eeting of the club in the chemistry laboratory for an
hour before the first class. All of the members were there when he
arrived.

Ken called the meeting to order at once. "I guess you've all heard the
news broadcasts, and you know what's happening here in town," he said.
"Yesterday you talked about the possibility of collecting samples and
analyzing the material of the comet's tail. I don't know what you
decided. You can fill me in later on that. The problem is a lot more
important now than it was yesterday.

"It's beginning to seem as if the presence of the comet may actually be
responsible for the wave of mechanical failures. Finding out how and why
is just about the biggest problem in the whole world right now."

A babble of exclamations and protests arose immediately from the other
members of the group. Al Miner and Dave Whitaker were on their feet. Ted
Watkins waved a hand and shouted, "Don't tell us you're swallowing that
superstitious junk!"

Ken held up a hand. "One at a time. We haven't got all day, and there's
a lot of ground to cover. Ted, what's your comment?"

"My comment is that anybody's got a screw loose if he believes the
comet's got anything to do with all those cars being in Art's garage.
That stuff went out of fashion after the days of old Salem."

Several of the others nodded vigorously as Ted spoke.

"I guess we do need to bring some of you up to date on the background
material," said Ken. "Joe, tell them what we found last night."

Briefly, Joe Walton described the engines they had dismantled.
"Something had happened to them," he said, "which had never happened to
an engine since Ford drove his first horseless carriage down Main
Street."

"It doesn't mean anything!" exclaimed Ted. "No matter what it is, we
haven't any basis for tying it to the comet."

"Can you name any other universal factor that could account for it?" Ken
asked. "We have an effect that appears suddenly in Mayfield, Chicago,
Paris, and Cairo. Some people say it's the additives in gasoline, but
you don't get them showing up simultaneously in all parts of the world.
There is no other factor common to every locality where the mechanical
failures have occurred, except the comet.

"So I called this meeting to suggest that we expand our project beyond
anything we previously had in mind. I suggest we try to determine the
exact relationship between the breakdowns and the appearance of the
comet."

Big Dave Whitaker, sitti