The gas hissed faintly in the Bunsen burner, the traffic clattered along the street outside, and the Professor, poisoned by a hundred cigarettes, eyes half-closed, leaned back in his revolving chair.
I see it all now.
The ray brought them to life.
It's a new ray, never studied or even discovered by anyone before.
The first thing is to find out whether it is produced only by electricity, or by the sun as well," Persikov muttered to himself.
The next night provided the answer to this question.
Persikov caught three rays in three microscopes from the arc light, but nothing from the sun, and summed this up as follows: "We must assume that it is not found in the solar spectrum... Hm, well, in short we must assume it can only be obtained from electric light." He gazed fondly at the frosted ball overhead, thought for a moment and invited Ivanov into the laboratory, where he told him all and showed him the amoebas.
Decent Ivanov was amazed, quite flabbergasted.
Why on earth hadn't a simple thing as this tiny arrow been noticed before? By anyone, or even by him, Ivanov.