“Now those claims may be exaggerated, but it has been pretty well proved in experiments that the ray will paralyze and sometimes kill small animals, such as rabbits and guinea pigs, at quite a distance away. It’s been done in the presence of spectators.”
“It’s an invention of Satan!” ejaculated Jim.
“Let it go at that,” replied Joe. “Now, just suppose that this old scientist has developed something of this kind. Suppose he’s been hired by Harrish and Tompkinson to turn it on us with the hope of spoiling our pitching arms and so ruining the Giants’ chances for the pennant.”
“By Jove!” exclaimed Jim, “I believe you’re right. That would explain everything, especially the tingling in our arms after we came out of those mysterious sleeps. Joe, you’re a wonder.”
“Just a matter of putting two and two together,” deprecated Joe.
“Oh, if we could only prove it!” exclaimed Jim. “If we could only hang it on those rascals what we would do to them would be plenty!”
“We’re going to try to prove it,” declared Joe. “We’ll match each other to see who will be the goat. One of us will sit in that window in our shirt sleeves to-morrow morning reading a paper. The other will take that strong pair of field glasses of mine and go into the other room and hide behind the curtains, leaving just space enough to see through with the glasses. Then we’ll see what happens.”
Jim agreed eagerly. The matching decreed that he should be the one to occupy the chair in the window while Joe from the other room would bring the glasses to bear on the apartment across the street.
The sun was shining brightly the next morning as Jim carelessly settled himself in the chair while Joe, behind the curtains in the adjoining room, scanned the window opposite.
For some time nothing happened. But suddenly Joe noted a fluttering of the curtains opposite. He saw the old scientist cast a crafty eye across the street. In the shadows behind the old fellow Joe thought he could discern the figures of two others.