The silvery humming of a bell diverted his attention from the scene of congestion below him and, turning away, he walked across the terrace and into the great living room of his luxurious abode.
Stepping to the televisor, he turned a tiny switch, and the face of a girl appeared in the glass panel that was framed above the sound-box. He smiled as he lifted the receiver and placed it to his ear.
“What is the matter, Inga?” he asked. “You look as if you were expecting––well, almost anything disastrous.”
“Oh, Dirk, what is that thing?” the girl asked. “I really am frightened!”
He could see by the expression in her blue eyes that she, too, was becoming a victim of the hysteria that was taking possession of many people.
“I wouldn’t be alarmed, Inga,” he replied reassuringly. “I don’t know what it is, and no one else seems to be able to explain it.”
“But it is frightful and uncanny, Dirk,” the girl insisted, “and I am sure that something terrible is going to happen. I wish,” she pleaded, “that you would come over and stay with me for a little while. I am all alone and––”
“All right, Inga,” he told her. “I will be with you in a few minutes.”