“Very well, then, let us go on with the test.”
The letter was placed open as before, with the radium in its leaden case before it. Tom threw back the cover, as we sat in front of the table, and turned off the lights. I waited as before, beside Dorothy. If I had felt a tightening bond before, I felt one a thousand times stronger now. I had seen the dear girl beside me day in and day out since our first meeting, and never had she failed to show the same fire of brilliant imagination, the same power of achievement. She had blazed my path to success in the weeks past. She had come to help me in my distress to-day. To gain her had become the whole end of my life. I looked into the darkness towards the letter, expecting each moment to see the curves and lines springing out luminous. Minute after minute passed. I could hear the ticking of the great clock, two rooms away, and the stifled roar of the summer afternoon in the great city, but the darkness held no light. No line appeared. Finally Tom spoke.
“How long an exposure did you give it last time, Dorothy?”
“Two or three minutes,” said she. He rose, turned on the lights and looked at his watch.
“Twelve minutes and no results. It’s the same lot of radium, too. Look this over with me, will you, Dorothy?”
They examined the apparatus carefully, turned off the light and tried again. No result. Tom went back into the other room and brought another sample of radium and used that. Still no result. At last he turned on the lights and spoke. “I can’t understand, judge, but I cannot bring out the second letter.”
The judge rose blinking. “According to your own statements,” he said, “the letter has not been out of Miss Haldane’s possession at all, and the message once on there could not disappear. I fear I shall have to hold Mr. Orrington after all, till we can hear from the President.”
My heart sank. Tom turned to me.
“Never you mind, Jim, we’ll find the President for you, and have you out inside two days.”
I smiled somewhat wearily. “You mustn’t leave your work to do that, Tom.”