Henry Horn's X-Ray Eye Glasses
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we might all have been killed?"
"Why, the explosive in that package, and the detonator--really, Joseph,it was terribly dangerous--"
"Dangerous!" snorted the savant. "The only dangerous part was that hemight have hit me over the head with it."
"But--the explosive--"
"Explosive, my eye!" And, again glaring: "Do you mean to tell me youcan't understand why that stuff he had in the package didn't go off, youabbreviated atom?"
Henry's goatee waggled uncertainly. He adjusted the steel-rimmedspectacles which were his only garment.
"Well ... really, Joseph...."
"I'll admit right out I don't get it," broke in Major Coggleston. "Youmean there wasn't any danger of that stuff going off?"
"Of course not." Professor Paulsen was distinctly snappish.
"But why--"
* * * * *
The scientist turned back to Henry. "Don't you remember what I said toyou this morning about those devil's glasses of yours transposingletters instead of just reversing them? And that you told me it wouldtake a special lens to straighten them out?"
"You mean--"
"Take any formula and transpose the symbols all the way through, and seewhat you get. Trinitrocresol, for instance. The formula isC_{7}H_{5}N_{3}O_{7}. Transpose it all the way through, and you have_{7}O_{3}N_{5}H_{7}C. In that particular case, it wouldn't even makesense. But when our red-headed spy said he was a chemist and hadn't hadany trouble compounding this new explosive, I figured the formula mustbe one that would be at least half-way logical, no matter which way youwrote it. Only the odds were a million to one that one way it wouldequal an explosive; the other, nothing at all. So I didn't hesitate toattack him."
"Joe," said Major Coggleston admiringly, "that's a lot faster thinkingthan I've ever done. And I don't need to tell you how grateful the Armywill be."
"Really, Joseph, it was awfully clever!" Henry chimed in. "I'd neverhave thought of it--"
And then, changing thought in mid-sentence:
"Look! There's that pretty blonde girl with the--"
"Henry!" exploded Professor Paulsen. "You're old enough to behave like agrown man, not an inspectionistic schoolboy!" His hand shot out to griphis little partner's goatee and jerk his eyes from the luscious creaturenow parading her charms before them.
"Ouch!" squealed Henry, his face screwing up with pain. "Joseph, you'rehurting!"
"Then will you be good? Will you behave yourself?"
"Of course, Joseph. Just let me go!" Then, sulkily, as the tallscientist released him: "Though I still think you're mighty finicky,Joseph Paulsen. After all, what's wrong with my liking the cute way thatgirl wears the bangs across her forehead?"
* * * * *
[Footnote 1: The Piltdown Man was a species of prehistoric being(_Eoanthropus dawsoni_), long since extinct, with a retreating, apelikechin and thick cranial bones, but a human-type cranium.--Ed.]
[Footnote 2: See "Henry Horn's Blitz Bomb," Amazing Stories, June,'42.--Ed.]
[Footnote 3: See "Henry Horn's Super-Solvent," _Fantastic Adventures_,November, '41.--Ed.]