" and the young inventor pointed to the picture on the plate.

"Mah gracious sakes!" gasped the colored man. "Why dat's Koku
hisse'f!" and he looked in awe at the likeness.

"That's what you did, Rad!"

"Me? I done dat? No, sah, Massa Tom. I neber did! No, sah!"
Eradicate spoke emphatically.

"Yes you did, Rad. You took that picture of Koku over my photo
telephone, and I want you to show me exactly what you did--what
wires and switches you touched and changed, and all that."

"Yo--yo' done say I tuck dat pishure, Massa Tom?"

"You sure did, Rad."

"Well--well, good land o' massy! An' I done dat!"

Eradicate stared in wonder at the image of the giant on the plate,
and shook his head doubtingly.

"I--I didn't know I could do it. I never knowed I had it in me!"
he murmured.

Tom and Ned laughed long and loud, and then the young inventor
said:

"Now look here, Rad. You've done me a mighty big service, though
you didn't know it, and I want to thank you. I'm sorry about your
arm, and I'll have the doctor look at it. But now I want you to
show me all the things you touched when you played that joke on
Koku. In some way you did what I haven't been able to do, You took
the picture. There's probably just one little thing I've
overlooked, and you stumbled on it by accident. Now go ahead and
show me."

Eradicate thought for a moment, and then said:

"Well, I done turned on de current, laik I seen you done, Massa
Tom."

"Yes, go on. You connected the telephone."

"Yas, sah. Den I switched on that flyer thing yo' all has rigged
up."

"You switched on the amplifier, yes. Go on."

"An'--an' den I plugged in dish year wire," and the colored man
pointed to one near the top of the booth.

"You switched on that wire, Rad! Why, great Scott, man! That's
connected to the arc light circuit--it carries over a thousand
volts. And you switched that into the telephone circuit?"

"Dat's what I done did, Massa Tom; yas, Bah!"

"What for?"

"Why, I done want t' make mah voice good an' loud t' skeer dat
rascal Koku!"

Tom stared at the colored man in amazement.

"No wonder you got a shock!" exclaimed the young inventor. "You
didn't get all the thousand volts, for part of it was shunted off;
but you got a good charge, all right. So that's what did the
business; eh? It was the combination of the two electrical
circuits that sent the photograph over the wire."

"I understand it now, Rad; but you did more than I've been