ature of this frantic operator. But none
occurred. Following a final letter "p" the signals ceased.

For a minute or two, while Peter nervously pondered, the air was
silent. Then another station called him. A loud droning purr filled
the receivers. Peter gave the "k" signal. The brisk voice of the
transport _Rover_ droned:

"I can't raise KPH. Will you handle an M-S-G for me?"

"Sure!" roared the _Vandalia's_ spark. "But wait a minute. Have you
heard a broken down auxiliary asking for help? He's been jamming me
for fifteen minutes. Seems to be very close, K."

"Nix," replied the _Rover_ breezily. "Can't be at all close or I would
hear him, too. I can see your lights from my window. You're off our
port quarter. Here's the M-S-G."

Peter accepted the message, retransmitting it to the KPH operator, then
called the wheelhouse on the telephone. Quine, first officer, answered
sleepily.

"Has the lookout reported any ship in the past hour excepting the
_Rover_?"

"Is that the _Rover_ on our port quarter?" Quine's voice was gruffly
amazed. Like most mariners of the old school, he considered the
wireless machine a nuisance. Yet its intelligence occasionally caught
him off guard.

"Only thing in sight, Sparks."

Peter made an entry in the log-book, folded his hands and shut his
eyes. The Leyden jars rattled in their mahogany sockets as the
_Vandalia_ climbed a wave, faltered, and sped into the hollow. Far
removed from her pivot of gravity, the wireless house behaved after the
manner of an express elevator. But the wireless house chair was bolted
to the floor.

Wrinkles of perplexity creased his forehead. Had this stuttering
static anything in kind with those other formless events? If not, what
terrified creature was invoking his aid in this blundering fashion?

A simple test would prove if the signals were of local origin--from a
miniature apparatus aboard the ship. He hoped anxiously for the
opportunity. And in less than a half hour the opportunity was given
him.

A tarred line scraped the white belly of the life-boat which swelled up
from the deck outside the door, giving forth a dull, crunching sound
with each convulsion of the engines. The square area above it danced
with reeling stars, moiled by a purple-black heaven.

Peter, who had been studying the tarred rope, swung about in the chair
and dropped an agitated finger to the silvered wire which rested
against the glittering detec