e
there. You say you have installed the photo-electric cell? What is
to prevent--".

"Oh, I have guarded against that, Professor. I placed the tube up
there," he pointed to what looked like a bird's nest near one of
the gables. You see, as that is situated, no light can ever get at
it; the foliage of that tree keeps the sun away and its always
rather dark there. In addition, there is that little shutter that
I placed in front of it.

"I also disconnected the wires leading from the tube to the
trigger." He beamed with the pride of the child, or the amateur,
who has done something clever. "What do you think of it,
Professor?"

"You managed very well, indeed. With this knowledge, I should feel
rather uncomfortable sitting on the porch if I did not know you
had taken all the precautions you mentioned. Playing with this
hobby must give you considerable satisfaction, Judge."

"Yes, I get a great deal of joy out of it. But come, I am being
selfish keeping you away from my other guests. They--"

He did not finish the sentence. He was once more reminded of the
terrible pall of threatening gloom hanging over him and his
comrades. The men sat in the large living-room chatting for a
while. But it was forced. None of them could pretend that he was
completely at ease.

Chapter VII

Jimmy decided to put a detailed account of the latest
developments of the story on the wire in Lentone. He therefore
asked Matthews to take him down in the sea sled. He could make
better time that way than driving his own car over the plowed and
unplowed fields that lay between the camp and the road.

But he did not telegraph his story. He found the small telegraph
office besieged with a crowd of men and women, all clamoring for a
wire. Jimmy grinned at the spectacle. It did not take the veteran
newspaper man more than a glance to know it for what it was.

Three hours had elapsed between the time he telephoned his flash
and the moment when he stepped into the small telegraph office in
Newport. In those three hours, all the big and some of the little
papers of the country had frantically wired their nearest
correspondents to get busy.

From the North in Canada, from the South, East and West men and
women began converging on the little town of Lentone, Vermont. A
day later these local correspondents would be replaced by star
reporters, special writers, feature writers, syndicate writers,
novelists, and sob sisters.

Jimmy knew that with