r the radio? Could he not transmit signals over various
wave-lengths, so that sooner or later--if she still listened to the
radio--she would recognize his message?

At any rate, he would try. Hoping to ward off suspicion, he pretended to
work at a Cosmic Deflector which, telescope-shaped and two feet in
thickness, reached from floor to ceiling. Within this great tube he
concealed a small radio transmitter which he had hastily contrived, out
of the abundant electrical equipment of the Deflector. Its power, he
knew, would be limited, but it could be heard well enough locally. By
means of a device resembling an electric bell, he was able to transmit
signals, on a dot and dash system. So rapidly did he work that, after a
few hours, this novel broadcaster was sending out its rat-tat-tat.

His next step was to repair the half dismantled radio receiver. This
task completed, he began to tap out signals, "Lucile! Lucile! Hear me! I
am imprisoned by the Triumvirs! Follow my directions, and we may still
save the world!"

Time after time--hundreds of times--he repeated this message. Was he but
playing a fool's game? So he asked himself as the hours stretched out;
as the days dragged past and still no answer came. Was he not wasting
his efforts while the earth whirled to its doom?

* * * * *

It was on the fourth day of the experiment. Pale with anxiety and
fatigue, Dan still tapped out his messages; still listened at the radio.
Suddenly he stood up, with a start. What was that sound he heard? That
answering tap, tap, tap? Three shorts and a long--three shorts and a
long! In their code, what did that mean? "Where are you? Tell me, where
are you?" Or had he counted the signals wrongly. In desperate eagerness,
he stood listening. Now there came two longs and a short; then a short
and two longs--

"Well, old man, how's the work going?"

Dan was so shocked that he leapt back several feet. Not more than a yard
away, leering with a horse-like grin, was the face of Wiley! And just in
the background, devilishly gaping, were Hogarth and Malvine.

Dan's first thought was that the enemy knew what he was about, and had
come to mock him at the moment of his seeming success.

"Well, how's she going?" Wiley reiterated. "Any progress?"

With an effort, Dan snapped out of his stupefied silence. "Oh, she's
promising very well," he managed to say.

Through the radio, with maddening insistency, came the rat-ta