"Yes, what's your idea?” Gunner asked hoarsely.
"It came to me as I watched them changing spools in the psychophones tonight,” Thorn muttered. “I shut my mind off it till after they'd gone, so they wouldn't hear."
He was taking down from its mounting the psychophone that for so many days had blared his thoughts. With quivering fingers, he began dissembling the intricate little machine. Tubes and coils and condensers came from it, as he rapidly took it apart.
"There are enough parts here,” he muttered feverishly. “If I can just remember enough of my tech-school training."
Thorn began putting certain parts of the mechanism back together again, in a totally different hook-up. The tiny atomic generator that furnished power, the transformers and rectifiers — and then he worked long upon rewiring an “alternator,” connecting it electrically to a master modulator tube.
An hour passed, and another. The hubbub of storm was even louder from above. The droning of the other two Planeteers’ psychophones was almost inaudible through the roar.
Thorn finally straightened, holding the compact rebuilt mechanism in trembling hands. His face was dripping.
,"Now for it!” he whispered shakily to the other two Planeteers. He advanced with the little machine to the locked door.
"You've rebuilt the psychophone parts into a wave-projector?” Sual Av whispered, staring. “To use as a wave-key?"
"It won't work,” Gunner muttered. “It may project waves, but you don't know the secret frequency that will operate this lock. It might be any one of countless possible frequencies."