'That's a design for the first completely artificial portal between the Analogue Worlds,' Fogarty told him proudly.
Henry looked at Pyrgus, then back at the blueprint. Apart from the cogs and wheels, which he could follow well enough, none of it made any sense to him. 'How does it work?' he asked.
'While you were podging at home,' Fogarty said sourly, 'Pyrgus and I were working on this. Pyrgus told me every detail he could remember about his portal and eventually I figured out the basic principle had to be the same as a Hieronymous Machine.'
'What's a Hieronymous Machine?' Henry asked.
Fogarty gave him a withering glance. 'Don't they teach you anything at school? First one was patented by Galen Hieronymous in 1949. Little thing he lashed up to detect the metal content of alloys. Somebody sold you a gold brick, you could use the thing to tell if there really was any gold in it.'
'Never heard of – what? Hieronymous, was it? -never heard of it,' Henry said a little sulkily.
That's because it didn't catch on,' Fogarty told him. 'Trouble was, about one in five people couldn't get it to work.'
'Too complicated?' Henry asked.
Fogarty shook his head. 'Naw, you switched it on, put a sample near the pick-up coil, then read off the results with your fingertips on a detection plate. Easy-peasy.'
'So what was the problem?'
'Nobody knew,' Fogarty said. 'But a character called Campbell found out. He set up experiments with people who could get the machine to work. One of them was a kid not much older than you. He switched on the machine, tuned it in and tested a whole heap of samples. Worked fine. Then Campbell noticed he'd forgotten to plug it in.'
'That's impossible,' Henry said. He didn't know a lot about electronic gadgets, but he knew enough to know they didn't work without power. An idea struck him. 'Maybe it was picking up static electricity or something.'
'Campbell tested for that,' Fogarty told him. 'Wasn't static. Run a phase test and you'd find there was no electricity in there at all. Looked like an electronic machine, worked like an electronic machine – valve blows, they used valves in those days, and it stopped -but it wasn't an electronic machine. Had to work some other way. Only thing that made sense. They finally figured what made it work was faith.'
After a second, Henry said, 'You're kidding me, aren't you?'
Fogarty, who had no sense of humour, looked at him soberly. 'Henry,' he said, 'everybody knows electronic machines work – we're used to them, see. They always work. So make something that looks like an electronic machine – but make it properly with all the parts in place – and it works anyway. Something happens between your mind and the machine. Except for one clown in five who doesn't have the faith.'
Henry glanced at Pyrgus. 'Is this making sense to you?'
'Oh yes,' said Pyrgus seriously. 'Wizards use that principle in my world all the time.'
Fogarty said, 'Doesn't matter if it makes sense – the theory's sound. This thing will work. All we have to do is build it.'
Henry looked at the blueprint again. 'Where are you going to get the parts?'
'I've got a lot of bits and pieces here,' Fogarty said, 'and I know where I can buy the tesla coils. But there are one or two components for the Hieronymous circuits that could be a bit tricky if we want them in a hurry. Which we do.'
'So where do we get them?' Henry asked innocently.
Fogarty said, 'You'll have to steal them from your school.'
Fifteen
Henry walked into another heap of trouble when he got home. Aisling, who didn't believe their mum and dad would split up and didn't believe anything was ever going to interfere with her perfect world, had suddenly decided to believe that Henry thought he'd rescued a fairy. Or maybe she was just stirring it.
'We're worried about this fairy business,' his father said abruptly after supper.
Henry looked at his parents. 'What fairy business?'
'With Mr Fogarty,' his mother said sternly.
Aisling had told them! The little cow had told them! He hadn't thought she'd take him seriously, not the way he'd put it. She probably didn't believe it for a minute, but she'd told them anyway. 'Not much to say,' Henry shrugged.
'Well I don't suppose there is,' his father said. He smiled. 'I mean, I can't see a sensible boy like you suddenly starting to believe in fairies.' The smile faded. 'But I've made enquiries and I know a few things about your Mr Fogarty now. Frankly, he leaves a lot to be desired. He believes in fairies, doesn't he? And invasions of little green men? And a secret Jewish plot to run the world?'
'He never said Jewish – ' Henry tried to put in.
But his father wasn't really listening. 'There's a word for that,' he said. 'I'm not sure if you know it, Henry. Paranoia. It's a sort of madness.'
Henry knew the word paranoia all right. He even knew Mr Fogarty had it big time. It was one of the most interesting things about him. But that didn't make Mr Fogarty some sort of, like, Hannibal Lecter who'd cut you up and eat you. He sounded off a lot about stuff and he was a tough old fart, but Henry liked him. 'Dad, I – '
'The thing is, old man,' his father said soberly, 'just because Mr Fogarty believes in flying saucers doesn't mean you have to. And just because he's anti-Semitic – '
'Dad, he's not anti-Semitic.' He just didn't like the Swiss very much, as far as Henry could tell. The Swiss weren't Jews, were they? Henry thought most of them were Protestants.
' – doesn't mean you should hate Jews. And just because he believes in fairies doesn't mean you should waste your time chasing after moonbeams.'
'Dad, I said that about the fairy to annoy Aisling.'
'I thought it was something like that,' his mother said. 'All the same, that's hardly the point, is it? Mr Fogarty can't possibly be considered a suitable…' She hesitated. '… friend for you, can he, Henry?'
'Mum, I just clean up the house for him,' Henry said, trying to retrieve the situation.
'Your sister seems to think it may be more than that,' his mother said.
'Mum, Aisling doesn't know anything about Mr Fogarty. And even if she did, she's not exactly – '
'But you have to admit she has a point,' his mother cut across him.
'A point about what?' Henry asked.
Martha Atherton sniffed. 'Middle-aged man… young impressionable boy. You're not a child, Henry.'
'First off, Mr Fogarty isn't middle aged. He's old. Really old, like seventy-five or eighty or something. He's not interested in sex any more.'
'Who mentioned sex?' his mother asked. 'I didn't mention sex.'
It was one of her tricks, but Henry wasn't going to let her get away with it. 'It's what you meant, isn't it, Mum? You're worried in case Mr Fogarty and I are… are -' He couldn't even say it.
'You have to admit it's a possibility. You have to – '
This time it was Henry who cut in. 'It's not a possibility, Mum. I'm not interested in old men – I'm interested in girls!'
Henry's mother said coldly to her son, 'Did you know your precious Mr Fogarty has a police record?'
Up in his room, long after the hassle, Henry stared at his sculpture of the flying pig and wondered what had gone wrong with his life. He turned the handle and the pig took off smoothly, flapping cardboard wings. He felt as if he'd made it in some other lifetime. Some other lifetime when he was just a kid. He didn't feel like a kid any more. At that exact moment, he felt older than Mr Fogarty who he'd been forbidden to see ever again.
A police record? His mother refused to say anything more, not even where she'd heard it, but his dad looked sheepish so Henry suspected this little titbit of information was part of the few enquiries he'd made. Not that Henry believed it for a minute. His dad could get things wrong just as easily as his mum. There was no way Mr Fogarty could have a police record. He was nearly eighty, for God's sake, maybe more than eighty. What sort of police record could anybody have when they were over eighty? Swatting somebody with their pension book?