.</p> + +<p>"Too bad," he said. "I don't like to do these things. But—" he sighed +deeply, "self-preservation. Now I'm going to flip you out, yes, +<i>out</i>, into a strange region. I've never been there. I don't know if +there is food or drink there. I hope so, for you'll never get back +here."</p> + +<p>Phil stiffened. He determined to leap and risk a shot. But he was too +late. Tony's hand came down on a switch. There was a sudden, +nauseating jar. The laboratory vanished.</p> + +<p>There was only the safe, Ione Bloomsbury and himself, and a small +circle of concrete floor extending to a dim little horizon a dozen +feet away. Beyond that, nothing. Not blue, as the sky is. Not black, +as dark, empty spaces are. It suggested black, because there was no +impression of light or color on the eyes; but it wasn't black. It was +nothingness.</p> + + +<h2>PART IV</h2> + +<h2><i>Marooned in Hyperspace</i></h2> + +<p><span class="f2">"I</span> suppose you realize what he has done?" Miss Bloomsbury inquired.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't be too sure, but it looks like plenty. What's the equation +for it?" Beneath his jocularity, Phil felt a tremendous sinking within +him. It looked serious, despite the fact that he did not understand it +at all.</p> + +<p>"He has swung us out into hyperspace, or into the fourth dimension, as +your newspaper readers might understand it, and has let us hang there. +Remember our slip of paper. Suppose X and Y were swung out of the +plane of the paper and allowed to remain at an angle with it. We are +at an angle with space, out in hyperspace."</p> + +<p>There was a period of bewilderment, almost panic, in which they both +felt so physically weak that they had to sit down on the concrete and +stare at each other mutely. But this passed and their natural courage +soon reasserted itself. Their first thought was to take stock of what +information they could get on their situation; and their first step +was to venture as close as possible to the queer little horizon which +lay almost at their very feet. It gave them a frightened feeling, as +though they were standing high up on a precipice or tower.</p> + +<p>To their surprise, the horizon receded as they walked toward it, +always remaining about a dozen feet away from them. At first they +walked on concrete and then came to a crumbly edge of it and found +themselves stepping on hard, sandy earth. Later there was rock, +sometimes granite-like, sometimes black and shiny. But what they saw +underfoot was nothing, compared with the glimpses of things they got +out in the surrounding emptiness. First there was a vast space in +which a soft light shone, and in which there were countless spheres of +various sizes, motionlessly suspended. The spheres seemed to be made +of wood, a green, sap-filled, unseasoned wood. The scene was visible +for a few seconds, and vanished suddenly as they walked on. This +astonished them; so they stepped back a pace or two and saw it again; +and as they moved on, it disappeared again.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hen there was a great stretch of water in which the backs of huge +monsters rolled and from which a hot wind blew for a few instants +until they passed on and the scene vanished. There was a short walk +with nothing but emptiness, and then there appeared huge, oblique, +cubistic looking rows of jagged rocks in wild, dizzy formations that +didn't look possible; and farther on, after another interval of +emptiness, a tangle of brown, ropey vines with black-green leaves on +them, an immense space filled with serpentine swinging loops and +lengths of innumerable vines. Several loops projected so near them +that they could have reached out and touched them had they wished.</p> + +<p>"This is too much for me!" Phil gasped. "Have we gone crazy? Or did +he kill us, and is this Purgatory?"</p> + +<p>Ione smiled and shook her little head in which she had a goodly store +of modern mathematics stored away.</p> + +<p>"These must be glimpses of other 'spaces' besides our own space. If we +could see in four dimensions we could see them all spread out before +us. But we can only perceive in three dimensions; therefore, as we +walk through hyperspace, past the different 'spaces' which are ranged +about in it, we get a glimpse into such of them as are parallel with +our own space. Can you understand that?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," groaned Phil. "It sounds just about like it looks. But, +don't mind me. Go on, have your fun."</p> + +<p>"I've been thinking about those wooden spheres," continued Ione. "I'm +sure they must be sections of trees that are cut crosswise by our +'space;' they grow in three dimensions, but only two of them are our +dimensions and a third is strange to us. We see only three-dimensional +sections of them, which are spheres. There is more of them, that we +cannot see, in another dimension."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. Just as plain as the Jabberwock!"</p> + +<p>"Look! There's a real Jabberwock!" exclaimed Ione.</p> + +<p>On ahead of them they saw a number of creatures that seemed to be made +of painted wooden balls in different colors, joined together.</p> + +<p>"Tinkertoys!" exclaimed Phil. "Live ones! Big ones!"</p> + +<p>The animals, though they looked for all the world as though they were +made of painted wood, moved with jerky motions and clattered and +snarled.</p> + +<p>"There is probably more to <i>them</i> in another dimension," Ione said.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">S</span>uddenly one of the beasts approached them with a leap. There were two +big eyes and two rows of teeth that came together with a snap, right +on Phil's trouser-leg. He jerked himself away, sacrificing some square +inches of trouser-leg, and, whirling around, kicked at the thing with +all his force. It almost paralyzed his foot, for the animal seemed to +be made of wood or bone. But it disappeared, and, as it did, both of +them felt a queer, nauseating jolt. A few more minutes' walk brought +them back to the safe without seeing any more spaces; and the sight of +its black iron bulk filled them with a home-like relief, which in a +moment they recognized as a mockery.</p> + +<p>"Are we on a sphere of some sort?" Phil asked.</p> + +<p>"Probably on an irregular mass of matter," Ione replied, "part of +which is Tony's concrete floor, and part of which comes out of some +other dimension. This mass of matter is at one end of a long, bar-like +portion of space, the middle of which is pivoted in our world, +somewhere in Chicago, and both ends of which are free in hyperspace."</p> + +<p>"Then," suggested Phil, "why can't we walk down to the axle on which +it is balanced, and step out into Chicago?"</p> + +<p>"Because there isn't any <i>matter</i> for us to walk on. We are not able +to move about in space, in three dimensions, you know. We can only get +around in two dimensions, on the surface of <i>matter</i>."</p> + +<p>"Well, let's try another exploration trip at right angles to our first +one. After all, these 'spaces' are an interesting show, and I want to +see some more."</p> + +<p>They started out in the selected direction, and after a short walk got +a glimpse of a vast space dotted with stars and nebulae, with two +bright moons sailing overhead. A few steps farther on was a wall of +solid granite, near enough to touch with their hands. Again, there was +an intensely active mass of weaving bright stripes and loops and +circles, seeming to consist of light only, and making them dizzy in a +few seconds. Ione wondered if it might not be something like an +organic molecule on a large scale. Again, odd, queer, indescribable +shapes and outlines would appear and disappear, obviously +three-dimensional sections of multi-dimensional things, cut by space. +Once they passed a place of intense cold and terrific noise and +escaped destruction or lunacy only because it took them the merest +instant to get past.</p> + +<p>They arrived back at the safe, very much fatigued from the strain, +their minds woefully confused. Hunger and thirst were beginning to +thrust up their little reminders; and for the first time the terrors +of their position, flung out into hyperspace on a small, barren piece +of matter, began to seem real.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">A</span>fter a rest they started out again. As Phil had touched, in kicking +it, a creature from another "space," perhaps they might find water and +even food somewhere. They retraced their first steps to the spot where +they had at first seen water. They found it again and were able to dip +their hands into it. It was warm, and too salty to drink. They came to +the place with the creepers or vines, and Phil reached out and seized +one of them. It was heavy, rubbery, and elastic, stretching readily as +he pulled it.</p> + +<p>"These little lurches that we feel must be the snapping back of the +space-puckers as expressed by tensors," Ione remarked. "Every time +matter goes in or out of space, the nature of space is altered."</p> + +<p>"Well," observed Phil, releasing the vine, "I'd better be careful. If +one of these things hauls me off here, our last bond with home is +gone. I don't want to get lost in some other space."</p> + +<p>As he released the vines they snapped back to their places, and the +forest of them dimmed a little and reappeared.</p> + +<p>They made the round again, dodging cautiously past the point where +they had previously found the "Tinkertoy" animals, and succeeded in +getting past their snapping teeth. But no promise of food or water did +they find anywhere.</p> + +<p>"Looks like we're sunk," observed Phil, as they dropped down on the +concrete to rest, leaning their backs against the safe.</p> + +<p>How time counted in hyperspace, neither Phil nor Ione could tell; Phil +knew that his watch was running. He knew that it was ages and ages +that he sat with his back against the safe, reviewing all the events +of his put life, and thinking of this ignominious end to a lively +career! He swore half aloud; then suddenly looked at Ione, ready to +apologize. He found her weeping silently.</p> + +<p>"I should never have let you come into the building with me," he +stammered in confusion at her tears.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what do I care what becomes of <i>me</i>!" she exclaimed angrily. "But +who will take care of poor daddy? He doesn't even know when it's time +to eat." And she burst into a fresh fit of weeping.</p> + +<p>Phil bent his head in the dumbness of profound despair.</p> + + +<h2>PART V</h2> + +<h2><i>The Reversible Equation</i></h2> + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>espair, however, is a luxury. Necessity is a stimulus. With the +parchings of thirst and the gnawings of hunger, the two young people +ceased swearing and weeping. Phil got up and paced about and sat down +again. Ione's tears stopped and dried, and she sat and thought.</p> + +<p>In the back of her mind there had been forming a vague sort of an +idea, which had signalled ahead of itself that there was hope. She sat +there and desperately drove her reason to its utmost efforts, to find +that idea and bring it to the surface of consciousness. Hand to hand +fights with wild animals, battles between ships of the line, vicious +duels between ace-aviators in the clouds are tense fights; but they +cannot compare in anxious difficulty with the struggle to bring up an +unformed idea out of the subconscious mind—especially when one knows +that the idea is there, and that it must be found to save one's life.</p> + +<p>"Ione!" exclaimed Phil. It was the first time he had used the name. +"What is the matter? You are as tense as a—"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" cried Ione, springing up. "Tense! Tensors! I have it!"</p> + +<p>Phil gazed at her in alarm. She laughed; at first it was a strained +laugh, but gradually it melted into her sunny one.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not crazy. I knew there was a way out, and I've been trying +to reason it out. How simple. You remember the little jolts when you +pulled at the vines and when you kicked the funny animal? Tensors. +Matter and space are so closely interrelated that you can't move +matter in or out of space without causing disturbance, recoils, and +tremors in space. Those bits of matter were small, and produced only a +slight disturbance. It takes about a hundred pounds of lead to swing +this segment—"</p> + +<p>"Oho! Got you!" exclaimed Phil. "Not so dumb! The safe!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The safe!" Ione cried.</p> + +<p>"Throw it off and watch us swing, eh? What would happen?"</p> + +<p>"I might calculate it if I knew the weight of the safe."</p> + +<p>"No calculating when I'm around," Phil said. "It couldn't make things +any worse. Try it first and calculate afterwards."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hey got behind the safe and pushed, and their combined strength +against it was about as effective as it would have been in moving the +Peoples' Gas Building. They sat down again in despair.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we <i>could</i> budge it," Ione said. "All we could do would be to +push it around, this piece of matter we are on. That wouldn't help. +We've got to get it out of space. We can't push it hard enough to do +that. It's got to be shot out suddenly—"</p> + +<p>"And we haven't got a gun handy," Phil remarked droopingly.</p> + +<p>"Not exactly a gun. A sort of sling—"</p> + +<p>Phil leaped to his feet.</p> + +<p>"A sling. Why! To be sure! The vines!"</p> + +<p>Without another word, both of them got up and ran. They hastened in a +direction opposite to the one they had at first taken on their trip of +exploration, and this brought them first past the "space" of the +Tinkertoy-like animals. As they went by, several of these beasts +darted at them, one of them snapping at Ione's heels. She uttered a +scream, causing Phil to turn about and kick right and left among them. +He drove them back and escaped from them, rejoining Ione.</p> + +<p>"Wait," he said, when they reached the vines. "Remember those wooden +balls. If I could get a few to throw at those critters—"</p> + +<p>In a moment they were off, and finally arrived at the point from which +they first saw the balls. Odd it seemed, how they hung suspended in +space, thousands of them, all sizes. Phil reached out and grasped one +about the size of a baseball and drew it toward himself. He felt a +dizzy lurch and heard Ione scream.</p> + +<p>"Let go!" she screamed again.</p> + +<p>When he suddenly realized what was going on, he found himself +prostrate on the ground, with Ione across him, her arms about his +knees.</p> + +<p>"Do you realize," she panted, disentangling herself, "that you were +pulling yourself out of this space into that one?"</p> + +<p>"Thanks!" said Phil. "Never say die. More careful this time, and a +smaller one."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">H</span>e reached out and grasped a ball smaller than a golf-ball, and pulled +carefully, keeping an eye upon Ione. There was resistance to his pull, +but gradually the ball came. It seemed heavy. There was a crack as of +breaking wood, and he fell backward, with a wave of nausea sweeping +strongly over him. He gazed in amazement at a heavy wooden stick that +he held in his hands. The only thing about it that suggested the ball +for which he had reached was its diameter.</p> + +<p>"Can't understand it, but appreciate it just the same," he said. He +broke the stick in two, and had two excellent clubs.</p> + +<p>"Simple," Ione replied. "The balls are cross-sections of these trees +or sticks which grow in a 'space' at right angles to our own; and we +only see their three-dimensional cross-sections."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Phil. "Cabbages and kings. I'm for you and the party."</p> + +<p>A short walk brought them to the "space" of the vines. After testing +the matter out carefully, they found that they could each pull two of +them at a time. The vines stretched amazingly when they found those +whose far ends were fixed firmly in the tangle, permitting them to +carry their own ends along with them toward the safe. Phil wound his +vines around his left arm and stuck one club through his belt. The +other he got ready for the wooden animals.</p> + +<p>He needed it. The size of the pack was doubled, and he rapped them +till his hand was numb before he and Ione got by. Their vines drew out +thin, but held until they were firmly tied about the safe. They went +back after four more.</p> + +<p>"I should judge," said Phil, "that by the time we get thirty or forty, +the elastic pull will be strong enough to drag the safe back with +them as they snap back home."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>rip after trip they made, fighting the wooden animals with their +clubs each time. Their clothes were torn, and their legs bleeding; +their throats were dry and lips cracked. The hard animals seemed to +have a persistent, mechanical ferocity that was undismayed by +hammering with the clubs and by repeated repulses. Phil could not seem +to hurt them; he merely knocked them away. Finally, on the ninth trip, +Ione collapsed when she reached the safe. As she fell, the elasticity +of the vines began slowly to drag her back with them. Phil was forced +to sit across her knees while he tied his own vines about the safe. +Then he released her and added her vines to the great cable about the +safe.</p> + +<p>An overbold hard animal rattled up and snapped at her. Goaded to fury, +Phil swung at it with his club and hurled it through the air. He could +feel the lurch as it left his space and entered another. Then he +pushed with his mightiest effort against the safe. It budged, and slid +a few inches. He used his stick as a lever. It moved again, a little +faster. Ione struggled to her feet and tried to help, but her efforts +were ineffectual.</p> + +<p>With one arm about her, Phil pried again under the safe, knowing that +another trip after vines was out of question. Another animal snapped +at their heels. For a while, it was kick backwards, then a shove at +the safe. Each time the safe moved. The sight of its movement revived +Ione, so that she was able to push also. Gradually it acquired a +steady motion, pulled by the contraction of the vines; its progress +soon became faster and faster. Phil was about to follow it and give it +another push, when Ione drew him back.</p> + +<p>Suddenly they experienced a sinking sensation and a fearful vertigo. +The snapping animals faded. Ahead of them was the forest of vines, and +they saw the safe hurled into it, crashing, plunging into the tangled +mass. The whole view crumpled and moved upwards like a swirl of leaves +in a wind, and then vanished with a snap.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hey were sick and dizzy, but tremendously curious to see everything. +The water, the cubistic cliffs, the vast space full of balls, all +curiously blurred, appeared in succession. There were blank spaces and +then blurred sights of things which they did not recognize, never +having seen them before. Then the dizziness and the nausea abated, and +ahead of them was a vast yellow blue, a huge nebula, and in it were +double-colored suns and ringed planets with swarms of moons; this +glorious sight remained for many seconds, as they gazed at it in +panting astonishment, half reclining on the concrete; and then it +faded. Again the nausea came on; again the succession of blurred +views. Eventually the myriad spheres, the water with the leviathans, +the forest of vines, each succeeding scene grew more blurred. Their +nausea was correspondingly increased, till they were forced to lie +down on the ground from illness.</p> + +<p>When their giddiness abated, there were blurring views again. There +was an impression as though the speed of a train were decreasing as +one looks out of the window. And how one view held for several +seconds, a vast and wild mountain-range with glaciers and snow peaks +by moonlight. When this faded gradually, the scenes began to flick by, +more and more rapidly, and grew blurred. Phil and Ione were attacked +by nausea until, again, they had to lie down. After that came the +familiar succession: the wooden animals, the tangle of vines, the vast +sea, the spheres, and more blurred scenes. Then came a pause, with +the nebula and the glorious suns swinging into view once again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I understand!" Ione exclaimed; "We're swinging. The safe was so +heavy that we swung too violently, too far, and back again—"</p> + +<p>"And we keep going till it knocks us out, or till the old cat dies," +added Phil.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">H</span>owever, they found that after a number of repetitions of the same +program, their giddiness was becoming less; and instead of lying down +in the middle of the swing, they could look about. Then it occurred to +Phil to time the interval between the nebula and the mountain-range. +When the exact halfway point was determined, and after several more +swings, they could see dimly the windows and machinery of Tony's +laboratory flash by when they passed the middle.</p> + +<p>"I don't mean to be a crepe-hanger, but how do you know we will stop +at the right point?" Phil asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't," replied Ione cheerfully. "But mathematics says so. A freely +oscillating segment of space would naturally come to equilibrium in a +position parallel to the rest of its own space, would it not?"</p> + +<p>There came a swing when they did not reach the nebula on the one hand +and the mountain-range on the other. After that, views dropped off +from either end of the swing quite rapidly, and before many minutes, +they looked into Tony's laboratory a large portion of the time. For +many seconds the laboratory held; then it would gradually fade, and +reappear again, only to fade into empty nothingness all around.</p> + +<p>"The old cat's dead," Phil finally announced.</p> + +<p>They sat and stared about them as the laboratory held steady and no +further intervening periods of blankness intervened. They both sighed +deeply and slumped over on the ground to rest.</p> + +<p>"Bang! bang! bang!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">S</span>ome sort of hammering woke them up. They looked about them in a daze. +It was broad daylight, and things looked queer in the laboratory. +There was a smell of scorched rubber and hot oil. Great loops of wire +sagged down from above. Several nondescript heaps stood about that +might once have been machinery, but now suggested melting snow-men, +all fused into heaps. At a table sprawled a queer, misshapen figure +that suggested human origin. Both of its hands were burned to cinders +to the elbows. Great holes were scorched into the clothes. But the +face was recognizable. Tony's playthings had got him at last.</p> + +<p>"Looks like something's happened in here!" Phil gasped, in amazement.</p> + +<p>"I'll bet it has, too," Ione exclaimed. "This is the first time it +occurred to me that our recoil from throwing the safe overboard and +the oscillation of our space-segment must have created a tremendous +electrical field in the tetra-ordinate apparatus. The reaction is +reversible, you see. The field swings the space-segment, or the +swinging of the space-segment creates the field. And the field was too +much for Tony."</p> + +<p>At this point the door fell under the blows of the police, and the +raiding squad rushed into the room.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Einstein See-Saw, by Miles John Breuer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EINSTEIN SEE-SAW *** + +***** This file should be named 29060-h.htm or 29060-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/0/6/29060/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/29060-h/images/image_001.jpg b/29060-h/images/image_001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0fcc4a --- /dev/null +++ b/29060-h/images/image_001.jpg diff --git a/29060.txt b/29060.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f74def6 --- /dev/null +++ b/29060.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1515 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Einstein See-Saw, by Miles John Breuer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Einstein See-Saw + +Author: Miles John Breuer + +Release Date: June 7, 2009 [EBook #29060] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EINSTEIN SEE-SAW *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Astounding Stories April 1932. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the + U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + [Illustration: _For a while it was kick backwards, then a shove + at the safe._] + + + + The Einstein See-Saw + + + By Miles J. Breuer + + * * * * * + + + + +[Sidenote: In their pursuit of an unscrupulous scientist, Phil and +Ione are swung into hyperspace--marooned in a realm of strange sights +and shapes.] + + +Tony Costello leaned glumly over his neat, glass-topped desk, on which +a few papers lay arranged in orderly piles. Tony was very blue and +discouraged. The foundations of a pleasant and profitable existence +had been cut right out from under him. Gone were the days in which the +big racket boss, Scarneck Ed, generously rewarded the exercise of +Tony's brilliant talents as an engineer in redesigning cars to give +higher speed for bootlegging purposes, in devising automatic electric +apparatus for handling and concealing liquor, in designing +beam-directed radios for secret communication among the gangs. Yes, +mused Tony, it had been profitable. + +Six months ago the Citizens' Committee had stepped in. Now the police +department was reorganized; Scarneck Ed Podkowski was in jail, and his +corps of trusty lieutenants were either behind the bars with him or +scattered far and wide in flight. Tony, always a free spender, had +nothing left but the marvelous laboratory and workshop that Scarneck +Ed had built him, and his freedom. For the police could find nothing +legal against Tony. They had been compelled to let him alone, though +they were keeping a close watch on him. Tony's brow was as dark as the +mahogany of his desk. He did not know just how to go about making an +honest living. + +With a hand that seemed limp with discouragement, he reached into his +pocket for his cigarette-case. As he drew it out, the lackadaisical +fingers failed to hold it firmly enough, and it clattered to the floor +behind his chair. With the weary slowness of despondence, he dragged +himself to his feet and went behind his chair to pick up the +cigarette-case. But, before he bent over it, and while he was looking +fully and directly at it, his desk suddenly vanished. One moment it +was there, a huge ornament of mahogany and glass; the next moment +there was nothing. + + * * * * * + +Tony suddenly went rigid and stared at the empty space where his desk +had stood. He put his hand to his forehead, wondering if his financial +troubles were affecting his reason. By that time, another desk stood +in the place. + +Tony ran over this strange circumstance mentally. His mental processes +were active beneath, though dazed on the surface. His desk had stood +there. While looking fully at it, all his senses intact, he had seen +it vanish, and for a moment there had been nothing in its place. While +he stared directly at the empty space from which the desk had +disappeared, another desk had materialized there, like a flash. +Perhaps, there had been a sort of jar, a tremor, of the floor and of +the air, of everything. But the point was that his own desk, at which +he had been working one moment, had suddenly vanished, and at the next +moment another desk had appeared in its place. + +And what a desk! The one that now stood there was smaller than his own +palatial one, and shabbier. A raw, unpleasant golden-oak, much +scratched and scuffed. Its top was heaped and piled full of books and +papers. In the middle of it stood a photograph of a girl, framed in +red leather. Irresistibly, the sunny beauty of the face, the bright +eyes, the firm little chin, the tall forehead topped by a shining mass +of light curly hair, drew Tony's first glance. For a few moments his +eyes rested delightedly on the picture. + +In a moment, however, Tony noticed that the books and papers on the +desk were of a scientific character; and such is the nature of +professional interest, that for the time he forgot his astonishment at +how the desk had got there, in his absorption in the things heaped on +top of it. + +Perhaps it isn't fair to give the impression that the desk was in +disorder. It was merely busy; just as though someone who had been +deeply engaged in working had for the moment stepped away. There was a +row of books across the back edge, and Tony leaned over eagerly to +glance at the titles. + +"'Theory of Parallels,' Lobatchevsky; 'Transformation of Complex +Functions,' Riemann; 'Tensors and Geodesics,' Gauss," Tony read. +"Hm--old stuff. But here's modern dope along the same line. 'Tensors,' +by Christoffel; 'Absolute Differential Calculus,' by Ricci and Levi +Civita. And Schroedinger and Eddington and D'Abro. Looks like +somebody's interested in Relativity. Hm!" + + * * * * * + +He bent over, his constantly increasing interest showing in the +attitude of his body; he turned over papers and opened notebooks +crowded full of handwritten figures. Last of all he noted the batch of +manuscript directly in front of him in the middle of the front edge of +the desk. It was typewritten, with corrections and interlineations all +over it in purple ink. + +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. + +One morning Mr. Ambrose Parakeet, private jewel broker, walked briskly +out of the elevator on the fourteenth floor of the North American +Building and unlocked the door of his office. He flung it open and +started in, but stopped as if shot, uttered a queer, hoarse gurgle, +and staggered against the door-casing. In a moment he recovered and +began to shout: + +"Help! Help! Robbers!" + +Before long, several people had gathered. He stood there, gasping, +pointing with his hand into the room. The eagerly peering onlookers +could see that beside his desk stood an empty crate. It was somewhat +old and weatherbeaten and looked as though it might have come from a +buffet or a bookcase. He stood there and pointed at it and gasped, and +the gathering crowd in the corridor wondered what sort of strange +mental malady he had been seized with. The elevator girl, with trained +promptness had at once summoned the manager of the building, who +elbowed his way through the crowd and stood beside Mr. Parakeet. + + * * * * * + +"There! There! Look! Where is it?" Mr. Parakeet was gasping slowly and +gazing round in a circle. He was a little gray man of about sixty, and +seemed utterly dazed and overcome. + +"What's wrong, Mr. Parakeet?" asked the building manager. "I didn't +know you had your safe moved out." + +"But, no!" panted the bewildered old man. "I didn't. It's gone. Just +gone. Last night at five o'clock I locked the office, and it was +there, and everything was straight. What did you do? Who took it?" + +The building manager conducted the poor old man into the office, shut +the door, and asked the crowd to disperse. He sat Mr. Parakeet down +into the most comfortable chair he could find, and then barked +snappily into the telephone a few times. Then he sat and stared about +him, stopping occasionally to reassure the old man and ask him to be +patient until things could be investigated. + +The building manager was an efficient man and knew his building and +his tenants. He knew, as thoroughly as he knew his own office, that +Mr. Parakeet had a medium-sized A. V. & L. Co.'s safe weighing about +three tons, that could not be carried up the elevator when Mr. +Parakeet had moved in, and had been hoisted into the window with block +and tackle. He knew that it was physically impossible for the safe to +go down any of the elevators, and knew that none of the operators +would dare move any kind of a safe without his permission. +Nevertheless, with the aid of a police-sergeant, his night-shift, and +the night-watchmen of his building and adjacent ones, it was +definitely established that nothing had been moved in or out of the +North American Building during the preceding twenty-four hours, either +by elevator or through a window to the sidewalk. + + * * * * * + +The newspapers took up the mystery with a shout. The prostrating loss +suffered by Mr. Parakeet, amounting to over a hundred thousand +dollars, added no little sensation to the story. A huge safe, +disappearing into thin air, without a trace, and in its place an old +wooden crate! What a mouthful for the scareheads! For several days +newspapers kept up items about it, dwindling in size and strategic +importance of position; for nothing further was ever found. Every bit +of investigation, including that by scientific men from the University +of Chicago, was futile; not a trace, not a suggestion did it yield. + +Six days later the tall scareheads leaped out again: "Another Safe +Disappears! Absolutely No Trace! Some time during the night, the +six-foot steel safe of the Simonson Loan Company vanished into thin +air. In the morning a dilapidated iron oil-cask was found in its +place. The safe was so large and heavy that it could not have been +moved without a large truck, special hoisting apparatus, a crew of +men, and some hours of time. The store was brightly lighted during the +entire night, and two watchmen patrolled it regularly. They report +that they saw and heard nothing unusual, and were very much amazed +when shown the oil-cask standing where the safe had been the night +before." The accounts in the various papers were substantially the +same. + +Newspaper readers throughout the city and its environs were very much +intrigued. Such a thing was very exciting and mystifying; but it was +so far out of touch with their own lives that it did not affect them +very much at any time except when they were reading the paper or +discussing it in conversation. The police were the ones who were doing +the real worrying. And, when the following week two more safes +disappeared, insurance companies began to take an interest in the +matter; and everyone who had any considerable amount of valuables in +store began to feel panicky. + + * * * * * + +The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the last of the +series, the fourth, were especially amazing. This was also a jewelry +safe. Canzoni's is a popular firm that rents a quarter of a floor in a +big department store, and does a large volume of moderate-priced +business. The receipts are stored in a heavy portable safe in a corner +of the silverware section until evening, when they are carried to the +large vault of the big store. One Saturday afternoon after a +particularly busy day, Mr. Shipley, Canzoni's manager, was watching +the hands of the clock creep toward five-thirty. He leaned on a +counter and watched the clerks putting away goods for the night; he +glanced idly toward the safe which he intended to open in a few +minutes. The doormen had already taken their stations to keep out +further customers. Then he glanced back at the safe, and it wasn't +there! + +Mr. Shipley drew a deep breath. The safe disappearances he had read +about flashed through his mind. But he didn't believe it. It couldn't +be! Yet, there was the empty corner with the birch panels forming the +back of the show-windows, and no safe. In a daze, he walked over to +the corner, intending to feel about with his hands and make sure the +safe was really gone. Before he got there, there flashed into sight in +place of the safe, a barrel of dark wood; and in a moment there was a +strong odor of vinegar. + +Things spun around with Mr. Shipley for a few moments. He grasped a +counter and looked wildly about him. Clerks were hurrying with the +covering of counters; no one seemed to have noticed anything. He stood +a moment, gritted his teeth, and breathed deeply, and soon was master +of himself. He stood and waited until the last customer was gone, and +then called several clerks and pointed to where the safe had stood. + +Within the space of a month, thirteen safes and three million dollars +worth of money or property had disappeared. The police were dazed and +desperate, and business was in a panic. Scientific men were appealed +to, to help solve the riddle, but were helpless. Many of them agreed +that though in theory such things were explainable, science was as yet +far from any known means of bringing them about in actuality. +Insurance companies spent fabulous sums on investigation, and, failing +to get results, raised their premiums to impossible levels. + + +PART III + +_The Lady of the Picture_ + +Phil Hurren, often known as "Zip" Hurren, reporter on the _Examiner_, +felt, on the day the managing editor called him into the sanctum, that +fortune could smile on him no more brightly. There wasn't anything +brighter. + +"You stand well with the detective bureau," his boss had said; "and +you've followed this safe-disappearing stuff pretty closely. You're +relieved of everything else for the time being. Get on that business, +and see that the public hears from the _Examiner_!" + +Phil knew better than to say any more, for before he recovered from +his surprise, the editor had turned his back, buried himself in his +work on the desk, and forgotten that Phil was there. Nor did Phil +waste any real time in rejoicing. That is why he was called "Zip." +When things happened, whether it was luck or system, Phil was usually +there. In sixty seconds more, Phil was in a taxicab, whirling toward +police headquarters. + +Luck or system, he didn't know, but he struck it again. The big wagon +was just starting away from the station door when he arrived, crowded +inside with bluecoats and plainclothes-men. The burly, red-faced man +with chevrons on his sleeve, sitting beside the driver, saw Phil jump +out, and motioned with his hand. Phil leaped up on the back step of +the vehicle and hung on for dear life with his fingers through the +wire grating as they careened through the streets. The men on the +inside grinned at him; a number of them knew him and liked him. +Gradually the door was opened and he crowded in. He found Sergeant +Johnson and eyed him mutely. + +"How the hell do you find these things out, I'd like to know," the +sergeant exclaimed. "Are you a mind-reader?" + +"I don't really know anything," Phil admitted with that humility which +the police like on the part of newspaper men and seldom meet with. "Do +you mind?" + +"No objection," grunted the sergeant. "Been watching all the old +crooks since these safes have been popping. Nothin' much on any of +them, except this slippery wop, Tony Costello. No, we haven't caught +him at anything. Seems to be keeping close and minding his own +business. Working in his laboratory. Ought to make a good living if he +turned honest; clever guy, he seems. But he's been too prosperous +lately. Lots of machinery delivered to his place; we traced it to the +manufacturers and find it cost thousands. Big deposits in his banks. +But, no trace of his having sold anything or worked at anything +outside his own place. So, we're running over to surprise him and help +him get the cobwebs out of his closets." + + * * * * * + +The raid on Tony Costello's shop and laboratory disclosed nothing +whatever. They surrounded the place effectively and surprised Tony +genuinely. But a thorough search of every nook and cranny revealed +nothing whatever of a suspicious nature. There was merely a tremendous +amount of apparatus and machinery that none of the raiding party +understood anything about. Tony's person was also thoroughly searched, +and the leather-framed photograph of the beautiful unknown girl was +found. + +"Who's this?" the sergeant demanded. "She don't look like anyone that +might belong to your crowd." + +"I don't know," Tony replied. + +"Whad'ya mean, don't know?" The sergeant gave him a rough shake. +"What'ya carryin' it for, then?" + +"I had really forgotten that it was in my pocket," Tony replied +calmly, at his ease. "I found it in a hotel room one day, and liked +the looks of it." + +"I know you're lying there," the sergeant said, "though I'm ready to +believe that you don't know her. Too high up for you. Well, it looks +suspicious and we'll take the picture." + +"Boy!" gasped Phil. "What a girl she must be in person! Even the +picture would stand out among a thousand. May I have the picture, +Sergeant?" + +"You can come and get a copy of it to-morrow. We'll have it copied and +see if we can trace the subject of it. That might tell us something." + + * * * * * + +The following morning Phil was at Police Headquarters to pick up +further information, and to get a copy of the girl's photograph. Like +the police, he could not keep his mind off the idea that there was +some association between the crooked engineer and the disappearance of +the safes. It seemed to fit too well. The scientific nature of the +phenomena, Tony Costello's well known reputation for scientific +brilliance, and his recent affluence; what else could it mean? In some +way, Tony was getting at these safes. But how? And how prove it? Most +exhaustive searches failed to reveal any traces of the safes anywhere. +If any fragment of one of them had appeared in New York or San +Francisco, the news would have come at once, such was the sensation +all over the country that the series of disappearances had caused. +Tony's calm insolence during the raid, his attitude of waiting +patiently till the police should have had their fun and have it over +with so that he might be left at peace again, showed that he must be +guilty, for anyone else would have protested and felt deeply injured +and insulted. He seemed to be enjoying their discomfiture, and +absolutely confident of his own safety. + +"There's got to be some way of getting him," Phil mused; and he mused +almost absent-mindedly, for he was gazing at the photograph of the +girl. For many minutes he looked at it, and then put it silently into +his pocket. + +Five o'clock in the evening of that same day came the news of another +safe disappearance. Phil got his tip over the phone, and in fifteen +minutes was at the scene. It was too much like the others to go into +detail about; a six-foot portable safe had suddenly disappeared right +in front of the eyes of the office staff of The Epicure, a huge +restaurant and cafeteria that fed five thousand people three times a +day. In its place stood a ragged, rusty old Ford coupe body. He went +away from there, shaking his head. + +Then suddenly in the midst of his dinner, he jumped up, and ran. An +idea had leaped into his head. + +"Right after one of these things pops is the time to take a peek at +Tony," he said to himself, and immediately he was on the way. + + * * * * * + +But how to get his peep was not so easy a problem. When he alighted +from his cab a block away from Tony's building, he was hesitant about +approaching it. Tony knew him, and might see him first. Phil circled +the brick building, keeping under cover or far enough away; all around +it was a belt of thirty feet of lawn between the building and the +sidewalk. Ought he have called the police and given them his idea? Or +should he wait till darkness and see what he could do alone? + +Then suddenly he saw her. Across the street, standing in the shelter +of a delivery truck in front of an apartment, she was observing Tony's +building intently. The aristocratic chin, the brightness of the eyes, +the waves of her hair, and the general sunny expression! It could not +be anyone else. Post haste he ran across the street. + +"Pardon me!" he cried excitedly, lifting his hat and then digging +hastily into his inner pocket. "I'm sure you must be the--" + +"Well, the nerve!" the young woman said icily, and pointing her chin +at the opposite horizon she walked haughtily away. + +By that time Phil had dug out his picture and was running after her. + +"Please," he said, "just a moment!" And he held the picture out in +front of her face. + +"Now, where in the world--?" She looked at him in puzzled and +indignant inquiry, and then burst out laughing. + +"It _is_ you, isn't it?" Phil asked. "What are you laughing at?" + +"Oh, you looked so abject. I'm sure your intentions must be good. Now +tell me where you got my picture." + +"Let us walk this way," suggested Phil, leading away from Tony's +building. + + * * * * * + +And, as they walked, he told her the story. When he got through she +stood and looked at him a long time in silence. + +"You look square to me," she said. "You're working on my side already. +Will you help me." + +"I'll do anything--anything--" Phil said, and couldn't think of any +other way of expressing his willingness, for the wonderful eyes bore +radiantly upon him. + +"First I must tell you my story," she began. "But before I can do so, +you must promise me that it is to remain an absolute secret. You're a +newspaper man--" + +Phil gave his promise readily. + +"My father is Professor Bloomsbury at the University of Chicago. He +has been experimenting in mathematical physics, and I have been +assisting him. He has succeeded in proving experimentally the concept +of tensors. A tensor is a mathematical expression for the fact that +space is smooth and flat, in three dimensions, only at an infinite +distance from matter; in the neighborhood of a particle of matter, +there is a pucker or a wrinkle in space. My father has found that by +suddenly removing a portion of matter from out of space, the pucker +flattens out. If the matter is heavy enough and its removal sudden +enough, there is a violent disturbance of space. By planning all the +steps carefully my father has succeeded in swinging a section of +space on a pivot through an angle of 180 degrees, and causing two +portions of space to change places through hyperspace, or as you might +express it popularly, through the fourth dimension." + + * * * * * + +Phil held his hands to his head. + +"It is not difficult," she went on smiling. "Loan me your pocket knife +and a piece of paper from your notebook. If I cut out a rectangular +piece of paper from this sheet and mount it on a pivot or shaft at A +B, I can rotate it through 180 degrees, just like a child's +teeter-totter, so that X will be where Y originally was. That is in +two dimensions. Now, simply add one dimension all the way round and +you will have what daddy is doing with space. He does it by shoving +fifty or a hundred pounds of lead right out of space; the sudden +flattening out of the tensors causes a section of space to flop +around, and two portions of space change places. The first time he +tried it, his desk disappeared, and we've never seen it again. We've +thought it was somewhere out in hyperspace; but this terrible story of +yours about disappearing safes, and the fact that you have this +picture, means that someone has got the desk." + +"Surely you must have suspected that long ago, when the disappearances +first began?" Phil suggested. + +"I've just returned from Europe," said Miss Bloomsbury. "I was +tremendously puzzled when I got my first newspapers in New York and +read about the safes. Gradually I gathered all the news on the +subject, and it seemed most reasonable to suspect this gangster +engineer." + +"Great minds and same channels," Phil smiled. "But your father. Why +didn't he speak up when the safes began to pop?" + +"Ha! ha!" she laughed a tinkly little laugh. "My father doesn't know +what safes are for, nor who is President, nor that there has been a +war. Mother and I take care of him, and he works on tensors. He has +probably never heard about the safes." + + * * * * * + +"What were you going to do around here?" Phil asked, marveling at the +courage of the girl who had come to look the situation over +personally. + +"I hadn't formed any definite plans. I just wanted to look about +first." + +"Well," said Phil, "as you will soon see by the papers, another safe +has puffed out. It occurred to me that we might find out something by +spying about here immediately after one of the disappearances. That's +why I'm here. If you'll tell me where you live, or wait for me at some +safe place, I'll come and report to you as soon as I find out +anything." + +"Oho! So that's the kind of a girl you think I am!" She laughed +sunnily again. "No, Mr. Reporter. Either we reconnoiter together, or +each on our own." + +"Oh, together, by all means," said Phil so earnestly that she laughed +again. "And since we'd better wait for darkness, let's have something +to eat somewhere. I didn't finish my dinner." + +Phil found Ione Bloomsbury in person to be even more wonderful than +her photograph suggested. Obviously she had brains; it was apparent, +too that she had breeding. Her cheerful view of the world was like a +tonic for tired nerves; and withal, she had a gentle sort of courtesy +in her manner that may have been old-fashioned, but it was almost too +much for Phil. Before the dinner was over, he would have laid his +heart at her feet. It gave him a thrill that went to his head, to have +her by his side, slipping along through the darkness toward Tony's +building. + +This building was a one-story brick affair with a vast amount of +window space. From the sidewalk they could see faint lights glowing +within, but could make out no further details. They therefore selected +the darkest side of the building, and made their way hurriedly across +the lawn. Here, they found, they could see the crowding apparatus +within the one long room fairly well. They looked into one window +after another, making a circuit around the building, until Phil +suddenly clutched the girl's arm. + +"Look!" he whispered. "Straight ahead and a little to the left!" + +At the place he indicated stood a tall safe. Across the top of its +door were painted in gold letters, the words: "The Epicure." + +"That's the safe that went to-night," whispered Phil. "That's all we +need to know. Now, quick to a telephone!" + +"Oh," said a gentle, ironic voice behind them, "not so quick!" + + * * * * * + +They whirled around and found themselves looking into two automatic +pistols, and behind them in the light of the street lamps, the +sardonic smile of Tony Costello. + +"Charmed at your kind interest in my playthings, I'm sure," he purred. +"Only it leaves me in an embarrassing position. I'm not exactly sure +what to do about it. Kindly step inside while I think." + +Phil made a move sidewise along the wall. + +"Stop!" barked Costello sharply. "Of course," his voice was quiet +again, "that might be the simplest way out. I think I am within my +legal rights if I shoot people who are trying to break into my +property. Yet, that would be messy--not neat. Better step in. The +window swings outward." + +At the point of his pistols they clambered through the window, and he +came in after them. He kept on talking, as though to himself, but loud +enough for them to hear. + +"Yes, we want some way out that is neater than that. Hm! Violence +distresses me. Never liked Ed's rough methods. Yet, this is +embarrassing." + +He turned to them. + +"What did you really want here? I see that you are the _Examiner's_ +reporter, and that you are the lady of the photograph. What did you +come here for? Ah, yes, the safe. Well, go over and look at it." + +As they hesitated, he stamped his foot and shrilled crankily: + +"I mean it! Go, look at the safe! Is there anything else you want to +know?" + +"Yes," said Phil coolly, his self-control returning, "where are the +other safes?" + +"Oh. Anything to oblige. Last requests are a sort of point of honor, +aren't they. Ought to grant them. Stand close to that safe!" + + * * * * * + +He backed away, his guns levelled at them. He laid down the right one, +keeping the left one aimed, and moved some knobs on a dial and threw +over a big switch. A muffled rumbling and whirring began somewhere; +and then, slowly, a block of tables and apparatus ten feet square rose +upward toward the ceiling. A section of the floor on which they stood +came up, supported by columns, and now formed the roof of a room that +had risen out of the floor. In it were four safes. + +"Poor old Ed!" sighed Tony. "There was a time when he had a lot of +good stuff put away down there. I've got six rooms like that. Well, +the good old times are over." + +He threw out the switch and the whole mass sank slowly and silently +downward till the floor was level and there was no further sign of it. +Then he backed away to another table, across the room from them, +keeping his gun levelled. + +"Too bad," he said. "I don't like to do these things. But--" he sighed +deeply, "self-preservation. Now I'm going to flip you out, yes, +_out_, into a strange region. I've never been there. I don't know if +there is food or drink there. I hope so, for you'll never get back +here." + +Phil stiffened. He determined to leap and risk a shot. But he was too +late. Tony's hand came down on a switch. There was a sudden, +nauseating jar. The laboratory vanished. + +There was only the safe, Ione Bloomsbury and himself, and a small +circle of concrete floor extending to a dim little horizon a dozen +feet away. Beyond that, nothing. Not blue, as the sky is. Not black, +as dark, empty spaces are. It suggested black, because there was no +impression of light or color on the eyes; but it wasn't black. It was +nothingness. + + +PART IV + +_Marooned in Hyperspace_ + +"I suppose you realize what he has done?" Miss Bloomsbury inquired. + +"Couldn't be too sure, but it looks like plenty. What's the equation +for it?" Beneath his jocularity, Phil felt a tremendous sinking within +him. It looked serious, despite the fact that he did not understand it +at all. + +"He has swung us out into hyperspace, or into the fourth dimension, as +your newspaper readers might understand it, and has let us hang there. +Remember our slip of paper. Suppose X and Y were swung out of the +plane of the paper and allowed to remain at an angle with it. We are +at an angle with space, out in hyperspace." + +There was a period of bewilderment, almost panic, in which they both +felt so physically weak that they had to sit down on the concrete and +stare at each other mutely. But this passed and their natural courage +soon reasserted itself. Their first thought was to take stock of what +information they could get on their situation; and their first step +was to venture as close as possible to the queer little horizon which +lay almost at their very feet. It gave them a frightened feeling, as +though they were standing high up on a precipice or tower. + +To their surprise, the horizon receded as they walked toward it, +always remaining about a dozen feet away from them. At first they +walked on concrete and then came to a crumbly edge of it and found +themselves stepping on hard, sandy earth. Later there was rock, +sometimes granite-like, sometimes black and shiny. But what they saw +underfoot was nothing, compared with the glimpses of things they got +out in the surrounding emptiness. First there was a vast space in +which a soft light shone, and in which there were countless spheres of +various sizes, motionlessly suspended. The spheres seemed to be made +of wood, a green, sap-filled, unseasoned wood. The scene was visible +for a few seconds, and vanished suddenly as they walked on. This +astonished them; so they stepped back a pace or two and saw it again; +and as they moved on, it disappeared again. + + * * * * * + +Then there was a great stretch of water in which the backs of huge +monsters rolled and from which a hot wind blew for a few instants +until they passed on and the scene vanished. There was a short walk +with nothing but emptiness, and then there appeared huge, oblique, +cubistic looking rows of jagged rocks in wild, dizzy formations that +didn't look possible; and farther on, after another interval of +emptiness, a tangle of brown, ropey vines with black-green leaves on +them, an immense space filled with serpentine swinging loops and +lengths of innumerable vines. Several loops projected so near them +that they could have reached out and touched them had they wished. + +"This is too much for me!" Phil gasped. "Have we gone crazy? Or did +he kill us, and is this Purgatory?" + +Ione smiled and shook her little head in which she had a goodly store +of modern mathematics stored away. + +"These must be glimpses of other 'spaces' besides our own space. If we +could see in four dimensions we could see them all spread out before +us. But we can only perceive in three dimensions; therefore, as we +walk through hyperspace, past the different 'spaces' which are ranged +about in it, we get a glimpse into such of them as are parallel with +our own space. Can you understand that?" + +"Oh, yes," groaned Phil. "It sounds just about like it looks. But, +don't mind me. Go on, have your fun." + +"I've been thinking about those wooden spheres," continued Ione. "I'm +sure they must be sections of trees that are cut crosswise by our +'space;' they grow in three dimensions, but only two of them are our +dimensions and a third is strange to us. We see only three-dimensional +sections of them, which are spheres. There is more of them, that we +cannot see, in another dimension." + +"Yes, yes. Just as plain as the Jabberwock!" + +"Look! There's a real Jabberwock!" exclaimed Ione. + +On ahead of them they saw a number of creatures that seemed to be made +of painted wooden balls in different colors, joined together. + +"Tinkertoys!" exclaimed Phil. "Live ones! Big ones!" + +The animals, though they looked for all the world as though they were +made of painted wood, moved with jerky motions and clattered and +snarled. + +"There is probably more to _them_ in another dimension," Ione said. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly one of the beasts approached them with a leap. There were two +big eyes and two rows of teeth that came together with a snap, right +on Phil's trouser-leg. He jerked himself away, sacrificing some square +inches of trouser-leg, and, whirling around, kicked at the thing with +all his force. It almost paralyzed his foot, for the animal seemed to +be made of wood or bone. But it disappeared, and, as it did, both of +them felt a queer, nauseating jolt. A few more minutes' walk brought +them back to the safe without seeing any more spaces; and the sight of +its black iron bulk filled them with a home-like relief, which in a +moment they recognized as a mockery. + +"Are we on a sphere of some sort?" Phil asked. + +"Probably on an irregular mass of matter," Ione replied, "part of +which is Tony's concrete floor, and part of which comes out of some +other dimension. This mass of matter is at one end of a long, bar-like +portion of space, the middle of which is pivoted in our world, +somewhere in Chicago, and both ends of which are free in hyperspace." + +"Then," suggested Phil, "why can't we walk down to the axle on which +it is balanced, and step out into Chicago?" + +"Because there isn't any _matter_ for us to walk on. We are not able +to move about in space, in three dimensions, you know. We can only get +around in two dimensions, on the surface of _matter_." + +"Well, let's try another exploration trip at right angles to our first +one. After all, these 'spaces' are an interesting show, and I want to +see some more." + +They started out in the selected direction, and after a short walk got +a glimpse of a vast space dotted with stars and nebulae, with two +bright moons sailing overhead. A few steps farther on was a wall of +solid granite, near enough to touch with their hands. Again, there was +an intensely active mass of weaving bright stripes and loops and +circles, seeming to consist of light only, and making them dizzy in a +few seconds. Ione wondered if it might not be something like an +organic molecule on a large scale. Again, odd, queer, indescribable +shapes and outlines would appear and disappear, obviously +three-dimensional sections of multi-dimensional things, cut by space. +Once they passed a place of intense cold and terrific noise and +escaped destruction or lunacy only because it took them the merest +instant to get past. + +They arrived back at the safe, very much fatigued from the strain, +their minds woefully confused. Hunger and thirst were beginning to +thrust up their little reminders; and for the first time the terrors +of their position, flung out into hyperspace on a small, barren piece +of matter, began to seem real. + + * * * * * + +After a rest they started out again. As Phil had touched, in kicking +it, a creature from another "space," perhaps they might find water and +even food somewhere. They retraced their first steps to the spot where +they had at first seen water. They found it again and were able to dip +their hands into it. It was warm, and too salty to drink. They came to +the place with the creepers or vines, and Phil reached out and seized +one of them. It was heavy, rubbery, and elastic, stretching readily as +he pulled it. + +"These little lurches that we feel must be the snapping back of the +space-puckers as expressed by tensors," Ione remarked. "Every time +matter goes in or out of space, the nature of space is altered." + +"Well," observed Phil, releasing the vine, "I'd better be careful. If +one of these things hauls me off here, our last bond with home is +gone. I don't want to get lost in some other space." + +As he released the vines they snapped back to their places, and the +forest of them dimmed a little and reappeared. + +They made the round again, dodging cautiously past the point where +they had previously found the "Tinkertoy" animals, and succeeded in +getting past their snapping teeth. But no promise of food or water did +they find anywhere. + +"Looks like we're sunk," observed Phil, as they dropped down on the +concrete to rest, leaning their backs against the safe. + +How time counted in hyperspace, neither Phil nor Ione could tell; Phil +knew that his watch was running. He knew that it was ages and ages +that he sat with his back against the safe, reviewing all the events +of his put life, and thinking of this ignominious end to a lively +career! He swore half aloud; then suddenly looked at Ione, ready to +apologize. He found her weeping silently. + +"I should never have let you come into the building with me," he +stammered in confusion at her tears. + +"Oh, what do I care what becomes of _me_!" she exclaimed angrily. "But +who will take care of poor daddy? He doesn't even know when it's time +to eat." And she burst into a fresh fit of weeping. + +Phil bent his head in the dumbness of profound despair. + + +PART V + +_The Reversible Equation_ + +Despair, however, is a luxury. Necessity is a stimulus. With the +parchings of thirst and the gnawings of hunger, the two young people +ceased swearing and weeping. Phil got up and paced about and sat down +again. Ione's tears stopped and dried, and she sat and thought. + +In the back of her mind there had been forming a vague sort of an +idea, which had signalled ahead of itself that there was hope. She sat +there and desperately drove her reason to its utmost efforts, to find +that idea and bring it to the surface of consciousness. Hand to hand +fights with wild animals, battles between ships of the line, vicious +duels between ace-aviators in the clouds are tense fights; but they +cannot compare in anxious difficulty with the struggle to bring up an +unformed idea out of the subconscious mind--especially when one knows +that the idea is there, and that it must be found to save one's life. + +"Ione!" exclaimed Phil. It was the first time he had used the name. +"What is the matter? You are as tense as a--" + +"Ah!" cried Ione, springing up. "Tense! Tensors! I have it!" + +Phil gazed at her in alarm. She laughed; at first it was a strained +laugh, but gradually it melted into her sunny one. + +"No, I'm not crazy. I knew there was a way out, and I've been trying +to reason it out. How simple. You remember the little jolts when you +pulled at the vines and when you kicked the funny animal? Tensors. +Matter and space are so closely interrelated that you can't move +matter in or out of space without causing disturbance, recoils, and +tremors in space. Those bits of matter were small, and produced only a +slight disturbance. It takes about a hundred pounds of lead to swing +this segment--" + +"Oho! Got you!" exclaimed Phil. "Not so dumb! The safe!" + +"Yes. The safe!" Ione cried. + +"Throw it off and watch us swing, eh? What would happen?" + +"I might calculate it if I knew the weight of the safe." + +"No calculating when I'm around," Phil said. "It couldn't make things +any worse. Try it first and calculate afterwards." + + * * * * * + +They got behind the safe and pushed, and their combined strength +against it was about as effective as it would have been in moving the +Peoples' Gas Building. They sat down again in despair. + +"Suppose we _could_ budge it," Ione said. "All we could do would be to +push it around, this piece of matter we are on. That wouldn't help. +We've got to get it out of space. We can't push it hard enough to do +that. It's got to be shot out suddenly--" + +"And we haven't got a gun handy," Phil remarked droopingly. + +"Not exactly a gun. A sort of sling--" + +Phil leaped to his feet. + +"A sling. Why! To be sure! The vines!" + +Without another word, both of them got up and ran. They hastened in a +direction opposite to the one they had at first taken on their trip of +exploration, and this brought them first past the "space" of the +Tinkertoy-like animals. As they went by, several of these beasts +darted at them, one of them snapping at Ione's heels. She uttered a +scream, causing Phil to turn about and kick right and left among them. +He drove them back and escaped from them, rejoining Ione. + +"Wait," he said, when they reached the vines. "Remember those wooden +balls. If I could get a few to throw at those critters--" + +In a moment they were off, and finally arrived at the point from which +they first saw the balls. Odd it seemed, how they hung suspended in +space, thousands of them, all sizes. Phil reached out and grasped one +about the size of a baseball and drew it toward himself. He felt a +dizzy lurch and heard Ione scream. + +"Let go!" she screamed again. + +When he suddenly realized what was going on, he found himself +prostrate on the ground, with Ione across him, her arms about his +knees. + +"Do you realize," she panted, disentangling herself, "that you were +pulling yourself out of this space into that one?" + +"Thanks!" said Phil. "Never say die. More careful this time, and a +smaller one." + + * * * * * + +He reached out and grasped a ball smaller than a golf-ball, and pulled +carefully, keeping an eye upon Ione. There was resistance to his pull, +but gradually the ball came. It seemed heavy. There was a crack as of +breaking wood, and he fell backward, with a wave of nausea sweeping +strongly over him. He gazed in amazement at a heavy wooden stick that +he held in his hands. The only thing about it that suggested the ball +for which he had reached was its diameter. + +"Can't understand it, but appreciate it just the same," he said. He +broke the stick in two, and had two excellent clubs. + +"Simple," Ione replied. "The balls are cross-sections of these trees +or sticks which grow in a 'space' at right angles to our own; and we +only see their three-dimensional cross-sections." + +"Yes," said Phil. "Cabbages and kings. I'm for you and the party." + +A short walk brought them to the "space" of the vines. After testing +the matter out carefully, they found that they could each pull two of +them at a time. The vines stretched amazingly when they found those +whose far ends were fixed firmly in the tangle, permitting them to +carry their own ends along with them toward the safe. Phil wound his +vines around his left arm and stuck one club through his belt. The +other he got ready for the wooden animals. + +He needed it. The size of the pack was doubled, and he rapped them +till his hand was numb before he and Ione got by. Their vines drew out +thin, but held until they were firmly tied about the safe. They went +back after four more. + +"I should judge," said Phil, "that by the time we get thirty or forty, +the elastic pull will be strong enough to drag the safe back with +them as they snap back home." + + * * * * * + +Trip after trip they made, fighting the wooden animals with their +clubs each time. Their clothes were torn, and their legs bleeding; +their throats were dry and lips cracked. The hard animals seemed to +have a persistent, mechanical ferocity that was undismayed by +hammering with the clubs and by repeated repulses. Phil could not seem +to hurt them; he merely knocked them away. Finally, on the ninth trip, +Ione collapsed when she reached the safe. As she fell, the elasticity +of the vines began slowly to drag her back with them. Phil was forced +to sit across her knees while he tied his own vines about the safe. +Then he released her and added her vines to the great cable about the +safe. + +An overbold hard animal rattled up and snapped at her. Goaded to fury, +Phil swung at it with his club and hurled it through the air. He could +feel the lurch as it left his space and entered another. Then he +pushed with his mightiest effort against the safe. It budged, and slid +a few inches. He used his stick as a lever. It moved again, a little +faster. Ione struggled to her feet and tried to help, but her efforts +were ineffectual. + +With one arm about her, Phil pried again under the safe, knowing that +another trip after vines was out of question. Another animal snapped +at their heels. For a while, it was kick backwards, then a shove at +the safe. Each time the safe moved. The sight of its movement revived +Ione, so that she was able to push also. Gradually it acquired a +steady motion, pulled by the contraction of the vines; its progress +soon became faster and faster. Phil was about to follow it and give it +another push, when Ione drew him back. + +Suddenly they experienced a sinking sensation and a fearful vertigo. +The snapping animals faded. Ahead of them was the forest of vines, and +they saw the safe hurled into it, crashing, plunging into the tangled +mass. The whole view crumpled and moved upwards like a swirl of leaves +in a wind, and then vanished with a snap. + + * * * * * + +They were sick and dizzy, but tremendously curious to see everything. +The water, the cubistic cliffs, the vast space full of balls, all +curiously blurred, appeared in succession. There were blank spaces and +then blurred sights of things which they did not recognize, never +having seen them before. Then the dizziness and the nausea abated, and +ahead of them was a vast yellow blue, a huge nebula, and in it were +double-colored suns and ringed planets with swarms of moons; this +glorious sight remained for many seconds, as they gazed at it in +panting astonishment, half reclining on the concrete; and then it +faded. Again the nausea came on; again the succession of blurred +views. Eventually the myriad spheres, the water with the leviathans, +the forest of vines, each succeeding scene grew more blurred. Their +nausea was correspondingly increased, till they were forced to lie +down on the ground from illness. + +When their giddiness abated, there were blurring views again. There +was an impression as though the speed of a train were decreasing as +one looks out of the window. And how one view held for several +seconds, a vast and wild mountain-range with glaciers and snow peaks +by moonlight. When this faded gradually, the scenes began to flick by, +more and more rapidly, and grew blurred. Phil and Ione were attacked +by nausea until, again, they had to lie down. After that came the +familiar succession: the wooden animals, the tangle of vines, the vast +sea, the spheres, and more blurred scenes. Then came a pause, with +the nebula and the glorious suns swinging into view once again. + +"Oh, I understand!" Ione exclaimed; "We're swinging. The safe was so +heavy that we swung too violently, too far, and back again--" + +"And we keep going till it knocks us out, or till the old cat dies," +added Phil. + + * * * * * + +However, they found that after a number of repetitions of the same +program, their giddiness was becoming less; and instead of lying down +in the middle of the swing, they could look about. Then it occurred to +Phil to time the interval between the nebula and the mountain-range. +When the exact halfway point was determined, and after several more +swings, they could see dimly the windows and machinery of Tony's +laboratory flash by when they passed the middle. + +"I don't mean to be a crepe-hanger, but how do you know we will stop +at the right point?" Phil asked. + +"I don't," replied Ione cheerfully. "But mathematics says so. A freely +oscillating segment of space would naturally come to equilibrium in a +position parallel to the rest of its own space, would it not?" + +There came a swing when they did not reach the nebula on the one hand +and the mountain-range on the other. After that, views dropped off +from either end of the swing quite rapidly, and before many minutes, +they looked into Tony's laboratory a large portion of the time. For +many seconds the laboratory held; then it would gradually fade, and +reappear again, only to fade into empty nothingness all around. + +"The old cat's dead," Phil finally announced. + +They sat and stared about them as the laboratory held steady and no +further intervening periods of blankness intervened. They both sighed +deeply and slumped over on the ground to rest. + +"Bang! bang! bang!" + + * * * * * + +Some sort of hammering woke them up. They looked about them in a daze. +It was broad daylight, and things looked queer in the laboratory. +There was a smell of scorched rubber and hot oil. Great loops of wire +sagged down from above. Several nondescript heaps stood about that +might once have been machinery, but now suggested melting snow-men, +all fused into heaps. At a table sprawled a queer, misshapen figure +that suggested human origin. Both of its hands were burned to cinders +to the elbows. Great holes were scorched into the clothes. But the +face was recognizable. Tony's playthings had got him at last. + +"Looks like something's happened in here!" Phil gasped, in amazement. + +"I'll bet it has, too," Ione exclaimed. "This is the first time it +occurred to me that our recoil from throwing the safe overboard and +the oscillation of our space-segment must have created a tremendous +electrical field in the tetra-ordinate apparatus. The reaction is +reversible, you see. The field swings the space-segment, or the +swinging of the space-segment creates the field. And the field was too +much for Tony." + +At this point the door fell under the blows of the police, and the +raiding squad rushed into the room. + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Einstein See-Saw, by Miles John Breuer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EINSTEIN SEE-SAW *** + +***** This file should be named 29060.txt or 29060.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/0/6/29060/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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