"Gee, I don't know, Dad. But I think she'll just keep right on going,
clear up out of the air." Jim had a hard time keeping a sob out of his
voice too.

"What'll happen to her, son?"

"Well, you see, between the cold and the lack of oxygen, she'll just
go to sleep.... I remember reading about fliers at high altitude."

"Thank Heaven," Mary breathed. And I added a silent "Amen."

About 3:30 Professor Jordan arrived and Jim brought him in and
introduced us. The professor was probably 40, but looked hardly older
than Jim, and was built along the same tall and gangly lines. A very
business-like man though, thank heaven, and he got right to the point.
After the first shock of seeing me on the ceiling, he turned to Jim,
"Now, tell me. Exactly what happened, and what is this rig you have
here?"

* * * * *

Jim told him the whole story of how Duchess and I got caught, then
went into great detail about the plastic plate, the kinds of metal he
had used, and the different settings on the transformer. He finished
by telling how Duchess had sailed off into space.

At this, Professor Jordan looked more closely at the transformer
hookup. "You say the settings are still the same?"

"Yes, sir, it's still the same. I haven't changed a thing except to
pull the plate out in the hall."

"Have you tried it since your father was caught?"

"No, sir ... in all the excitement I haven't gotten around to fooling
with it again."

The professor walked out in the hall, reached in his pocket for a
handkerchief, tossed it over the plate. It rose! Straight up, and
stuck to the ceiling!

"My gosh!" Jim blurted. "Somebody must have plugged that thing in
again!"

Mary and Johnny, who were watching in silence, both spoke up to say
that neither of them had. Jim reached down and picked up the AC line.
Sure enough, it _wasn't_ plugged in!

"Well, this is going to take some studying," Professor Jordan
muttered, looking rather awed at Jim's gadget. "Jim, let's start at
the beginning again, and be sure you tell me everything you did, every
move you made, what kind of metal you used, how finely divided it was,
what concentration you used and what voltages and frequencies you
used."

"I'll try, Professor," Jim said, "But it's going to be sort of a hit
or miss proposition because I fiddled with this thing for an hour or
so before accidentally dropping my cigarettes on the plate. When they
went up, I was surprise