Ralph laughed. “Well, it really is a very simple matter,” he said. “The only thing we have to be sure of is that our end of the line is ready by the time the ship reaches the break. If the weather is bad the ship can't work, and so, when she does work, she works quick. I had my instruments in condition yesterday, so we're all right this time.” They landed at the little wharf and plodded through the heavy sand. “Dismal-looking place, isn't it?” said Hazeltine, as he opened the back door of the station. “Well, I don't know; it has its good p'ints,” replied his companion. “Your neighbors' hens don't scratch up your garden, for one thing. What do you do in here?” “This is the room where we receive and send. This is the receiver.” The captain noticed with interest the recorder, with its two brass supports and the little glass tube, half filled with ink, that, when the cable was working, wrote the messages upon the paper tape traveling beneath it. “Pretty nigh as finicky as a watch, ain't it?” he observed. “Fully as delicate in its way. Do you see this little screw on the centerpiece? Turn that a little, one way or the other, and the operator on the other side might send until doomsday, we wouldn't know it. I'll show you the living rooms and the laboratory now.” Just then the door at the other end of the room opened, and a man, whom Captain Eri recognized as one of the operators, came in. He started when he saw Hazeltine and turned to go out again. Ralph spoke to him: “Peters,” he said, “where is Mr. Langley?” “Don't know,” answered the fellow gruffly. “Wait a minute. Tell me where Mr. Langley is.” “I don't know where he is. He went over to the village a while ago.” “Where are the rest of the men?” “Don't know.” The impudence and thinly veiled hostility in the man's tone were unmistakable. Hazeltine hesitated, seemed about to speak, and then silently led the way to the hall. “I'll show you the laboratory later on,” he said. “We'll go up to the testing room now.” Then he added, apparently as much to himself as to his visitor, “I told those fellows that I wouldn't be back until noon.” There was a door at the top of the stairs. Ralph opened this quietly. As they passed through, Captain Eri noticed that Peters had followed them into the hall and stood there, looking up. The upper hall had a straw matting on the floor. There was another door at the end of the passage, and this was ajar. Toward it the electrician walked rapidly. From the room behind the door came a shout of laughter; then someone said: “Better give it another turn, hadn't I, to make sure? If two turns fixes it so we don't hear for a couple of hours, another one ought to shut it up for a week. That's arithmetic, ain't it?” The laugh that followed this was cut short by Hazeltine's throwing the door wide open.