"I can translate what you say into language, though. Something happens
when I throw two hundred and twenty volts into this bank of tubes. As
near as I can figure, it creates a 'time-warp'--which doesn't mean much
of anything objectively. I don't know how it works; I couldn't even
duplicate it. I suppose some high-powered electronics engineer could
figure it out, but I don't want anybody but you and me even to know
about it. What I'm interested in is what we can do with it."
"What I'm interested in," I said, "is how much money we can make with
it."
Slim looked at me with his great burning eyes while the steam rose from
under the iron on my pants.
"You're about to find out." The ground-glass screen slowly lighted.
A new bank of tubes began to sparkle and then settled down into a
greenish glow. Slim turned dials, and there was the figure of a woman
on the screen.
"That," said Slim, "is Mrs. Tom Ellingbery."
Well, of course I couldn't see her face. She was playing bridge,
apparently. Her hands looked nice. The woman at her left said, "I hear
you've filed suit against your husband."
Mrs. Ellingbery reached for a king, but her fingers were nervous. She
played a six instead and lost the trick. "Yes," she said quietly, "I
have." Her voice was sad.
I waited a minute. Then, "How did you know how to tune in on her?" I
asked Slim.
"I got her wave-characteristics when she came up the other day to get
us to serve the papers," he said. "I got Tom's today while we were
talking. The machine was all set and the recording needles made a
permanent record."