t?" asked Manning, and now there was a cold chill
of excitement in his voice.

"Theories, no real explanations. Remember that you can't see the rod
after you push it into the sphere. It's just as if it isn't there.
Well, maybe it isn't. You can't disturb anything within that sphere or
you'd change the sum of potential-kinetic-pressure energies within it.
The sphere seems dedicated to that one thing ... it cannot change. If
the rod struck the imperm wire within the field, it would press the wire
down, would use up energy, decrease the potential energy. So the rod
simply had to miss it somehow. I believe it _moved into some higher
plane of existence and went around_. And in doing that it had to turn so
many corners, so many fourth-dimensional corners, that the length was
used up. Or maybe it was increased in density. I'm not sure. Perhaps no
one will ever know."

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" demanded Manning. "I should
have been out here helping you. Maybe I wouldn't be much good, but I
might have helped."

"You'll have your chance," Russ told him. "We're just starting. I wanted
to be sure I had something before I troubled you. I tried other things
with that first sphere. I found that metal pushed through the sphere
will conduct an electrical current, which is pretty definite proof that
the metal isn't within the sphere at all. Glass can be forced through it
without breaking. Not flexible glass, but rods of plain old brittle
glass. It turns without breaking, and it also loses some of its length.
Water can be forced through a tube inserted in the sphere, but only when
terrific pressure is applied. What that proves I can't even begin to
guess."

"You said you experimented on the first sphere," said Manning. "Have you
made others?"

Russ rose from his chair.

"Come on in, Greg," he said, and there was a grin on his face. "I have
something you'll have to see to appreciate."

* * * * *

The apparatus was heavier and larger than the first in which Russ had
created the sphere of energy. Fed by a powerful accumulator battery,
five power leads were aimed at it, centered in the space between four
great copper blocks.

Russ's hand went out to the switch that controlled the power. Suddenly
the power beams flamed, changed from a dull glow into an intense, almost
intolerable brilliance. A dull grumble of power climbed up to a steady
wail.

The beams had changed color, were blu