Let us hasten our
work and start for Mars."
"You say you have duplicates of the plates?" asked Jack.
"Yes. I was afraid lest something happen to one set, so I made
three. Well, it will do no good to worry, but I wish I had the
plates back."
"I don't see how he got them," observed Mark. "There doesn't
seem to be anything broken, to indicate how the thief got in, and
he certainly didn't touch Professor Henderson's live wire."
Not a window or a door had been forced, and the two machinists,
who slept in the shop, declared they had heard no suspicious
sounds during the night. It was a mysterious theft, and there
seemed to be no means of solving it.
At Mr. Roumann's suggestion they all increased their hours of
work on the Annihilator. They wanted to have it finished ahead
of the time set, and it seemed that this would be done.
Day after day, and far into the night, they labored. Bit by bit
the machinery was installed, the supplies were gathered together,
the great water tanks were built, to provide a supply of the
fluid in case of any accident to the distilling apparatus.
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