ousand-metre wave. Supposing quite naturally that the person
calling had a shorter wave, he gradually cut out the inductance of his
receiver; but the sound faded out entirely, and he returned to his
original inductance and shunted in his condenser, upon which the call
immediately increased in volume. Evidently the other chap was using a
big wave, bigger than Georgetown.

Hood puckered his brows and looked about him. Lying on a shelf above his
instrument was one of the new ballast coils that Henderson had used with
the long waves from lightning flashes, and he leaned over and connected
the heavy spiral of closely wound wire, throwing it into his circuit.
Instantly the telephones spoke so loud that he could hear the shrill cry
of the spark even from where the receivers lay beside him on the table.
Quickly fastening them to his ears he listened. The sound was clear,
sharp, and metallic, and vastly higher in pitch than a ship's call. It
couldn't be the _Lincoln_.

"By gum!" muttered Hood. "That fellow must have a twelve-thousand-metre
wave length with fifty kilowatts behind it, sure! There ain't another
station in the world but this can pick him up!"

"NAA--NAA--NAA," came the call.

Throwing in his rheostat he sent an "O.K" in reply, and waited
expectantly, pencil in hand. A moment more and he dropped his pencil in
disgust.

"Just another bug!" he remarked aloud to the thermometer. "Ought to be
poisoned! What a whale of a wave length, though!"

For several minutes he listened intently, for the amateur was sending
insistently, repeating everything twice as if he meant business.

"He's a jolly joker all right," muttered Hood, this time to the clock.
"Must be pretty hard up for something to do!"

Then he laughed out loud and took up the pencil again. This amateur,
whoever he was, was almost as good as his detective story. The "bug"
called the Naval Observatory once more and began repeating his entire
message for the third time.

"To all mankind"--he addressed himself modestly--"To all mankind--To all
mankind--I am the dictator--of human destiny--Through the earth's
rotation--I control--day and night--summer and winter--I command
the--cessation of hostilities and--the abolition of war upon the
globe--I appoint the--United States--as my agent for this purpose--As
evidence of my power I shall increase the length of the day--from
midnight to midnight--of Thursday, July 22d, by the period of five
minutes.--PAX."

The