"Charley de Milo, the Armless Wonder!" Dave said. "And many more sights
inside, ladies and gentlemen, sights to amaze you, sights to chill your
very blood, sights ..."

* * * * *

One-thirty, and the last show over. The rocket had come down for the
night; all over the midway lights were blinking off and silence was
creeping, like a stain, over the ground. Professor Lightning was sitting
on his bunk, in the small tent he shared with Erma the Fish Girl. Erma
was out drinking with Dave Lungs and some of the others, and only the
professor and Charley de Milo were in the room. Charley was sitting on
Erma's bunk, looking resigned.

"Well, if you still want to talk to me," he said, "now's your chance.
O.K.?"

"I certainly want to talk to you," Professor Lightning said firmly. "I
want to tell you of the most important moment of your life."

Charley tried to think of something to say to this, but there wasn't
anything. He shifted on the bunk, scratched at his nose with his left
foot, and grinned spastically. "Sure," he said at random. "And, by the
way, I'm sorry about before, professor. But the show was going on,
and--"

"The show," Professor Lightning said, in tones of the utmost contempt.
"Forget about the show--now, and tomorrow, and forever."

"But--"

"No words," Professor Lightning said, raising a hand delicately.
"Please. Allow me to tell you of my invention."

Charley sighed and lay back on the bed. "Invention, professor?" he said.
"You mean sort of a machine?"

For some reason, Professor Lightning looked irritated. "It's not a
machine," he said flatly. Then he sighed and his tone changed. "Charley,
my boy," he said, "do you remember what I was telling you before? About
how the world has entered a new Age of Science? How new inventions, new
discoveries, are coming along every day?"

"Well, sure," Charley said. "The papers talk about it every once in a
while. You know, I see the papers, or the Chicago _American_, anyhow. My
mother sends it to me. She likes the columns."

"Why," Professor Lightning went on, as if he hadn't been listening at
all, "right here in Wrout's Carnival Shows, we have things that just
didn't exist ten or fifteen years ago. The electronic band. The Forever
bulb."

"That's right," Charley put in. "And look at Joe Wicks. Why, he can do
tricks with all those new things they got on cars, tricks nobody ever
did before or even thought about in the old days."