"All right. What shall we do first?"
"I ought to finish this work with the microscope. These larvæ ought to have a few drops of formaldehyde on them if they aren't counted pretty soon; and I haven't any. So I guess I'll go on with my counting."
"Then we might just as well stay here," said Elsa. "It's a good deal cooler here in the shade of the trees than it would be out on the water. It's too bad there's nothing I can do to help you. Are you sure there's nothing I can do?"
Alec looked at his comrade steadily for a moment. "Elsa," he said, "did you ever read that beautiful poem of Milton's in which there is a line that says something like this: 'They also serve who only stand and wait'? You know the reserves are like that. They don't seem to be doing much, for a fact, but the fellows in the front line fight a heap sight better just because they know their comrades are back there, ready to aid them when necessary. So I wouldn't say anything more about not being of use. You know it's been pretty tough going for me these last few months since Dad died and I had nobody to fall back on. I can't tell you what it means to me to have your friendship and that of your father and mother."
"Thank you, Alec," said Elsa. "That's a very fine thing to say. I never thought of the matter in just that way before. You know I really do want to help you, and I don't care whether I help by really assisting in your work or merely by being with you, now that you put it in that way. The point is to get the work done. Oh! I think so much is going to come of all this that I am as eager as can be to get the work finished. Now you attend to your microscope and I'll amuse myself with your wireless."
For a long time there was silence on the Osprey. Elsa sat with the receivers strapped to her ears, now shifting the coupler, now moving a condenser, now tuning to this wave-length, now to that.
"That's strange," Alec heard her mutter to herself, after a long time.
"What's strange?" he asked.
"Why, somebody has been calling and calling Cape May. And he doesn't get any answer. I can't understand it. I haven't any idea who is talking. I never heard his call before. He's WNA."
With a bound Alec was beside her. "That's Roy Mercer on the Lycoming," he cried. "May I have the receivers a moment, please."