Mangler sneered. "Tell me, Newton, if you were to put a lump of radium before this machine, would it turn out to be stable radium—or convert itself all the way down the radioactive ladder to inert lead in the same instant?"
"This is the sort of hypothetical question you always enjoy tossing around, Mangler. I suggest that you procure a half pound or so of radium and we'll try it."
"Then you have only rumor to go on?"
"Look, Mangler, let's make a premise or two. You'll not deny that I know what a Geiger counter is, and how it is used?"
"I'll grant that."
"All right then. Now, I've been shown a machine and a sample of radioactive material. I've been permitted to test this radioactive sample extensively. In fact I had it here for a few hours, using our own test equipment and it was definitely radioactive. This is established to your satisfaction?"
"Go on."
"Then this sample was placed in the machine and within a matter of a minute or so the sample was returned to me, inert and cold."
"May I ask whether there might have been a substitution of sample?" asked Mangler with a sneer.