"I'm sorry, Boney."
"Radiocompressors can do things—any things—without touching. Like rolling cigarettes or chopping up tobacco. The radio waves are so small they—push things." He pushed the air with his left hand. "Not just go through them." He wiggled the brittle fingers of his right.
"Everyone knows that," said Miss Knox. "What you mean is that the supra-short wave has an intense direct effect on matter. It was in all the papers."
"Oh, is that so? Is that so? Well, you listen to me. This isn't in all the papers."
"All right, go on." Miss Knox struck a cigarette, which blew out. She threw it down and succeeded in lighting another.
"You can fool people, also, with the same radio waves," said Boney.
"You mean hide behind the door with a wave compressor and push chairs around? Like that?"
"Don't be silly. Nothing like that. Dr. Brooks told me today, when I was sweeping his private lab in the Toadstool, he told me they make one kind where if you put it on a table, say, no one can see what else is there. You could put—a cat on the table, and anyone would think it was just a table with a radio presser. Until the cat jumped off. Then you could see it."
"Can it jump off?" asked Miss Knox.
"Can it jump off? Did you ever see a cat that couldn't jump? And that's not all—"