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to have to watch for him at the window."

Ronald looked down at his aunt's pudgy, thin-lipped face, realizing that she had come creaking and clumping all the way down to the basement without his being aware of it. He nodded slowly at her without a word, put away the battery he was holding, and like a man in a dream began to make the last connections in the bell system.

The bell rang strongly at the first test. Mrs. Wycherly thanked Ronald profusely in the kitchen and seemed on the point of bringing up some additional matter, but just then Ronald rather abruptly wandered off toward the garage, still acting like a man in a dream.

Mrs. Wycherly made a little humorous face. She'd been debating giving Ronald two dollars for his labors and had almost decided to, but if he chose to go mooning off that way . . .

She was still wondering, too, why he had so carefully put one of her batteries into the inside breast pocket of his coat, buttoning the coat afterwards. It was almost like a psychiatric symptom, with some deep symbolic meaning—perhaps she should ask Mr. Espy about it. But no, Ronald probably just wanted it for something in the garage. Well, she wouldn't grudge it to him, though of course he ought to have asked her first.

Convincing himself that his find really was a gravity battery occupied Ronald most of the night and next day. He made his tests with great care, only after thinking each through in detail first, he kept them as few and brief as his delight and wonder would let him. The possibility of the battery running down had begun to prey on his mind more and more seriously, especially after a search of the basement next morning revealed no more dry cells of similar appearance.

The chief test, or rather set of tests, involved making a coil of the wire joining the terminals, so as to give direction and greater power to the gravitic field, exactly as one would do in making an electromagnet. The most obvious and interesting cylinder around which to wind the coil was the battery itself. Ronald started out with just a dozen loops, winding the wire down the body of the battery from one terminal and returning it through the air to the other.

The result was more than gratifying. Held terminals