"Like a cartoon I saw somewhere," grinned Walt. "Had a bird in full armor tinkering with a radio set. The caption was: 'Why shield the set?'"
"Phooey," said Warren. "Look, Tom Swift, is this another of the Franks' brainchildren?"
"Tom Swift?" asked Wes.
"Yeah. That's the nom de plume he invents under. The other guy we call Captain Lightning."
"Oh?" asked Farrell. "Do you read him, too?"
"Sure," grinned Warren. "And say, speaking of comics, I came upon an old, old volume of Webster's International Dictionary in a rare-edition library in Chicago a couple of months ago, and they define 'Comic' as amusing, funny, and ludicrous; not imaginative fiction. How things change."
"They do."
"But to get back to this goldberg, what is it?"
"Warren," said Channing soberly, "sit down!" Warren did. "Now," grinned Channing, "this screwball gadget is an idea whereby we hope to draw power out of the sun."
Warren swallowed once, and then waved for Joe. "Double," he told the restaurateur. Then to the others he said, "Thanks for seating me. I'm ill, I think. Hearing things. I could swear I heard someone say that this thing is to take power from Sol."