r, which Kerama marked on the
pad he carried. Then the scientist looked up and gave the boys a big
grin.

"Happy New Year both of you! Interesting news this morning. Take a look
at these."

They were teletype sheets. Rick saw that a machine was now in one corner
of the control room, where technicians had finished installing it during
the night.

He and Scotty read the messages. Translated from the cryptic notations
and abbreviations used by the astronomers, it added up to confirmation
of the Egyptian findings by both Jodrell Bank and Green Bank. Both
reported that they had also located a source of apparently modulated
hydrogen impulses. Both gave the same co-ordinates in space, in terms of
ascension and declination, the way astronomers locate the position of
heavenly bodies. Both stated that the finding was remarkable and
requested all available data from Sahara Wells, and both announced their
intention of concentrating on the object while it was in "view" of their
radio telescopes.

Rick looked at Winston, his eyes shining. "Boy! We're on to something
big. What's the next step?"

"Next is a precise fix and distance computations by all stations. At the
same time, we want two kinds of recordings. We'll continue making
Sanborn tapes, but we also want audio-tape recordings."

"You want to actually hear this thing?" Scotty asked. This was unusual,
since the radio telescopes ordinarily recorded the incoming signals in
trace form on Sanborn strips.

"We don't want to overlook any possibility," Dr. Kerama said. "This is
without precedent, and we are not sure how to proceed. Dr. Farid has set
up an amplifier on the output circuit, in parallel with the normal
system, and he has brought in a pair of tape recorders we borrowed from
the government radio station. It may be that listening to this signal
will give us clues that our eyes miss when we examine the tracings."

Winston added, "That's your job. I intended to keep you here together, a
half day at a time. But this is too important for such considerations,
and we haven't a large enough Egyptian staff to handle everything. So
I'd like to work you in shifts."

"That's okay," Rick assured him. "When do we start?"

"The object comes up on our horizon shortly after one. Suppose you start
then. The first shift can work until five, and the second from five to
eleven. One of the Egyptian technicians will take over then until we
lose the source below the horizon again."