Hammond turned on the communications set and coughed into the microphone, watching the meters swing. Then, satisfied, he said: "This is the Haywire Queen answering S. D. I. from Telfu. Calling Sandra Drake. If you are listening, break in. This is Hammond of the Haywire Queen listening for a repeat of previous S. D. I." Hammond broke into Telfan and repeated the message.
Then the answer-light winked on the panel and he heard:
"This is Sandra Drake. Is it really you?"
"No," said Hammond. "Just a reasonable facsimile. What's the matter?"
"Oh!" said Sandra. There was a world of feeling in the word. "This has been the longest seven days in my life. It worked, then."
"What worked then?"
"The communications set."
"Obviously. What did you do to it?"
"Not much, personally. I sort of managered it, though. They lent me their best gravitic students and we went to work on the thing. We remade everything in the set—everything that could stand it, that is—about four times their size. That's where I came in. Some things couldn't be increased in size without ruining the tuning, and I knew which ones. Is my output all right?"
"Shaky, but strong enough for service."