Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-28
By
Gardner
Hunting.
THE VICARION
Copyright 1928. By Public Ledger
syyQTQTNNgIgg0NIgg1VlgINIQ Observation-Disclosures

when she found him sitting down at
his desk. He turned to her with smile
and called out to Van Wrinkle, who had
| fingered outside, to come in. Then he
offered her a cigarette and lighted one.
But Phyllis was in no mood to smoke.
You're so changed, Radley," she
heard herself saying, quite involun-
tarily.
He smiled again. Maybe I've had
things to change me-" he answered
easily. II seem to have become all at
once something of a marked man
marked as a target for lot of people
who are taking pot shots at me for one
reason or another. I shall presently
have marks all over me, I suspect"
"Radley!"
He pushed the cigarettes toward Van
Wrinkle. oh" he said, tits just that
various people, firms, combinations and
syndicates are trying in one way or an
other to get me. The latest events in
the campaign are that somebody has
tried to buy Ushigi-and that just got
an Internal machine-actually-b ex-
press. 1t was neat little thing-youd
have thought it was a French clock.
But--Ushigi seems still to like me,
whether anybody else does or not-and
I'm enforcing the good old rule that all
packages must be delivered in the rear,
where have an eX-yegg to open them
for me. I'm glad they never perfected
that lay they used to talk about for
disposing of an enemy at a distance
without betraying the dispoSer."
You may have to change your ad-
dress without advising the public" said
Van Wrinkle calmly. He seemed not
unduly concerned.
mo, I've a notion to stay here" said
Brainard quite genuinely expressing a
desire. 1T would be a nuisance to
move. OF course, now that have room
in the Complete studios, I am going to
spread out. I'm just working out a
multiple condenser to make 20 or more
records at once. I don't know yet what
I've got"
do you mean to make 20 records of
the same event at the same time?"
asked Phyllis. II don't see how you
can"
Not exactly of the same event; that
is, not of the same part of the same
event. But want to enlarge my field
the Vicarion'S field of vision. The
oily way I've discovered so far is to
make a combination of records, rather
like a panoramic photograph, which
I may hope to exhibit all together and
so produce things on spectacular scale.
don't know yet what may happen
when I try it. But one thing it is
going to do is to furnish me with a
means of broadcasting to pick up events
for which have no exact index. And
it will give me a sort of dragnet for
enemies"
He seemed to lose the sense of talk
ing directly to listeners as he finished.
Perhaps he was thinking Of enemies in
shoals.
"You see," he said slowly, nobody
has ever indexed real history-only the
little volumes they have written about
it. I have got to-even to number the
pages for myself! And it makes no
difference how near or how far away a
thing is-a thing that I may want to
find-it is more like the proverbial
needle in the haystack than--than any
needle ever was"
He seemed to be thinking aloud. He
paused again and looked off absently
through the window past Phyllis. Then
his eyes came back to her as If he had
just noticed her presence.
Am I talking incoherently?" he
asked.
Are you so tired that you do not
know" she asked him.
"Oh, no." He shrugged. But I'll
problems. An enemy came into my
Office here-this private office, I mean
some days ago. might better soy,
nights-for it was in the night. How
he got in do not know. Who he was
I do not know I have condensed rec
ords of his coming in and his going
out, and of what he did while he was
here, though already knew that. He
brought me another unlabeled bomb"
Phyllis chilled. She wondered that
he could talk calmly Of it.
"Of course, he was one of my own
operators-or an agent of one of my
operators. Because nobody else con-
denseS records"
Cant anybody else make con-
densers like yours?"
mot like mine" He smiled. "If I
tell you that there is in my vibrator
one bit of substance which is a selec-
ton from more than 10000 substances
tried for its purpose-and a substance
that defies analysis, think, besides