"The first test, called a spectrograph, will give us an idea what kind of material we are dealing with, such as its properties and chemical attributes; the second will give an actual look inside the cuffs for a locking mechanism. It will also image your bones underneath the cuffs, in case you're interested, Ms. Metcalfe." Isabel sat quietly with her ankles propped on a low table underneath the apparatus as Ledstone ran his tests. A few moments later, the tests results were printed out on a nearby teleprinter.

Dr. Ledstone looked quietly at the two pages of data, red-circled some paragraphs and put the pages down to look at the x-ray images. Taking off his glasses, he looked at the man and woman and said, quietly, "these tests show that the metal or alloys your shackles are made of, Isabel, are not identifiable with the Periodic Table of Elements; in other words, they are made of some metal that is unknown to science; at least this is what my data tell me. The x-ray also reveals they are, indeed, solid-unit construction.

"Where on earth did you get these? We need to run more tests." Isabel's heart sank but Peter's rising bulge in his pants just got harder when he heard the metallurgist's news. Shackles of unknown origin, unknown construction and, so far, no apparent means of getting them off his sweetheart's ankles. It was his dream come true!

"Isabel, perhaps you could tell your side of the story," Ledstone asked quietly. Step by step, the 35-year-old mother of two recounted the previous night's experience during the drive home - from leaving the mill to awakening in the car in chains about an hour later - before choking out to the two men: "Do you mean there's no way of getting these off?"

Ledstone looked at her as a doctor would with his patient, and said: "The tests we have run today show these are no normal restraints. The steel, or whatever they are made of, is an unknown; the chain is of the same material, apparently, and the x-rays; well, I've told you what they have shown. The only good news I can tell you is that they are not radioactive.

"The cuffs apparently have been fused on in some process that could have involved extreme heat but there are no visible indications, such as a weld, on the surface, or in the x-rays, to suggest this.

"Isabel," he added quickly. "Could I arrange for you to see some of my colleagues and professors of metallurgy here at the University of Edinburgh? At our cost, of course."

Ledstone did not want to tell the attractive woman sitting before him that she may have to wear her newly-acquired ankle chains indefinitely, or at least until science unlocked the mysteries of her harder-than-steel cuffs.

Peter and Isabel thanked Dr. Ledstone for his time, said they would think about meeting his colleagues and left the lab area.

Isabel shuffled along in her long skirt and felt her breasts jostling under her sweater as she tried hard to avoid the glances of students and staff returning in groups and singly from lunch. Maybe they thought she was a mature student with bad knees or a sprained ankle but Isabel today felt like an unwilling prisoner. Peter felt sorry for his woman's plight yet, secretly, was pleased that it could not have happened to a better gal.

"What do we do now?" Isabel asked.

Well, I'm hungry, for starters," Peter replied. "There's the Locksmith's Arms just down the street from the university. Would you like to get a bite and pint there before going home?"

"I'm in chains already and I'm not even fully dressed," Isabel replied. "I can't go into a pub in broad daylight like this! It was a struggle just to get to see Dr. Ledstone. And how am I going to get to work this afternoon? People would wonder why I'm wearing a long dress around the mill."

Peter stopped before they made the long descent down the staircase, just inside the front doors, and said: "Isabel, you look beautiful. You always look gorgeous in chains, day or night, and I can't see them underneath that skirt. The only trace is that slight sound the chains make on the floor.

"Let's give the pub a try. I don't think anyone will notice."

Isabel nodded quietly as they emerged into the June sunlight that gleamed off the university building's glass front doors.

Arm in arm, they began their slow descent down the 25 broad, concrete steps into the campus. It was June 12, 1975, and Isabel Metcalfe's life in permanent bondage had jut begun.

As they drove away to find the pub further downtown, Dr. Ledstone pulled a page from his IBM Selectric typewriter. It would be the first of many secret memos that would pass between him and his seniors that day and for weeks thereafter. It read:

SECRET - TO BE DELIVERED BY HAND ONLY

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Faculty of Engineering Metallurgy Division

12 June 1975 TO: Dr. Bramwell Stoker Dean, Faculty of Engineering

FROM: Dr. Michael Ledstone TA, Metallurgy Division

SUBJECT: DISCOVERY OF METAL-LIKE SUBSTANCE NOT FOUND IN THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS

1. At 1200 hrs, 12 June 1975, I was visited by a man and woman in Laboratory D-265 of the Metallurgy Division, Faculty of Engineering, for advice on how to remove a pair of ankle cuffs from the woman's legs.

2. The woman, Isabel, a Scot, and her companion, Peter, a Canadian, explained they had ordered the restraints through the post from some company in Europe, which they could not identify, and that he had put them on her ankles for a masquerade with no forethought about how to take them off again. When I pressed the woman for more details, she told a fantastic story that she had been kidnapped on a rural highway near their home the night before (11 June 1975) by extraterrestrials, put in bondage, rendered unconscious and when she awoke an undetermined time later, found the shackles on her ankles.

3. I found both stories entirely implausible and thought, at first, this was some practical joke being foisted upon this division.

4. However, when I ran a spectrograph and x-ray tests on the restraints, I discovered the shackles were made of a metal or alloy not found in the Periodic Table of Elements and that the cuffs, 1.5-in. wide, 1/8th-in. thick with an 18-in. length of 3/16th-in. chain secured to the cuffs by half links, are of solid-unit construction; i.e.: no locks, hinges, hasps, rivet heads or bolts were found anywhere on the shackle cuffs. Copies of the spectrograph and x-ray reports are attached for your information.

5. The gentleman, who later withdrew his story, said he tried to cut the chain from the cuffs the night before, using boltcutters and a hacksaw, but indicated neither tool had made so much as a dent in the surface. I confirmed this on visual inspections of each.

6. They left the building at about 1300 hrs and said they would consider my request for a conference with you and other faculty members about their unusual circumstance and this extraordinary discovery. I have their telephone number and address, should we need to contact them again.

7. Following are my critical points:

The metal, or alloy, of these shackles appears to be steel-like but the material defies identification by spectrograph and is, therefore, not defined in the periodic table of elements;

it is too early to say what sort of metal, or alloy, the devices are made of and I do not know of any further tests that could be done to identify the material and its properties, such as hardness, tensile strength, corrosion resistance and radioactivity;

it appears they have been fitted to the woman's ankles by a heating process that is unknown to me, as a metallurgist with 25 years of experience, and I am at a loss to know how they could be removed;

it is suggested the heads of departments of the engineering faculty convene to discuss this discovery further and ask the woman and her companion if they would submit to interviews and further, detailed examination/experimentation to identify the material and structure of her restraints;

the woman says she is employed at a wool-products mill on the west coast of Scotland and makes about three pounds (UK) an hour. I would suggest we discuss ways how to bring her to us by offering her term employment as a subject for further engineering, metallurgical and other physical tests on her restraints; and

news of this discovery, if leaked, would create a crush of news media activity at the university which should be avoided at all costs at this time in the interests of preserving confidentiality and impartiality should scientific investigation be considered, approved and initiated. If, however, we find a way how to remove these chains from the woman (should she so desire them to be taken off), then perhaps an official announcement could be made. News coverage accruing to the engineering faculty would be of a scientific, investigative nature at first, I expect, which would devolve subsequently to human-interest stories and pickup by the tabloid press, magazines and so on. Either way, news coverage of our initiatives in dealing with this woman's situation would be in the best interests of our longstanding public image.

I look forward to your reply. Ext. 265.

(signed)

Michael Ledstone, PhD, M.Eng

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