Read The Warlock Rock for Free Online

robot said softly. "Let us send the spy-eye searching north and south—though as you have noted, children, it must search in an arc, not a straight north-south line."
    "Yet how shall it know how sharp a curve that arc must have?" Geoffrey asked.
    "Why, by the distance from the center of the circle, brother!" Magnus crowed. "Dost thou not remember that the circumference is equal to pi times the diameter?"
    Geoffrey glared at him.
    "But in this case, we do not know exactly where the center is," Fess reminded him. Magnus looked startled for a second, then had the grace to look abashed. Page 24
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    "Fortunately, the rocks we seek send forth sound," Fess added. "I shall turn amplification up to maximum, children. If the spy-eye comes near a rock, we shall know by its music." The children waited in breathless silence, trying to ignore the droning of the stone behind them. A tinny, clattering sound came from the screen.
    " 'Tis there!" Geoffrey said.
    "We shall proceed in the direction of maximal increase of signal," Fess told them. On the screen, the scene swooped down and around, and steadied on…
    "Another rock!" Magnus cried, and Cordelia clapped her hands. Gregory only smiled up at the screen, his eyes glowing.
    The rock lay in the center of the frame, medium gray, and heavily thumping under its cascade of metallic notes.
    "Seek again," Magnus urged.
    "Seeking," Fess answered, and the picture blurred once more. The children held their breath as one sound dwindled and another grew, then…
    "'Tis there!" Magnus pointed, and the other children cheered. The rock lay in the center of the screen, almost identical to the last two, both in appearance and sound. As the sound slackened, Gregory piped, "Fess—canst thou determine an arc from three points?" The robot was silent for a beat, then said, "If we assume it is an arc, Geoffrey, yes."
    "Then do so, please! And show us it on a map of Gramarye." Rod stared, amazed, as he realized what the boy was getting at.
    "Remember," Fess said slowly, "that this is only an hypothesis."
    "Hypothesis! Hypothesis!" Geoffrey protested. "Doth one hypothesis lead ever to another?"
    "Yes, Geoffrey. That is how human knowledge progresses." The screen flickered, and the children found themselves staring at an overhead view of the Isle of Gramarye. Then a circle appeared over it, cutting through the western corner of Romanov, down along the western edge of Tudor and the western corners of Runnymede and Stuart, to intersect the Florin River in the middle of the Forest Gellorn, and on through the western corner of Loguire to cut Borgia in half from north to south.
    The children stared at the screen.
    Then Magnus asked, in a hushed whisper, "Where is its center, Fess?" Page 25
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    "Where radü meet," the robot answered, and a large red dot appeared at the western edge ofGloucester
    .
    "The center of the rock music is on the West Coast," Gregory breathed.
    "The hypothetical center," Fess reminded them, "and the word is 'western,' not 'west.' It is an adjective."
    "Oh, what matter?" Geoffrey grumbled. " 'Tis the location of the crafter we do seek. Is he on the coast or not?"
    "Remember, we are making several assumptions that may prove false," Fess cautioned. "We really must have more data before we can claim our hypothesis is sufficiently well validated to rank as a theory."
    "And a theory is a statement of fact?" Magnus asked.
    "Yes, Magnus, with the understanding that such a statement may later prove to be only part of a larger pattern. Do not make the error, as so many do, of saying 'theory ' when they really mean 'hypothesis.'"
    "Then let us hypothesize further." Geoffrey folded his arms, frowning at the screen. "Let us ask what will hap if we are right, and this development of rock music doth proceed without hindrance."
    "A valid question," Fess said