he Americas, "we haven't much
time, and I shall waste but little of it. Moyen is ready to strike, if
he hasn't already done so, as I believe. We will see in a matter of
seconds. Professor Maniel, we shall need, first of all, your apparatus
for returning the vibratory images of events which have transpired
within the last thirty-six hours.

"I wish to show those of you who failed to see it the sinking of the
_Stellar_, on which I was a passenger and, I believe, the only
survivor."

Professor Maniel strangely mouse-like save for the ponderous dome of his
forehead, stepped away from the circular table without a word. He had
invented the machine in question, and he was inordinately proud of it.
Through its use he could pick up the sounds, and the pictures, of events
which had transpired down the past centuries, from the tinkling of the
cymbals of Miriam to all the horror of the conflict men had called the
Great War, simply by drawing back from the ether, as the sounds fled
outward through space, those sounds and vibrations which he needed.

His science was an exact one, more carefully exact even than the
measurement of the speed of light, taking into consideration the
dispersion of sound and movement, and the element of time.

The interior of the Secret Room became dark as Maniel labored with his
minute machinery. Only behind the screen on the wall in rear of the
table was there light.

* * * * *

The voice of Maniel began to drone as he thought aloud.

"There is a matter of but a few minutes difference in time between
Washington and the last recorded location of the _Stellar_. The sinking
occurred at ten-thirty last evening you say, Kleig? Ah, yes, I have it!
Watch carefully, gentlemen!"

So silent were the Secret Agents one could not even have heard the
breathing of one of them, for on the screen, misty at first, but
becoming moment by moment bolder of outline, was the face of a
storm-tossed sea. The liner was slower in forming, and was slightly out
of focus for a second or two.

"Ah," said Professor Maniel. "There it is!"

Through the sound apparatus came the roaring and moaning of a storm at
sea. On the screen the _Stellar_ rose high on the waves, dropped into
the trough, while spumes of black smoke spread rearward on the waters
from her spouting funnels. Figures were visible on her decks, figures
which seemed carved in bronze.

In the prow, every expression on his face plain