Rivets and Sprockets Read Online Free PDF Page A

doctor. “This is really whizzing. How does the saucer do it, Sprockets?”
    â€œSir, as I’ve explained to you before, the saucer has hyper-sub-medio space inductors that are connected to a thought thingummy, so naturally we can fly as fast as thought.”
    â€œNaturally,” said the doctor, “I remember. Ilium has merely to think for it to go—this way or that way, and as fast as he wants—and that’s the way it goes. So of course we fly thoughtfully. Very simple indeed. How fast are we flying now?”
    Sprockets spoke to Ilium, then translated: “Only three hundred thousand miles a minute at the moment, sir. It is dreadfully slow, but he says if we go faster you might become abbled—I mean addled—even with the nullifiers on. At the present rate, sir, we will land on Mars in six hours and seven minutes. As for Professor Katz and the Mongolians, of course—”
    â€œYes, yes? What about the rascals? Are we near them?”
    â€œPractically abeam, sir. As nearly as I can compute, sir, they are six thousand and three miles, seven hundred and forty-two feet off to starboard. Ilium wants to know if you would like to swing over and have a look at their spaceship.”
    â€œIndeed I would! I have the gravest suspicions about their ship,” said the doctor emphatically.
    â€œDaddy,” said Jim, “do you think their ship was built from the designs someone stole from you?”
    â€œExactly,” snapped the doctor. “And I suspect Vladimir Katz. All he can do is filch and purloin, connive and prevaricate. He cannot create.”
    â€œDaddy, what does ‘filch and purloin, connive and prevaricate’ mean?”
    â€œIt means less than I can say, and he’s a double-dyed rat to boot. Heaven preserve us! What’s that racket?”
    They turned to see Rivets sitting up, blinking his eye lights rapidly.
    â€œYeedle-de-yee! Jiggle-le-je!” Rivets was singing. “Oh, Spwockets, I can twibble like a mocklingbird!”
    Sprockets had his screwdriver and oil can out in a flash. It took hardly a second to fix the screw, but it was too late to change what the doctor had heard.
    Dr. Bailey shook his head sadly. “If only I’d known in time, I could have sent him back to the factory. Now we’ll be stuck on Mars with an abbled robot.”

4
    They Abble the Professor
    Sprockets wanted desperately to explain about poor Rivets’ loose screw, which seemed to be getting looser no matter how he tightened it. But it was a bad moment to explain anything, for suddenly everyone’s attention was taken by the Mongolian spaceship, which appeared off to starboard.
    It was a long, gleaming rocketlike shape—exactly the shape of the spaceship model in the doctor’s laboratory. Sprockets thought it looked very handsome indeed as it streaked through space, with the stars bright as diamonds beyond it and a stream of blue fire shooting from its tail.
    â€œVery handsome,” said the doctor, thinking the same thing. “Very handsome, indeed. As naturally it would be, since I designed it.” Then all at once his mop of white hair began to bristle. “Sprockets, tell Ilium to take us closer. It will ease my ire to see Vladimir Katz befuddled—and he is bound to be befuddled when he sees who has overtaken him in a purple saucer.”
    â€œYes, sir,” said Sprockets. “But I regret to remind you, sir, that although we will be able to see Professor Katz through our viewing ports, he will be unable to see us through ours. The saucer’s windows are of a special material that is transparent only from the inside.”
    Even so, it did seem to ease the doctor’s mind slightly when he saw the look on the professor’s face as the saucer swung close. Prof. Vladimir Katz was a fuming, wheezing, waddling barrel of a man with no hair on his head, no neck under it, and a great many chins, possibly four or