in the same mood that afternoon he stood in the middle of his living-room and looked at his visitors: piltdon, williams, the government man; billings from the van terrel foundation; steiner of westchester university; the members of the press.
"gentlemen," he said. "i'll make it brief." he waved the papers in his hand. "here is everything i know about what i call the feetch effect, including plans and specifications for the new type super-opener. all of you have special reasons for being keenly interested in this information. i am now going to give a copy to each of you, providing one condition is met by mr. piltdon." he stared at piltdon. "in short, i want fifty-one per cent of the stock of piltdon opener."
piltdon leaped from his chair. "outrageous!" he roared. "ridiculous!"
"fifty-one percent," said feetch firmly. "don't bother with any counterproposals or the interview is at an end."
"gentlemen!" squawked piltdon, "i appeal to you—"
"stop bluffing," said feetch coldly. "there's no other way out for you. otherwise you're ruined. here, sign this agreement."
piltdon threw the paper to the floor and screamed: "gentlemen, will you be a party to this?"
"well," murmured the government man, "i never did think feetch got a fair shake."
"this information is important to science," said the van terrel man.
after piltdon had signed, the papers were distributed.
published in the newspapers the following day, feetch's statement read, in part: "the motion in space and time of the singular curvilinear proportions of the original super-opener combined with the capacitor effect built up as it increased its frictional electro-static charge in inverse proportion to the cube root of the tolerance between the involute teeth caused an instantaneous disruption of what i call the alpha multi-dimensional screen. the can, being metallic, dropped through, leaving its non-metallic contents behind. the disruption was instantly repaired by the stable nature of the screen.
"beyond the screen is what i call alpha space, a space apparently quite as extensive as our own universe. unfortunately, as my investigations indicated, alpha space seems to be thickly inhabited. these inhabitants, the nature of whom i have not yet ascertained, obviously resented the intrusion of the cans, developed a method of disrupting the screen from their side, and hurled the cans back at us.
"however, i have established the existence of other spaces up to mu space, and suspect that others exist beyond that. beta space, which is also adjacent to our own space, is devoid of any form of life. the new type super-opener is designed to pass cans through the beta screen. beta space will safely absorb an infinite number of cans.
"i sincerely and humbly venture the opinion that we are on the threshold of tremendous and mighty discoveries. it is my belief that possibly an infinite number of universes exist in a type of laminated block separated by screens.
"therefore, might it not be that an infinite number of laminated blocks exist—?"
