* * * * * Freddie had leaped to his feet; he was standing with his head cocked, listening. There was no sound, save the vague humming from the opened cylinder stretched on the floor at our feet. "Thought I heard something." "You didn't," I said. "Where?" demanded Dan. "The audiphone? It's off--dead." "Where? Outside!" I suggested. I half rose from my seat and sank back. Freddie looked puzzled; he went to the door, listened and returned. He asked, "You don't hear anything?" "No," I said. "Where?" "I don't know. Here--I mean here, right here with us. I--I guess I imagined it." "I guess you did," said Dan. But his gaze swept the room with a tense expectancy. My heart was pounding. We all three drew nearer together, as though for instinctive protection against something we could almost but not quite hear. "We're nervous," said Dan. "Imagining things. It's that damned weird humming. Go on, Peter." I resumed the letter: You will find in this cylinder the vital element necessary to the conquering of gravity. Reet, which a bountiful nature provides here, is a very wonderful thing, Peter. With it, and with such materials available on earth which my notes herewith describe fully, I believe you will have no great difficulty in constructing your vehicle. I have sent you the basic mechanisms already fully assembled in each of their integral parts-- Freddie again interrupted me. "Where's that draft coming from? It's cold. You got some window open, Dan?" I was conscious of cold air in the room. The door to the adjoining bedroom--the room father had once occupied, but which now was unused--stood half open. The draft of chill air seemed coming from there. And then we all three heard a bump in there; it brought us to our feet. "Shutter banging," said Dan. "Mother must have left the window partly up--shutter banging, there's a wind starting." We followed him into the room with a precipitous haste. It was in semi-darkness. The window was partly raised from the bottom. Cold air was sweeping in. But the shutter was fastened tightly back against the outside wall; it could not bang. Dan closed the window. We none of us made any comment. Back at the living room table I began the letter again. There is very little I need say further, Peter. My notes, diagrams and instructions explain everything fully. Attached to several of the mechanisms, you will find individual instruction sheets. You will need funds. I would like your enterprise conducted with the help and resources of our government behind you, if possible. You will have less difficulty in that event. But, without such aid, you will have to proceed on your own.