whom he had met in
the village many times. Incidentally, they were avowed friends of the
former electrician, Parker. The name of the taller one was McLoughlin.

No one spoke. Ralph strode quickly to the table, pushed McLoughlin to
one side and stooped over the instruments. When he straightened up,
Captain Eri noticed that his face also was white, but evidently not from
fear. He turned sharply and looked at the four operators, who were doing
their best to appear at ease and not succeeding. The electrician looked
them over, one by one. Then he gave a short laugh.

"You damned sneaks!" he said, and turned again to the testing apparatus.

He began slowly to turn the regulating screw on the recorder. He had
given it but a few revolutions when the point of the little glass
siphon, that had been tracing a straight black line on the sliding tape,
moved up and down in curving zigzags. Hazeltine turned to the operator.

"Palmer," he said curtly, "answer that call."

The man addressed seated himself at the table, turned a switch, and
clicked off a message. After a moment the line on the moving tape
zigzagged again. Ralph glanced at the zigzags and bit his lip.

"Apologize to them," he said to Palmer. "Tell them we regret exceedingly
that the ship should have been kept waiting. Tell them our recorder was
out of adjustment."

The operator cabled the message. The three men at the end of the room
glanced at each other; this evidently was not what they expected.

Steps sounded on the stairs and Peters hurriedly entered.

"The old man's comin'," he said.

Mr. Langley, the superintendent of the station, had been in the
company's employ for years. He had been in charge of the Cape Cod
station since it was built, and he liked the job. He knew cable work,
too, from A to Z, and, though he was a strict disciplinarian, would
forgive a man's getting drunk occasionally, sooner than condone
carelessness. He was eccentric, but even those who did not like him
acknowledged that he was "square."

He came into the room, tossed a cigar stump out of the window, and
nodded to Captain Eri.

"How are you, Captain Hedge?" he said. Then, stepping to the table, he
picked up the tape.

"Everything all right, Mr. Hazeltine?" he asked. "Hello! What does this
mean? They say they have been calling for two hours without getting an
answer. How do you explain that?"

It was very quiet in the room when the electrician answered.

"The recorder here w