The small eyes looked out on the world with a surprised, yet confident expression, and there was something unduly familiar about the short legs with their flat feet. The face was bluish-shaven. Persikov frowned at once.

Creak' ing the screw mercilessly, he peered at the newcomer over his spectacles, then through them, and barked: "So you've got a warrant, have you? Where is it then?"

The newcomer was clearly taken aback by what he saw. In general he was not prone to confusion, but now he was confused. Judging by his eyes, the thing that impressed him most was the bookcase with twelve shelves stretching right up to the ceiling and packed full of books. Then, of course, the chambers which, hell-like, were flooded with the crimson ray swelling up in the lenses. And Persikov himself in the semi-darkness by sharp point of the ray falling from the reflector looked strange and majestic in his revolving chair. The newcomer stared at him with an expression in which sparks of respect flashed clearly through the self-assurance, did not hand over any warrant, but said: "I am Alexander Semyonovich Feight!"

"Well then? So what?"

"I have been put in charge of the Red Ray Model State Farm," the newcomer explained.

"So what?"

"And so I have come to see you on secret business, comrade."

"Well, I wonder what that can be. Put it briefly, if you don't mind."

The newcomer unbuttoned his jacket and pulled out some instructions typed on splendid thick paper. He handed the paper to Persikov, then sat down uninvited on a revolving stool.

"Don't push the table," said Persikov with hatred.

The newcomer looked round in alarm at the table, on the far edge of which a pair of eyes glittered lifelessly like diamonds in a damp dark opening. They sent shivers down your spine.

No sooner had Persikov read the warrant, than he jumped up and rushed to the telephone. A few seconds later he was already saying hastily in a state of extreme irritation:

"Forgive me... I just don't understand... How can it be? Without my consent or advice... The devil only knows what he'll do!"

At that point the stranger, highly offended, spun round on the stool.

"Pardon me, but I'm in charge..." he began.

But Persikov shook a crooked finger at him and went on: "Excuse me, but I just don't understand. In fact, I object categorically. I refuse to sanction any experiments with the eggs... Until I have tried them myself..."

Something croaked and rattled in the receiver, and even at a distance it was clear that the indulgent voice on the phone was talking to a small child. In the end a purple-faced Persikov slammed down the receiver, shouting over it at the wall:

"I wash my hands of the whole business!"

Going back to the table, he picked up the warrant, read it once from top to bottom over his spectacles, then from bottom to top through them, and suddenly howled:

"Pankrat!"

Pankrat appeared in the doorway as if he had shot up through the trap-door in an opera. Persikov glared at him and barked: "Go away, Pankrat!" And Pankrat disappeared, his face not expressing the slightest surprise.

Then Persikov turned to the newcomer and said: "I beg your pardon. I will obey. It's none of my business.

And of no interest to me."

The newcomer was not so much offended as taken aback.

"Excuse me," he began, "but comrade..."

"Why do you keep saying comrade all the time," Persikov muttered, then fell silent.

"Well, I never," was written all over Feight's face.

"Pard..." "Alright then, here you are," Persikov interrupted him.

"See this arc lamp. From this you obtain by moving the eyepiece,"

Persikov clicked the lid of the chamber, like a camera, "a beam which you can collect by moving the lenses, number 1 here... and the mirror, number 2." Persikov put the ray out, then lit it again on the floor of the asbestos chamber. "And on the floor you can put anything you like and experiment with it. Extremely simple, is it not?"

Persikov intended to express irony and contempt, but the newcomer was peering hard at the chamber with shining eyes and did not notice them.

"Only I warn you," Persikov went on. "You must not put your hands in the ray, because from my observations it causes growths of the epithelium.

And whether they are malignant or not, I unfortunately have not yet had time to establish."

Hereupon the newcomer quickly put his hands behind his back, dropping his leather cap, and looked at the Professor's hands. They were stained with iodine, and the right hand was bandaged at the wrist.

"But what about you, Professor?"

"You can buy rubber gloves at Schwabe's on Kuznetsky," the Professor replied irritably. "I'm not obliged to worry about that"

At this point Persikov stared hard at the newcomer as if through a microscope.

"Where are you from? And why have you..."

Feight took offence at last.

"Pard..."

"But a person should know what he's doing! Why have you latched on to this ray?"

"Because it's a matter of the greatest importance..."

"Hm. The greatest importance? In that case... Pankrat!"

And when Pankrat appeared:

"Wait a minute, I must think." " Pankrat dutifully disappeared again.

"There's one thing I can't understand," said Persikov. "Why the need for all this speed and secrecy?"

"You've got me all muddled up. Professor," Feight replied. "You know there's not a single chicken left in the whole country."

"Well, what of it?" Persikov howled. "Surely you're not going to try and resurrect them all at the drop of a hat, are you? And why do you need this ray which hasn't been properly studied yet?"

"Comrade Professor," Feight replied, "you've got me all muddled, honest you have. I'm telling you that we must put poultry-keeping back on its feet again, because they're writing all sorts of rotten things about us abroad.

Yes."

"Well, let them..."

"Tut-tut," Feight replied enigmatically, shaking his head.

"Who on earth, I should like to know, would ever think of using the ray to hatch chickens..."

"Me," said Feight.

"Oh, I see. And why, if you don't mind my asking? How did you find out about the properties of the ray?"

"I was at your lecture, Professor."

"But I haven't done anything with the eggs yet! I'm only planning to!"

"It'll work alright, honest it will," said Feight suddenly with great conviction. "Your ray's so famous it could hatch elephants, not only chickens."

"Now listen here," Persikov said. "You're not a zoologist, are you?

That's a pity. You would make a very bold experimenter. Yes, only you risk ...