lonel Boynton was listening intently in the silent room; he scowled
with annoyance at the disturbance of Blake's coming; then, seeing who it
was, he motioned quickly for the captain to listen in.

"Good Lord, Blake," he told the captain in an excited whisper; "I'm glad
you're here. Another ship had been sighted; she's been all over the
earth; just scouting and mapping, probably. And there have been signals
the same as before--the same until just now. Listen!--it's talking
Morse!--it's been calling for you!"

He thrust a head set into Blake's hands, then reached for some papers.
"Poor reception, but there's what we've got," he said.

* * * * *

The paper held the merest fragments of messages that the operator had
deciphered. Blake examined them curiously while he listened at the
silent receiver.

"Maricopa"--the message, whatever it was, was meant for them, but there
were only parts of words and disjointed phrases that the man had written
down--"Venus attacking Earth ... Captain Blake ... Sykes and...."

At the name of Sykes, Blake dropped the paper.

"What does this mean?" he demanded. "Sykes!--why Sykes was the
astronomer who was captured with McGuire!"

"Listen! Listen!" The colonel's voice was almost shrill with excitement.

The night was whispering faintly the merest echo of a signal from a
station far away, but it resolved itself into broken fragments of sound
that were long and short in duration, and the fragments joined to form
letters in the Morse code.

"See Winslow," it told them, and repeated the message: "See Winslow at
Sierra...." Some distant storm crashed and rattled for breathless
minutes. "Blake see Winslow. This is McGuire, Blake. Winslow can
help--"

The message ended abruptly. One long, wailing note; then again the night
was voiceless ... and in the radio room at Maricopa Flying Field two men
stood speechless, unbreathing, to stare at each other with incredulous
eyes, as might men who had seen a phantom--a ghost that spoke to them
and called them by name.

"McGuire--is--alive!" stammered Blake. "They've taken him--there!"

* * * * *

Colonel Boynton was considering, weighing all the possibilities, and his
voice, when he answered, had the ring of conviction.

"That was no hoax," he agreed; "that quavering tone could never be
faked. That message was sent from the same station we heard before. Yes,
McGuire is alive--or was u