Edmond Hamilton

“ President Ellsworth said. "Gray has long wanted funds for independent research—even he and Grantham here have been terribly hampered in their work by lack of money. He has seen the millions that are spent each year in this city on luxury and pleasure, has reflected how much good might result to the human race were part of it applied to scientific research, and has started out with this weapon of invisibility to get it!" ”

“ If you were to ask us which, in our opinion, is the greatest scientific detective story of the year, we certainly would pronounce the present story to be that unusual gem.
Here is a story that will keep you fascinated, not only in connection with its excellence of science, understandable by everyone, but by the fast-moving action for which this well-known author is famous.
Invisibility in this sort of story is perhaps not a new idea; but we venture to say that no one can foretell the O. Henry-like ending, which is as unexpected as it is dramatic. ”

“ Thus three crimes had been committed that every soul in the city believed implicitly had been committed by the Invisible Master! For the obsession of his presence had been spread so that all believed him roaming its ways, and no suspicion fell on Harkness or Taylor or Allen because in the ordinary course of things they would never have committed crimes which would be blamed so swiftly and inevitably upon them. ”

“ With that tragedy the chill fear that held New York dissolved into stark terror, and as Carton pushed his way north to find Wade and Grantham there was all about him a wild confusion of panic.
Great crowds were forming and rolling toward the City Hall to be held back by the police and troops drawn up to guard it, where they shouted their wild demand to the city's officials that the Invisible Master be captured or killed or bought off at any price. ”

“ There had never been any invisibility or any Invisible Master at all. Grantham had planned the great bluff that was to wring five millions out of the city, had built it up from the trick of that first demonstration and from the circumstantial evidence he was able to gather to support the thing, had used the crimes that inevitably resulted from the city's belief in the Invisible Master to make that belief even stronger. ”

“ The fact, the great fact, is that someone has it who has proved himself ruthless. And with it, he can loose such a terror upon New York—yes and upon the nation—as might be utterly without precedent!"
"One man?" asked Wade, skeptically.
"One man—but an invisible one!" Grantham exclaimed. ”

“ As they emerged from the car onto the road that gleamed white in the darkness, Carton glimpsed behind it other cars from which dark shapes of men were emerging, rifles and pistols gleaming in their hands. ”

“ Grantham told him reassuringly. "I know that you, gentlemen, will at my request confine your accounts to the principle of the discovery and to my demonstration without hinting of its possibilities on a larger scale."
Already the reporters were at the door, but Carton turned back. "You wouldn't mind if I'd take that paper-weight with me?" he asked, somewhat apologetically. "Of course I know it's all square but editors are such a skeptical crew—"
"Of course not," the physicist said, handing it to him. "Any valid scientific discovery will stand all the investigations of it that can be conceived. ”

“ Grantham turned to the assistant. "All ready, Gray?" he queried, and the other nodded briefly.
"Everything on it set," he said. "The batteries are on."
"Please watch very closely," the physicist told those behind him. "These tests are rather hard to arrange, and I don't want you to have any doubts."
He pressed one of the switches beneath his hands, and from the cabinet came a thin, almost inaudible whining. The three reporters and President Ellsworth were watching spellbound. A half-dozen feet before them the black disk of the paper-weight lay as dark as ever against the sunlight streaming in. ”

“ Grantham himself had made no statements other than to affirm quietly the fact of his discovery, and Carton would have given much to have been able to spring the sensation of the physicist's larger projector that would make a man invisible. ”

“ Then if I want to make a house, or a tree, or a stone, invisible, all I need to do is to deflect the light-rays around it in such a way that they will curve around and avoid it instead of ever striking it. ”

“ Dr. Grantham handed it to him, smiling. "Of course, and I trust you'll find nothing faked about it."
The three reporters examined it closely, as did with evident interest President Ellsworth. It was quite obviously no more than a disk of the black glass used for paper-weights and inkstands. When they handed it back to Dr. Grantham he leaned forward and placed it upright in the little metal framework on the cabinet's top. It stood out there against the brilliant sunlight streaming through the window just behind it, a dead-black disk against that brilliant light. ”

“ Just what happened on that afternoon between Grantham and Gray may never be known fully, but there seems little doubt that Gray, who had been sullen at the demonstration that morning, had come to the point where he had resolved not to go on with the scheme. Probably he threatened to expose Grantham if he did not stop it, and no doubt Grantham saw exposure and oblivion on the way. Fearing Gray's confession, he killed him, and disposed of his body here in the laboratory. ”

“ In principle, it has been possible for years, for years ago we learned that light does not always travel in straight lines but can be deflected to one side or another by certain forces. Einstein's discoveries showed that, it being photographically confirmed after his theory that the light-rays of stars curve in toward the sun in passing it in space. If there is a force that will attract light-rays and make them curve in toward an object, why not a force that will repel the light-rays and make them curve outward to avoid an object? ”

“ Carton and Ellsworth stared unbelievingly, and Wade handed the disk to them.
"A tourmaline-crystal," he said. "There's another set in that small window pane. Their property is well enough known to physicists, and is a result and proof of the polarization of light. When two tourmaline crystals are placed together with their axes parallel, light streams through both unchecked. If one is turned so that its axis is at right angles to the axis of the other, though, light cannot pass through them and they become thus opaque. A quarter-turn of the one will make them transparent again. ”

“ It is an electromagnetic force which repels light-rays and by curving them around the zone of force can make all matter in that zone invisible. Understand, it does not blot out light in any way, it simply makes the light-rays detour around an object and so makes that object invisible. ”

“ They greeted him with calls of joy.
"Carton, you're not stuck with this yarn too?" one asked. "You'll be graduating to the Sunday supplements if you keep on."
"I can see the Inquirer's headlines tonight," chaffed the other. "'Noted scientist makes amazing discovery——'"
"Where is our noted scientist?" asked Carton of Burns, the Courier's man.
"Dr. Grantham is even now engaged upon the tremendous work which he will presently reveal to the eager press," said the other. "In other words, he and that sour-faced assistant of his, Gray, are cooking up something to get page-one space." ”

“ Upon the table before them, just inside the casement through which the brilliant sunlight was streaming, rested a squat cabinet of black metal, but inches square, with a small metal framework on it and with connections to what seemed small batteries and a row of three switches.
Dr. Grantham was drawing their attention to this when the door behind them opened and another entered, an impeccably-dressed older man whose white head and genial countenance the reporters recognized instantly as that of Dr. Calvin Ellsworth, America University's very prominent president. ”

“ The light-rays come to us from all around it, but not from behind the house because they are stopped by it. The house, then, is an area of comparative darkness to us, and so is outlined against the light. ”

“ You see, the projector when attached to the body, projects a force for a radius of a few feet around the body and makes all in that radius invisible as well as the person wearing it. Thus when the Invisible Master stepped close up to the window, it and everything in the projector's radius became invisible for a second, and in that second he needed only to grasp the package of bills and then step quickly back and walk out."
"It's a tough problem," Wade admitted. He and Grantham had stepped aside from the group, who were now sharply questioning Harkness, and Carton had followed them. ”

“ Carton? You handled that Grantham thing yesterday, didn't you? Then pile out to America at once—Dr. Grantham's been attacked by someone there, and there's a rumor of an invisibility apparatus of his being stolen! ”

“ I have here a small cabinet of black metal in which is an apparatus for projecting this force upward for a few inches. Any small object placed on top of the cabinet will become invisible when the force from within is put into operation. ”

“ I was arranging some entries in my sheets and the package was lying with some others beside me, just inside the grille's opening. It was really in reach from outside, of course, but there was no danger because everyone knows how impossible it is to snatch money in a bank and escape with it. ”