Part 4 (1/2)
Barby came to Rick's defense ”He was tired After all, it's hard work to get wonderful ideas like the one he had last night”
Apparently Barby had told Jan all about it, because the girl asked, ”Can I be a abuck Mob?” There seemed to be just a touch of wistfulness about the way she added, ”You always see adventures of one sort or another at Spindrift”
Rick answered, ”Please don't believe everything Barby tells you She exaggerates, sort of”
”I do not,” Barby answered emphatically ”We do have adventures
Besides, Jan already knew about some of them, because she read about Spindrift in the papers And she's already a member of the Mob, because I invited her!”
Rick interpreted Barby's glare correctly It said that if he wasn't gracious and nice to their new guest, he would have his sister to reckon with, and, as he knew full well, she was no mean adversary
”Fine,” he said ”Welcon you the subject of economic history”
”Jan, please,” she answered, then smiled shyly ”But couldn't I have another subject? I'uess”
”That's just the point,” Scotty explained
Barby had a serious look on her pert face ”Of course Rick's idea about stealing a ave me an idea--if you'll co-operate”
”It depends on the idea,” Rick answered warily
”Oh, don't be so cautious I' me on any trips” Barby referred to the proled out of her brother that she could go on the next expedition, a proled in a hazardous adventure in the far-off South Seas
Rick perched on the arm of a sofa ”Okay Let's have it”
”Well, I was thinking about the Harvest Moon Show at school” She explained, in an aside to Jan, ”Every October the high school puts on a big variety show in the city auditorium to raise money for the school athletic fund Rick said he could make me a radio receiver that I could wear in my hair”
”He can,” Scotty interjected ”Remember the control radios we made for the Tractosaur? He could make one for you the sa bulldozer” the Spindrift scientists had designed
Barby continued, ”I know you can make a small transmitter that will fit in your pocket, because that's all the Tractosaur control was, really Well, if I wore a receiver that no one could see, and if you carried a transmitter that no one could see, we could put on theact in history!”
Rick's quick ireat idea! He could work ae He would choose a person in the audience and ask for so from wallet or purse, and whisper: ”Please let ers, is it? Where is 3218 Newark Drive? Oh, over by the airfield Well, Mr Rogers, let me see if I can transmit all this information telepathically to my sister” Then he would hold up the driver's license and say loudly, ”What have I here?” And Barby, who had heard every whispered word, would answer He would coax the information out of her, and the audience would be baffled
”Sensational,” he complimented her ”We'll do it”
”Brant and Brant,” Scotty intoned, ”theproof of the science of parapsychology! Mystifying, terrifying, a scientific pheno ht the implications of Barby's idea
Jan Morrison was a scientist's daughter, too, and printed electronic circuits were no mystery to her She said enthusiastically, ”You could even doat a distance”
”How?” Barby asked
”Well, if there were two transo to someone outside the auditorium, like the mayor, or some other official, and have him write a sentence on a sheet of paper, which Scotty could read over his shoulder Then Barby, on the auditoriue, would ask everyone to look at their watches, and say that the mayor had just written so and so on a sheet of paper, then burned it Scotty would bring the mayor to the auditorium, and Barby would tell him what she had said, and at what tiht Of course it would be”
Rick looked at the girl with new respect It was a very good gimmick indeed He said as much
Barby put her arm around Jan's waist ”We'll be sure to invite you to the show Won't it be fun?”