Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 160: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

bo4 . Shall not ask you nor McCarty to take any more active part in to-night’s test.” ‘’ But just how does this work, Mr. Ter- hune?”” McCarty asked. “By the revolution of the inner drum | you see,” explained the criminologist. ‘ I set it In motion when ‘the test starts. If the speaker sounds middle C—which in the original tenescope makes two hundred and fifty-six vibrations a second—the line on the drum which has two hundred and fifty- six holes, will seem to remain stationary © while all the other rows are continuing to move; the line which stands still points to that number on the horizontal scale, and is then projected on the screen. The num- bers on the vibratoscepe, however, are dif- ferently graded. In action the process Is almost instantaneous, so that sound is seen at practically the same time that it Is heard. Ah, good evening, Mr. O’Rourke!” -Ze stepped from behind the screen and drew its panel hastily across after him so that the earlier arrivals were for the time being hidden from the newcomer and Den- nis whispered confidentially: “Honest to God, Mac, did you under- stand one single word of all that discourse? . I did not, but small matter of that so leng as ‘tis not my voice that contraption is taking account of! If I’ve only to watch the screen he can start the show whenever he wants. What was it he said about an association test? What kind of an associa- tion is it? Are we all supposed to be mem- bers of the club?” _ “No, you loon!” McCarty responded with a low chuckle. ‘‘ He means the asso- ciation ef one. word to another; he men- tiens.a word and you tell what it brings up in your mind, what it means to you.” “Tf it’s education he wants he could buy a dictionary for the meaning of words,” Dennis remarked. ‘ That is, providing he could pick out one that had the answer in he wanted; I’ve never seen one yet.” ‘Tis to find out what’s on the mind of the person he’s questioning,” explained Mc- Carty patiently. “I’ve seen him werk it before, on the stepfather of that girl who was suppesed te have been thrown from the window of the Glamorgan, only with- out any little recording machine. There’s -hune announced. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY.. Waverley and Cutter now! I wonder hew many more are coming?” A moment later the dry, precise tones of George Alexander were heard, and follow- ing upon his heels came Inspector Druet. “ Our gathering is complete, now,’’ Ter- “McCarty, come out from behind that screen. all know the inspector’s deputy, Mr. Mc- Carty, I think. This is a colleague of his, Mr. Riordan. Now, if you will all be seat- ed in that row of chairs-facing the projec- tion sheet I will explain the method of this little test; you will find it almost childishly simple.”’ Waverley turned with a subdued guffaw and a joking aside to Nicholas Cutter, but the latter did not respond, and the gravity of his face remained unbroken as he ad- vanced and seated himself at one end of the row of chairs. Waverley dropped into the next with O’Rourke beside him, then Alexander, Inspector Druet, and McCarty, with Dennis bringing up at the farther end. Bassett entered only to efface himself si- lently behind the screen, and Terhune took the chair at one side, drawing a sheaf of papers from his pocket. “You wiil see merely a series of numbers on the screen,” he began. “ They will mean nothing to you, and are intended for my guidance, but I want you to keep your attention focused upon them, nevertheless, even while you are replying to my ques- tions. Understand, gentlemen, there is nothing arbitrary about this, for I have no authority to cross-examine -you even if I desired to do so, and you are. of course at liberty to reply or not as you choose. If my questions seem to you to be unduly personal, please remember that this is merely a scientific experiment, a Short cut to minor details upon which we desire en- lightenment and which you may have for- gotten or retained merely in your subcon- scious memory. ‘““T am going to read to you, one at a time, a brief list of words, and after each I would like you to reply in a single word if possible, telling me just what impression that word has conveyed to you; not a defi- nition but an expression of the relative thought it brings to your mind. For an GON GooOoks G Gentlemen, you . Colin