I stayed back aways. I didn’t want the Sheriff to see me. I’d already spotted him, sitting on a bench outside the feed-and-grain store across the street.
It happened just like I thought. Galbraith pulled the trigger, aiming at the weathercock on the roof, and rings of light started coming out of the muzzle. There was a fearful noise. Galbraith fell flat on his back, and the commotion was something surprising. People began screaming all over town.
I kinda felt it might be handy if I went invisible for a while. So I did.
Gaibraith was examining the shotgun gadget when Sheriff Abernathy busted in. The Sheriff’s a hard case. He had his pistol out and handcuffs ready, and he was cussing the Perfesser immediate and rapid.
“I seen you!” he yelled. “You city fellers think you can get away with anything down here. Well, you can’t!”
“Saunk!” Galbraith cried, looking around. But of course he couldn’t see me.
Then there was an argument. Sheriff Abernathy had seen Galbraith fire the shotgun gadget and he’s no fool. He drug Galbraith down on the street, and I come along, walking soft. People were running around like crazy. Most of them had their hands clapped to their faces.
The Perfesser kept wailing that he didn’t understand.
“I seen you!” Abernathy said. “You aimed that dingus of yours out the window and the next thing everybody in town’s got a toothache! Try and tell me you don’t understand!”
The Sheriff’s smart. He’s known us Hogbens long enough so he ain’t surprised when funny things happen sometimes. Also, he knew Galbraith was a scientist feller. So there was a ruckus and people heard what was going on and the next thing they was trying to lynch Galbraith.
But Abernathy got him away. I wandered around town for a while. The pastor was out looking at his church windows, which seemed to puzzle him. They was stained glass, and he couldn’t figger out why they was hot. I coulda told him that. There’s gold in stained-glass windows; they use it to get a certain kind of red.
Finally I went down to the jailhouse. I was still invisible. So I eavesdropped on what Galbraith was saying to the Sheriff.
“It was Saunk Hoghen,” the Perfesser kept saying. “I tell you, he fixed that projector!”
“I saw you,” Abernathy said. “You done it. Ow!” He put up his hand to his jaw. “And you better stop it, fast! That crowd outside means business. Half the people in town have got toothaches.”
I guess half the people in town had gold fillings in their teeth.
Then Galbraith said something that didn’t surprise me too much.
“I’m having a commission come down from New York, I meant to telephone the foundation tonight, they’ll vouch for me.”
So he was intending to cross us up, all along. I kinda felt that had been in his mind.
“You’ll cure this toothache of mine-and everybody else’s-or I’ll open the doors and let in that lynch mob!” the Sheriff howled. Then he went away to put an icebag on his cheek.
I snuck back aways, got visible again and made a lot of noise coming along the passage, so Galbraith could hear me. I waited till he got through cussing me out. I just looked stupid.
“I guess I made a mistake,” I said. “I can fix it, though.”
“You’ve done enough fixing!” He stopped. “Wait a minute. What did you say? You can cure this-what is it?”
“I been looking at that shotgun gadget,” I said. “I think I know what I did wrong. It’s sorta tuned in on gold now, and all the gold in town’s shooting out rays or heat or something.”
“Induced selective radioactivity,” Galbraith muttered, which didn’t seem to mean much. “Listen.
That crowd outside-do they ever have lynchings in this town?”
“Not more’n once or twice a year,” I said. “And we already had two this year, so we filled our quota.
Wish I could get you up to our place, though. We could hide you easy.”
“You’d better do something!” he said. “Or I’ll get that commission down from New York. You wouldn’t like that, would you?”
I never seen such a man fer telling lies and keeping a straight face.
“It’s a cinch,” I said. “I can rig up the gadget so it’ll switch off the rays immediate. Only I don’t want people to connect us Hogbens with what’s going on. We like to live quiet. Look, s’pose I go back to your hotel and change over the gadget, and then all you have to do is get all the people with toothaches together and pull the trigger.”
“But-well, but—”
He was afraid of more trouble. I had to talk him into it. The crowd was yelling outside, so it wasn’t too hard. Finally I went away, but I came back, invisible-like, and listened when Calbraith talked to the Sheriff.
They fixed it all up. Everybody with toothaches was going to the Town Hall and set. Then Abernathy would bring the Perfesser over, with the shotgun gadget, and try it out.
“Will it stop the toothaches?” the Sheriff wanted to know. “For sure?”
“I’m-quite certain it will.”
Abernathy had caught that behitation.
“Then you better try it on me first. Just to make sure. I don’t trust you.”
It seemed like nobody was trusting nobody.
I hiked back to the hotel and made the switch-over in the shotgun gadget. And then I run into trouble. My invisibility was wearing thin. That’s the worst part of being just a kid.
After I’m a few hunnerd years older I can stay invisible all the time if I want to. But I ain’t right mastered it yet. Thing was, I needed help now because there was something I had to do, and I couldn’t do it with people watching.
I went up on the roof and called Little Sam. After I’d tuned in on his haid, I had him put the call through to Paw and Uncle Les. After a while Uncle Les come flying down from the sky, riding mighty heavy on account of he was carrying Paw. Paw was cussing because a hawk had chased them.
“Nobody seen us, though,” Uncle Les said. “I think.”
“People got their own troubles in town today,” I said. “I need some help. That Perfesser’s gonna call down his commission and study us, no matter what he promises.”
“Ain’t much we can do, then,” Paw said. “We cain’t kill that feller. Grandpaw said not to.”
So I told ’em my idea. Paw being invisible, he could do it easy. Then we made a little place in the roof so we could see through it, and looked down into Gaibraith’s room.
We was just in time. The Sheriff was standing there, with his pistol out, just waiting, and the Perfesser, pale around the chops, was pointing the shotgun gadget at Abernathy. It went along without a hitch. Galbraith pulled the trigger, a purple ring of light popped out, and that was all. Except that the Sheriff opened his mouth and gulped.
“You wasn’t faking! My toothache’s gone!”
Gaibraith was sweating, but he put up a good front. “Sure it works,” he said. “Naturally. I told you—”
“C’mon down to the Town Hall. Everybody’s waiting. You better cure us all, or it’ll be just too bad for you.”
They went out. Paw snuck down after them, and Uncle Los picked me up and flew on their trail, keeping low to the roofs, where we wouldn’t be spotted. After a while we was fixed outside one of the Town Hall’s windows, watching.
I ain’t heard so much misery since the great plague of London. The hall was jam-full, and everybody had a toothache and was moaning and yelling. Abernathy come in with the Perfesser, who was carrying the shotgun gadget, and a scream went up.
Galbraith set the gadget on the stage, pointing down at the audience, while the Sheriff pulled out his pistol again and made a speech, telling everybody to shet up and they’d get rid of their toothaches.
I couldn’t see Paw, natcherally, but I knew he was up on the platform. Something funny was happening to the shotgun gadget. Nobody noticed, except me, and I was watching for it. Paw-invisible, of course -was making a few changes. I’d told him how, but he knew what to do as well as I did. So pretty soon the shotgun was rigged the way we wanted it.