"But the possibilities of that are rather appalling," said President Ellsworth, his brows knit. "Do you realize that if some criminal were to get hold of the thing, he could——"
"No criminal is going to hear of that part of it, even," 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. I only trust that you'll restrain your imaginations as much as possible in your descriptions."
A half-hour later Carton was pouring out an excited tale to the city editor of the Inquirer, who heard him with calm, lighting a cigar. When he had tossed away the match, he looked up.
"It all boils down, then," he commented, "to the fact that Dr. Grantham has made a claim and then put on some hocus-pocus up there to convince you of it."
"Hocus-pocus nothing!" exclaimed Carton heatedly. "I tell you I was as skeptical as you about it until he did the thing before our eyes, made this paper-weight disappear!"
The editor scratched his chin reflectively. "Well, it can have a column on page one," he said, "but remember to keep the responsibility on Dr. Grantham. I'm not going to have this paper mixed up in a silly hoax."
"The biggest story to break in years and you call it a hoax!" Carton said bitterly. "If the building was burning down around you, you'd wait for a statement from the fire department before you'd run the story."
"Well, that would be better than retracting the story the next day," the other rejoined. "These scientists have brainstorms regularly, Carton, and this discovery of Grantham's is one if I ever saw one."