And though the man at the telescope knew that his probability of picking up a sight of the _Solar Queen_ was as slender as a spider's web, he continued to search the starry heavens. He swept the narrow cone of the heavens wherein the _Solar Queen_ was lost according to the mathematical experts, and he looked at every bit of brightness in the field of his telescope as though it might be the missing ship. The beam-scanners watched their return-plates closely. It was difficult because the receiver gains were set to maximum, and every tick of static caused brief flashes of light upon their plates. They would jump at such a flash and watch for it to reappear on the next wipe, for a continuous spot of light indicated the ship they sought. Then, as the spot did not reappear, they would go on with their beams to cover another infinitesimal portion of the sky. Moving forward across the cone of expectancy bit by bit, they crossed and recrossed until they were growing restive. Surely the ship must be there! At the South End landing stage, a group of men were busy stocking a ship. Supplies and necessities were carried aboard, while another group of men tinkered with the electrical equipment. They cleared a big space in the observation dome, and began to install a replica of the equipment used on the Station for detection. No matter what kind of output Channing sent back, they would be able to follow it to the bitter end. They made their installations in duplicate, with one piece of each equipment on opposite sides of the blunt dome. Balancing the inputs of each kind by turning the entire ship would give them a good indication of direction. Franks did not hope that the entire installation could be completed before the signal came, but he was trying to outguess himself by putting some of everything aboard. When and if it came, he would be either completely ready with everything or he at least would have a good start on any one of the number of detectors. If need be, the equipment from the Station itself could be removed and used to complete the mobile installation. Everything was in a complete state of nervous expectancy. Watchers watched, meter readers squinted for the barest wiggle, audio observers listened, trying to filter any kind of man-made note out of the irregular crackle that came in. And the Station announcing equipment was dead quiet, to be used only in case of emergency or to announce the first glimmer of radiation, whether it be material, electrical, kinetic, potential, or wave front. Long they listened--and then it came. * * * * * The Station announcing equipment broke forth in a multitude of voices. "Sound input on radio." "Visual indication on scanner plates!" "Distortion on electrostatic field indicator." "Super-electroscopes indicate negative charge!" "Nothing on the telescope!"