the message ticked itself off. Then there was
silence.

"Get any of it?" Walter demanded, breathlessly tossing the receiver
aside and shutting off the current.

"About two words. He went so fast----Did you get anything?"

"Oh, I've got something; but whether it will make any sense remains to
be seen," said His Highness eagerly. "Where is the key! Toss it
over."

[Illustration: Clearly and evenly the message ticked itself off. Then
there was silence. _Page_ 240.]

"Here we go. Dot, dash,----"

"That's the letter A, you squarehead! I know what that first part is;
it is always the same and we needn't fuss to translate it. _Aboard
yacht Siren._ I don't care, either, where she is. What we want to get
at is what she wants to say."

"But how can we tell where all that stuff leaves off?"

"I mean to tell," declared Walter with determination.

"But there is punctuation and other rubbish mixed in with the
letters."

"No matter. Have a little patience, man!"

Nevertheless, in spite of all the patience and perseverance the boys
could muster the magic message remained an enigma and at the end of an
hour both were obliged to admit themselves beaten.

"It is worse than getting no message at all," lamented Walter.

"It certainly does not do us much good," assented Dick.

"Do you suppose your father knows anything about the Morse code?"

"Dad? Good heavens, no! Still we might take the thing up to the house
and show it to him."

"I don't imagine it is right, do you?" speculated Walter. "No doubt we
missed some of it or made mistakes. Still, what we contrived to write
agrees fairly well, so some of it must be correct. Let's take it to
your father. What do you say?"

"I feel like such a boob not to be able to make it out," Dick
answered with evident reluctance at confessing himself floored.

"But we'll have to tell him O'Connel called. We've got to do that
anyhow; so he may as well know the rest of it," Walter persisted.

"All right. We'll hunt him up. I warn you, though, that he will josh
us most unmercifully. He'll pitch into me, too, and ask me why I
haven't learned my Morse International before this. See if he
doesn't."

"It is one thing to learn the code out of a book and quite another to
be smart enough to read it or take it down," Walter maintained
stoutly. "Nobody ought to expect you to be able to get a message the
way Bob does. Why, he has been at the job years!"

"I know he has," Dick responded, sligh