CHAPTER 4New Year’s Day, 1941, was momentous for Stephen Court. Most of December, 1940, he had spent in his laboratories, engrossed with a task the nature of which he explained to no one. The great Wisconsin mansion, where he lived with his staff, had been metamorphosed into a fortress of science, though from the outside it appeared to be merely an antique, dilapidated structure. But nearby villagers viewed with suspicion the activity around Stephen Court’s home.
The local post-office was deluged with letters and packages. At all hours automobiles arrived, carrying cryptic burdens for Court.
Slyly the villagers questioned Sammy, for he often wandered into the combination store and post-office, to sit by the stove and puff great, reeking fumes from his battered pipe. Sammy had not changed
