Bagombo Snuff Box Read Online Free PDF Page A

office and the radio room. He looked up in surprise,
mumbled an apology, and hurried to the curb. He had had a solitary breakfast
in an all-night diner a block and a half from the laboratory building, and then
he’d taken a long walk. He had hoped that getting away for a couple of hours
would clear his head—but the feeling of confusion and helplessness was still
with him. Did the world have a right to know, or didn’t it?
    There had been no more messages from Major Rice. At the
General’s orders, the frequency had been jammed. Now the unexpected eavesdroppers
could hear nothing but a steady whine at 25,000 megacycles. General Dane had
reported the dilemma to Washington shortly after midnight. Perhaps orders as to
what to do with Major Rice had come through by now.
    Groszinger paused in a patch of sunlight on the laboratory
building’s steps, and read again the front-page news story, which ran
fancifully for a column, beneath the headline “Mystery Radio Message Reveals
Possible Will Fraud.” The story told of two radio amateurs, experimenting
illegally on the supposedly unused ultra-high-frequency band, who had been
amazed to hear a man chattering about voices and a will. The amateurs had
broken the law, operating on an unassigned frequency, but they hadn’t kept
their mouths shut about their discovery. Now hams all over the world would be
building sets so they could listen in, too.
    “Morning, sir. Nice morning, isn’t it?” said a guard coming
off duty. He was a cheerful Irishman.
    “Fine morning, all right,” agreed Groszinger. “Clouding up a
little in the west, maybe.” He wondered what the guard would say if he told him
what he knew. He would laugh, probably.
    Groszinger’s secretary was dusting off his desk when he
walked in. “You could use some sleep, couldn’t you?” she said. “Honestly, why
you men don’t take better care of yourselves I just don’t know. If you had a
wife, she’d make you—”
    “Never felt better in my life,” said Groszinger. ‘Any word
from General Dane?”
    “He was looking for you about ten minutes ago. He’s back in
the radio room now. He’s been on the phone with Washington for half an hour.”
    She had only the vaguest notion of what the project was
about. Again, Groszinger felt the urge to tell about Major Rice and the voices,
to see what effect the news would have on someone else. Perhaps his secretary would
react as he himself had reacted, with a shrug. Maybe that was the spirit of
this era of the atom bomb, H-bomb, God-knows-what-next bomb—to be amazed at
nothing. Science had given humanity forces enough to destroy the earth, and
politics had given humanity a fair assurance that the forces would be used.
There could be no cause for awe to top that one. But proof of a spirit world
might at least equal it. Maybe that was the shock the world needed, maybe word
from the spirits could change the suicidal course of history.
    General Dane looked up wearily as Groszinger walked into the
radio room. “They’re bringing him down,” he said. “There’s nothing else we can
do. He’s no damn good to us now.” The loudspeaker, turned low, sang the
monotonous hum of the jamming signal. The radio operator slept before the set,
his head resting on his folded arms.
    “Did you try to get through to him again?”
    “Twice. He’s clear off his head now. Tried to tell him to
change his frequency, to code his messages, but he just went on jabbering like
he couldn’t hear me—talking about that woman’s voice.”
    “Who’s the woman? Did he say?”
    The General looked at him oddly. “Says it’s his wife,
Margaret. Guess that’s enough to throw anybody, wouldn’t you say? Pretty
bright, weren’t we, sending up a guy with no family ties.” He arose and
stretched. “I’m going out for a minute. Just make sure you keep your hands off
that set.” He slammed the door behind him.
    The radio operator stirred. “They’re bringing him down,” he
said.
    “I