"Let's go out and eat," I said, "There's not a damn thing in the
kitchen and I'm not allowed to cook. Only eggs and coffee."
We put on our hats and went down to the street. From either end, we
could hear wrecking trucks towing away the stalled cars. There were,
by this time, a number of harassed cops directing the maneuver and we
heard one of them say to Danny, "I don't know what the hell's going
on around here. Every goddam car's got something the matter with it.
They can't none of them back out for one reason or another. Never seen
anything like it."
Near us, two pedestrians were doing a curious little two-step as they
tried to pass one another; as soon as one of them moved aside to let
the other pass, the other would move to the same side. They both had
embarrassed grins on their faces, but before long their grins were
replaced by looks of suspicion and then determination.
"All right, smart guy!" they shouted in unison, and barged ahead,
only to collide. They backed off and threw simultaneous punches
which met in mid-air. Then began one of the most remarkable bouts
ever witnessed--a fight in which fist hit fist but never anything
else, until both champions backed away undefeated, muttering identical
excuses and threats.
* * * * *
Danny appeared at that moment. His face was dripping. "You all right,
Mr. Graham?" he asked. "I don't know what's going on around here, but
ever since I came on this afternoon, things are going crazy. Bartley!"
he shouted--he could succeed as a hog-caller. "Bring those dames over
here!"
Three women in a confused wrangle, with their half-open umbrellas
intertwined, were brought across the street, which meant climbing over
fenders. Bartley, a fine young patrolman, seemed self-conscious; the
ladies seemed not to be.
"All right, now, Mrs. Mac-Philip!" one of them said. "Leave go of my
umbrella and we'll say no more about it!"
"And so now it's Missus Mac-Philip, is it?" said her adversary.
The third, a younger one with her back turned to us, her umbrella also
caught in the tangle, pulled at it in a tentative way, at which the
other two glared at her. She turned her head away and tried to let go,
but the handle was caught in her glove. She looked up and I saw it was
Molly. My nurse-wife.
"Oh, Alec!" she said, and managed to detach herself. "Are you all
right?" Was _I_ all right!
"Molly! What are you doing here?"
"I was so worried, and when I saw all this, I didn't know what to
think." She pointed to the stalled cars. "Are you really all right?"
"Of course I'm all right. But why...."
"The Oyster Bay operator said someone kept dialing and dialing Mother's
number and there wasn't anyone on the line, so then she had it traced
and it came from our phone here. I kept calling up, but I only got a
busy signal. Oh, dear, are you _sure_ you're all right?"
I put my arm around her and glanced at McGill. He had an inward look.
Then I caught Danny's eye. It had a thoughtful, almost suspicious cast
to it.
"Trouble does seem to follow you, Mr. Graham," was all he said.
When we got upstairs, I turned to McGill. "Explain to Molly," I said.
"And incidentally to me. I'm not properly briefed yet."
He did so, and when he got to the summing up, I had the feeling she was
a jump ahead of him.
"In other words, you think it's something organic?"
"Well," McGill said, "I'm trying to think of anything else it might be.
I'm not doing so well," he confessed.
"But so far as I can see," Molly answered, "it's mere probability, and
without any over-all pattern."
"Not quite. It has a center. Alec is the center."
* * * * *
Molly looked at me with a curious expression for a moment. "Do you
_feel_ all right, darling?" she asked me. I nodded brightly. "You'll
think this silly of me," she went on to McGill, "but why isn't it
something like an overactive poltergeist?"
"Pure concept," he said. "No genuine evidence."
"Magnetism?"
"Absolutely not. For one thing, most of the objects affected weren't
magnetic--and don't forget magnetism is a force, not a form of energy,
and a great deal of energy has been involved. I admit the energy has
mainly been supplied by the things themselves, but in a magnetic field,
all you'd get would be stored kinetic energy, such as when a piece of
iron moves to a magnet or a line of force. Then it would just stay
there, like a rundown clock weight. These things do a lot more than
that--they go on moving."
"Why did you mention a crystal before? Why not a life-form?"
"Only an analogy," said McGill. "A crystal resembles life in that it
has a definite shape and exhibits growth, but that's all. I'll agree
this--thing--has no discernible shape and motion _is_ involved, but
plants don't move and amebas have no shape. Then a crystal feeds, but
it does not convert what it feeds on; it merely rearranges it into a
non-random pattern. In this case, it's rearranging random motions and
it has a nucleus and it seems to be growing--at least in what you might
call improbability."