"Sir Isaac Newton, Jim? Who's he?"
"Skip that part, Hank," I advised. "What the Doc wants to know is: what natural laws apply to things moving? You know—what do they have to do or can't do?"
"Oh!" Hank's brow furrowed. He knotted his ham-like paws and unknotted them again. Finally a light shone in his eyes and he said.
"Well, far's I can see, fust thing is that they can't get goin' by themselves, or if once they do, they can't stop less'n somethin' stops 'em."
I glanced at MacDowell, who had gulped audibly. I said,
"Keep going, guy. You're hot as a firecracker."
"Well, seems like everything in motion makes an equal motion like itself, an' it don't matter whether what it acts on is still or movin'. An' if there's anything else actin' along with it, both movements is goin' to have a say in the showdown."
Me, I'm a publicity man, not a physicist. It was all a deep fog in my mind, but MacDowell's eyes were bulging.
"Go on!" he ordered grimly.