"Never mind the blind men," came back the pilot. "How'm I doing?" "Fine. Slide out another hundred yards and hold her there." "Who--me? Listen, Dr. Channing, you're the bird on the tape line. You have no idea just how insignificant you look from fifty-odd thousand miles away. Put a red-hot on the 'finders and have 'im tell me where the ship sits." "O.K., Freddie, you're on the beam and I'll put a guy on here to give you the dope. Right?" "Right!" "Right," echoed Arden breaking in on the phone. "And I'm going to bring you a slug of coffee and a roll. Or did you remember to eat recently?" "We didn't," chimed in Walt. "You get your own girl," snorted Channing. "And besides, you are needed up here. We've got work to do." Once again the signal lashed out. The invisible waves drove out and began their swift rush across the void. Time, as it always did during the waiting periods, hung like a Sword of Damocles. The half-hour finally ticked away, and Freddie called in: "No dice. She's as silent as the grave." Minutes added together into an hour. The concentric wave left the reflector and just dropped out of sight. "Too bad you can't widen her out," suggested Don. "I'd like to tighten it down," objected Walt. "I think we're losing power and we can't increase the power--but we could tighten the beam." "Too bad you can't wave it back and forth like a fireman squirting water on a lawn," said Arden. "Firemen don't water lawns--" began Walt Franks, but he was interrupted by a wild yell from Channing. "Something hurt?" asked Arden. "No. Walt, we can wave the beam." "Until we find 'em? We've been trying that. No worky." Freddie called in excitedly: "Something went by just now and I don't think it was Christmas!" "We might have hit 'em a dozen times in the last ten minutes and we'll never know it," said Channing. "But the spaceliners can be caught. Let's shoot at them like popping ducks. Shotgun effect. Look, Walt, we can electronically dance the beam at a high rate of speed, spraying the neighborhood. Freddie can hear us return because we have to hit them all the time and the waver coming on the way back will pass through his position again and again. We'll set up director elements in the reflector, distorting the electrical surface of the parabolic reflector. That'll divert the beam. By making the phases swing right, we can scan the vicinity of the _Empress of Kolain_ like a flying spot television camera." Walt turned to one of the technicians and explained. The man nodded. He left for Franks' laboratory and Walt turned back to his friends. "Here shoots another couple of hours. I, for one, am going to grab forty winks."