The Skylark of Space - E. E. Smith (e book reading free txt) 📗

papers upon his superior’s desk.

“A man found this last night, sir, and thought it might belong to you. He said this was a little less than half of it, but that you could have the rest of it any time you want it.”

“Thank you, Perkins, he was right. It is ours. Here’s a letter which just came,” handing him an envelope, which rustled as Perkins folded it into a small compass and thrust it into his vest pocket. “Good morning.”

As Perkins slid out, Brookings spoke into his telephone, and soon Chambers, his chief chemist, appeared.

“Doctor Chambers,” Brookings began, showing him the bottle, “I have here a solution which in some way is capable of liberating the intra-atomic energy of matter, about which I asked you yesterday. It works on copper. I would like to have you work out the process for us, if you will.”

“What about the man who discovered the process?” asked Chambers, as he touched the bottle gingerly.

“He is not available. Surely what one chemist can do, others can? You will not have to work alone. You can hire the biggest men in the line to help you⁠—expense is no object.”

“No, it wouldn’t be, if such a process could be worked out. Let me see, whom can we get? Doctor Seaton is probably the best man in the country for such a research, but I don’t think that we can get him. I tried to get him to work on the iridium-osmium problem, but he refused.”

“We might make an offer big enough to get him.”

“No. Don’t mention it to him,” with a significant look. “He’s to know nothing about it.”

“Well, then, how about DuQuesne, who was in here yesterday? He’s probably next to Seaton.”

“I took it up with him yesterday. We can’t get him, his figures are entirely out of reason. Aren’t there any other men in the country who know anything? You are a good man, why don’t you tackle it yourself?”

“Because I don’t know anything about that particular line of research, and I want to keep on living awhile longer,” the chemist replied bluntly. “There are other good men whom I can get, however. Van Schravendyck, of our own laboratory, is nearly as good as either Seaton or DuQuesne. He has done a lot of work on radioactivity and that sort of thing, and I think he would like to work on it.”

“All right. Please get it started without delay. Give him about a quarter of the solution and have the rest put in the vault. Be sure that his laboratory is set up far enough away from everything else to avoid trouble in case of an explosion, and caution him not to work on too much copper at once. I gather that an ounce or so will be plenty.”

The chemist went back to his laboratory and sought his first assistant.

“Van,” he began, “Mr. Brookings has been listening to some lunatic who claims to have solved the mystery of liberating intra-atomic energy.”

“That’s old stuff,” the assistant said, laughing. “That and perpetual motion are always with us. What did you tell him?”

“I didn’t get a chance to tell him anything⁠—he told me. Yesterday, you know, he asked me what would happen if it could be liberated, and I answered truthfully that lots of things would happen, and volunteered the information that it was impossible. Just now he called me in, gave me this bottle of solution, saying that it contained the answer to the puzzle, and wanted me to work it out. I told him that it was out of my line and that I was afraid of it⁠—which I would be if I thought there was anything in it⁠—but that it was more or less in your line, and he said to put you on it right away. He also said that expense was no object; to set up an independent laboratory a hundred miles off in the woods, to be safe in case of an explosion; and to caution you not to use too much copper at once⁠—that an ounce or so would be plenty!”

“An ounce! Ten thousand tons of nitroglycerin! I’ll say an ounce would be plenty, if the stuff is any good at all, which of course it isn’t. Queer, isn’t it, how the old man would fall for anything like that? How did he explain the failure of the discoverer to develop it himself?”

“He said the discoverer is not available,” answered Chambers with a laugh. “I’ll bet he isn’t available⁠—he’s back in St. Elizabeth’s again by this time, where he came from. I suggested that we get either Seaton or DuQuesne of Rare Metals to help us on it, and he said that they had both refused to touch it, or words to that effect. If those two turned down a chance to work on a thing as big as this would be, there probably is nothing in this particular solution that is worth a rap. But what Brookings says goes, around here, so it’s you for the woods. And don’t take any chances, either⁠—it is conceivable that something might happen.”

“Sure it might, but it won’t. We’ll set up that lab near a good trout stream, and I’ll have a large and juicy vacation. I’ll work on the stuff a little, too⁠—enough to make a good report, at least. I’ll analyze it, find out what is in it, deposit it on some copper, shoot an electrolytic current through it, and make a lot of wise motions generally, and have a darn good time besides.”

III Seaton Solves the Problem of Power

“Well, Mart,” said Seaton briskly, “now that the Seaton-Crane Company, Engineers, is organized to your satisfaction, let’s hop to it. I suppose I’d better beat it downtown and hunt up a place to work?”

“Why not work here?”

“Your house? You don’t want this kind of experimenting going on around here, do you? Suppose a chunk of the stuff gets away from me and tears the side out of the house?”

“This