SHORT STORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 117, 19 September 1941, Page 9

SHORT STORY

(Continued from previous page) happily the experiments didn’t go at all well, and at odd intervals the residents in our street would be alarmed by dull, heavy explosions which, most of them decided, came from somewhere deep beneath our section. We ourselves professed equal alarm and bewilderment as to the source of the explosions, and eventually the street agreed that they were evidence of sudden and unsuspected volcanic activity, and gloomily prophesied that our street would go sky-high some day. Letters have even appeared in the papers about it, and many property owners have shown such eagerness to dispose of their homes and move to other suburbs thet, but for the special circumstances, I wish I had sufficient ready money to do a little speculating in house property. ATELY the explosions have been heavier and more frequent, and I can only marvel at the heroism of Arbuthnot’s persistence. He has hardly any hair or eyebrows left, and I fear that he will suffer permanent deafness. Fortunately I have managed to persuade my mother to take a long holiday in the country.

This morning Arbuthnot told me that he intends to risk everything in a supreme test. He will carry the experiment a stage further, with quantities of material considerably greater than he has been using hitherto. He will also introduce a modification which he hopes will curb this compound’s sorry habit of shedding odd molecules at inconvenient times, and if all goes well one of the greatest and most daring experiments in the history of science will be brought to a successful conclusion at approximately four-thirty this afternoon. If all does not go well, I hate to think what will happen. The quantities Arbuthnot is using are so large that one’s brain reels at the thought. But Arbuthnot and I are agreed that whatever the sacrifice involved, the experiment must be completed. HALF an hour ago I shook hands with him and assisted him through the trapdoor at the head of the shaft in the back garden. He has given me a draft of notes dealing with the experiment, and if the worst happens, I am to hand them over to the Government. It is now exactly two o'clock, and I must catch a tram to the city. Between now and four-thirty I must put as many miles as possible between myself and Arbuthnot’s experiment.