my soles were treading
on sponge rubber, my shoulders sprouting wings.

"Hold on to it!" cried Pat. Then to Joyce, "Lift him, Miss Joyce."

Joyce faltered, "How? Like th-this?" and touched a finger to my midriff.
Immediately my feet left the floor. I started flailing futilely to
trample six inches of ozone back to the solid floorboards. To no avail.
With no effort whatever Joyce raised me high above her head until my
dazed dome was shedding dandruff on the ceiling!

"Well, Mr. Mallory," said Pat, "do you believe me now?"

"Get me down out of here!" I howled. "You _know_ I can't stand high
places!"

"You now weigh less than ten pounds--"

"Never mind the statistics. I feel like a circus balloon. How do I get
down again?"

"Turn the knob on the cane," advised Pat, "to your normal weight.
Careful, now! _Not so fast!_"

His warning came too late. I hit the deck with a resounding thud, and
the cane came clattering after. Pat retrieved it hurriedly, inspected it
to make sure it was not damaged. I glared at him as I picked myself off
the floor.

"You might show some interest in _me_," I grumbled. "I doubt if that
stick will need a liniment rubdown tonight. Okay, Pat. You're right and
I'm wrong, as you usually are. That modern variation of a witch's
broomstick _does_ operate. Only--how?"

"That dial at the top governs weight," explained Pat. "When you turn
it--"

"Skip that. I know how it is operated. I want to know what makes it
work?"

"Well," explained Pat, "I'm not certain I can make it clear, but it's
all tied in with the elemental scientific problems of mass, weight,
gravity and electric energy. What _is_ electricity, for example--"

"I used to know," I frowned. "But I forget."

Joyce shook her head sorrowfully.

"Friends," she intoned, "let us all bow our heads. This is a moment of
great tragedy. The only man in the world who ever knew what electricity
is--and he has forgotten!"

"That's the whole point," agreed Pending. "No one knows what
electricity really is. All we know is how to use it. Einstein has
demonstrated that the force of gravity and electrical energy are
kindred; perhaps different aspects of a common phenomenon. That was my
starting point."

"So this rod, which enables you to defy the law of gravity, is
electrical?"

"Electricaceous," corrected Pat. "You see, I have transmogrified the
polarifity of certain ingredular cellulations. A series of
disentrigulated helicosities, activated