Page:Fantastic v08n11 1959-11.djvu/83

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

to make my pitch. And with his conning ability and my battery . . .

Ronald certainly did make an arresting sight as he hurried through the darkening garden, holding high his glowing hand. Mr. Espy stopped dead and stared at Ronald.

There was something peculiar about the stare, though. It seemed to Ronald to go through him like a knife. Intending to startle, Ronald found himself startled in return . . . momentarily almost paralyzed.

He realized with horror that the battery had sprung from his limp fingers.

He waited for it to flip over and crash, thanking God that the ground was soft.

It didn't flip over. Buzzing faintly now and seeming to spin, it bulleted straight upward at ever-increasing velocity, one more bright point of light headed toward the first stars of evening.

It faded and was gone forever.

Ronald realized that Mr. Espy had hold of his shoulder and was shaking him.

"Young man!" Mr. Espy was saying, "Do you realize that you possess astounding occult powers? That was the most impressive demonstration of telekinesis I have ever witnessed in a long and rather far-flung life!"

Lieutenant J. C. Arnold and S. Abramson, USAF, were on a routine jet mission at 30,000 feet when the phenomenon shot by them at a distance of only a few yards, its velocity now considerable.

"Jack, a meteor!" the second gasped.

"Be your age, Sammy," the first admonished him. "Would a shooting star shoot up?" He paused before adding, "But what could it have been?"

Rather later that evening Mr. Espy was preparing a sort of telegram for transmission, though not by Western Union. It read in part:

You will also be pleased to hear that the last of the batteries the saintly Yorn absent-mindedly distributed around in his chuckle-headed way before he was reassigned to a less critical post, has been located and safely disposed of. It is no longer on Earth. One worry less for all of us! To get it away painlessly from the young human who had discovered it and was beginning to probe its more superficial powers, I was forced to employ what on this planet
The Improper Authorities
83
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.