Short Stories by Robert A. Heinlein Vol 2 Part 75

'I believe that completes my agreement with you.'

'Just a moment, Mr Jones,' put in Gleason. 'Is a deKalb foolproof, once it has received the Schneider treatment?'

'Quite. I guarantee it.'

They went into a huddle while Waldo waited. At last Gleason spoke for them.

'These are not quite the results we had expected, Mr Jones, but we agree that you have fulfilled your commission - with the understanding that you will Schneider-treat any receptors brought to you and instruct others, according to their ability to learn.'

'That is correct.'

'Your fee will be deposited to your account at once.'

'Good. That is fully understood and agreed? I have completely and successfully performed your commission?'

'Correct.'

'Very well then. I have one more thing to show you. If you will be patient-'

A section of the wall folded back; gigantic waldoes reached into the room beyond and drew forth a large apparatus, which resembled somewhat in general form an ordinary set of deKalbs, but which was considerably more complicated. Most of the complications were sheer decoration, but it would have taken a skilled engineer a long time to prove the fact.

The machine did contain one novel feature: a built-in meter of a novel type, whereby it could be set to operate for a predetermined time and then destroy itself, and a radio control whereby the time limit could be varied. Furthermore, the meter would destroy itself and the receptors if tampered with by any person not familiar with its design. It was Waldo's tentative answer to the problem of selling free and unlimited power.

But of these matters he said nothing. Small waldoes had been busy attaching guys to the apparatus; when they were through he said, 'This, gentlemen, is an instrument which I choose to call a Jones-Schneider-deKalb. And it is the reason why you will not be in the business of selling power much longer.~

'So?' said Gleason. 'May I ask why?'

'Because,' he was told, 'I can sell it more cheaply and conveniently and under circ.u.mstances you cannot hope to match.'

'That is a strong statement.'

'I will demonstrate. Dr Stevens, you have noted that the other receptors are operating. I will turn them off.' The waldoes did so.

'I will now stop the beamcast and I will ask you to a.s.sure yourself, by means of your own instruments, that there is no radiant power, other than ordinary visible light, in this room.'

Somewhat sullenly Stevens did so. 'The place is dead,' he announced some minutes later.

'Good. Keep your instruments in place, that you may be sure it remains dead. I will now activate my receptor.' Little mechanical hands closed the switches.

'Observe it, Doctor. Go over it thoroughly.'

Stevens did so. He did not trust the readings shown by its instrument h.o.a.rd; he attached his own meters in parallel.

'How about it, James?' Gleason whispered.

Stevens looked disgusted. 'The d.a.m.n thing draws power from nowhere!'

They all looked at Waldo. 'Take plenty of time, gentlemen,' he said grandly. 'Talk it over.'

They withdrew as far away as the room permitted and whispered.

Waldo could see that Harkness and Stevens were arguing, that

Stevens was noncommittal. That suited him. He was hoping that

Stevens would not decide to take another look at the fancy gadget he had termed a Jones-Schneider-deKalb. Stevens must not learn too much about it - yet. He had been careful to say nothing but the truth about it, but perhaps he had not said all of the truth; he had not mentioned that all Schneider-treated deKalbs were sources of free power.

Rather embarra.s.sing if Stevens should discover that!

The meter-and-destruction device Waldo had purposely made mysterious and complex, but it was not useless. Later he would be able to point out, quite correctly, that without such a device NAPA simply could not remain in business.

Waldo was not easy. The whole business was a risky gamble; he would have much preferred to know more about the phenomena he was trying to peddle, but - he shrugged mentally while preserving a smile of smug confidence - the business had dragged on several months already, and the power situation really was critical. This solution would do - if he could get their names on the dotted line quickly enough.

For he had no intention of trying to compete with NAPA.

Gleason pulled himself away from Stevens and Harkness, came to

Waldo. 'Mr Jones, can't we arrange this amicably?'

'What have you to suggest?'

It was quite an hour later that Waldo, with a sigh of relief, watched his guests' s.h.i.+p depart from the threshold flat.

A fine caper, he thought, and it had worked; he had got away with it. He had magnanimously allowed himself to be persuaded to consolidate, provided - he had allowed himself to be quite temperamental about this - the contract was concluded at once, no fussing around and fencing between lawyers. Now or never - put up or shut up. The proposed contract, he had pointed out virtuously, gave him nothing at all unless his allegations about the Jones-chneider-deKalb were correct.

Gleason considered this point and had decided to sign, had signed.

Even then Harkness had attempted to claim that Waldo had been an employee of NAPA. Waldo had written that first contract himself - a specific commission for a contingent fee. Harkness did not have a leg to stand on; even Gleason had agreed to that.

In exchange for all rights to the Jones-Schneider-deKalb, for which he agreed to supply drawings - wait till Stevens saw, and understood, those sketches! - for that he had received the promise of senior stock in NAPA, non-voting, but fully paid up and non- a.s.sessable. The lack of active partic.i.p.ation in the company had been his own idea. There were going to be more headaches in the power business, headaches aplenty. He could see them coming - bootleg designs, means of outwitting the metering, lots of things. Free power had come, and efforts to stop it would in the long run, he believed, be fruitless.

Waldo laughed so hard that he frightened Baldur, who set up an excited barking.

He could afford to forget Hathaway now. His revenge on NAPA contained one potential flaw; he had a.s.sured Gleason that the

Schneider-treated deKalbs would continue to operate, would not come unstuck. He believed that to be true simply because he had faith in Gramps Schneider. But he was not prepared to prove it.

He knew himself that he did not know enough about the phenomena a.s.sociated with the Other World to be sure that something would, or would not, happen. It was still going to be necessary to do some hard, extensive research.

But the Other World was a devilishly difficult place to investigate!

Suppose, he speculated, that the human race were blind, had never developed eyes. No matter how civilized, enlightened, and scientific the race might have become, it is difficult to see how such a race could ever have developed the concepts of astronomy. They might know of the Sun as a cyclic source of energy having a changing, directional character, for the Sun is so overpowering that it may be 'seen' with the skin. They would notice it and invent instruments to trap it and examine it.

But the pale stars, would they ever notice them? It seemed most unlikely. The very notion of the celestial universe, its silent depths and starlit grandeur, would be beyond them. Even if one of their scientists should have the concept forced on him in sueh a manner that he was obliged to accept the fantastic, incredible thesis as fact, how then would he go about investigating its details?

Waldo tried to imagine an astronomical phototelescope, conceived and designed by a blind man, intended to he operated by a blind man, and capable of collecting data which could he interpreted by a blind man. He gave it up; There were too many hazards. It would take a subtlety of genius far beyond his own to deal with the inescapably tortuous concatenations of inferential reasoning necessary to the solution of such a problem. It would strain him to invent such instruments for a blind man; he did not see how a blind man could ever overcome the difficulties una.s.sisted.

In a way that was what Schneider had done for him; alone, he would have bogged down.