think he got a current that wrecked the instrument. At any rate, he
grew very much excited.

"Something queer about that stone!" he cried. "This is the chance of a
lifetime! I don't know that a meteor has ever been scientifically
examined so soon after falling."

* * * * *

He hurried us all across to the laboratory. We came back with a truck
load of coils and tubes and batteries and potentiometers and other
assorted equipment. He had men with heavy robber gloves lift the
frost-covered stone to a packing box on a bench. The thing was
irregular in shape, about a foot long; it must have weighed two
hundred pounds. He sent a man racing on a motorcycle to the drug store
to get dry ice (solidified carbon dioxide) to keep the iron stone at
its low temperature.

In a few hours he had a complete laboratory set up around the
meteorite. He worked feverishly in the hot sunshine, reading the
various instruments he had set up, and arranging more. He contrived to
keep the stone cold by packing it in a box of dry ice.

The mechanics stopped for dinner, and I tried to get him to take time
to eat.

"No, Hammond," he said. "This is something big! We were talking about
Einstein. This rock seems energized with a new kind of force: all
meteors are probably the same way, when they first plunge out of
space. I think this will be to relativity what the falling apple is to
gravity. This is a big thing."

He looked up at me, brown eyes flashing.

"This is my chance to make a name, Hammond. If I do something big
enough--Virginia might reconsider her opinion."

Charlie worked steadily through the long hot afternoon. I spent most
of the time helping him, or gazing in fascination at the curious haze
of luminous blue mist that clung like a sphere of azure fog about the
meteoric stone. I did not completely understand what he did; the
reader who wants the details may consult the monograph he is preparing
for the scientific press.

He had the men string up a line from our direct current generator in
the shops, to supply power for his electrical instruments. He mounted
a powerful electromagnet just below the meteorite, and set up an X-ray
tube to bombard it with rays.

* * * * *

Night came, and the fire of the white sun faded from the sky. In the
darkness, the curious haze about the stone became luminescent,
distinct, a dim, motionless sphere of blue light. I fancied that I s