such a gentlem an) a n d ” —she m ade an eloquent gesture— “ puff! He

  disappeared.”

  “ E x trao rd in ary .”

  “ Mr. Wide, I ’ve been paying you for a week now, and you haven’t

  gone to look at the ghost yet. I w ant you to go in person. Now.

  T o n ig h t.”

  “ M adame, under no circum stances will I undertake to leave my

  house on business.”

  “ If you d o n ’t I ’m goin g to fire you and hire a lawyer to sue for

  every dim e I ’ve p aid y o u .”

  “ However, it is only once in a lifetim e that a m an is privileged to

  part the cu rtain th at veils the su p e rn a tu ra l.” Wide rose from his huge

  chair. “ Arch, get the car. Doctor, my dinner for to n ig h t m ust be

  postponed in any event; w ould you care to accom pany us?”

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  Plan[e]t Engineering

  D u rin g the drive to D odson’s laboratory I ventured to ask Miss

  Dodson, w ith w hom I dam ply shared the rum ble seat of W ide’s

  H eron coupe, her age. “ E ig h t,” she replied, low ering her eyes

  demurely.

  “ Really? I had observed that your attire is som ew hat juvenile, but

  I w ould have taken you for a m uch older g irl.”

  “ Professor Dodson liked for me to be as young as possible, and I

  always tried to m ake him h a p p y —you know , for a robot y o u ’re

  kind of a cuddle-bear.”

  It struck me then that if Miss Dodson were, in fact, to take Wide

  off the case, I m ight recom m end my friend Street to her; but since for

  the tim e being Wide was still engaged, I contented myself w ith

  p u ttin g an arm gently across her shoulders and slip p in g one of my

  professional cards into her purse.

  “As you see, D octor,” Wide explained w hen we had reached the

  three thousand and twelfth floor, “ Dodson both lived and worked in

  this building. T h is floor held his living quarters, and Miss

  D odson’s— they shared most facilities. T h e floor above is his

  laboratory, and to preserve his privacy, is inaccessible by elevator. As

  this is your home, Miss Dodson, perhaps you should lead the w ay.”

  We followed the girl u p a sm all private escalator, and found

  ourselves in a single im m ense room occupying the entire three

  thousand and thirteenth floor of the building. T h ro u g h broad

  w indow s we could see the u p p er surface of the storm rag in g several

  miles below; but this was hardly m ore than a background, however

  violent and somber, to the glitterin g array of instru m en ts and

  m achines before us. Between our position by the escalator and the

  large clock on the opposite wall three hundred feet away, every inch

  of floor space was cram m ed w ith scientific apparatus.

  “ I left the lights off," Alice Dodson rem arked in a shaken voice, “ I

  know I did. You d o n ’t suppose that h e— ”

  “ T here!” St. Louis exclaimed, and follow ing the direction

  indicated by his o u tth ru st finger, I saw a black-clad figure bent over a

  44

  The Rubber Bend

  sinister m achine in the center of the laboratory. W hile St. Louis

  m uttered som ething ab o u t never going ou t on a m urder case w ithout

  a gun again, I seized a heavy isobar from a rack near the door.

  “ You w o n ’t need that, W esting,” a fam iliar voice assured me.

  “ Street! W hat in the w orld are you do in g here?”

  “ E arn in g my pay as a co n su ltin g detective, I hope. I am here at the

  in stigation of Mr. Noel W ide.”

  Miss Dodson, still ap p aren tly som ew hat shaken, looked at Wide.

  “ Is this true?”

  “ C ertainly. M adame, because you found me at my desk w hen you

  called, you supposed me inactive; in p o in t of fact I was, am o n g other

  activities, aw aitin g Street’s re p o rt.”

  “ You were w orking the crossword in the Tim es! Your house told

  me.”

  “ C onfound it! I said am o n g other activities.”

  “ Here, n o w ,” Street intervened. “ Q u arrelin g lays no spooks. From

  the fact th a t you are here, Wide, I assume there has been some recent

  developm ent.”

  “T here has been an o th er ap p aritio n . Miss Dodson w ill tell y ou.”

  “ Since my ‘father’ d isappeared,” Miss D odson began, “ I have

  entered his laboratory at least once every day—you know, to dust

  and sort of tidy u p .”

  “ P fu i!” W ide interjected.

  Seeing that both Street and Wide were giving Miss Dodson their

  com plete atten tio n , I took the o p p o rtu n ity to speak to W ide’s

  assistant. “ St. L o u is,” I asked, “ why does he m ake that peculiar

  noise?”

  “ Every once in a w hile he gets too disgusted for verbal, and wants

  to w rite ou t a com m ent on his p rin te r— ”

  “ Why? In terio r printers are fine for notes, b u t I ’ve never heard of

  using them to su pplem ent conversation.”

  “ O h, yeah? D id you ever try to say: *#@&!0!!?”

  “ I see your p o in t.”

  “Anyway, he doesn’t like wom en m ucking aro u n d a house, but

  45

  Planfejt Engineering

  his prin ter d o n ’t work; he got clarified butter in it one tim e w hen he

  was trying to m ake Currie Con C am e m il Pilz a la N o el Wide, so

  w hen he tries to feed o u t the p aper he makes that noise.”

  “ You say,” Street was asking Miss Dodson, “ that w hen you saw

  him he was sittin g ? W here?”

  “ R ight there,” she said, indicating a low casual chair not far from

  us.

  “ But, as I understand, in both the earlier ap p a ritio n s he was lying

  down?"

  T h e girl nodded voicelessly.

  “ May I ask precisely where?”

  “T h e f-first tim e—pardon m e— the first time over on a day bed he

  kept over there to rest on. T h e s-second — ”

  “ Please try and control yourself. Dr. Westing can ad m inister

  m edication if you require it.”

  “T h e second time, he was on a chaise longue he had p u t in for me

  near his favorite workbench. So I could talk to him there.”

  “ And his behavior on these two occasions?”

  “ Well, the first tim e I had been so worried, and I saw him lying

  there on the bed the way he used to, and w ith o u t th in k in g I ju st

  called out, ‘S nookum s!’ — th a t’s w hat I always used to call h im .”

  “And his behavior? Give me as m uch detail as possible.”

  “ He seemed to hear me, and started to get u p __ ”

  “ And disappeared?”

  “ Yes, it was terrible. T h e second time, w hen he was on the chaise, I

  was carrying some dirty beakers and Erlenm eyer flasks over to the

  sink to wash. W hen I saw him there I dropped them, and as soon as I

  did he disappeared.”

  Street nodded. “ Very suggestive. I th in k at this p o in t we had better

  exam ine the day bed, the chaise longue, and that chair. Tell me, Miss

  Dodson, of the five of us, w hich is closest in height to the

  professor?”

  “ W h y __ ” She hesitated for a m om ent. “ Why, Dr. Westing, I

  suppose.”

  46

  The Rubber Bend

  “ E xcellent,” said Street. We all trooped after him as he crossed the

  huge laboratory to the day bed Alice Dodson had indicated.

  “ W esting,” Street m urm ured, “ if you will oblige m e.”

  “ But w hat is it you wish me to do?”

  “ I w ant you to lie dow n on that bed. O n his back, Miss Dodson?”

  “ More on his side, I th in k .”

  “ And try,” St. L ouis p u t in, “ to look like a genius, D oc.” Wide

  shushed him .

  “ D on’t hesitate to arrange his limbs, Miss D odson,” Street told

  her; “ this is im p o rtan t. T here, is that satisfactory?”

  T h e girl nodded.

  Street w hipped a tape rule from his pocket and m ade a series of

  quick m easurem ents of my position, jo ttin g dow n the results on a

  notepad. “And now, Miss Dodson, please give me the date and time

  when you saw the professor here — as exactly as possible.”

  “ October twelfth. It was about ten-tw enty.”

  “ Excellent. And now the chaise.”

  At the chaise longue we repeated the same procedure, Miss

  Dodson giving the date and time as October eighteenth, at ten m inutes

  to eleven.

  W hen I had been m easured in the chair as well, Street said,

  “And today is O ctober twenty-fifth. At w hat tim e did you see the

  professor?”

  “ It was abo u t one o ’clock this afternoon.”

  W hile Street scribbled calculations on his pad, Wide cleared his

  throat. “ I notice, Street, that the time of this m ost recent a p p a ritio n

  would seem to violate w hat m ight earlier have appeared to be an

  invariable rule; that is, that D odson's ghost appeared at or very

  nearly at ten-thirty in the m o rn in g .”

  Street nodded. “ If my theory is correct, we shall see that those

  significant-looking times were mere coincidences, arising from the

  fact that it was at about th at time each day that Miss Dodson entered

  this room . You did say, did you not, Miss Dodson, that you came

  every day?’’

  47

  Planfejt Engineering

  T h e girl shook her head. “ I suppose I did, but actually the first

  a p p a ritio n frightened me so m uch th at I d id n ’t come again u n til — ”

  “ U ntil the eighteenth, w hen you saw him the second tim e. I

  suspected as m u ch .”

  “ Street,” I exclaimed, “you understand this dreadful business. For

  heaven’s sake tell us w hat has been h a p p e n in g .”

  “ I shall ex pound my theory in a m om ent,” Street replied, “ but first

  I intend to attem pt an experim ent w hich, should it succeed, w ill

  confirm it an d perhaps provide us w ith valuable in fo rm atio n as

  well. Miss Dodson, your ‘father’ — like m yself—dabbled in every sort

  of science, did he not?”

  “ Yes, at le a st... I th in k so.”

  “T h e n is there such a th in g as a w ind tunnel in this laboratory?

  O r any sort of a large, pow erful fan?”

  “ H e —he was interested in the techniques air-co n d itio n in g en g in eers

  use to m ake their systems as noisy as possible, Mr. Street. I th in k he

  had a big fan for th a t.”

  After a ten-m inute search we found it, a pow erful industrial-grade

  centrifugal fan. “ Exactly w hat we need,” Street enthused. “ St. Louis,

  you and W esting take the other side of this thing. We w ant to set it u p

  on the lab bench nearest the escalator.”

  W hen we had positioned it there, Street turned to the girl an d said,

  “ Miss Dodson, at this p o in t I require your fullest cooperation — the

  success of this experim ent depends prim arily up o n yourself. I have

  placed the fan where you see it, and I intend to spike the base to the

  top of the bench and perm anently wire the m otor to m ake it as

  difficult as possible for anyone to disconnect. I w ant your solem n

  w ord that you w ill no t disconnect it, or interfere w ith its o p eratio n

  in any way; and th at you w ill exert your utm ost effort to prevent

  any other person whatsoever from doing so before N ovem ber

  seventh.”

  “ You th in k ,” the girl said in so low a tone that I could scarcely

  m ake o u t the words, “ th at he is still alive, d o n ’t you?”

  " I d o .”

  48

  The Rubber Bend

  “ If this fan ru n s all that time, will it bring him back to us?”

  “ It may h elp .”

  “T h en I prom ise.”

  “ Even should the professor be restored to you, it m ust rem ain in

  o p e ra tio n —do you understand? It m ight be wise, for exam ple, to

  persuade him to take a brief holiday, leaving the fan u n to u ch ed .”

  “ I will do my best,” the girl said. “ He likes the seaside.”

  Street nodded, and w ithout another w ord walked to the wall,

  threw one of the m ain circuit breakers, and began soldering the

  fan-m otor leads into a 220-volt utility circuit. U nder W ide’s

  direction St. L ouis an d I found ham m ers and a gross of heavy nails,

  w ith w hich we secured the base to the benchtop.

  “ N ow ,” Street an n ounced w hen all our tasks were com plete, “once

  again I shall require cooperation — this time from every one of you. I

  shall stand here at the circuit breaker. T h e rest of you m ust scatter

  yourselves over this entire laboratory, each taking a section of it as

  his ow n responsibility. W hen I tu rn on the fan, things w ill begin to

  blow about. W hat we are looking for w ill, I think, be a slip of

  notebook paper, and w hen you observe it, it w ill be at a distance of

  about seventy-six centim eters from the floor. Seize it at once — if you

  wait for it to settle we are lost.”

  We did as he asked, and no sooner was the last of us in position

  than the huge fan sprang in to life w ith h urricane force. A

  trem endous w ind seemed to sweep the entire laboratory, and several

  pieces of lig h t glassware w ent over w ith a crash.

  Keeping my eyes fixed, as Street had suggested, at a height of

  seventy-six centim eters above the floor, I at once observed a sheet of

  paper fluttering in the m achine-m ade wind. I have often observed that

  a scrap of paper, blow n about, w ill seem to appear w hen its surface

  faces me and disappear w hen it is edge-on, and for an instant I

  assum ed th at the peculiar character of this one stem m ed from a

  sim ilar cause; then I realized that this was no t the case— the sheet

  was, in fact, actually disappearing and reappearing as it danced in the

  gale. Street and I both dived for it at once. He was a shade quicker;

  49

  Plan[e]t Engineering

  for a split second I saw the tips of his fingers vanish as th o u g h

  am putated by some dem onic knife; then he was w aving the paper

  overhead in triu m p h .

  “ Street!” I exclaimed, “y o u ’ve got it! W hat is it?”

  “T h ere's no need to shout, Westing. If y o u ’ll step back here behind

  the inlet we can talk qu ite com fortably. I was relying u p o n a

  b rillia n t scientist’s h ab itu al need to reduce his th o u g h ts to paper,

  and it has not failed m e.”

  “ W hat is it?” I asked, “ C an I see it?”

  “ C ertainly,” Street said, h an d in g me the paper. Miss Dodson,

  Wide, and St. L ouis crowded around.

  T h e note read:

  160 cm — 4:00

  159.5 — 2:00

  159.0— 12:00

  d = 14,400 sec/cm * h

  “ Brief,” Street remarked, “ but em inently satisfying. T h e great

  scientist’s calculations agree astonishingly well w ith my o w n .”

  “ But, Street,” I protested, “it doesn’t tell us anything. I t’s only a

  form ula.”

  “ Precisely the way I have always felt about those prescriptions of

  yours, W esting.”

  Wide said, “ I th in k it’s time you reported, Street.”

  “ It will take only a few m om ents now for me to begin the rescue of

  Professor D odson,” Street told him . “ And then we w ill have some

  m inutes in w hich to talk. Have you ever practiced yoga, Mr. Wide?

  No? A p ity .”

  Before o u r astonished eyes Street proceeded to stand on his head,

  assum ing the posture I believe is know n as “T h e Pole.” We heard him

  say in a distinct voice, “ W hen you grow tired of this, Professor, you

  have only to use the escalator. Use the escalator.” T h e n w ith

  50

  The Rubber Bend

  the agility of an acrobat he was u p rig h t again, slightly red of

  face.

  “ I believe, sir,” Wide said, ‘‘that you owe us an e x p la n a tio n .”

  ‘‘And you shall have it. It occurred to me today, w hile I sat in

  the lodgings I share w ith Dr. Westing, that Professor D odson’s

  disappearance m ig h t be in some way connected w ith his m em bership

  in the Peircian Society. T h a t he was a m em ber was stated in the

  dossier you passed on to me, Wide, as you may recall.”

  Wide nodded.

  “I began my investigation, as Dr. Westing can testify, by rereading

  the com plete works of Peirce and K night, keeping in m ind that as a

  Peircian Dodson ardently believed that the persecuted philo so p h er

  had arranged his ow n supposed death and reappeared under the nom

  de guerre of K night; certainly, as the Peircians p o in t out, a suitable