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black box was a small television monitor and speaker. Bruno and Boots were awed.
    “Wow!” said Boots. “Even if it doesn’t work, it’s a thing of beauty! Now what happens?”
    “We try it out, of course,” replied Elmer. “If my computations are correct, my salmon should appear on the screen and whatever we say will come out on the adjacent speaker.”
    “That’s it?” asked Bruno. “Come on, Elm, any camcorder could do
that
.”
    “Ah,” Elmer’s eyes gleamed. “But could a camcorder beam the image across a pathway of positive ions at the speed of light?”
    “Good point,” said Bruno. He reached for the
On
switch.
    * * *
    “Isn’t this movie exciting, William?” said Mrs. Sturgeon. “I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed an afternoon of television more. How do you think it’s all going to turn out?”
    “We’ll know soon enough, Mildred,” Mr. Sturgeon replied, glancing at his wristwatch. “The picture ends in five minutes, so the climax must be coming up soon.”
    The couple watched the action intently.
    Suddenly there was a buzz of static and the screen went momentarily blank. The Sunday Matinee was replaced by a fuzzy image of a large fish, dead centre on the screen. It wavered once, then stabilized. The audio crackled into what sounded like distant cheering, and a garbled voice cried,
Attention, world! We bring you the Fish!
    This was followed by what sounded like laughter.
    “William, what in the world —?”
    Her husband frowned. “A fish. This is very strange indeed.”
    “But what is it?” she insisted.
    Both stared in perplexed fascination for some time until at last the image of the mysterious fish faded out. It was replaced by the Sunday Matinee just as the words “The End” appeared on the screen.
    “William, our movie is over!”
    Mr. Sturgeon stared at the television screen. “
Attention world,”
he mused.
“We bring you the fish.”
    * * *
    “Hot gazoobies, Elmer, it works!” screamed Bruno ecstatically, jumping up and down in the little space there was left in the room.
    “It’s fantastic!” cried Boots.
    “Yes,” agreed Elmer, flushed with pleasure. “It would appear that I am on the right track.”
    “Hey, I know!” exclaimed Bruno. “We can use this thing to show up on people’s TV sets and tell them how great Macdonald Hall is and how they should send all their sons here!”
    “No, no,” Elmer smiled indulgently. “There is a problem in the equations. It’s a new theory in digital transmission — a curious contradiction, you might say. This is a preliminary experimental model. It will only broadcast to the screen and speaker on my black box. I might be able to work it out for what you want in a few more months,” he added eagerly.
    But unaware of Elmer’s contradictory equations, all the television viewers within a forty-kilometre radius of Macdonald Hall were wondering why “the Fish” had invaded their homes.

Chapter 4
We’re Looking Into It
    In her five years as weekend switchboard operator at television station CHUT, Mary Webster had never had such a busy time as on that Sunday evening.
    “Everybody wants to know what happened at the end of the Matinee movie,” she told her boss, Mr. Tupper. “They’re all telling me something about a fish.”
    “A fish? What are they saying?”
    Mary excused herself to answer another call. “CHUT, good evening … Oh, yes, madam. John married Louise, and the murderer turned out to be Pierre … Yes, madam, I know — a fish. We’re looking into it. Thank you for calling CHUT.” Mary looked up. “You see? There’s another one.”
    Mr. Tupper frowned. “A fish? What about a fish?”
    “They say it appeared, sir,” said Mary. “Just at the climax of the movie, the screen showed a big fish. Then there was the most diabolical laughter and someone said,
‘Attention, world, we bring you the fish.’
Then more laughter. That ‘attention, world’ business really scared some of our