CHAPTER ELEVEN
In which Officer Wall delivers bad news and Rodney and Wayne learn what is in their father’s secret cellar
When Rodney and Wayne explained the situation to the Professor, the old man said, “That’s extortion! It’s monstrous! That bully-boy intends to be an outright dictator!”
“What can we do about it, Professor?” asked Rodney. “You and Aunt Mildred will have to eat.”
“You must be resourceful, boys. Doesn’t your great aunt do a little canning? What has she put up from last year?”
“Some green beans and squash.”
“Nothing soft and squishy and not too acidic or too seedy?
Seeds are never good for the tracts of old people.”
“We’ll find out,” said Rodney. “Also, there is still a little oatmeal in her cupboard. And we noticed a box of pudding mix in your pantry.”
“Is it Tapioca? I love Tapioca.”
‘I don’t remember.”
“Well, there is enough food around — if we do a thorough job of scrounging — to feed your great aunt and me for the next two days — perhaps even three or four if we each take small bites. And in the meantime, we must work as hard as we are able to finish the new Age Altertron. Now go down and complete your inventory and then, if there is time left, I would not mind some hot pudding.”
Rodney and Wayne completed their inventory and cooked some pudding and then worked through the night on the first phase of construction for the new machine. The Professor sat in an arm chair not too far from the work area, wrapped in a blanket to keep away the chill, consulting his calculations and his diagrams and shouting out instructions in his increasingly raspy voice: “Tighten that bolt! Excellent! The red wire and now the green wire! Now why is there no charge in that auxiliary battery? I wonder what has happened to the multi-volt charger? Can you find the thermionic triode pentode? What have I done with it? Think, Russell, think! And why have I reversed the electrostatic charge? Would someone please tell me that? Ah, there is our oddleg caliper. Gizmo had been sleeping on it!”
The Professor also took time to explain the mechanics and physics of the Age Altertron II so that Rodney and Wayne would have a better understanding of what they were doing. “When we age, boys, the cells in our bodies decay and die. Conversely, if a man were to grow incrementally younger, there would be a rebirth of cellular tissue within his body. Now this is what the Age Altertron does: depending on whether you wish it to age a man or give him sudden youth, the machine sends signals throughout a prescribed area — in our case, the town of Pitcherville — that either destroy the components of human cellular growth or stimulate them. The pulse of the signal is multiplied exponentially to create a nearly instantaneous result. Now did you understand any of that?”“A little,” said Wayne sheepishly.
By morning the boys were exhausted but proud of all they had accomplished. The Professor was equally proud of his two apprentices and how hard they had worked. “I was afraid that we would be unable to recover from the damage that I did last night,” the boys’ scientific mentor said with a crusty voice, “but this is a most admirable start. I wish that there were some way I could repay you two for all the good work you are doing.”
“You’ve repaid us enough with everything you’ve done for this town over the last year, Professor,” said Rodney.
Becky, who had come by to bring egg-and-olive sandwiches to Rodney and Wayne, nodded in agreement.
“But there is nothing that I can do, specifically, for you kids?”
“Well, now that you mention it,” said Wayne, grinning mischievously, “you could let me take your Nash out for a spin.”
“What is that, Wayne? I didn’t hear you.”
Wayne was about to repeat his request with more volume when he was interrupted by a knock at the door. Becky jumped up to answer it. “Hello, Officer Wall. Won’t you come in?”
Officer Wall, who now had the wrinkled face of a man in his eighties, hobbled into the laboratory using a cane. He was no longer wearing his policeman’s uniform. “Good morning, Professor. Good morning, Rodney, Wayne, Becky.”
“Are we being too loud?” asked Wayne.
“No, no. You are well within the noise limit. I have come to tell you something I believe you should know.”
“Please sit down, Officer,” said Rodney. Together he and Wayne helped the slow-moving officer down onto a bench.
“Ah. That feels good. It is a long walk from City Hall. I no longer have my patrol car, you see.”
“Why is that?” asked Wayne.
“It doesn’t belong to me anymore. I have been fired — no, I believe that the proper word is ‘retired.’ I have been purposefully ‘retired’ from the police force.”
“But why?”
“Look at me. I can hardly walk. Let alone breathe. My asthma is much worse. It is for the best. I was at the new mayor’s office this morning. There was a very long line. People are worried and depressed. This calamity is taking a terrible toll on the oldest citizens of this town and on everyone who loves them. But the ones waiting in line took some pity on me and let me go ahead. When I stand for too long, my knee joints seize up and then I walk around as if I am walking on stilts.”
“So what did you need to see the mayor about?”
“There has been no mention of whether I am entitled to a pension. My wife and I have no income now. I needed to find out if there will be a little money for us to live on.”
“And what did the Mayor say?”
“That I had to discuss it with his new police chief.”
“Who is the new police chief?” asked the Professor. He held a cup of warm beef broth in both hands. Becky had just brewed it for him. It was not as fine a meal as oatmeal and mashed bananas, but it did keep the hunger pangs away for a while at least.
“It’s Lonnie. Lonnie Rowe, the boy my partner and I arrested for helping to incite the City Park baby carriage riot. Jackie, now Mayor Stovall, eluded us. But we got Lonnie and kept him in jail for a whole day. He is now the new police chief. I’m sure that he will take vengeance on me and I will see no pension. But that is neither here nor there. Oh look, there’s your little terrier, Professor. Where are his earmuffs?”
“He only wears them when there are loud noises to contend with. Please, go on.”
“Yes. Well, as you can see, it takes me a little while to get from Point A to Point B. It took me an extra minute or two to leave the Mayor’s office after our chat. During that time I overheard a conversation between the Mayor and his new police chief that he probably didn’t think I could hear. But I can actually still hear quite well. Perhaps it comes from all those years of listening closely for potential noise violations.”
“What did you overhear, Officer Wall?” asked Becky.
“The Mayor was asking the police chief to send some of his men — the younger men, that is, those who have just joined the force — not any of the old codgers like myself who are now too rusty to do our jobs — to send them here to this house, with an order to destroy all the equipment in this lab. All the tools, all of your notebooks, everything. He wants to shut your laboratory down, Professor Johnson.”