"Can you show us?"
"Yes," I said cautiously.
I began to adjust the dials. Again the amusement park flickered over
the ground glass, as seen through my eyes. I was in line. I put my
money on the counter to buy a ticket. I saw a slim white hand reach up
to the window from my left and I started to turn. Then it hit me!
That gorgeous blonde! That girl who had thrown her arms around me in
the car a minute later. That was Swanberg's wife.
I looked around at them in the court-room. I knew what was happening
on the screen. I hadn't looked at her face until she got into the
car after me. Mrs. Swanberg was leaning over, now, watching the
screen. One arm was slipped through the landlord's elbow and she was
surreptitiously but affectionately patting the back of his hand.
Swanberg himself looked completely blissful. What had she been out
there alone for, that night? Well, no telling. Maybe he'd been out of
town and she'd felt like doing something childish. Certainly there was
no meanness or deceit in her face. She was in love with him. And he, in
spite of all his austerity, was obviously in love with her.
I looked out the window. There was no doubt that the fame of the
Brain-Finder by now would be all over town. Within a week we'd be
flooded with work--high-priced work. We'd take only the very best
cases, the highest priced, the least messy. We'd pay the rent. We'd eat
in restaurants instead of carrying sandwiches. In another three months
we'd be rolling in money--and almost without work. If we wanted to work
hard with the Brain-Finder, we'd make millions. I could maybe find
myself the right kind of girl to marry.
* * * * *
I looked back at the screen. I had just settled myself in the seat of
the roller-coaster car. A pink dress came into my field of vision on
the right. Yes, sir, this demonstration would do it. This, and those
to follow. Whatever Judge Monday might say, there would be an appeal,
and we'd have to take the thing to the Supreme Court, and how could any
judge ignore it if Slim could show the judge himself working on his pet
corn the night before? We were about to be what is vulgarly but happily
known as "in the bucks."
What would happen to Swanberg? I remembered how I'd always pictured
his wife as unattractive, and all of a sudden it made me feel kind of
ashamed. He had certainly shown good taste in his choice of a wife.
Well, pretty quick now I could afford to travel in that kind of company.
I wondered what would happen when Swanberg saw his wife throwing her
arms around me on the roller coaster. I guessed maybe he wouldn't
be cold; he'd be jealous. Well, a man with a young and beautiful
wife--somehow it kind of got me. I mean that sort of calf-like
happiness. He loved her and he felt secure in the knowledge that she
loved him, and--well, you know how it is.
Gosh, how I wanted that money. Here it was within our reach--the thing
we'd worked so hard for, the reason I'd crawled under pullman cars and
gone through the sidewalk and sneaked in to evade the landlord--all so
Slim could keep working on the Brain-Finder. He had it now. Slim didn't
know how to duplicate it, but one was all we needed. That one was worth
a fortune.
I looked back at the Swanbergs, sitting there so close together.
Swanberg hadn't really been tough with us. In fact, he'd been lenient.
Three months was a lot to be behind. No, I guess the only thing I
hadn't really liked about him was the fact that he was always so
perfectly dressed and so cool while I had to go through the sidewalk on
a hot day in August and then press the sweat out of my clothes with a
flat-iron.
I looked at the girl. She was nice. She hadn't been doing anything out
of the way that night. She certainly hadn't made any sort of pass at
me. And they were in love.
I guess I had no business being an investigator. I looked at the
judge, watching every move with his sharp old eyes. I glanced at Slim
Coleman, sitting there, looking a little puzzled, his eyes deep and
burning. I tried to ask Slim to forgive me. I looked at the screen. The
roller-coaster car was pulling up to the top of the first hump.
I took hold of the Brain-Finder. It was heavy, but I picked it up and
held it over my head, then I heaved it onto the floor, and it was
nothing but a mass of loose wires and broken glass.
A woman screamed. Youngquist fainted. Slim came running with a question
in his deep eyes. Tom Ellingbery's lawyer was triumphant. The judge
pounded for order....
* * * * *
This is four days later. Tom Ellingbery and his wife made up. Last
night's paper showed them on the roller coaster. He was quoted as
saying: "All I wanted was to ride the roller coaster." And she had
said: "Boys will be boys."
Slim brings me four ham sandwiches and coffee twice a day. He got
acquainted with the blonde that Tom Ellingbery was riding the roller
coasters with, and they went out to the park and had five dollars worth
of rides the night that Tom Ellingbery paid Slim the five G's. (Tom
said it was worth that much to have his wife back.) And do you know
whom Slim and the blonde ran into at the Park? Mr. and Mrs. Swanberg.
First thing I ever heard of a man in a tail-coat riding the roller
coaster.
In fact, everybody's got a blonde but me, and everybody's riding the
roller coaster but me. I'm not riding them now. I got thirty days for
contempt of court.