silent, proof that they feared the
man at the table so much that they were afraid to move.

At last the white-haired man stopped and breathed a sigh of
satisfaction. Carefully he placed in the middle of the table the
instrument which he had been examining. It looked like a slightly
concave aluminum plate or tympanum, save that on the apex appeared a
tiny ball of the same metal. Except for the color and the fact that
the thing was almost flat, it looked like a small Manchu hat.

"Naka Machi!" said the man suddenly in a conversational tone of
voice.

The chrome steel door swung open swiftly and silently and another man
entered. He was about the same height as the first man, but he was
younger and his eyes were blacker. His hair was as black as the wings
of a crow. He was a Japanese dressed in Occidental garb.

"Naka Machi," said the white-haired one again, "I have examined every
bit of the infinitesimal mechanism in the ball on this tympanum. It is
perfect. You are a genius, Naka Machi. There is only one genius
greater--Professor Caleb Barter!"

Naka Machi bowed low, and as he spoke his breath hissed inwardly through
his teeth after the Japanese manner of admitting humility--"that my
humble breath may not blow upon you"--which never needed really to
be sincere.

"I am merely a genius with my fingers, Professor Barter," said Naka
Machi in a musical voice. "The smaller the medium in which I work the
happier I am, Professor; and in that I am a genius. But the plan for
this so marvelous little radio-control, as you call it, came entirely
from your head, my master. I did exactly as the plans bade me. Will it
work?"

- - -

Caleb Barter's red face went redder still. His eyes shot flames of
anger. His lips pouched. Almost he seemed on the point of striking
down his Japanese assistant.

"Will it work?" he repeated. "Have you not just told me that you
followed my plans exactly? Have I not just now checked your every bit
of work and pronounced it perfect? Then how can it fail to work? Have
you another one ready?"

"Yes, my master. Now that I have perfected two, the work will become
monotonous. If the master wishes, I can create still another
radio-control, inside the head of a pin, which I should first render
hollow with that skill which only Naka Machi possesses?"

Caleb Barter almost smiled.

"It will not be necessary. But it will be necessary for you to make
eighteen additional radio-controls of the