volutionate the world. Will you give me an applicaceous form, please?
I want to file it immediately."

"Not so fast, Pat. You know the routine. What's the nature of this
remarkable discovery?"

"You may write it down," said Pat grandiloquently, "as Pat Pending's
lightening rod."

I glanced at Joyce, and she at me, then both of us at Pending.

"But, Pat," I exclaimed, "that's ridiculous! Ben Franklin invented the
lightning rod two hundred years ago."

"I said _lightening_," retorted my redheaded friend, "not _lightning_.
My invention doesn't conduct electricity _to_ the ground, but _from_
it." He brandished a slim baton which until then I had assumed to be an
ordinary walking-stick. "With this," he claimed, "I can make things
weigh as much or as little as I please!"

The eyes of Sandy Thomas needed only jet propulsion to become flying
saucers.

"Isn't he wonderful, Mr. Mallory?" she gasped.

But her enthusiasm wasn't contagious. I glowered at Pending coldly.

"Oh, come now, Pat!" I scoffed. "You can't really believe that yourself.
After all, there _are_ such things as basic principles. Weight is not a
variable factor. And so far as I know, Congress hasn't repealed the Law
of Gravity."

Pat sighed regretfully.

"You're always so hard to convince, Mr. Mallory," he complained.
"But--oh, well! Take this."

He handed me the baton. I stared at it curiously. It looked rather like
a British swagger stick: slim, dainty, well balanced. But the ornamental
gadget at its top was not commonplace. It seemed to be a knob or a dial
of some kind, divided into segments scored with vernier markings. I
gazed at Pending askance.

"Well, Pat? What now?"

"How much do you weigh, Mr. Mallory?"

"One sixty-five," I answered.

"You're sure of that?"

"I'm not. But my bathroom scales appeared to be. This morning. Why?"

"Do you think Miss Joyce could lift you?"

I said thoughtfully, "Well, that's an idea. But I doubt it. She won't
even let me try to support _her_."

"I'm serious, Mr. Mallory. Do you think she could lift you with one
hand?"

"Don't be silly! Of course not. Nor could you."

"There's where you're wrong," said Pending firmly. "She can--and will."

He reached forward suddenly and twisted the metal cap on the stick in my
hands. As he did so, I loosed a cry of alarm and almost dropped the
baton. For instantaneously I experienced a startling, flighty giddiness,
a sudden loss of weight that made me feel as if