"Sure," he said exultantly, "this is she. Look, Jim, they draw a cathode like this, and the grids are made with a series of fine parallel lines. Different, but more like the real grid than our symbol of a zig-zag line. The plate is a round circle instead of a square, but that's so clearly defined that it comes out automatically. Here's your annular electrodes, and the ... call 'em deflection plates. I think we can hook this do-boodle up as soon as we get to our place in Lincoln Head."
"Let's go then. Not only would I like to see this thing work, but I'd give anything to know what it's for!"
"You run the crate," said Barney, "and I'll try to decipher this mess into voltages for the electrode-supply and so on. Then we'll be in shape to go ahead and hook her up."
The trip to Lincoln Head took almost an hour. Barney and Jim landed in their landing yards and took the book and the searchlight-thing inside. They went to their laboratory, and called for sandwiches and tea. Jim's sister brought in the food a little later and found them tinkering with the big beam tube.
"What have you got this time?" she groaned.
"Name it and it's yours," laughed Barney.
"A sort of gadget that we found on the Red Desert."
"What does it do?" asked Christine Baler.
"Well," said Jim, "it's a sort of a kind of a dingbat that does things."