But he had set the forks of the road as his distance, and Lem wouldn’t be expecting him before a certain time anyway.
At last he was there, where the rambling country road divided, one branch dropping down into the valley, the other leading over a wooded ridge. It was all a matter of minutes for young Renaud to assemble his outfit, erect the folding aerial above his head, adjust the mouthpiece, and crank the handshaft for power. He was in a tremble as he pressed the buzzer signal and tensely waited for some sign that the sound had gone through.
But no reply came in through the small ear phone receivers. The whole world seemed suddenly still, save for the faint rustle of wind in the leaves, the twit-twit of a bird off in the woods.
“Guess it won’t work. It’s failed!” Lee’s mind was registering dully when, with a hissing “zip” that made him leap clear of the ground, a distinct buzz sounded in the ear pieces.
“H-hello! You—you hear me? You Lem!” Lee shrieked into the little transmitter.
“Hey! Plain as day! You like to blew my head off!” came the delighted voice of Lem Hicks. “Whoop-la, you done made something, Lee Renaud!”
For a spell the two boys passed excited words back and forth through this thing that had made a mile of space as nothing. Then a sudden beat of hoofs down the woods road made Lee leap back towards the ditch. He had hardly cleared the way when a lank bay horse, lathered in mud and sweat, plunged around the bend.
At the sight of this strange apparition in head-strap and ear pieces, with aerial wire rising above its head like horns, the horse shied, snorting and plunging.
“Hi, be you man or devil?” shouted the mud-spattered rider, trying to rein in his animal. “What for be you rigged up to scare honest folk out of the road?”
“I—just trying an experiment,” Lee hastily slipped his head free of aerial harness and the mouth and ear pieces, so that he looked human once more.