Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/351

 ev'ry one sittin' 'round this table at once, but by revolvin' the dial I can bring most any figure in the room on it. But that ain't all. Yuh see that nifty oil paintin' o' seven bilious cows eatin' zinc quartz off'n a hillside that's been overrun with what looks like a carload o' German mustard? Just pipe that picture and that five-inch plaster-of-Paris gilt frame, and tell me if yuh see anything special about it."

The girl in the uniform studied the picture on the wall.

"All I can see is that it seems an especially stupid bit of painting."

"The paintin' may be stoopid, but the plaster-of-Paris frame ain't, not by a long shot. For if yuh stand on that chair and study them gilt-covered upperworks yuh'll see where one o' them three-inch scrolls is cut away. Where that scroll oughtta be is the annunciator of a dictaphone covered with gilt. And them picture wires that go up to the moldin' there are covered with silk fiber. But instead o' stoppin' at the moldin' they go right up through the ceilin' and are waitin' to be connected with a receiver and dry-cell to-morrow when I get up there. That means I can sit up in that room,