The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cosmic Deflector, by Stanton A. Coblentz

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Title: The Cosmic Deflector

Author: Stanton A. Coblentz

Release Date: June 19, 2010 [EBook #32899]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE COSMIC DEFLECTOR

By STANTON A. COBLENTZ

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories January
1943. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: It's one thing to force the Earth out of its orbit, and
another to force it back in again!]

His face red with haste, and his blue eyes glittering, Dan Holcomb burst
into the laboratory.

"Just look at this, Lucile!" he cried, flinging his hat halfway across
the room, and almost dancing in his joy. "Lord! Look at this, will you!"

Lucile Travers glanced up from her Bunsen burner, and stared in surprise
at Dan's six-foot bulk. She was used to her lover's flaming enthusiasms;
but never had she seen him so beside himself. How boyish he seemed, with
his lean, keen, studious face, and eyes that were all a blaze of
youthful delight!

"There! Take a peep at that, old girl!" he rushed on, as he snapped out
his wallet and displayed a handsomely embossed letter.

Her eyes popped half out of her head as she glanced at the sheet.
"Twenty-five--twenty-five thousand dollars, Dan!" she gasped. "Why,
it--it can't be real!"

"But it _is_ real! Boy! this isn't any pipe dream, believe me! A neat
twenty-five thousand--that's what I'm offered for my Deflector!"

While she stared at him dazedly, he did an impromptu hop, skip and jump.
She did not need to be told about the Cosmic Deflector--had she not been
at Dan's side during these many months when he had worked at it? Had she
not shared his enthusiasm at the Gravitational Ray Theory?--the idea
that gravity was due to an invisible ray shot out by the electrons and
hence was akin to electricity in its origin? Had she