ying to agree on the precise location of this
space object. The next step will be to examine the signals more closely
to see if a pattern can be found or if they're simply random."

"If you and Scotty feel up to it," Winston added, "we'd like you to
duplicate the audio tapes for us. We want to send a set right away to
Green Bank. They started audio recording, too, yesterday, but they don't
have the hours when the object was in sight of our telescope but not
theirs. They're duplicating the signals we didn't get after the object
dropped below our horizon. That way we'll both have a complete record
for analysis."

"What is the space object?" Rick asked.

Winston shook his head. "We don't know. It's too early even to speculate
much. Can you make the duplicates?"

It was early evening. "We can get sandwiches at the Mena House and work
until we're finished," Rick replied. "That will get us home before
midnight. There can't be more than a few hours to record."

"Fine. You'll be alone, but since the inspector put a police guard on
you, I'm sure it will be all right."

Farid had arranged the technical setup, using another unit borrowed from
the government radio station for the purpose. All they would need to do
was feed tape into the machines and watch the recording level.

One of the Egyptian technicians drove to the Mena House and brought back
sandwiches and cokes. The scientists departed, to have a quick dinner
and then resume work at a different location where a computer was
available to do the complicated mathematics required for analysis of the
data.

Rick and Scotty started work right away. The police driver sat in a
chair and watched them. He spoke English, but wasn't much of a
conversationalist. After a while the boys forgot he was there.

Listening to the space signal was strange. As the tape ran through, Rick
was certain his ear detected a kind of pattern in the sounds. There was
a continuous hiss; that was normal hydrogen on the 21-centimeter wave
length. Then there were sharper hisses, as though some strange creature
was trying to send a coded message through the noisy hydrogen
background.

"It's a message of some kind," Rick stated. "I'll bet on it."

"Who sends messages from space?" Scotty asked with a grin. "Ghouls,
ghosties, or long-legged beasties?"

"Don't laugh," Rick said impatiently. "Didn't you ever hear of Project
Ozma?"

Scotty hadn't. "The wizard of Ozma?"

"The name comes from Princes