Free Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint by Jay Williams Page A

you into this mess.”
    â€œThere is,” said the Professor gently. “Forget about it. We have too many other things to do.”
    â€œYes, sir,” Danny said almost in a whisper.
    â€œWell, then, we’re all squared away. We’ll have to plan a routine and assign jobs. To begin with, suppose you and Joe get some dinner ready. Dr. Grimes, why don’t you try to figure roughly what our course is? There’s an automatic course plotter into which you can feed data. I’ll get to work on the relay and see if I can think of some way to repair it.”
    The two boys quickly learned how to handle themselves in the absence of gravity. They found they could get about quickly by shoving against walls or decks with their feet or hands and shooting through the air. They also learned to hook their toes under open drawers or chair seats when they wanted to stand still, for the slightest push would send them drifting off.
    It was like their dreams of flying come true. They never tired of the games they could play zipping through the air from place to place. And when they were tired, they found there was nothing more pleasant than to lie still, floating like thistledown on the faint air currents that moved through the ship.
    They had a little difficulty at first with the food. They could slice solid things like cheese and meat, but they had to handle them with care. Putting a sandwich down too hard would cause it to float away in separate pieces.
    At one point Joe tried to pour some milk out of a container. Instead of pouring, it dropped out in round white globules which went bouncing like bubbles all over the cabin. Dan and Joe swam after them through the air, but when they tried to catch one it bounded away and broke into a number of even smaller bubbles.
    â€œWhat we need for this,” Joe panted, “is a butterfly net. How are we going to drink this stuff?”
    â€œNot too difficult,” said the Professor, looking up from his work. “We’ll simply trap one in a glass and stick a straw into it. Sucking and swallowing don’t depend on gravity.”
    Joe managed at last to assemble the pieces of milk in a container. Danny meantime had opened a package of cheese, but as he held it down on the table, the knife went sailing away. He reached into his pants pocket and fished out his own knife. But the handle caught in his pocket lining, and the pocket turned inside out. The next instant the air was full of a strange assortment of things from his pocket, and Danny dropped everything in a wild attempt to get them back.
    The Professor glanced up in surprise as a pencil missed his nose by an inch.
    â€œDear me,” he said. “Is the storeroom leaking?
    Joe dodged a marble and swam through the air to the galley. He got a strainer and began scooping objects in. Eventually everything was rounded up.
    Professor Bullfinch came over to watch Danny putting his treasures away. As he stowed them in his pocket, the Professor ticked them off on his fingers.
    â€œString, a pencil stub, two nails, five paper clips, a marble, a piece of wire, a used pipe cleaner. I ought to make a study of the expandable nature of boys’ pockets,” he said. “What’s this?”
    â€œIt’s a watch spring,” Danny explained. “It’s useful too. I read once that a man cut his way out of jail with one.”
    â€œI see. I hope you never have to use it. And what’s this odd coin?”
    â€œOh, Miss Arnold once gave me that. It’s a lempira from Honduras. I keep it because I like the name.”
    â€œAnd this?”
    â€œWell, that’s a jingle from a cowboy spur. And this thing is the inside of a radio tube.”
    â€œHeavens! I’m out of fingers,” said the Professor. “And here’s an old cough drop. At least, I think it’s a cough drop.”
    â€œYes. That’s in case I’m ever hungry.”
    â€œI see. And what is this