Henry Horn's X-Ray Eye Glasses

What if you invented X-ray glasses in 1942 and immediately made the worst possible demonstration choices? That's Henry Horn's problem in this delightfully absurd pulp short story. Horn, a well-meaning but spectacularly misguided inventor, has created binoculars that can see through solid objects. Instead of offering them to military intelligence, he sets up shop at a nudist camp, charging curious onlookers a dime for a peek. His colleague Professor Paulsen is apoplectic. Then things get genuinely dangerous: a red-haired stranger buys a pair, and it turns out he's a Nazi spy with access to sensitive military plans. Suddenly the comedy of errors becomes a race against time to stop Axis espionage. Swain, who later became a legendary writing teacher, populates this frothy adventure with enough genuine tension and sharp dialogue to make you forget you're reading wartime escapism. The nudist camp sequences are hilariously prim by modern standards, but the spy thriller payoff delivers genuine suspense. It's a time capsule of American optimism and ingenuity, wrapped in a premise so ridiculous it circles back to brilliant.