“Are you going to ask us to the dress rehearsal?” inquired Mary, when Tom was spending an evening with her.
“Better than that—I want you to be in it,” he said.
“In it?”
“Yes, you and Helen. I want to see how ladies’ garments will be shown on the screen. Ned and Mr. Damon balk at becoming female impersonators. Will you help?”
“Delighted! Oh, Tom, I do hope it will be a success!”
The night of the final test came at last. Several changes had been made both in the projecting machine and in the broadcasting studio since Tom’s last attempt to show talking pictures. He had put a metallic curtain with reflecting mirrors in the room where Mr. Damon and Ned had done their part and the results were better.
“Though some day, Ned,” Tom said to his chum, after a preliminary test, “I’ll show these images without the use of any screen at all. I’ll pick the electric impulses right out of the air just as wireless sound waves come now.”
“That will mean you can broadcast from any theater without the use of this sort of curtain,” Ned remarked, pointing to the one in the broadcasting room.
“That’s right. All that will be needed in the theater will be a small cabinet, out of sight, on the stage. But more of that later. Now we’ll go ahead with the test.”
The moving picture and theatrical men, representing the syndicate that had bought a half interest in Tom’s invention, were on hand in the studio. They had brought with them some experts who were to pass on certain phases of the machine. Mr. Damon, with Ned and the two girls were in the studio. Tom Swift, with Mr. Jackson and some men to assist him, was busy at the projecting machine by means of which the audience hoped to hear the distant music and see the performers through several solid walls.