CHAPTER FOUR

“We Have Conquered Gravity!”

For a moment there was a stunned silence. Mr. Willoughby’s mouth hung open like a new-caught fish’s. Mrs. Dunn, who had been on her way to the kitchen, sank back against the wall, staring. Danny’s eyes bulged. Only Dr. Grimes kept his stern and rigid expression.

Then Mr. Willoughby said weakly, “Er—Professor Bullfinch. What are you standing on?”

The Professor bent his head to look down at the others. He winced, for he had given himself a severe bump.

“It is difficult,” he replied with irritation, “to say whether I am hanging, floating, or lying vertically. However, I am certainly not standing.”

Dr. Grimes broke the silence. “It’s a trick!” he said harshly. “Come down at once.”

“Look here,” said the Professor. “I don’t see—”

“It is hardly dignified for a man in your position—” Dr. Grimes went on.

“Gentlemen, please!” Mr. Willoughby put in, as soothingly as he could. “Let’s not argue.” He stared up at the ceiling and said, with an effort to be calm, “Won’t you try to come down, please, Professor?”

Professor Bullfinch raised his arms above his head and pushed against the ceiling. He pushed himself down to arm’s length. The instant he stopped pushing, however, and dropped his arms, he bounced back up against the ceiling.

“Ow!” he yelled. “Drat it!”

Mrs. Dunn, who had been standing frozen in the corner, burst into hysterical laughter. She sank into a chair and threw her apron over her head. Mr. Willoughby wrung his hands, but Dr. Grimes, with a sour look, stepped to her side. He shook her by the shoulder.

“Madam, control yourself!” he barked.

Mrs. Dunn took the apron down from her face and gasped, “I’m sorry. After all these years I ought to be used to anything. But he looks so—so helpless up there.”

“Well,” Dr. Grimes said grimly, “I’ll soon get him down. He can’t fool me with his gymnastics.”

He reached up and caught hold of the Professor’s ankles. Red-faced and puffing from the effort, he pulled him down a few feet.

“There!” he said.

He let go of the Professor’s legs.

Mr. Willoughby shouted, “There he goes again!”

Professor Bullfinch soared upwards. This time he was able to protect his head with his arms.

“For heaven’s sake!” he cried. “That’s enough!”

“Ropes,” said Dr. Grimes, looking furiously up at him. “Ropes and counterweights. That’s how he does it.”

“What do you think the ropes are attached to?” said the Professor.

Grimes began to splutter. “They don’t have to be attached to anything. It’s mass hypnosis, like the Indian rope trick. I refuse to be hypnotized. I refuse, do you hear?”

The Professor could not help smiling. “I’m still here, Dr. Grimes,” he said.

Danny had been too startled and fascinated to talk. Now he burst out, “But Professor! You can’t just hang there!”

“I’m not too uncomfortable,” the Professor replied. “Do you suppose you could get me my pipe? It’s over in the laboratory, on the bench.”

Danny ran to get it.

Dr. Grimes, who had been listening with a scowl, said, “Aha! The pipe must be part of the trick.”

Mrs. Dunn had regained control of herself. She looked up at the Professor, clasping her hands together, and said, “Oh, dear, can’t we do something?”

The Professor said, “Don’t be upset, Mrs. Dunn. While I’m up here, I’ll change the bulbs in the chandelier. I promised you I’d do it yesterday, but I forgot.”

“How can you joke, Professor Bullfinch?” she cried.

“Why not?” said the Professor. “It isn’t really that serious.”

Nevertheless, he began to look a little worried.

Danny came panting back with the pipe. He climbed on a chair and handed it to the Professor. He did not get down again, however. Instead, he said, “Professor Bullfinch. You know what?”

“Yes,” said the Professor. “I’m beginning to get a stiff neck from trying to look down.”

“But listen, Professor—”

“Please, Danny. Remember your promise.”

“But—”

“I must think. This is absurd. Why am I up here? Let me try to think out exactly what happened.”

“But—”

The Professor stuck his unlighted pipe in his mouth. He pressed his hands to his temples. “I entered the room,” he muttered to himself. “Walked over to Willoughby. Shook hands. There was a spark of static electricity, probably caused by the rubbing of my shoes on the carpet.”

“Listen—” said Danny.

The Professor was deep in thought and did not hear him. “Rubbing feet on carpet—electric shock—is it possible that that small shock could have caused me to rise? Why? Or could it have had something to do with my shoes?”

At this point Danny shouted, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! The soles of your shoes—”

“What?”

“They’re glowing and quivering! Just like the stuff in that flask! You must have stepped in it when we were cleaning it up!”

“What are you talking about?” said Dr. Grimes.

Mr. Willoughby said, “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Danny said, in a businesslike way, “that now we can get the Professor down.”

Still on the chair, he reached up and unlaced the Professor’s shoes.

“Wait a minute!” cried Professor Bullfinch, as Danny slipped both his shoes off. “Remember what I said! I think—”

The shoes flew out of Danny’s hands and stuck to the ceiling.

“—we have conquered gravity!” the Professor shouted, and crashed to the floor.