er own car.

They drove north.

Their bodies seemed like magnets. They were again shoulder to shoulder,
holding hands.

"Will you tell me your name?" pleaded Jenks.

"Surely," replied the girl. "I am Elaine Linane."

"What?" exploded Jenks. "Why, I work with a Linane, an engineer with the
Muller Construction Company."

"He is my father," she said.

"Why, we are great friends," said the boy. "I am Jenks, his
assistant--at least we work together."

"Yes, I have heard of you," said the girl. "It is strange, the way we
met. My father admires your work, but I am afraid you are not great
friends." The girl had forgotten her troubles. She chuckled. She had
heard the way Jenks had "sounded" her father out.

Jenks was speechless. The girl continued:

"I don't know whether to like you or to hate you. My father is an old
dear. You were cruel to him."

Jenks was abject. "I did not mean to be," he said. "He rather belittled
me without realizing it. I had to make my stand. The difference in our
years made him take me rather too lightly. I had to compel his notice,
if I was to advance."

"Oh!" said the girl.

"I am sorry--so sorry."

"You might not have been altogether at fault," said the girl. "Father
forgets at times that I have grown up. I resent being treated like a
child, but he is the soul of goodness and fatherly care."

"I know that," said Jenks.

* * * * *

Every engineer knows his mathematics. It was this fact, coupled with
what the world calls a "lucky break," that solved the Colossus mystery.
Nobody can get around the fact that two and two make four.

Jenks had happened on accomplishment to advance in the engineering
profession, and it was well for him that he had reached a crisis. He had
never believed in luck or in hunches, so it was good for him to be
brought face to face with the fact that sometimes the footsteps of man
are guided. It made him begin to look into the engineering of the
universe, to think more deeply, and to acknowledge a Higher Power.

With Linane he had butted into a stone wall. They were coming to know
what real trouble meant. The fact that they were innocent did not make
the steel bars of a cage any more attractive. Their troubles began to
wrap about them with the clammy intimacy of a shroud. Then came the
lucky break.

Next to his troubles, Jenks' favorite topic was the Mad Musician. He
tried to learn all he could about this uncanny character