andering around among the
pupils.

In front of each chair, firmly attached to the table, was a box with a
screen, and both sides of the box held spools of wire on blunt little
spindles. The spools had large, clear numbers on them. Near the
teacher's chair was a compact case with more spools on spindles, and
there was a large screen on the inside wall, opposite the enormous
windows.

I went into one of the rooms and sat down in the teacher's chair,
wondering how I was going to find out about the Dynapack. I felt like
an archaeologist guessing at the functions of strange relics he'd
found in a dead city.

Sitting in the chair was like sitting on a column of air that let me
sit upright or slump as I chose. One of the arms had a row of buttons.
I pressed one and waited nervously to find out if I'd done something
that would get me into trouble.

Concealed lights in the ceiling and walls began glowing, getting
brighter, while the room gradually turned dark. I glanced around
bewilderedly to see why, because it was still daylight.

The windows seemed to be sliding slightly, very slowly, and as they
slid, the sunlight was damped out. I grinned, thinking of what my
ancient Egyptian would make of that. I knew there were two sheets of
polarizing glass, probably with a vacuum between to keep out the cold
and the heat, and the lights in the room were beautifully synchronized
with the polarized sliding glass.

I wasn't doing so badly. The rest of the objects might not be too hard
to figure out.

The spools in the case alongside the teacher's chair could be wire
recordings. I looked for something to play them with, but there was no
sign of a playback machine. I tried to lift a spool off a spindle. It
wouldn't come off.

Hah! The wire led down the spindle to the base of the box, holding the
spool in place. That meant the spools could be played right in that
position. But what started them playing?

* * * * *

I hunted over the box minutely. Every part of it was featureless--no
dials, switches or any unfamiliar counterparts. I even tried moving my
hands over it, figuring it might be like a theramin, and spoke to it
in different shades of command, because it could have been built to
respond to vocal orders. Nothing happened.

Remember the Poe story that shows the best place to hide something is
right out in the open, which is the last place anyone would look?
Well, these things weren't manufa