a year on this thing. When Sam moved in, we found we were both
radio hams and electronic bugs. I'd been fooling around with crystal
growing, trying to design some new type transistors. Then Sam suggested
some experiments in co-crystallization--using different chemicals that
will crystallize in successive layers in one crystal.

"We stumbled on one combination that made a terrific amplifier. Then we
found it would actually radiate to a distant point all by itself.
Finally, we discovered that its radiation was completely
nonelectromagnetic. There is no way we have yet found of detecting the
radiation from the crystal--except by means of another piece of the same
crystal.

"I know it's against all the rules in the books. It just doesn't make
sense. But there it is. It works."

Sam Atkins had turned away for a moment to attend to one of the tanks,
but Fenwick found himself intensely aware of the man's presence. There
was nothing he could put his finger on. He just knew, with such intense
certainty, that Sam Atkins was _there_.

"What does Mr. Atkins do?" Fenwick asked. "Does he have a dairy farm,
too?"

Ellerbee nodded. "His place is right next to mine. Since we started this
project Sam has practically lived here, however. He's a bachelor, and so
he takes most of his meals with us."

"Seems strange--" Fenwick mused, "two men like you, way out here in the
country, doing work on a level with that of the best crystal labs in the
country. I should think you'd both rather be in academic or industrial
work."

Ellerbee smiled and looked up through the windows to the meadows beyond.
"We're _free_ out here," he said.

Fenwick thought of Baker. "You are that," he said.

"You said you wanted to investigate the whole production process. We'll
start here, if you like, and I'll show you every step in our process.
This tank contains an ordinary alum solution. We start building on a
seed crystal of alum and continue until we reach a precise thickness.
Here is a solution of chrome alum. You'll note the insulated tanks. Room
temperature is maintained within half a degree. The solutions are held
to within one-tenth of a degree. Crystal dimensions must be held to
tolerances of little more than the thickness of a molecule--"

* * * * *

The gimmick to fool him and cheat him. Where was it? Fenwick asked
himself. Baker was sure it was here. If so, where could it be? There was
no trickery in the crystal