BOOBY PRIZE a novelet by GEORGE O. SMITH [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Thrilling Wonder Stories August 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] I Peter Mansfield waved a hand in a gesture that included the laboratory inclusively and said, "I can't wait to turn it on." Norma Higgins smiled up at him and said, "Peter, you're still a bit of a breathless kid at heart, aren't you?" Peter nodded boyishly. "Maybe I am," he admitted with a grin. "But after a guy has worked and slaved for about five years, and then he finally gets his job finished, it's tough to wait before he can try it out." "Just 'till tomorrow," said Norma softly. "It isn't so awfully long. In the meantime, Peter, maybe we can think of the day after tomorrow and the day after that?" Peter Mansfield forgot the two equipments that were the focal points of the laboratory and turned to the girl. Norma came into his arms with a great amount of quiet enthusiasm. Her lithe young body pressed against him, tempting him. Her lips were warm and eager. Then before he was ready to let her go, Norma leaned back in his arms and asked softly, "Why must we wait, Peter? Why not tonight? Right now?" He shook his head unhappily. "No," he said stubbornly, "not until I can look you in the eye." Norma shrugged herself out of his arms—not angrily, but with enough display of annoyance to let him understand that she thought his remark entirely uncalled for. "You're a bit of a booby, Peter," she told him. "We've been putting this off for four or five years just because you are afraid of my bank book. You've been struggling like an overloaded draft animal on an uphill drag just so you can prove to me that you've got what it takes to support me. Darn it, Peter, I don't need to be supported. And I could have helped you, you know, if you'd been less stubborn. You could have hired help, you could have bought equipment, you might have been finished sooner. But no. Is that—" Peter Mansfield looked down at the floor. "Norma," he said plaintively, "I couldn't let my wife support me. It isn't the way I was brought up."
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