that I was again incharge of a responsible project--"
Barney shook his head. "No problem, doctor. We'd be drawing on outsidetalent for help in specific matters--very easy to cover up any leadsto you personally. I've handled that general sort of thing before."
McAllen frowned thoughtfully. "I see. But I'd have--There wouldn't beso much work that--"
"No," Barney said. "I guarantee that you'll have all the time you wantfor your own problem." He smiled. "Considering what you told me, I'dlike to hear that one's been solved myself!"
McAllen grinned briefly. "I can imagine. Very well. Ah ... when canyou let me have the money, Mr. Chard?"
* * * * *
The sun was setting beyond the little lake as Barney drew the shadesover the cabin window again. Dr. McAllen was half inside the built-incloset at the moment, fitting a pair of toggle switches to theconcealed return device in there.
"Here we go," he said suddenly.
Three feet from the wall of the room the shadowy suggestion of anotherwall, and of an open door, became visible.
Barney said dubiously, "We came out of _that_?"
McAllen looked at him, sad, "The appearance is different on the exitside. But the Tube's open now--Here, I'll show you."
He went up to the apparition of a door, abruptly seemed to melt intoit. Barney held his breath, and followed. Again there was no sensoryreaction to passing through the Tube. As his foot came down onsomething solid in the shadowiness into which he stepped, the livingroom in Sweetwater Beach sprang into sudden existence about him.
"Seems a little odd from that end, the first time through, doesn'tit?" McAllen remarked.
Barney let out his breath.
"If I'd been the one who invented the Tube," he said honestly, "I'dnever have had the nerve to try it."
McAllen grinned. "Tell you the truth, I did need a drink or two thefirst time. But it's dead-safe if you know just what you're doing."
Which was not, Barney felt, too reassuring. He looked back. The doorthrough which they had come was the one by which they had left. Butbeyond it now lay a section of the entrance hall of the SweetwaterBeach house.
"Don't let that fool you," said McAllen, following his gaze. "If youtried to go out into the hall at the moment, you'd find yourself rightback in the cabin. Light rays passing through the Tube can be shuntedoff and on." He went over to the door, closed and locked it, droppingthe key in his pocket. "I keep it locked. I don't often have visitors,but if I had one while the door was open it could be embarrassing."
"What about the other end?" Barney asked. "The door appeared in thecabin when you turned those switches. What happens now? Supposesomeone breaks into the cabin and starts prowling around--is the doorstill there?"
McAllen shook his head. "Not unless that someone happened to break inwithin the next half-minute." He considered. "Let's put it this way.The Tube's permanently centered on its two exit points, but the effectordinarily is dissipated over half a mile of the neighborhood at theother end. For practical purposes there is no useful effect. When I'mgoing to go through, I bring the exit end down to a focus point ...does that make sense? Very well. It remains focused for around sixtyor ninety seconds, depending on how I set it; then it expands again."He nodded at the locked door. "In the cabin, that's disappeared bynow. Walk through the space where it's been, and you'll notice nothingunusual. Clear?"
Barney hesitated. "And if that door were still open here, and somebodyattempted to step through after the exit end had expanded--"
"Well," McAllen said, moving over to a wall buzzer and pressing it,"that's what I meant when I said it could be embarrassing. He'd getexpanded too--disastrously. Could you use a drink, Mr. Chard? I know Iwant one."
* * * * *
The drinks, served by Fredericks, were based on a rather rough gradeof bourbon, but Barney welcomed them. There was an almost sickfascination in what was a certainty now: he was going to get the Tube.That tremendous device was his for the taking. He was well insideMcAllen's guard; only carelessness could arouse the old man'ssuspicions again, and Barney was not going to be careless. No need tohurry anything. He would play the reserved role he had selected forhimself, leave developments up to the fact that McAllen had carriedthe burden of his secret for twelve years, with no more satisfactoryconfidant than Fredericks to trust with it. Having told Barney somuch, McAllen wanted to tell more. He would have needed very littleencouragement to go on talking about it now.
Barney offered no encouragement. Instead, he gave McAllen a cautiouslyworded reminder that it was not inconceivable they had an audiencehere, at which McAllen reluctantly subsided. There was, however, onefairly important question Barney still wanted answered today. Thenature of the answer would tell him the manner in which McAllen shouldnow be handled.
He waited until he was on his feet and ready to leave beforepresenting it. McAllen's plump cheeks were flushed from the twohighballs he had put away; in somewhat awkward phrases he had beenexpressing his gratitude for Barney's generous help, and his reliefthat because of it the work on the Tube now could be brought to anend.
"Just one thing about that still bothers me a little, doctor," Barneysaid candidly.
McAllen looked concerned. "What's that, Mr. Chard?"
"Well ... you're in good health, I'd say." Barney smiled. "But supposesomething did happen to you before you succeeded in shutting theMcAllen Tube down." He inclined his head toward the locked door.
"That thing would still be around waiting for somebody to open it andstep through...."
McAllen's expression of concern vanished. He dug a forefingercheerfully into Barney's ribs. "Young man, you needn't worry. I'vebeen aware of the possibility, of course, and believe me I'm keeping_very_ careful notes and instructions. Safe deposit boxes ... we'lltalk about that tomorrow, eh? Somewhere else? Had a man in mind, as amatter of fact, but we can make better arrangements now. You see, it'sreally so ridiculously _easy_ at this stage."
Barney cleared his throat. "Some other physicist--?"
"_Any_ capable physicist," McAllen said decidedly. "Just a matter, yousee of how reliable he is." He winked at Barney. "Talk about thattomorrow too--or one of these days."
Barney stood looking down, with a kind of detached surprise, at a manwho had just pronounced sentence of death casually on himself, and onan old friend. For the first time in Barney's career, the question ofdeliberate murder not only entered an operation, but had become in aninstant an unavoidable part of it. Frank Elby, ambitious andmoney-hungry, could take over where McAllen left off. Elby was highlycapable, and Elby could be controlled. McAllen could not. He couldonly be tricked; and, if necessary, killed.
It was necessary, of course. If McAllen lived until he knew how toshut the Tube down safely, he simply would shut it down, destroy thedevice and his notes on it. A man who had gone to such extremelengths to safeguard the secret was not going to be talked out of hisconviction that the McAllen Tube was a menace to the world.Fredericks, the morose eavesdropper, had to be silenced with hisemployer to assure Barney of his undisputed possession of the Tube.
Could he still let the thing go, let McAllen live? He couldn't, Barneydecided. He'd dealt himself a hand in a new game, and a big one--afantastic, staggering game when one considered the possibilities inthe Tube. It meant new interest, it meant life for him. It wasn't inhis nature to pull out. The part about McAllen was cold necessity. Avery ugly necessity, but McAllen--pleasantly burbling something asthey walked down the short hall to the front door--already seemed alittle unreal, a roly-poly, muttering, fading small ghost.
In the doorway Barney exchanged a few words--he couldn't have repeatedthem an instant later--with the ghost, became briefly aware of aremarkably firm hand clasp, and started down the cement walk to thestreet. Evening had come to California at last; a few houses acrossthe street made dim silhouettes against the hills, some of the windowslit. He felt, Barney realized, curiously tired and depressed. A fewsteps behind him,
he heard McAllen quietly closing the door to hishome.
The walk, the garden, the street, the houses and hills beyond,vanished in a soundlessly violent explosion of white light aroundBarney Chard.
* * * * *
His eyes might have been open for several seconds before he becameentirely aware of the fact. He was on his back looking up at the lowraftered ceiling of a room. The light was artificial, subdued; it gavethe impression of nighttime outdoors.
Memory suddenly blazed up. "Tricked!" came the first thought.Outsmarted. Outfoxed. And by--Then that went lost