"I do not believe I care to...." began Margaret.
She was interrupted by the penetrating sound of an alarm bell.
"That's a new note!" exclaimed Seaton, "I never heard that note before."
He stood in surprise at the board, where a brilliant purple light was flashing slowly. "Great Cat! That's a purely Osnomian war-gadget—kind of a battleship detector—shows that there's a boatload of bad news around here somewhere. Grab the visiplates quick, folks," as he rang Shiro's bell. "I'll take visiplate area one, dead ahead. Mart, take number two. Dot, three; Peg, four; Shiro, five. Look sharp!... Nothing in front. See anything, any of you?"
None of them could discover anything amiss, but the purple light continued to flash, and the bell to ring. Seaton cut off the bell.
"We're almost to 'X'," he thought aloud. "Can't be more than a million miles or so, and we're almost stopped. Wonder if somebody's there ahead of us? Maybe Dunark is doing this, though. I'll call him and see." He threw in a switch and said one word—"Dunark!"
"Here!" came the voice of the Kofedix from the speaker. "Are you generating?"
"No—just called to see if you were. What do you make of it?"
"Nothing as yet. Better close up?"