Part 2 (1/2)

That is, you can't start with a gla.s.s of cool water and, hocus-pocus, get it to separate into warm water and ice cube, right?”

”Naturally,” I said, ”for heaven's sake. I mean that's silly.”

”_Very_ silly,” he agreed. ”You know it yourself, eh? So watch.”

He didn't say hocus-pocus. But he did adjust something on one of his gadgets.

There was a faint whine and a gurgling, spluttering sound, like fat sparks climbing between spreading electrodes in a Frankenstein movie.

The water began to steam faintly.

But only at one end! That end was steam; the other was--was--

It was ice. A thin skin formed rapidly, grew thicker; the other open end of the U-tube began to bubble violently. Ice at one end, steam at the other.

Silly?

But I was seeing it!

I must say, however, that at the time I didn't really know that that was all I saw.

The reason for this is that Pudge Detweiler came groaning down the steps to the laboratory just then.

”Ah, Greek,” he wheezed. ”Ah, Virgie. I wanted to talk to you before I left.” He came into the room and, panting, eased himself into a chair, a tired hippopotamus with a hangover.

”What did you want to talk to me about?” Greco demanded.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

”You?” Pudge's glance wandered around the room; it was a look of amused distaste, the look of a grown man observing the smudgy mud play of children. ”Oh, not you, Greek. I wanted to talk to Virgie. That sales territory you mentioned, Virgie. I've been thinking. I don't know if you're aware of it, but when my father pa.s.sed away last winter, he left me--well, with certain responsibilities. And it occurred to me that you might be willing to let me invest some of the--”

I didn't even let him finish. I had him out of there so fast, we didn't even have a chance to say good-by to Greco. And all that stuff about demons and hot-and-cold water and so on, it all went out of my head as though it had never been. Old Pudge Detweiler! How was _I_ to know that his father had left him thirty thousand dollars in one attractive lump of cas.h.!.+

II

Well, there were business reverses. Due to the reverses, I was forced to miss the next few reunions. But I had a lot of time to think and study, in between times at the farm and the shop where we stamped out license plates for the state.

When I got out, I began looking for El Greco.

I spent six months at it, and I didn't have any luck at all. El Greco had moved his laboratory and left no forwarding address.

But I wanted to find him. I wanted it so badly, I could taste it, because I had begun to have some idea of what he was talking about, and so I kept on looking.

I never did find him, though. He found me.

He came walking in on me in a shabby little hotel room, and I hardly recognized him, he looked so prosperous and healthy.

”You're looking just great, Greek,” I said enthusiastically, seeing it was true. The years hadn't added a pound or a wrinkle--just the reverse, in fact.