Show black by francis lynde by 0 irwin myers WHO berroc Berr lc br william garard CHAPTER I 1 the black box it was between the acts of the play the orchestra of a theater in carthage a college town of the middle west was in full swing when there sounded t faint click from what appeared to b an overgrown portable camera on th lap of one of two young men seated in the right hand proscenium box ol 01 the theater and instantly the bowing of the violins the cellos and the bass the fingering of the brass and wood wind the tapping of the padded sticks on the kettle drums became merely so many boundless gestures in a pantomime all was dead elleree sl leree the two young men in the box who seemed to have precipitated this ex state of affairs were bath about of an age both carthage born and reared and both graduates of the college but with these basic the similarities paused abruptly owen landals the one with the queer black box on his knees was built with a thin eager face and dark hair and eyes the eyes of a dreamer and enthusiast ills companion walter markham was the young man about town of a small city well dressed well fed yet not without a glimmer of penetrative shrewdness in his eyes to prove his elgh to claim kinship with his hard headed banker father for an interval measurable in sec onda the soundless pantomime con then suddenly and as 1 there had been no gap of silence the various instruments burst into full voice A wave of half bewilderment swept over the house followed quickly by enthusiastic thusia ao the audience evidently taking the pantomimic inter for a bit of stage business on the part of the orchestra wonderful 1 markham exclaimed ander cover of the resumed music s you said owen it has to be seen to be believed why dlan t you keep it up a bit longer landals shook his head 1 I dare to let it go on in two seconds more there would have been a panic I 1 figured that for just about so long bergs men would go on bowing and fingering automatically as they did but when realization came there d be chaos I 1 meant to pate that moment and I 1 did coulden couldn t let it go over the brink ou know black magic 1 markham comment ed Is this what youve been working on all these months that you ve been holed up in your laboratory den youve said IL well now youve got it the answer I 1 mean how does it do it As I 1 ve told you it ii simple enough in principle by radio we transmit bound and male it do our bidding aay problem was to find a circuit which instead of amplifying the received sounds would itself operate to neutral ize them once my basic circuit was developed all it asked for was a pretty long series of experiments now youve found the answer to your problem what are you going to do with it come around to my shop with me after the play and talk it out with you landals said adding most inventors and discoverers are short on practical sense common sense and rm no exception maybe yon can cupply what im lacking in that re two hours later the two young men were seated in landals workshop laboratory on the walk from the theater bandla had tried to explain as as he could the successive steps taken in the development of hla astonishing invention what youve been saying Is mostly greek to me markham offered just the same I 1 can surround the fact accomplished complis hed all right having had the practical demonstration but now the question arises what have you got can it be put to any useful use possibilities landals queried they are almost unlimited the trouble la that they are bad aa well as good shoot said the son of small city wealth fm listening the circuit or whatever you choose to call it will operate at a distance I 1 dont know just yet how far and it will pass cither through or around obstructions turn a switch pod you can sleep in silence as profound as thac of a mountain top so far as noises are concerned auhl sounds a good bit like alice in but what else if you atop the racket for yourself you stop it tor everybody else as well dont youa feat short distances as tonight in the theater acs take for example a beeam whistle a mile away in the am mediate neighborhood of the whistle tha sound Is normal or nearly so a listener within a radius of say a quarter of a mile would scarcely de tact any muting of the blast though it Is rc illy muted at is ifs source beyond this inner circle the sound ashes quite rapidly until at about half a mile it has vanished completely i in yur demonstration you connected the thing the heifer lighting circuit does tint mean that you are tied to electric power plants for its use ail an automobile storage battery will operate icebox for a allm itce time markham nodded slowly don t you know owen it all listens a good bit like a pipe dream so it does to me but what Is worse I 1 can t get away from the feeling that I 1 m in the fix of the man who invented the frankenstein thing mcanlis meaning the frightful uses to which this contrivance of mine could be put in the committing of crime you might say 13 no end to them noise Is the burglars chief menace with this box of mine coupled to a lighting socket he could wreck the lower story of a house or blow the strongest bank vault in perfect security so far as the noise was concerned so also with the use of firearms you see what in the possession of a criminal there 1 simply no limit to the harm the thing do I 1 mean in the possession of a crim inal there Is simply no limit to the harm the thing might do how many people know about your invention owen up to this minute just two of us you and myself I 1 haven t talked about it to anybody partly because the whole thing was experimental and I 1 dlan t want to have to answer a lot of curious questions but now as ive said I 1 m like the man who invented the frankenstein thing in sirs shelleys Shel leys story when I 1 think of all the harm it might do in the wrong hands I 1 feel as if I 1 ought to tie a stone to the box and pitch it into the river there was a thoughtful pause nna at me end of it markham you are quite sure nobody else knows about it I 1 hope I 1 am nave you any reason to doubt it hot what you could call a reason no but I 1 have worked here in the lab a good many nights sometimes until quite late and there have been moments when ive had a queer feeling that I 1 alone that somebody was spying on me pure auto alon I 1 guess earlham nodded well let that part of it rest and pass on to the material things you want to make some money out of this invention of yours don t son or are you too much of an inventor to look that far ahead landals smiled im not quite so much of a dreamer as that wally if I 1 could only be sure the thing be put to evil uses like to see some hard cash results markham finished for him that Is right and proper and bu man 1 I suppose BO while I 1 was at awk on it I 1 did think that if it should prove a success it might help me find a pace as a research man with one of the big electric companies too modest as you usually are grunted markham there a a frilly fortune in that box it its properly exploited ed but to make money out of an invention you have to spend money suppose you let me talk to dad in strict confidence of course 11 do that for me sure I 1 would why not there was a moment of silent em barras and then landals said half apologetically give roe a day or BO to think about it wally I 1 want to see it I 1 can t fight down that feeling about the criminal possibilities its fearfully good of you to offer to step in and I 1 markham cut the protests short take as much time as you want of course and never mind the edg ments we ve been pretty chummy tor a good many years you and I 1 on en and it would be a pity if either of us give the other a band when the chance offered ihen with a glance at his watch if it gasn wasn so late I 1 d stay a bit longer and raw hide you about matter but I 1 guess the other mitter will keep it ln t late for me hat have been doing thit I 1 ought not to bavei done 1 I 1 was watching apu tonight when betty clavson was on the I 1 guess you know good and well what I 1 siw aci landals flushed boyishly and looked down you see anything more than you have known for a good while markham laughed than all carthage has known for that matter but isay boy rtha do you think a girl Is made of for a halt year and better you vo buried yourself in this work shack of yours and iff youve thought anything at all abo bettylou Betty you ve taken it out in thinking what pleasure ashes enjoyed she B had to forage tor in other alons the amateur theatrical movements for instance ive chased her about a little not nearly SQ much aa I 1 wanted to ant you ve simply ignored her owen you know you have the laggard in love spoke up quickly you are not saying it all wally not speaking for yourself I 1 mean but yon don t need to I 1 ve known ever since last year how it Is with you you are in love with betty yourself that la one reason why ive burled myself in my job here to give you and her a chance to fand out where you both stand 0 o don t make any mistake it any silly knightly chivalry on my part just common decency if I 1 should marry im not even sure I 1 could feed and clothe a wife and when poverty comes in at the door ob shush 1 you quote proverbs at me don t you suppose I 1 know that I 1 don t stand a chance with betty what im beefing about Is the way you scamp your chances with her theres another richmond in the beld did you know that I 1 andas face fell nol you dont mean that wally I 1 I 1 do indeed this new fellow can by who Is cutting such a wide swath with his wonderful development scheme for carthage going to make it an other chicago overnight and all that he Is rushing betty to a finish and she seems to like it A of fine lines appeared between I 1 andas eyes 1 I conf like canby wally what little ive seen of him the same he Is exactly he kind of brute to take a girls fancy good looking dashing mari af the big ger world that sort betty Is plenty sensible but at the same time she Is human there ive said my say and now toddle along what do yoa do with this priceless casket of youra overnight take it to bed with you not quite that I 1 keep it here landals knelt before a small safe under the laboratory work bench opened it put the black box inside and twirled the combination 1 I see safe bind safe find said markham with a laugh for a weak pun I 1 et me know when or if you want me to have a talk with dad about the financing so long so much for the night when betty lawson daughter of the professor at the college starred in their little theater associations production at a comparatively early hour the following morning walla mirk ham getting out his roadster to drive fo town for a box of congratulatory roses to be taken to the success ful actress was called to the telephone A strained voice that he hire ly recognized aa landals came to him over the wires Is that yoa wally for heavens sake come around here to the house as quick as you can my safes been opened and the black box Is gonel CHAPTER II 11 A blind lead landals ws waiting at the driveway gate when amirkham s roadster came to a stand and hl thin face seemed to have grown haggard overnight it my imagination after all that feeling I 1 told you about last night the feeling that some one wai spying upon me as I 1 worked he said and as they entered the small build ing this Is just as I 1 found it a few minutes before I 1 phoned you markham stooped to look into the safe the door of which was standing open it was opened on the combination be said of course it had to be the thief knew what was inside and knew that he dynamite the safe without faking a long chance of destroying the thing he was after I 1 found it just as it stands now the bolts shot and the dial standing on the final figure of the combination vm that brings on more talk right at the beginning of things somebody know your combination the question seemed to plunge the inventor into a deep pit of embarrass ment I 1 cant say positively wally but but the one person who may know the combination Is as far above suspicion as the stars are above the earth come clean barkham with his good natured grin if I 1 in going to holp I 1 ve got to know the insides all of it haven t I 1 who Is this person who may know tell you and you 11 see that there s nothing to it that there cant be one day a few weeks ago I 1 brought betty out here to show her an electrical toy id been tinkering on I 1 wag keeping the thing in the safe as I 1 do anything that I 1 don t want to leave lying around in sight and when I 1 began to spin the dial she knelt besade me saying shed alwag been corlous to know how a combination lock on a safe worked and you showed her of course I 1 how the tumblers were ande an pat together so that each time the dial stopped at the proper figure one of tho tumblers would be left in the open was that all ou did ot quite to illustrate what I 1 meant I 1 unscrewed the back plate ot the lock and called off the series of figures BO she could spin the dial and see for herself how the worl ed it wa only a bit of byplay aa you might sy and there isn t a shadow of doubt in my niland but that betty forgot enre she was an hour older if she dlan t she Is out of the aup ron ahe sn t the one who opened this safe last n ht you know that na well as I 1 do TO ne cor nuLU |