y with your judgment. See what's happened
already?--someone's figured it out before you've even perfected the
thing. An enemy of our country could do the same in wartime. Maybe
it's a foreign spy who has done what's been done to-day."

* * * * *

Eddie walked into the laboratory. "Couldn't find him," he announced
briefly.

"No difference," said Shelton. "He doesn't count in this. We called to
you when you rushed out, but couldn't make you hear."

"Who is he?" Eddie asked shortly. What he had overheard made him more
than ever impatient with the older man. So clever and yet so dense,
Shelton was.

Lina avoided his gaze.

"Only Carlos--Carlos Savarino," said Shelton, carelessly, "a Chilean,
I think. He worked for me for two months during the summer and I fired
him for getting fresh with Lina. Good mechanic, but dumb as an ox. Had
to tell him every little detail when he was doing something in the
shop. I'd have saved time if I'd done it myself."

The girl looked at Eddie squarely now. She was flushing hotly. "And I
horsewhipped him," she added.

"Yes," Shelton laughed; "it was rich. He sneaked away like a whipped
puppy, and this is the first time we've seen him since."

Eddie whistled. "And you think he doesn't count in this?" he asked.

"Of course not. Too dumb, I tell you. Doesn't know the first
principles of science. He thinks the only wave motion is that of the
ocean." Shelton chuckled over his own jest.

"I wouldn't be too sure," Eddie snapped. "And I want to tell you
something, Mr. Shelton. Through no fault of my own, I heard some of
your conversation with Li--with your daughter, before I returned here.
I was puzzled over your reasons for working so absorbedly on this
thing, but now I know them and I think you're wasting your time and
keeping your daughter in needless danger."

"You dare talk to me like this!" Shelton roared.

"I do, sir, and you'll thank me later." Eddie returned the older man's
glare with one equally savage.

Lina's gurgle of laughter broke the tension. "He's right, Dad, and you
know it," she interposed. "Let him finish."

Eddie needed no such encouragement, though it warmed his heart. And
Shelton listened respectfully when he continued, "I'm into this now,
sir, and I intend to see it through to the end. I'll keep your secret,
too, though I doubt if it'll ever be of much value to you. Know what I
think? I think this Carlos is a damn clever fellow ins