* * * * *
Let's get the agony over with. We returned to a control room full of
madmen. For in our absence the Rocketeers had intercepted a desperate
Wrangler pass, and the score was now 26-0. Just one point different
from that licking they had given the U.S.S.A. boys last year. And as we
listened glumly they kicked the extra point.
And that was about all. For three plays after the next kickoff a gun
boomed, the crowd screamed, and the announcer howled, "--and there's
the end of the game, folks! The Rocketeers win a great ball game,
27-0. You have been listening to this program through the courtesy of
Hornswimble's Robot Corporation, makers of the world-famous 'Silent
Servants.' Why be lonely? A Robot in the home is a constant companion--"
Chief Garrity squealed his tight-fisted glee. His palm
waved simultaneously beneath the noses of three sorrowful
Wranglers--including me. "Pay up!" he demanded. "Pay up, ye benighted
rascals--!"
And Cap Hanson was one big grin on legs. He said to Biggs triumphantly,
"Well, Biggs, I hope you've learned a lesson today! Two hundred and
fifty credits, if you please. I'm minded to be kind with you. I'll not
accept your space claim, my lad. But that third bet--" He beamed on
Diane. "_That_ one I'll hold you to! And now--"
Biggs moved. To the radio bank. As he moved, he spoke.
"Yes. And now," he said, "I think you should all hear _this_--"
He twisted the dial. There was a moment of howling; then came a voice,
clear, crisp, enthusiastic, "--four minutes of playing time remaining,
folks, and the Rocketeers have the ball. But it won't do them any
good. Even if they _do_ score the result will be the same. They can't
overcome that tremendous Wrangler lead, 33-6--"
* * * * *
Thunder and lightning; madness and confusion! The control room became
as noisy as a well-populated tomb, and out of the terrible silence came
the faint, thin voice of the skipper demanding, "What--what does this
mean?"
Biggs boomed pleasantly, "It means, Captain, that you've lost your
bets. You'll remember that all our wagers were based on the result of
_this_ year's game--which you are now listening to.
"It is unfortunate that human memories are so brief. Otherwise some of
you gentlemen might have recognized the astonishing similarity of the
broadcast we've just listened to with that of last year's game! Which
it was!"
Cap Hanson groaned, "Last year's game! But that's impossible! You
couldn't--"
"_I_ couldn't," agreed Biggs pleasantly, "but my new invention could.
You see, I discovered in the course of my experiments that uranium has
some definite peculiarities. It, being highly radioactive itself, has
the strange property of being able to delay, almost indefinitely, the
passage of electrical impulses traveling through it.
"Thus, under certain circumstances--in this case, Sparks, the fact
that it was activated in the ultra-short wave field--it can be used as
a 'time-speech-trap' to recapture sound waves released into the ether
long ago.
"When Earth's scientists have further investigated this phenomenon I
predict some amazing results. Possibly in the near future we may be
able to 'listen' once again to the voices of our ancestors 'way back
in the Elizabethan Age, the Machine Age, or the American Business Age.
But meanwhile--" He grinned amiably. "Meanwhile, you have just heard
a broadcast of last year's Rocketeer-Wrangler football game. _This_
year's is just concluding!"
And so it was. With the Wranglers out in front by a score of 33-6. The
outraged screams of Chief Engineer Garrity will haunt me all my days....
Afterward there were just four of us in the turret. Biggs, Diane, the
skipper and me. The Old Man had the look of a St. Bernard who has lost
his brandy cask. He said, "But, confound you, Biggs, you're not goin'
to hold me to them bets, are you? When you knew all the time--"
Biggs grinned.
"You were magnanimous with me, Skipper. I'll be the same with you. Keep
your money. And I'll settle for two landings. But the third bet--well,
you know the old saying."
"I know," mourned the Captain, "plenty of 'em. What one do you mean?"
"'All's fair'," quoted Biggs softly, "'in love and--.' We'll skip the
other part. Diane, honey--"
One thing about the skipper; he knew when he'd lost. He forced a grin
to his lips--and, do you know, when he'd had a look at the light in
Diane's eyes as she moved into the circle of Biggs' arms, that grin
began to look almost natural. He gave me the high-sign, and we started
to leave. But I had one more question. In the doorway I turned and
asked, "Biggs, come clean! You didn't know that thing was going to work
that way, did you?"