The pen of the analyzer had already passed the blue line and was more
than halfway to the green!

* * * * *

"This the stuff that was left in the catalyzer after the explosion
yesterday!" Dr. Ferber shouted to Dr. Brinton over the roar from the
little engine. "It looked as if it would burn, so I tested it.
Jackpot!"

"What is it?" asked Dr. Brinton.

"Supposed to be an artificial base for a _perfume_!"

The last word seemed louder because the test rocket just then ran out
of fuel and grew silent. The tracing of the pen stopped a fraction
short of the green line.

Dr. Ferber continued in his normal voice while he busied himself with
the connections of the engine: "We didn't have anything to do to put on
a show for MacNeill yesterday, so I told the lads to carry on with
experiments of their own. It was Harrison who made this stuff. He was
cut by flying glass and landed in the hospital. I phoned there this
morning and found the damn fool doctor took his appendix out. Said he
figured he might as well while Harrison was in there. He's still under
the anesthetic and we won't be able to ask him anything for several
hours."

"Doesn't matter," said Dr. Brinton. "We know it works; we have to find
out why it works. Got any left? We'll analyze it."

The next few hours saw Dr. Brinton rapidly become a bitter and
disillusioned man.

When a qualitative test informed them that the presence of nitrogen
meant they were going to have to use an even longer and more laborious
process than the ordinary one, he uttered a few sentences that made a
couple of nearby German exchange students wonder if perhaps they hadn't
a portion missed in the English language learning.

When he found that he had forgotten his pipe at home, and the analysis
required too much of their attention to allow him to go home and get
it, he quoted a paragraph or two that earned him the undivided
attention of everyone in the lab.

But when he took the results over to a calculator and worked them out
to carbon 281.6% he had barely started the prologue when frustration
overtook him and he subsided, speechless. He was at a loss to say or do
anything except mumble that 281.6% was impossible.

* * * * *

Dr. Ferber came over and took the paper with the results from him.
Everyone in the lab watched while he checked the calculations
patiently.

A delegation minutely checked the apparatus the two