"You--you say there were others, and they didn't find anything?" she
said. She was groping for something logical to grasp. I had to give her
that something.
"That's right," I said. "And the law of averages said that someday
someone would uncover something that's been missed."
She was nodding slowly now, accepting what I was saying. It was
authoritative. She would find confirmation in authoritative books. If
she wanted to pursue the subject she would find plenty of evidence, real
evidence, to support it. It is a common form of insanity. It was
important that she believe that.
We reached the road. C.I. had been prepared. There was a car to take her
back to the hotel, a stationwagon for Herb who was now very submissive
and somewhat dazed, and a third car for me and my precious cargo.
* * * * *
Ten minutes later I was in the Science Building basement, laying the
thing on a wooden table, very gently. It seemed solid, each integral
part of its form being of a different metal.
None of the men watching me lay it down discounted the danger it
contained. They knew too much about how shape and dimension can affect
the electronic properties of metal. They knew the thing probably didn't
contain an erg of power of its own, but probably triggered and directed
the release of cosmic energies as yet unknown to them.
They stared at it. One of them reached out to touch it, then slowly drew
his finger back.
I could see the decision crystallizing in their minds behind their
serious eyes. This thing would go with the other strange and
incomprehensible machines locked in vaults in a concrete building far
out on the Martian desert away from the tourist trails of this dead
planet. It would remain there until the day when human science advanced
far enough to understand it.
"What about the wall in the dome?" I asked.
"They roped it off. They're afraid of it."
"Did you convince his wife he's insane?" one of the science staff asked.
I nodded. "I used the same old line. Told her there were dozens like
him, and the law of averages made it certain at least one of them would
find something."