siphon, that had been tracing a straight black line on the sliding tape,
moved up and down in curving zigzags. Hazeltine turned to the operator.

"Palmer," he said curtly, "answer that call."

The man addressed seated himself at the table, turned a switch, and
clicked off a message. After a moment the line on the moving tape
zigzagged again. Ralph glanced at the zigzags and bit his lip.

"Apologize to them," he said to Palmer. "Tell them we regret exceedingly
that the ship should have been kept waiting. Tell them our recorder was
out of adjustment."

The operator cabled the message. The three men at the end of the room
glanced at each other; this evidently was not what they expected.

Steps sounded on the stairs and Peters hurriedly entered.

"The old man's comin'," he said.

Mr. Langley, the superintendent of the station, had been in the
company's employ for years. He had been in charge of the Cape Cod
station since it was built, and he liked the job. He knew cable work,
too, from A to Z, and, though he was a strict disciplinarian, would
forgive a man's getting drunk occasionally, sooner than condone
carelessness. He was eccentric, but even those who did not like him
acknowledged that he was "square."

He came into the room, tossed a cigar stump out of the window, and
nodded to Captain Eri.