rength.

"Yes." I found my breath and my voice at the same instant. "She's
there, just where we put her into the sea, and there are two others
with her--her mother and her father. Come on, Mercer, and bring your
thought gadget!"

"I can't!" he groaned. "I've built an improvement on it into the
diving armor, and a central instrument on the sub, but the old
apparatus is strewn all over the table, here, just as it was when we
used it the other time. We'll have to bring her here."

"Get a basin, then!" I said. "We'll carry her back to the pool just as
we took her from it. Hurry!"

And we did just that. Mercer snatched up a huge glass basin used in
his chemistry experiments, and we raced down to the shore. As well as
we could we explained our wishes, and she smiled her quick smile of
understanding. Crouching beneath the water, she turned to her
companions, and I could see her throat move as she spoke to them. They
seemed to protest, dubious and frightened, but in the end she seemed
to reassure them, and we picked her up, swathed in her hair as in a
silken gown, and carried her, her head immersed in the basin of water,
that she might breathe in comfort, to the pool.

It all took but a few minutes, but it seemed hours. Mercer's hands
were shaking as he handed me the antenna for the girl and another for
myself, and his teeth were chattering as he spoke.

"Hurry, Taylor!" he said. "I've set the switch so that she can do the
sending, while we receive. Quickly, man!"

* * * * *

I leaped into the pool and adjusted the antenna on her head, making
sure that the four electrodes of the crossed curved members pressed
against the front and back and both sides of her head. Then, hastily,
I climbed out of the pool, seated myself on its edge, and put on my
own antenna.

Perhaps I should say at this time that Mercer's device for conveying
thought could do no more than convey what was in the mind of the
person sending. Mercer and I could convey actual words and sentences,
because we understood each other's language, and by thinking in words,
we conveyed our thoughts in words. One received the impression,
almost, of having heard actual speech.

We could not communicate with the girl in this fashion, however, for
we did not understand her speech. She had to convey her thoughts to
us by means of mental pictures which told her story. And this is the
story of her pictures unfolded.

First, in sketchy,