"You can answer some fool questions," said Lieutenant McGuire abruptly, "if you don't mind."
The scientist smiled broadly. "We're used to that," he told the young officer; "you can't think of any worse ones than those we have heard. Have a chair."
McGuire drew a clipping from his pocket—it was the newspaper account he had read—and he handed it to Professor Sykes.
"I came to see you about this," he began.
The lips of Professor Sykes lost their genial curve; they straightened to a hard line. "Nothing for publication," he said curtly. "As usual they enlarged upon the report and made assumptions and inferences not warranted by facts."
"But you did see that flash?"
"By visual observation I saw a bright area formed on the terminator—yes! We have no photographic corroboration."
"I am wondering what it meant."
"That is your privilege—and mine," said the scientist coldly.
"But it said there," McGuire persisted, "that it might have been a signal of some sort."