town _right now_.

I put the pictures back the way they had been, and stole softly from
Aunt Matilda's bedroom to the bathroom, and closed the door.

"No wonder Aunt Matilda invested in this thing!" I said to my image in
the mirror as I shaved.

Picture TV would make all other TV receivers obsolete! Full color TV at
that! And with some new principle in stereophonic sound!

What about the fact that neither picture had been plugged into an
outlet? Probably run by batteries.

What about the lack of weight? Obviously a new TV principle was
involved. Maybe it required fewer circuits and less power.

What about the broadcasting end, the cameras? Permanently set up? What
about the broadcast channels?

There had been ten or twelve pictures. I'd only looked at two. Was each
a different scene? Twelve different broadcasting stations in Sumac?

It had me dizzy. Probably the new TV principle was so simple that all
that could be taken care of without millions of dollars worth of
equipment.

A new respect for Aunt Matilda grew in me. She had latched on to a money
maker! It didn't hurt to know that I was her favorite nephew, either.
With my Ph.D. in physics, and my aunt as one of the stockholders, I
could probably land a good job with the company. What a deal!

By the time I finished shaving I was whistling. I was still whistling
when I went into the kitchen for breakfast.

"You'll have to hurry, Arthur," Aunt Matilda said. "Your train leaves in
forty-five minutes."

"I'm not leaving," I said cheerfully.

I went over to the bright breakfast nook and sat down, and took a
cautious sip of coffee. I grunted my approval of it and looked around
toward Aunt Matilda, smiling.

She was staring at me with wide eyes. She looked as haggard as though
she had just heard she had a week to live.

"But you must go!" she croaked as though my not going were unthinkable.

"Nonsense, you old fox," I said. "I know a good thing as well as you do.
I want to get a job with that outfit."

She came toward me with a wild expression on her face.

"Get out!" she screamed. "Get out of my house! I won't have it! You
catch that train and get out of town. Do you hear?"

"But, Aunt Matilda!" I protested.

* * * * *

In the end I had to get out or she would have had a stroke. She was
shaking like a leaf, her skin mottled and her eyes wild, as I went down
the front steps with my bag.

"You get that train, do you