*****
As the group chatted, Platz moved to sit behind the table, facing the chairs of the three academics out in the room. With a show of mild stage fright belying his smooth social manner, he fussily rearranged the objects on the table. These were a thin, three-inch-wide disc, a pack of cards, and a device that resembled a small pinball machine. He had supplied them all earlier, for the professors to examine – so they could assure themselves, he had told them with an expression of openness and sincerity, that there were no tricks involved in the props.
Platz put nervousness into his casual chatter as well, both to support the impression that his small movements were thoughtless and unplanned ones, and to blur his judges’ memory that he was a professional showman. Trowe was the only person looking straight at him as the professors also settled themselves. Platz held the man’s gaze, speaking of his admiration for so open-minded an institution as this college, while his hidden hands quietly attached his small, powerful electromagnets to the underside of the table, getting a good grip with their suction cups. He took off his glasses and polished them, checking that without their special filters the large symbols on the backs of his cards were safely invisible. Satisfied with his arrangements, he said, "Ready. Shall we do the cards first?"
Ingram switched on a video camera– Just one, at the back of the room, and they hadn’t even put it on until now! –cleared her throat, and said, “Is everyone familiar with psi-test cards? There are five symbols: circle, square, triangle, star, and wavy lines. Mister Platz will attempt to read from my mind which symbol I am looking at, on each card.” She came forward and picked up the pack from Platz’s table. Shuffling the pack, she gave it to each of the other professors in turn to cut, then, resuming her seat, began to hold up the cards one at a time, their backs to Platz.
“Circle," he called out. “Wavy line. Star. Star. . . ”
Merrivale carefully wrote down each of Platz’s responses, while Trowe, his frown deepening with concentration, looked over Ingram’s shoulder and recorded the actual mark that was on the card. When the run was completed, the two men compared lists. Merrivale exclaimed, “Twenty out of twenty-five! That’s far beyond chance results!”
“Can he do it again?” grunted Trowe.
They went through another run. “Twenty-two!” cried Merrivale.
While the others chattered about statistics, Platz thought, What marks these professors are! They had fallen in with his every suggestion –especially the Ingram dame, who had been so happy to find that he had on hand a pack of the standard ESP cards, so she wouldn’t have to send off for one. You’d think anyone claiming to be testing ESP would at least insist on providing their own test equipment. All these fools had asked was to be given the stuff ahead of time to look over; and aside from the card marks, there had been nothing to find. They were so gullible they had never thought to search him when he came in, for the rest of his equipment.
As the academics finished filling in all their charts on the first pair of tests, Platz pulled forward the miniature pinball board. It was covered by a stiff sheet of hard, transparent plastic – Tamper-proof, he thought sardonically – and had a small electric motor attached, so it would run without his touching it.
Ingram described the device onto the record, as she moved the camera forward for a close-up of the next action, adding, “. . . When we turn it on, the machine will release a tiny metal ball at the top of the slope every thirty seconds. Before each release, Mister Platz will try to predict whether the ball will end up in the right or left hand hole at the bottom, after bouncing its way through the pegs. Is everyone ready?”
The test began, with Merrivale and Trowe again keeping scores. Platz, his hands resting negligently in his lap, flicked the switch of his electromagnet back and forth as he called out his predictions. An occasional fluke bounce counteracted his guidance, so he didn’t have to throw in any deliberate failures this time to avoid a perfect score.
After a second run, the professors compared results again. Trowe shook his head, half in gloom, half in awe. Merrivale beamed.
They were getting worked up now, Platz thought. Drunk on statistics. Now for the crowning touch. Not a physicist in the lot of them – They’d never heard of magnetic levitation – just of levitation, period. And now they’d see it with their own eyes. They’d swear to it forever, though he might have to “lose” this ability, if they ever brought in anyone who might put a few simple controls on the “experiments. ”
He shoved aside the pinball machine and moved the thin, metal disc directly in front of him. He hoped he would not have to drop this part of the show from his demonstrations; he enjoyed the acting here best.
He stared at the disc, tensing his neck muscles to make them stand out. He hadn’t mastered sweating on demand, but a wipe of the back of his hand over his forehead gave the impression of perspiring strain. Ten seconds. . . twenty. To the watchers, he knew, it seemed much more. Then he closed the switch, and the disc began to rise off the table. He let it hover for a count of seven seconds, then cut off the power. Wiping his brow again, he slumped on his elbows, drawing deep breaths.
When he repeated the “test” for confirmation, he let the disc fall after only five seconds, as if he could not hold the effort as long when already tired; he had found this a convincing detail.
Merrivale let out a great sigh, and beamed. “That should convince even you, Trowe. ESP is real, and we’ve got to get this project going before some other college beats us to it! Think what an advantage we’ll have, with a proven subject already available to us. We’ll – the college will be famous. This could develop into a separate department, as it grows in size and importance. ”
Trowe shook his head again, but this time it was pure awe. “I can’t fight you after seeing this.” The enthusiasm of the convert began to come into his voice. “Yes, we must study this phenomenon further. There is certainly something in it. I’ll back you in your presentation, Doctor Merrivale, and propose you to head the project – and the department, if it comes to that,” he ended with a flourish.
“Then our recommendation to proceed with this project is unanimous?” Merrivale pressed, glancing at Ingram.
She nodded. “Though I’ve never claimed the faith you have in the validity of ESP, Doctor Merrivale, I’ve been willing from the start to support your proposal for study of it. And I too will put your name forward as chairman of the project. ”
Merrivale glowed in the double endorsement. “Then we’ve got to get a report written up right away – before other people can get their trivial ideas put forward. I’ll have a word with the members of the review board, too. And we’ll have to arrange for them to see a demonstration; then, after we get their approval, there’ll have to be another demonstration for the benefactor. Mister Platz, can you make yourself available?”
“I shall be in this city for another week; fortunately, I do not have another engagement immediately after that – ” Haven’t been able to get another booking for the next two months, but no need for you to know that! – “so, if you care to pay my expenses, I am prepared to stay on for a short time while you make your arrangements. I would also expect further compensation for additional demonstrations, and a contract when I begin regular work for your project. ”
“Yes, yes, that’s all reasonable. Doctor Ingram will arrange the details with you as soon as we have dates for the demonstrations – ”He paused to receive her agreement, then went on, “Trowe, will you collect the videotape, and get started on the report? I’ll go buttonhole the chairman of the board. Thank you very much, Mister Platz. ” He was already on his way out on the last words. Trowe grabbed the camera and hurried after him.
And thank you, suckers, thought Platz, with an inward smile, listening to the enthusiasm in their fading voices.
As Ingram came over to him, Platz hoped she would restrain herself from emoting over the successful “tests”, and talk instead about the size of salary he could expect
once they got their precious project set up.
But she did neither. She placed the pack of cards down on the table and spread them, backs up. “Look,” she said quietly.
A stab of fear hit him. Had she discovered the marks? How? Why hadn’t she said anything? Would she conspire with him, in order to protect her own reputation? She had, after all, been the one to “find” him; however neutral she had tried to appear, people would keep remembering that. And maybe she had a stake in their project, too.
Anyway, what could she prove? She didn’t have filter glasses on, so she couldn’t see the marks. Even he couldn’t see them, now that he had his glasses off – Wait a minute! He still had the glasses on – and he couldn’t see the marks!
“That’s right,” Ingram answered his thought. “I switched decks. Before the test. You weren’t cheating; you really were reading the symbols from my mind. And the pinball box now has a magnetic field in a metal plate in its base that blocked your weak fields. And the disc I substituted for yours is actually plastic, painted to look like metal, so it couldn’t feel the magnetic levitation. You did it all by mental power. ”
“But I couldn’t have,” blurted Platz.
“You could, and did,” said Ingram, adding, on a private mental level: with a lot of boosting from me. Your talent’s very small, but it’ll grow by the time I’m through with you. And meanwhile you and Merrivale and Trowe will be taking all the flak of publicity and opposition, with me comfortably in the background, a blameless assistant with no crusading to do, and no one shattering my own abilities by getting me too upset to function. This time, at last, my own particular Cause will get the support it needs: I’ll get the study of ESP established properly, and find lots of others of my kind, so I won’t feel so freakish and timid. You’re not much, Platz, but you’re a start. . .
“I did? Really?” faltered Platz.
Ingram watched belief begin to flood through his mind as vistas of what he might be able to do stirred his ambitions and began to strengthen his psi controls.
“Really,” she said firmly. “Now, let’s think up a few more demonstrations you can do, and get you some practice. . . ”