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"Golf course at Hilo. Last March. I was-"
"That case! That was one of the disappearance cases!"
"Yes, of course. I'm trying to tell you. I was standing in a sand trap near the thirteenth green, when I happened to look up-" A clear, balmy island day. No clouds, barometer normal, light breeze. Nothing to suggest atmospheric disturbance, no maxima of sunspots, no static on the radio. Without warning a half dozen, or more, giant fireballs-ball "lightning" on a unprecedented scale-floated across the golf course in a sort of skirmish line, a line described by some observers as mathematically even-an assertion denied by others.
A woman player, a tourist from the mainland, screamed and began to run. The flanking ball nearest her left its place in line and danced after her. No one seemed sure that the ball touched her-Blake could not say although he had watched it happen-but when the ball had passed on, there she lay on the grass, dead.
A local medico of somewhat flamboyant reputation insisted that he found evidence in the cadaver of both coagulation and electrolysis, but the jury that sat on the case followed the coroner's advice in calling it heart failure, a verdict heartily approved by the local chamber of commerce and tourist bureau.
The man who disappeared did not try to run; his fate came to meet him. He was a caddy, a Japanese-Portygee-Kanata mixed breed, with no known relatives, a fact which should have made it easy to leave his name out of the news reports had not a reporter smelled it out. "He was standing on the green, not more than twenty-five yards away from me," Blake recounted, "when the fireballs approached. One passed on each side of me. My skin itched, and my hair stood up. I could smell ozone. I stood still-"
"That saved you," observed Graves.
"Nuts," said Eisenberg. "Standing in the dry sand of the trap was what saved him."
"Bill, you're a fool," Graves said wearily. "These fireball things perform with intelligent awareness."
Blake checked his account. "Why do you assume that, doctor?"
"Never mind, for the moment, please. Go on with your story."
"Hm-m-m. Well, they passed on by me. The caddy fellow was directly in the course of one of them. I don't believe he saw it-back toward it, you see. It reached him, enveloped him, passed on-but the boy was gone."
Graves nodded. "That checks with the accounts I have seen. Odd that I did not recall your name from the reports."
"I stayed in the background," Blake said shortly. "Don't like reporters."
"Hm-m-m. Anything to add to the reports that did come out? Any errors in them?"
"None that I can recall. Did the reports mention the bag of golf clubs he was carrying?"
"I think not."
"They were found on the beach, six miles away."
Eisenberg sat up. "That's news," he said. "Tell me: Was there anything to suggest how far they had fallen? Were they smashed or broken?"
Blake shook his head. "They weren't even scratched, nor was the beach sand disturbed. But they were-ice-cold."
Graves waited for him to go on; when the captain did not do so he inquired, "What do you make of it?"
"Me? I make nothing of it."
"How do you explain it?"
"I don't. Unclassified electrical phenomena. However, if you want a rough guess, I'll give you one. This fireball is a static field of high potential. It englobes the caddy and charges him, whereupon he bounces away like a pith ball-electrocuted, incidentally. When the charge dissipates, he falls into the sea."
"So? There was a case like it in Kansas, rather too far from the sea."
"The body might simply never have been found."
"They never are. But even so-how do you account for the clubs being deposited so gently? And why were they cold?"
"Dammit, man, I don't know! I'm no theoretician; I'm a maritime engineer by profession, an empiricist by disposition. Suppose you tell me."
"All right-but bear in mind that my hypothesis is merely tentative, a basis for investigation. I see in these several phenomena, the Pillars, the giant fireballs, a number of other assorted phenomena which should never have happened, but did-including the curious case of a small mountain peak south of Boulder, Colorado, which had its tip leveled off 'spontaneously'-I see in these things evidence of intelligent direction, a single conscious cause." He shrugged. "Call it the 'X' factor. I'm looking for X."
Eisenberg assumed a look of mock sympathy. "Poor old Doc," he sighed. "Sprung a leak at last."
The other two ignored the crack. Blake inquired, "You are primarily an ichthyologist, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"How did you get started along this line?"
"I don't know. Curiosity, I suppose. My boisterous young friend here would tell you that ichthyology is derived from 'icky.' "
Blake turned to Eisenberg. "But aren't you an ichthyologist?"
"Hell, no! I'm an oceanographer specializing in ecology."
"He's quibbling," observed Graves. "Tell Captain Blake about Cleo and Pat."
Eisenberg looked embarrassed. "They're damned nice pets," he said defensively.
Blake looked puzzled; Graves explained. "He kids me, but his secret shame is a pair of goldfish. Goldfish! You'll find 'em in the washbasin in his stateroom this minute."
"Scientific interest?" Blake inquired with a dead pan.
"Oh, no! He thinks they are devoted to him."
"They're damned nice pets," Eisenberg insisted. "They don't bark, they don't scratch, they don't make messes. And Cleo does so have expression!"
In spite of his initial resistance to their plans Blake Cooperated actively in trying to find a dodge whereby the proposed experiment could be pertormed without endangering naval perso
He offered the services of his master diver, an elderly commissioned warrant officer, and his technical crew in checking their gear. "You know," he added, "there is some reason to believe that your bathysphere could make the round trip, aside from the proposition that what goes up must come down. You know of the VJ-14?"
"Was that the naval plane lost in the early investigation?"
"Yes." He buzzed for his orderly. "Have my writer bring up the jacket on the VJ-14," he directed.
Attempts to reco
-engine failure. The vertical reach of the cloud was greater than the ceiling of any plane.
"The VJ-14," Blake stated, referring occasionally to the file jacket which bad been fetched, "made an air reco
"Incidentally the pilot, Lieutenant-m-m-m-m, yes-Mattson-Lieutenant Mattson was exonerated posthumously by the court of inquiry. Oh, yes, here's the point pertinent to our question: From the log of the Pelican. '1709-Picked up wreckage identified as part of VJ-14. See additional sheet for itemized description.' We needn't bother with that. Point is, they picked it up four miles from the base of the Wahini Pilha on the side away from the Kanaka, The inference is obvious and your scheme might work. Not that you'd live through it."