Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition), April 1944 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

GALLEGHER PLUS Narcissus returned and opened the closet door. “It’s a Commander John Wall. He vised from Washington earlier tonight. I told you, remember?” “John Wall?” J. W., fifteen hundred credits! The third client! “Let him in,’ Gallegher ordered breath- lessly. “Quick! Is he alone?” “Ves.” “Then step it up!” Narcissus padded off, to return with a gray-haired, stocky figure in the uniform of the space police. Wall grinned briefly at Gallegher, and then his keen eyes shot toward the machine by the window. “That it?” Gallegher said, ‘““Hello, commander. I... I’m pretty sure that’s it. But I want to dis- cuss some details with you first.” Wall frowned. “Money? You can’t hold up the government. Or am I misjudging you? Fifty thousand credits should hold you for a while.” His face cleared. “You have fifteen hundred already; I’m prepared to write you a check as soon as you’ve com- pleted a satisfactory demonstration.” “Fifty thou—” Gallegher took a deep breath. “‘No, it isn’t that, of course. I merely want to make certain that I’ve filled the terms of our agreement. I want to be sure I’ve met every specification.” If he could only learn what Wall had requested! If he, too, had wanted a machine that ate dirt— It was a farfetched hope, an impossible coincidence, but Gallegher had to find out. He waved the commander to a chair. “But we discussed the problem in full detail—”’ “A double-check,” Gallegher said smoothly. “Narcissus, get the commander a drink.” “Thanks, no.” “Coffee?” “T’d be obliged. Well, then—as I told you some weeks ago, we needed a spaceship control—a manual that would meet the re- quirements of elasticity and __ tensile strength.” “Oh-oh,” Gallegher thought. Wall leaned forward, his eyes brightening. “A spaceship is necessarily big and com- plicated. Some manual controls are required. But they cannot move in a straight line; construction necessitates that such controls must turn sharp corners, follow an erratic and eccentric path from here to here.” “Well—’”’ “Thus,” Wall said, “you want to turn on 61 a water faucet in a house two blocks away. And you want to do it while you’re- here, in your laboratory. How?” “String. Wire. Rope.” “Which could wind around corners as ... say... a rigid rod could not. How- ever, Mr. Gallegher, let me repeat my state- ment of two weeks ago. That faucet is hard to turn. And it must be turned often, hundreds of times a day when a ship is in free space. Our toughest wire cables have proved unsatisfactory. The stress and strain snap them. When a cable is bent, and when it is also straight—you see?” Gallegher nodded. “Sure. You can break wire by bending it back and forth often enough.” “That is the problem we asked you to solve. You said it could be done. Now— have you done it And how?” A manual control that could turn corners and withstand repeated stresses. Gallegher eyed the machine. Nitrogen—a thought was moving in the back of his mind, but he could not quite capture it. The buzzer rang. “Smeith,” Gallegher thought, and nodded to Narcissus. The robot vanished. He returned with four men at his heels. Two of them were uniformed officers. The others were, respectively, Smeith and Dell Hopper. Hopper was smiling savagely. “Hello, Gallegher,” he said. “We’ve been waiting. We weren’t fast enough when this man’— he nodded toward Commander Wall— “came in, but we waited for a second chance.” - Smeith, his plumb face puzzled, said, “Mr. Gallegher, what is this? I rang your buzzer, and then these men surrounded me—” “It’s O.K.,” Gallegher said. “You’re on top, at least. Look out that window.” Smeith obeyed. He popped back in again, beaming. “That hole—” “Right. I didn’t cart the dirt away, either. I'll give you a demonstration presently.” “You will in jail,” Hopper said acidly. “I warned you, Gallegher, that I’m not a man to play around with. I gave you a thousand credits to do a job for me, and you neither did the job nor returned the money.” Commander Wall was staring, his coffee cup, forgotten, balanced in one hand. An officer moved forward and took Gallegher’s arm. “Wait a minute,” Wall began but Smeith was quicker. conmicbooo <SHIGO)