Henry Horn's X-Ray Eye Glasses Page 2

patience will stretch only so far. Then it snaps."

  A pause.

  "I keep thinking you'll learn by experience, Henry. That you'll realizeyou can't be forever blowing the roof off the laboratory, or Lord knowswhat else, and quit fooling around with things you don't understand.

  "But instead, you go right on. You dabble into some new branch ofscience, and a cloud of trouble sweeps down on us like a typhoon onZamboanga."

  * * * * *

  Together, the friends climbed the porch steps and took seats on theancient but comfortable wicker settee.

  Henry darted a quick glance at his partner. Saw that the professor'sface once more was placid; that the storm was over. Unconsciously, thelittle man's goatee perked up. He readjusted his steel-rimmed glasses toa more stable position.

  "Honestly, Joseph, this time my invention can't do any harm," heventured. "Really it can't."

  For a moment fire flashed in the scientist's eyes. Then faded again.

  "All right, Henry. What is it this time?"

  Henry extended the binoculars.

  "Here, Joseph. Look at the nudist camp."

  "But the fence--"

  "Please, Joseph. Go ahead and look."

  "Oh, all right--"

  The professor raised the field glasses.

  The next instant he nearly dropped them.

  "What on earth--!"

  "See, Joseph?" shrilled Henry. "Isn't it a wonderful invention? Isn'tit?"

  His tall partner took down the binoculars and stared at them in blankamazement, his face a puzzled mask.

  "I'd swear I saw right through that fence!" he gasped. "I looked rightinto the middle of a whole pack of nudists!"

  "Of course!" Henry was bubbling with delight. "That's why I call them myX-ray eyeglasses. You can see through anything with them." He took theglasses from the professor. Again leveled them at the nudist colony.

  Then, giggling:

  "Doesn't that blonde girl have the cutest--"

  "Henry!"

  "Oh, all right." The little man returned the binoculars to his partner,who studied them with interest.

  "Just what principle do these things work on, Henry?" he askedcuriously.

  Henry beamed. His goatee was at its jauntiest, most confident angle. Thelight of triumph played in his eyes.

  "Really, Joseph, it's quite simple," he proclaimed. "There are lots ofrays that go through anything, you know, except maybe lead. So I justdeveloped a special glass that translated those rays into images,instead of just using the light rays. It was easy. The only thing youhave to be careful of is to focus real close, because otherwise you'lllook right through the thing you want to see--"

  "Simple!" choked the scientist. "Easy! Henry, I hope you kept completenotes this once." He raised the glasses again. Studied a signboard onthe nearby road.

  "Oh, yes, I've got good notes, Joseph--"

  "And you still need a concave eyepiece, so that the images won'treverse," Professor Paulsen interrupted. "The way it works now, picturesare all right, but 'CAMELS' are spelled 'SLEMAC'."

  * * * * *

  Henry sniffed contemptuously.

  "That's nothing," he retorted. "I've got it figured out already. Onlyit'll take a special lens, not just a concave one. Because now itdoesn't just reverse letters like a mirror; it transposes them--"

  "All right, all right!" The professor threw up his hands in despair."This is one time you've invented something worth while, and you seem tohave some kind of notion of how it works, for a change."

  "How you talk!" Henry was suddenly cocky. He sneered. "I always know howmy inventions work--"

  His gaunt friend glowered.

  "I was afraid of this," he grunted. "Give you half a compliment andthere's no living with you." Then: "However, I won't waste time andenergy bringing you down to earth right now. The main thing is, get yournotes together. I want you to show them to Major Coggleston tonight; Ithink maybe the army can use this invention of yours."

  And, as Henry again raised the glasses in the direction of the nudistcamp:

  "But get rid of those glasses for now. I don't want to catch you oglingblonde beauties, or any other kind. Those people in that camp put upthat fence because they wanted privacy. So put those binoculars awayright now. Do you understand?"

  "Oh, all right," fretted Henry. "I'll get rid of them."

  Dinner was a thing of the past, and Major Coggleston, Professor Paulsenand Henry were settled comfortably on the front porch, enjoying thequiet of the summer evening.

  "If these glasses of yours work as well as you say they do, the Armycertainly can use them," commented the major thoughtfully. "Such aninvention would completely revolutionize espionage and itscounter-measures. Nothing would be safe! Why, a spy could standhalf-a-mile from the laboratory I'm supposed to be protecting, lookthrough the walls to the records room, and steal the formulae for ourlatest explosives right from under our noses, with none of us thewiser."

  "Yes." The professor nodded. "I can see how much it would mean. That'swhy I had you over tonight--wanted you to have a chance to investigate."A pause. "By the way, how's the work coming at the laboratory?"

  "Better than we'd hoped for, Joe. We've got a young fellow in chargewho's a genius on explosives." The major hesitated for a moment, thencontinued: "Confidentially, I understand he's just developed a newpowder that makes TNT look like something to use for loadingfirecrackers. It's the greatest thing in years. The Nazis and Japs wouldgive their eye-teeth for it. It's simpler to make than gunpowder,even--"

  _Brrrnng!_

  "I'll answer," said Henry. He skittered inside to the telephone.

  A minute later he was back.

  "It's for you, Major Coggleston."

  * * * * *

  The officer hurried to answer. When he returned, his face was tense withworry.

  "Something's wrong!" he rapped. "It looks like the Nazis have made aplay for that formula already! I've got to get right back to thelaboratory!"

  Henry and the professor still were excitedly discussing this news when,half an hour later, the 'phone rang again. This time the tall scientistanswered. He returned to the porch frowning.

  "That was Coggleston," he reported. "Apparently the spy didn't get theformula, but he made a clean getaway, and he killed a sentry to do it."

  "Oh, that's terrible!" Henry was afire with indignation. "Of all things!Killing a sentry--"

  "Yes." The professor nodded. "The trouble is, Coggleston says they don'thave much to go on. No description, except that he was big and had redhair--"

  "Red hair!"

  "Yes. Red hair." The savant eyed Henry suspiciously. "Why does thatsurprise you so?"

  "Why ... er ... oh, it doesn't. I mean--"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Really, Joseph, it's nothing." The little man squirmed nervously, hisgoatee hanging guiltily to one side. "I'm not surprised at all. ReallyI'm not!"

  "Oh, you're not, aren't you?" Professor Paulsen started across the roomwith grim determination, his eyes sharp. "Well, then--"

  "Joseph--"

  The scientist reached for his colleague's shoulder. But the shoulderslipped away. Henry dived frantically for the doorway.

  "Oh, no, you don't!"

  * * * * *

  Spinning about with surprising agility, the professor's hand spearedout. It stabbed home to its goal on Henry's chin with deadly aim. Caughtthe little man's goatee in a grip that stopped his headlong rush deadstill.

  "Joseph!" screamed Henry, his eyes filling with tears. "Stop it! You'rehurting!"

  "And I intend to keep right on hurting until I get the truth out of you,you amoeba-brained atom!" thundered the other. "I can smell your lies ablock away--and this is one time you're not going to get away with it!Now: tell me who the red-headed man was."

  "I don't know, Joseph! Really--"

  Professor Paulsen gave his colleague's chin-w
hiskers a savage jerk.

  "I want the truth!" he rapped. "Hurry up! Tell me!" He jerked again.

  "Oh! Ow! Joseph, please! Oh, let me go! I'll tell--"

  "You bet you'll tell!" grated his friend. "It's one thing to let you getaway with making a fool of me. But when it comes to tampering with