e of
its principles. Mary, it may be remembered, by some fortunate chance,
made the suggestion as to the substance of the receiver, which turned
the aerophone from a great idea into a practical reality. Now to
complete the work it was Stella, not by accident, but after careful
study of its problem who gave the thought that led to the removal of the
one remaining obstacle to its general and successful establishment.

To test this new development of the famous sound deflector and perfect
its details, scores of experiments were needed, most of which he and she
carried out together. This was their plan. One of them established him
or herself in the ruined building known as the Dead Church, while the
other took up a position in the Abbey workshop. From these respective
points, a distance of about two miles, they tested the machines with
results that day by day grew better and clearer, till at length, under
these conditions they were almost perfect.

Strange was the experience and great the triumph when at last Morris,
seated in the Abbey with his apparatus before him, unconnected with its
twin by any visible medium, was able without interruption for a whole
morning to converse with Stella established in the Dead Church.

"It is done," he cried in unusual exultation. "Now, if I die to-morrow
it does not matter."

Instantly came the answer in Stella's voice.

"I am very happy. If I do nothing else I have helped a man to fame."

Then a hitch arose, the inevitable hitch; it was found that, in certain
states of the atmosphere, and sometimes at fixed hours of the day, the
sounds coming from the receiver were almost inaudible. At other times
again the motive force seemed to be so extraordinarily active that, the
sound deflector notwithstanding, the instrument captured and transmitted
a thousand noises which are not to be heard by the unobservant listener,
or in some cases by any human ear.

Weird enough these noises were at times. Like great sighs they came,
like the moan of the breeze brought from an infinite distance, like
mutterings and groanings arisen from the very bowels of the earth. Then
there were the splash or boom of the waves, the piping of the sea-wind,
the cry of curlew, or black-backed gulls, all mingled in one great and
tangled skein of sound that choked the voice of the speaker, and in
their aggregate, bewildered him who hearkened.

These, and others which need not be detailed, were problems that had
to be