Amazing Stories, Vol. 3, No. 2 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

THE GREAT FOUR DIMENSIONAL ROBBERIES directing all his attention to Clancy, who was just coming to. As I tried to brace myself so I could sit up, my hand touched the Hyper-Forceps. Singular, isn’t it, how rapidly one’s mind sometimes works in times of dire emergency? Almost instinc- tively, | grasped the handles and an instant later I had caught the robber’s hand in its jaws. With equal rapidity, | manipulated the device for moving the jaws into the fourth dimension. Though I had fully anticipated what would happen, the result was none the less astounding. The knife and the hand holding it instantly faded from sight, together with the upper portion of the man’s body. From the waist down, however, he was still in plain sight. Clancy was just struggling to his knees. His eyes opened so wide that I could see fully half an inch of white eyeball on all sides of the pupils. With a limp _and bedraggled cigar still hanging from his blue lips and his mashed derby cocked over one eye, he cer- tainly was a remarkable sight. “My Gawd!” he gasped. ‘‘There’s nothing left of » him but a pair of pants!” “Don't worry,” I assured him. “His lees are inside the pants and I’ve got the rest of him on the end of the Hyper-Porceps. He sure is a tough egg. Maybe you'd better tie his legs together, before I pull the top part of him back again.” : ‘Clancy got up and approached the weird-looking half-body. He had no sooner come within range, than one of the legs shot out and dealt him a resounding kick on his shin. ; ; “You blankety-blank son of a blank!” Clancy swore. “No pair of pants can*kick me in the shin and get away with it.” Whereupon he brought one of his square-toed shoes in vigorous contact with the seat of the aforementioned pair of pants. I felt a tug on the Hyper-Forceps which almost pulled me off my feet. feet tied together with Clancy’s suspenders. 109 “Go easy, Clancy,” I yelled. “If you don’t want me to get jerked into the fourth dimension, you'd better lay off those trousers. And as for you, you dirty crook, I don’t know whether you can hear me or not, but unless you want to commit suicide, you'd better quit struggling and give up. If you once get loose from the grip of this instrument you'll never be able to get back to earth again.” : He must have heard and understood, because he im- mediately quicted down and submitted to having his As soon as this was accomplished, I pulled steadily on the hyper- forceps and when the right hand came into view, Clancy slipped his handcuffs over the wrist and wrenched the knife from its grasp. A moment later, we had drawn the rest of the thief’s body back into three-dimensional space. He turned out to be a former assistant in the X-Ray Laboratory at the Mayer Brothers’ Hospital, Evidently he had learned about the Hyper-Forceps from snatches of conversation he had overheard at Winchester, and had conceived the idea of stealing it and using it for criminal purposes. In his pockets and his luggage we found over a hun- dred safe deposit keys, all conveniently labeled with the names and locations of the banks to which they be- longed. With the aid of these keys, we recovered all the stolen property except for a few thousand dollars in cash, which he had spent for expenses. The four-dimensional thief is now in the peniten- tiary. He has been found guilty on enough counts to keep him in jail for the next,thousand years. As for the Hyper-Forceps, we decided it was too dangerous an instrument to leave in a flimsily locked drawer. It now reposes in one of the most modern, theft-proof, non-pickable safe deposit boxes in a bank known only to three persons. Doctor Paul Mayer has one of the keys and I am holding the other to give to Professor Banning as soon as he returns from abroad. THE END. What Do You Know? EADERS of Amazinc Stortes have frequently : RIES y cotamented upon the fact that there is more actual knowledge to be gained through reading its pages than from many a textbook. Moreover, most of the stories are written in a popular vein, making it possible for any one to grasp important facts. | ‘The questions which we give below are al see if you can answer the questions without look knowledge. : 1. What is the scientific treatment of. the private box system in safe deposit vaults for securing the con- tents? (See pages 104 and 105.) » Can you give an illustration of the fourth dimension with four straight strips of wood? (See page 106.) , What is the name of the solid with four equal axes symmetrically placed? (See page 106.) - What is a tessaract? (See page 106.) _ (See page 106.) » What would the drawing of a four dimensional cube look like? (See page 107.) . Give some examples of “life in a two dimensional woud and of its limitations, (See pages 106 and . What is a Flatlander? Describe his limitations. (See page 107.) . What hypothetical process would produce a tessaract ? 1 answered on the pages as listed at the end of the questions, Please ing for the answer, and see how well you check up on your general 9. Name two characteristic and widely differing mem- bers of the Mollusk family. (See page 115.) 10. Poe many tentacles has the octopus? (See page 11. How are the tentacles of the octopus armed? (See page 115.) 12. What do the syllables octo and pus in octopus tell us? (See page 117.) : 13. What is a chromatophore? (See page 142.) 14, What are the distances of Mars and of the Moon from the earth? (See page 148.) 15. How would these distances affect the time required for transmission of radio messages? (See page 148.) 16. How can you hear without using the auditory system of the ears? (See pages. 154 and 155.) What is the general direction followed by the majority of the Martian Canals? (See page 155.) conmicloookks.conn