TWO FACES
Feeling the need of fresh air and quiet after the strain of the last half hour, Ralph 124C 41+ climbed the few steps leading from the laboratory to the roof and sat down on a bench beneath the revolving aerial.
The hum of the great city came faintly from below. Aeroflyers dotted the sky. From time to time, trans-oceanic or trans-continental air liners passed with a low vibration, scarcely audible.
At times a great aircraft would come close—within 500 yards perhaps—when the passengers would crane their necks to get a good view of his "house," if such it could be called.
Indeed, his "house," which was a round tower, 650 feet high, and thirty in diameter, built entirely of crystal glass-bricks and steelonium, was one of the sights of New York. A grateful city, recognizing his genius and his benefits to humanity, had erected the great tower for him on a plot where, centuries ago, Union Square had been.
The top of the tower was twice as great in circumference as the main building, and in this upper part was located the research laboratory, famous throughout the world. An electromagnetic tube elevator ran down the tower on one side of the building, all the rooms being circular in shape, except for the space taken up by the elevator.
Ralph, sitting on the roof of his tower, was oblivious to all about him. He was unable to dismiss from his mind the lovely face of the girl whose life he had just been the means of saving. The soft tones of her voice were in his ears. Heretofore engrossed in his work, his scientific mind had been oblivious to women. They had played no part in his life. Science had been his mistress, and a laboratory his home.
And now, in one short half hour, for him the whole world had become a new place. Two dark eyes, a bewitching pair of lips, a voice that had stirred the very core of his being—