Books › Blue Book v085 n06 [1947-10], 1947 › scan 6
Scan 6
Blue Book v085 n06 [1947-10], 1947
42 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1"I've got hold of something big. Big, I tell you! But wait till you see!"
3badly cut and bruised. But Mona and the pilot were instantly killed. . . .
5The day they let Court out of the hospital, I called for him with my car. He was a good deal thinner, and he climbed into the car slowly and stiffly.
7I said: "You're putting up at my place for a couple of weeks, you know. Longer, if you like."
9He shook his head, not looking at me. "I want to get back to work. I've got to. It's the only—"
11His voice trailed off to silence, and he sat slumped in his seat, looking ahead through the windshield. I couldn't think of anything to say.
13It had been like this with us, ever since the crash. I would come to sit beside his bed, and he would not talk, and I could not think of anything to say. What had happened was complete, final. There was nothing to say about it; no use in talking. Yet it was always in our minds, filling them, crowding out everything else.
15When we had threaded several blocks of traffic, I said: "All right. If you won't stay with me, I'll come and stay with you."
17He did not like it, I could see. But I was determined not to leave him alone. Not for a while yet. He had always been a drastic sort, liable to do something unpredictable in moments of stress.
19I drove on to my rooms and got a suitcase of clothes and a ten-pound lump of plastoline.
21Okata had laid himself out on the dinner. He skittered about like an anxious spider, bringing on a succession of dishes, and becoming more and more depressed over Court's lack of appetite. Afterward we sat smoking, listening to some idiotic music on the radio. Court was fidgety. Presently he got up and went through the door of the laboratory stair, closing it after him in a way that told me not to follow.
23I don't know what he did up there, if anything. I sat around till midnight, trying to read; then went off to bed. Probably he made an all-night session of it, as next day he didn't show up till lunch. After that, he returned at once to the laboratory. I spent the afternoon over my lump of plastoline, trying to get going on a Negro head I wanted to do in black basalt.
25Court came down to dinner in his working-clothes, bolted a few mouthfuls, and again went up. By this time I was getting that feeling you have when you try to be helpful and discover that you are only making a nuisance of yourself. If it was going to keep on like this—
27An hour later a buzzer sounded loudly somewhere in the rear. Okata came through and went up the stair. After thirty minutes of stamping and shuffling, he came down and poked his head out of the door: "Pliz! Mr. Kane say if you help—"
29In the laboratory, the first thing I noticed was that the wire screens of both the recorder and the projector had been lifted off. Then I saw something bulky hanging from a chain hoist, above the projector. In general shape and size it resembled a bass drum with a two-inch steel bar running through it, like an axle, and projecting about a foot at either side. Court was standing at one end of the bar, steadying it with his hand, while he peered into the machine.
31He said: "I'm transferring the recording cylinder to the projector, Ian. If you'll help me steady it into its bearings, while Okata slacks off on the hoist—"
33I broke out: "Court, this is damned foolishness. Why can't you—"
35He looked at me, and I stopped. "Never mind," he said. "Okata and I will manage."
37With an effort, I got hold of myself. "Don't be like that. . . . I'll help you, of course."
39The cylinder was awfully heavy. I think it must have weighed close to a thousand pounds. Court was on edge, cracking out commands, and evidently beside himself with fear of some mishap.
41When, after fifteen minutes of struggle, we got the thing into place, I stood for a moment staring at it. The actual cylinder—the bass-drum part—looked as if it might be of some resinous or
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