Amazing Stories July 1943 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Amazing Stories
Published: 1943-07-13T05:00:00+00:00

JIMMY jumped. His first thought was that it was his aunt, returning with the beer for supper, or his uncle, coming home from work. Either of them would be certain to yell at him to get that junk out of the kitchen and be fast about it.

It was neither. It was Bubber, his cousin. Bubber was sixteen, and big for his age. He saw the radio apparatus assembled on the kitchen table.

“Ain’t you been told often enough to keep that junk out of here?” he said.

“I was just soldering it,” Jimmy said defensively.

“You were just solderin’ it!” Bubber aped. He was in a bad humor. His most recent effort to join Spinelli’s gang had just been rebuffed. Consequently he was looking for a way to get even with somebody, anybody, Bubber didn’t care who. Jimmy offered a likely target. For years, ever since the death of Jimmy’s mother had forced him to live with his uncle and aunt. Cousin Bubber had been getting even with Jimmy for everything that happened. He advanced toward Jimmy.

“You stay away from me,” Jimmy said.

“Telling me to stay away from you, are you?”

“I haven’t done anything to you.”

“Maybe you’re too good to associate with me. Maybe that’s why you’re telling me to stay away from you.”

Jimmy retreated to the far end of the kitchen table. He had long since learned the folly of trying to stand up against Bubber’s hard fists.

Bubber stopped advancing. He stood at the other end of the table. He knew that Jimmy would run if pressed too hard. He didn’t want Jimmy to run. If the other ran, Bubber wouldn’t get the pleasure of knocking hell out of him. Bubber resorted to strategy to get Jimmy within the range of his fists. He pretended to be interested in the radio set on the table.

Condensers out of old sets, coils, tubes, the loot of a dozen out-moded and junked radio sets was there. There was even a gadget that looked as if it had once been part of an electric heater. It had been a heater. The polished mirror designed to reflect heat had been cut down, the heating unit in the center had been removed, and five tiny coils of bare wire had been substituted. The heater was hinged so it could be swung in any direction. It was pointing up now, toward the side wall.

“What are you makin’?” Bubber asked.

“Nothing,” Jimmy said. He did not move from his spot on the other end of the table.

“Aw, come on, I ain’t gonna hurt you,” Bubber promised. “Tell me about this thing. I’m kind of interested in radio myself. What is it?”

Jimmy could not resist a chance to talk about the subject that interested him most.

“It’s a kind of a transmitter,” he said.

‘Will it get the police calls?” Bubber asked. The police calls always interested him. They afforded information and speculation on the whereabouts of his companions.

“Of course not,” Jimmy said. “You would need a receiver for that. This is not a receiver.

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