“You better!” Meg exclaimed. “I’ve been waiting half an hour. Doug Danby wants you to go over to the laboratories with him right away. Important business. He—
“But Johnny!” Her tone changed. “How queer you look! You must have been seeing a ghost.”
“Per-perhaps I have,” Johnny said slowly. “A ghost of—well, never mind of what.”
“Johnny, tell me.” There was a teasing look in Meg’s eyes.
“Not now. Perhaps never.” Johnny was through the door and into the house like a flash.
After hiding the newly acquired thought-camera in his closet, he tiptoed down the back stairs, then sped away through the garden and the back gate toward Doug Danby’s house.
“Can’t face those teasing eyes,” he told himself. “Not just yet. I might tell, and that would be betraying a dark secret, Tao Sing’s and mine.”
CHAPTER IV
A PLACE OF GREAT MAGIC
“Hello Johnny!” Doug Danby exclaimed, as Johnny came racing into the Danby’s back yard. “Where you been? Gee! You look queer! As if you’d been stealin’ chickens or something.” Doug laughed.
“Oh forget it!” Johnny exploded. “Here! Give me your catcher’s mask. I’ll use it to hide my face.”