or an aerial," he remarked, "but heavy enough.
We'll have a perpendicular aerial, which is better than horizontal, and
it'll hang pretty high. All that's in our favor."

When the balloons had risen to a height which allowed the aerial, to
which was attached a heavier insulated wire, to float free, he gave the
cord to the engineer and began busying himself at putting together what
appeared to be a small windmill with curved, brass fans.

"A windmill," he explained, "is the surest method of obtaining a little
power. Always a little breeze floating round. Enough to turn a wheel.
This one is connected direct with a small generator. Gives power enough
for a radiophone. Might use batteries but they might go dead on you.
Windmill and generator is as good after ten years as ten days.

"There you are," he heaved a sigh of relief, as he struck the
transmitter which he had taken from his apparently inexhaustible "bag of
tricks."

"Unless I miss my guess, we have a perfectly good radiophone outfit of
fair power. All the rest of it is stowed down there in the bottom. We
should be heard distinctly at from a hundred to five hundred miles. In
the future," he smiled, "every lifeboat and raft will be equipped with
one of these handy little radiophone outfits, which are really not very
expensive."

Then, with all eyes fixed upon him, he began to converse with the unseen
and unknown, who, sailing somewhere on that vast sweep of water, were,
they hoped, to become their rescuers.

In perfectly natural tones he spoke of their catastrophe and their
present predicament. He gave their approximate location and the names of
their party. This after an interval of two minutes, he repeated.

Then, suddenly his lips parted in a smile. The others watched him with
strained attention. After a minute had elapsed, he said with apparent
satisfaction:

"We'll await your arrival with unmixed pleasure.

"The Steamship Torrence," he explained, "in crossing the Atlantic was
driven two hundred miles off her course. She is now only about
seventy-five miles from us. Being a fast boat, she should reach us in
three or four hours.

"And now," he said with a smile, "since we have no checker-board on deck
and are entirely deprived of musical instruments of any kind, perhaps
you would like to hear me tell why I was sure the mysterious island
which has caused us so much grief, did not exist."

"By the way," he said turning to Vincent, "do you chance to have t