
"Yah," Needlenose muttered. "Ay go now."
He almost fell over his mop handle scuttling around a corner. Presently a door slammed at the other end
of the building. Wings’ yellow eyes narrowed. Then he grunted and picked up the drunk. He dragged him
through a door in the middle of the corridor. It was quite an unusual door. Panel, jamb and casing were
made of high-tempered steel. It was protected by double locks of very modern construction. Complete
privacy for its occupants seemed to be a matter of no question at all.
BUT down the corridor there came a faint rustle. Needlenose Swenson crept slowly toward that steel
doorway. Needlenose had told fellow workers that something evil was being concocted behind that steel
door. As an amateur detective, he was certain that much was so.
Norgrud Watts and Dedham, he insisted, were brewing a witch’s caldron in there that the world should
discover. The thought of Wings Dedham made Needlenose shudder. Only the day before, he had seen
the ex-flier brutally strangle a harmless dog. Then he had carried the dog into that secret room.
"Yah," Needlenose muttered softly now. "Ay tank now Ay find out for sure. Yah."
Needlenose crouched down before the door. About breast-high there was a tiny hole. Needlenose had
borrowed a steel-cutting drill from the machine shops. Then, when a new generator tryout was making
enough noise to cover him, Needlenose had made his hole.
He looked through it now. Almost immediately, what color he had drained from the janitor’s skin. His
jaw began to work strangely. Sweat dribbled from his receding chin. Bony hands clenched and
unclenched. Needlenose Swenson began to tremble. He seemed transfixed by horror, unable to move.
The air in the corridor began to smell queerly. It became the pungent scent of ozone, as if a great electric
arc were snapping overhead, scorching the atmosphere.
Suddenly, Needlenose Swenson began to sway. He clawed at his throat. His mouth opened and closed
without sound. Then Needlenose found his voice. He began to scream. It was a scream that sent shivers
up and down many spines in the electrical plant.
Nothing but stark horror could have brought forth such a scream.
Needlenose straightened up and started to run. At first his sole aim was to be somewhere else. Any place
else, apparently, would do at the time. He heard the big steel door creak behind him. He dived into the
first hiding place that he saw. It was a huge, lighted broom closet near the door.
Needlenose heard Dedham cursing in the hall. Then he heard the ex-flier’s footsteps receding toward the
steel door to Norgrud Watts’ private laboratory.
"Watts, I’ll get that squarehead this time!" Dedham growled.
Needlenose perspired some more. He thought he was safe for the moment. He felt sure Dedham would
think he had fled from the building.
But Needlenose Swenson was an amateur detective, not a scientist. He didn’t know that the odd-looking
lenses in the ceilings of all rooms in this building were there to catch him. Swenson didn’t know anything
about a television pick-up lense.
That was why he was surprised when Wings Dedham suddenly whipped open the door of the broom