"Speaking of Don Channing again," said Jim, "I'll bet a hat that one of his tube-replacement manuals for the big transmitters out on Venus Equilateral do not even mention that the transmitter requires a receiver before it is any good. We think we're modern. We are, and we never think that some day some poor bird will try to decipher our technical works. Why, if Volta himself came back and saw the most perfect machine ever invented--the transformer--he'd shudder. No connection between input and output, several kinds of shorted loops of wire; and instead of making a nice simple electromagnet, we short the lines of force and on top of that we use a lot of laminations piled on top of one another instead of a nice, soft iron core. We completely short the input, et cetera, but how do we make with a gadget like that?" "I know. We go on expecting to advance. We forget the simple past. Remember the lines of that story: 'How does one chip the flint to make the best arrowhead?' I don't know who wrote it any more than I know how to skin a boar, but we do get on without making arrowheads or skinning boars or trimming birch-bark canoes." "All right, but there's still this problem." "Remember how we managed to align this thing? I wonder if it might not take another alignment to make it work as a relay." "Could be," said Jim. "I'll try it. Christine, you work these screws at the same time we do, and make the current come out as low as we can." They returned to their stations and began to work on the alignment screws. Jim came out first on the receiver. Christine was second on the transmitter, while Barney fumbled for a long time with the relay tube. Then Christine called: "Fellows, my meter readings are climbing up again. Shall I diddle?" "Wait a minute," said Barney. "That means I'm probably taking power out of that gadget you have in there. Leave 'em alone." He fiddled a bit more, and then Jim called: "Whoa, Nellie. Someone just lost me a millimeter. She wound up on the far end." "Hm-m-m," said Barney, "so we're relaying." "Go ahead," said Jim. "I've got a ten-ampere meter on here now." Barney adjusted his screws some more. "Wait a minute," said Jim. "I'm going to shunt this meter up to a hundred amps." "What?" yelled Barney. "Must you yell?" asked Christine ruefully. "These phones are plenty uncomfortable without some loudmouthed bird screaming." "Sorry, but a hundred amps... _whoosh_! What have we got here, anyway?" "Yeah," said Christine. "I was about to say that my input meter is running wild again." "Gone?" "Completely. You shouldn't have hidden it behind that big box. I didn't notice it until just now, but she's completely gone." "I'll be over. I think we've got something here." * * * * * An hour passed, during which nothing of any great importance happened. By keying the transmitter tube, meters in the receiver tube were made to read in accordance. Then they had another conclave.