Amazing Stories, Vol. 3, No. 2 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE GREAT FOUR DIMENSIONAL ROBBERIES ~ =i by twisting it through the fourth dimension. Without breaking the ball in any way, it could be turned inside » out, so that the outside surface would become the inside and vice versa. Do you comprehend what I mean?” “T guess so,” Dern hesitated. “Sounds goofey to me,” growled Clancy. “As I understand it,” I continued, “you are inter- ested principally in knowing how the contents of a safe deposit box can be removed without opening the door.” “That’s exactly what I would like to know.” “T can illustrate that with this plain rubber band or ring. To a two-dimensional being or Flatlander, this would be an impregnable safe deposit vault. In order to obtain access,to it, he’d need a door in the side, since it would be impossible for him to climb over the edge of the ring. However, if he happened to get hold of a specially constructed pair of pliers he could, without leaving his two dimensional world, reach over the top of the ring, through the third dimension and remove all the contents. : “The Hyper-Forceps which Professor Banning and I made is nothing more nor less than a pair of pliers or tongs, that will operate through a fourth dimension. With it I could easily remove the contents of a safe or closed box without opening the door.” “And where is the Hyper-Forceps now?” manded. : “Tocked in a drawer at our workshop on the hos- pital grounds.” “Would you mind letting me see it?” “Td be glad to.” The hospital was but a short distance from my hotel, so the three of us walked over to the workshop in which Doctor Banning and I had constructed the Hyper- Forceps. Dern de- We had always kept the instrument in a locked - drawer of a cabinet where our delicate tools were stored. There were only two keys to this drawer. I had one and Professor Banning had the other. When I placed my key in the lock I was surprised to find that the drawer was already unlocked. Know- ing the extreme care which both Professor Banning and I exercised whenever we handled the Hyper- Forceps, neglected to lock the drawer. With a feeling of dread- ful-premonition, I opened the drawer. It was empty! Dern examined the lock. ‘“H-m-m-m! Just what I thought! The lock has been sprung with a screwdriver and the bolt pushed back in place. As crazy as this four-dimensional applesauce sounds, it looks as if we are on the right track after all.” F anyone had suggested that I was to become an operative for the William Dern Detective Agency, I should have told him he was either drunk or out of his mind—but that’s exactly what happened. ; Dern talked me into it. | He pointed out to me that, since it was now quite apparent that the crook, who was perpetrating these stupendous robberies, was using the Hyper-Forceps, and since I was the only available person who knew hew the instrument looked and was operated, my assist- T could not believe that either of us had™ 107 ance was indispensable. The tremendous seriousness of the crimes and the dangerous and far-reaching effects they were having were also imparted to me in terms that - left me almost gasping for breath. “The stuff that’s been printed in the papers—bad as it sounds—doesn’t come within a thousand miles of describing the real state of affairs,’ Dern told me. “They wouldn’t dare to publish a tenth of the actual facts. “Just think what it means to have the security of all the world’s safe deposit vaults suddenly destroyed. A man might as well put his valuables in an open soap box and leave it on the street, with a ‘Help Yourself’ sign on it, as to put them into a safe deposit box these days. “Did you know that all the insurance companies have already announced that they will no longer insure the contents of safe deposit vaults without charging rates that are far in excess of the income which a bond owner can get from his securities? > “T tell you, the bankers and other financiers are des- perate. They have their backs against a wall. It _ wouldn't take much to throw every bank and business house in the country into bankruptcy. ‘That's how im- portant it is, that we catch this crook before he does damage that can never be repaired.” The upshot of it all was that I agreed to cooperate with Dern-in every possible way, with the understand- ing, however, that as soon as Professor Banning re- turned, I was to be released from duty. In order that I might work in harmony with the rest of the organization, I was delegated to team with Clancy, who was in active charge of the case. After we had become better acquainted, Clancy and I got along famously. He grudgingly admitted that in matters pertaining to science and mechanics, I had just a shade the better of him, but when it came to skill in tracking the elusive criminal to his lair, I couldn’t help handing the solid gold handcuffs to Clancy. His method was simple enough. As soon as it was established with reasonable likelihood, that the criminal was rifling the safe deposit boxes by means of the Hyper-Forceps, it was easy to figure out just how he would operate. His first move would be to rent a box for himself, since that would be the only way he could get inside the vault. He would make frequent visits to the vault until he happened to strike a time when he was all alone. Then, with the aid of the Hyper-Forceps, he would remove the contents of three or four boxes, putting the bonds and other valuables which could easily be converted into cash, into his own box, and carrying the worthless papers away in his pocket. On his first robbery he had made the mistake of throwing an insurance policy into the waste basket. This error was never repeated. Since we knew that our quarry was numbered among the renters of safe deposit boxes in the various banks which had been robbed, the next logical step was to obtain from these banks copies of all new signature cards which had been made out between the last time T had seen the Hyper-Forceps and the date the rob- bery was discovered in each bank. Conmiclooolkks.€ con