Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/274

 of her presence there. He needed her, not because she could buoy him up to meet implacable adversities, but to compel him to sustain himself for her sake.

"We can attach a power-wire to that cabin door-handle, so that no one dare touch it. We can run a wire to"

His voice trailed off and went out, like a burnt fuse. The change that had come over him was so sudden that the woman turned and sat up.

"Wait!" he called, in a voice so high-pitched it sounded what was almost a treble note. "Wait!"

He stood rooted to the spot for a moment, petrified by the new thought that had come to him.

"It's not hopeless!" he cried exultantly.

"What is it?" asked the other, confronting him.

"It can be done! The models! My telephony models! They carry what is practically a responder!"

The woman watched him, wide-eyed, for he was down on the floor, on his knees, before the box of models, lifting out strange and delicate bits of machinery—machinery for which she had always felt a certain fear and aloofness, since the quiet evening he had spoken to her