A moment later they were all seated about a broad table that groaned under its weight of good things to eat.
Bowing their heads, they sang their grace before meat.
“Peace on earth, good will toward men!” the Captain rumbled.
“If only the men of this earth had good will toward one another, we could throw away our sticks and guns and come to a peaceful spot like this to live all our days.”
It was a very merry time they had in the Captain’s boyhood home that Christmas day and a joyous journey they made back to the city. And why not? Had they not been sentenced to death by their enemies and the enemies of all honest men, and had they not escaped and triumphed?
Next day Johnny returned to the “House of Magic.” He found, however, that much of its charm had gone with the solving of its many mysteries.
“Yes. It was television that made it possible for you to see your friend Iggy and the stolen bonds,” Felix admitted freely enough. “It is very imperfect at present. The time will come, however, when you will be able to look in upon wrongdoers from some spot miles away, and perhaps,” he added with a chuckle, “we will be able to look right through walls of cement, stone or steel. Who dares say we won’t?
“I suppose,” he went on a moment later, “you’d like to know what we were about in that balloon when the long one and the short one, who beyond doubt were Iggy and one of his pals, cut us loose in that balloon. We were about to talk down a beam of light. Shortly after that I made the acquaintance of Newton Mills. He told me he had been working on that. We arranged to complete the experiment from the Sky Ride tower. He swore me to secrecy—so you see I couldn’t well take you in on it.”
“Well,” yawned Johnny, “looks as if it were going to be a trifle dull around here for a time.”
“Might be and might not,” the inventor’s son grinned. “Father is working on some marvelous things. Don’t go far from here without leaving your address. We may need you.”