minutes later the word-of-mouth information was carefully spread
through the school that the principal had been taken to the hospital for
observation and he was doing nicely. But by that time his fate seemed
unimportant, for the girls' tenth grade gym teacher was having hysterics
on the front lawn, convinced that all her students had turned into fish;
and the boys' glee club teacher had abruptly announced that the nation
was being invaded by Martians. He, too, had been carried off to the
hospital in haste.

The rest of the faculty was badly shaken. When they met at lunch, they
unanimously wanted the school closed for the rest of the day. But the
principal had been too small a man to delegate any of his authority; as
long as he was hospitalized, the teachers could do nothing.

After the ominous activity of the morning, however, most of the
afternoon passed in relative order. True, the counselor gave pick-up
tests to three tenth graders whose earlier I.Q. scores had been so low
the validity had been questioned; and this time the same three outdid an
Einstein. And the tenth grade math teacher was almost driven to
distraction by a classroom discussion of the algebraic symbology
equating matter and time--all of which was entirely over his head.

Nothing really happened until five minutes before the end of the school
day, when Miss Gerkin knocked weakly on Gary Elvin's door. As soon as he
saw her face, he gave his class free reading and joined her in the hall.
Fearfully she showed him a yellow Bunsen burner, which glowed softly in
the afternoon sunlight.

"Do you know what it is, Gary?"

"It's one of those gas burners you have on the lab tables in--"

"The metal, I mean."

"Looks like gold. Aren't these rather expensive for a high school
classroom?"

She sagged against the wall, running her trembling fingers over her thin
lips. "It's that tenth grade, Gary. I have them last period for general
science. Bill Blake and the Schermerhorn twins got to fooling around
with the electro-magnet. They rewired it somehow and added a few--well,
frankly, I don't understand at all! But now when anything--metal, glass,
granite--when anything is put in the magnetic field, it's changed to
gold."

"Transmutation of atomic structure? You know it can't be done!"

"Yes, I know it. But I saw it happen." She began to laugh, but checked
herself quickly.

"It's a trick. I know that bunch better than you do. It's time one of us
had it out