atform.
A short distance from the station they came to the entrance of a huge
tower building.

Carruthers nodded to the doorman and they were admitted into a marble
hallway. A silent, unattended lift bore them swiftly to the
seventy-fifth floor. Down a deep carpeted hallway they moved.
Carruthers touched his door. It opened. He stood to one side as the
other two entered.

* * * * *

Nanette cried with delight at the luxurious splendor of the place.
"Why, Aaron, I never dreamed the night view could be quite so
delightful! I do believe that if the horrid government had not taken
down that little Statue of Liberty and substituted the Shaft Triumph
in its place, that I could easily see her fingers clasping the torch
she was reputed to hold.

"Progress, dear girl," shrugged Carruthers, holding out his hands for
her cape. "By the way, have you folks eaten?"

"Not in a week," said Karl.

"Von Sternberger's food tablets," informed the girl.

Carruthers nodded. His deep-set eyes regarded them appraisingly. "Any
ill effects?"

"None whatever," spoke Danzig. "Neither of us have the slightest
craving for food."

"Good. Did you bring any with you?"

"A whole carton."

"Then I guess we're already to make the experiment. You're sure.
Nanette, that you're not afraid of...."

"Don't be silly, Aaron. I haven't grown up with Karl for nothing. He's
always used me for the disagreeable end of his crazy experiments. And
besides," she smiled on both men. "I have a woman's curiosity for the
unknown."

"Very well," said Carruthers gravely. From his waistcoat pocket he
took a ring of keys and inserted one of them into the lock of an
immense steel door. "Our laboratory," he announced, swinging the door
wide.

* * * * *

Nanette's eyes opened wide at the paneled whiteness of the room. Most
of the far side was taken up with electrical machines, dynamos,
generators and glass enclosed motors of an advanced type. Overhead,
concealed lights made the room as light as day. A heavy glass railing
shielded a square spot in the exact center of the room.

"What's that for?" asked the girl.

Danzig and Carruthers both regarded it with troubled eyes. It was
Carruthers who spoke.

"That railing marks the spot where Professor Dahlgren stood when the
rays of our atomic machine struck him."

"You mean," breathed the girl, "that he never moved from that spot
after the rays touc