"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 24 - And His 3D Telejector" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

A grandfather clock ticked loudly in the silence. Suddenly Phyl gave a stifled
gasp and pointed with a quivering hand.
"Sandy! Look!"
A weird figure had materialized from a dark corner of the room! It was a peg-
legged man in a brass-buttoned coat with a sea captain's hat pulled low over his
eyes. He was drenched and dripping, and seaweed clung to his clothes'. As he
moved out of the corner, a low moan came from his lips.
The girls watched, frozen with terror.
"H-h-he's dripping wet," Phyl whispered, "but he's not leaving any tracks on
the carpet!"
"He just can't be a ghost!" Sandy insisted. She spoke to the figure but it
made no reply.
Summoning all her nerve, Sandy got up and approached the specter. She
reached out to touch him-but her hand went through his body!
The girls screamed and flew into each other's arms. They were clinging in
panic as Tom, Bud, and Dr. Grimsey came rushing into the parlor.
"What's wrong?" Tom inquired.
"W-w-we just saw the ghost!" Phyl quavered.
Bud stared at them, then looked around. "Stop joking-there's no one here but
us."
The apparition had vanished!
Sandy was about to speak when she saw smiles twitching at the boys' lips.
As her expression changed, Tom and Bud burst into laughter.
"Of all the mean tricks!" Sandy exclaimed. "They've been playing a joke on
us, Phyll"
THE PEG-LEGGED GHOST 5
"But-but how? I know we saw it!" Bewildered, Phyl turned to Dr. Grimsey.
"And that story you told us about the sea captain-?"
The elderly scientist reddened. "Please forgive me. This young scamp, Tom
Swift, arranged the whole thing and persuaded me to back him up with that
ridiculous yarn."
Sandy grinned good-naturedly. "Okay, brother dear. You've had your fun.
Now explain."
The young inventor was still chuckling. "What you've just seen," he
announced, "is a demonstration of the new invention I'm working on-a three-
dimensional television system."
"Television?" Sandy wrinkled her forehead. "But the spook we saw wasn't on
a TV screen-it was walking right through the room!"
"Exactly, because my system doesn't need a screen." Tom walked over and
pulled aside some draperies. Concealed behind them was a boxlike device about
four feet high, studded with tuning knobs and dials. A short latticework antenna
protruded from the front of the machine. "This telejector, as I call it, projects 3-D
images right into the room. You were actually watching a video tape which I
switched on by remote control from Dr. Grimsey's study."
"Then the 'ghost' we saw was really just-well, just light?" Phyl asked in
amazement.
"Not quite, although I hope to achieve that later," Tom said. "The images
were formed from a chemical mist which Dr. Grimsey sprayed into
6 3-D TELEJECTOR
the air beforehand. When the telejector beam strikes the mist particles, it