But Arnsen did not sleep for a long time. The stars seemed too close and, somehow, menacing. From the black void, eyes watched—not human eyes, for all their loveliness. They were pools of darkest night, and stars glimmered within them.
He wished that O'Brien had not found the meteorite.
CHAPTER TWO
Lure of the Crystal
There was a change in the boy after that. The dream in his eyes did not fade, but he worked now with an intensity of purpose that had never existed before. Previously, the two had held routine jobs in a huge commercial organization. Without warning O'Brien quit. Arnsen followed suit, feeling the necessity for staying close to the younger man. Yet in the days to come, he amounted to little more than excess baggage.
O'Brien had plans. He borrowed money, scraped together enough to equip a small laboratory, and there he worked long hours. Arnsen helped when he could, though that was not often. He seldom knew exactly what the boy was trying to accomplish.
Once O'Brien said a queer thing. They were in the laboratory, awaiting the result of an experiment, and Arnsen was pacing back and forth nervously.
"I wish I knew what was up, Doug," he said almost with anger. "We've been at this for months now. What do you expect, anyway? You've had no more than an ordinary training in physics."
"The jewel helps," O'Brien said. He took the gem from its suede bag and stared into the cloudy depths. "I catch—thoughts from it."