Touch that screen door with
your knife."
Kennedy did so, and elicited large sparks with quite a tingle of
a shock.
"Yesterday and the day before it was so bad we had to give up
attempting to communicate with Williams," continued the operator.
"It was worse than trying to work in a thunder-shower. That's the
time we get our troubles, when the air is overcharged with
electricity, as it is now."
"That's interesting," remarked Kennedy.
"Interesting?" flashed back the operator, angrily noting the
condition in his "log book."
"Maybe it is, but I call it darned mean. It's almost like trying
to work in a power station."
"Indeed?" queried Kennedy. "I beg your pardon--I was only looking
at it from the purely scientific point of view. Who is it, do you
suppose?"
"How do I know? Some amateur, I guess. No professional would butt
in this way."
Kennedy took a leaf out of his note-book and wrote a short
message which he gave to a boy to deliver to Norton.
"Detach your gyroscope and dynamo," it read. "Leave them in the
hangar. Fly without them this afternoon, and see what happens. No
use to try for the prize to-day. Kennedy."
We sauntered out on the open part of the field, back of the fence
and to the side of the stands, and watched the fliers for a few
moments.
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