"I'm making a present," he remarked confidentially to the clerk.
"How about those bracelet watches?"
The clerk pulled out some of the cheaper ones.
"No," he said thoughtfully, pointing out a tray in the show case,
"something like those."
He ended by picking out one identically like that which Elaine had
selected, and started to pay for it.
"Better have it regulated," repeated the clerk.
"No," he objected hastily, shaking his head and paying the money
quickly. "It's a present--and I want it tonight."
He took the watch and left the store hurriedly.
. . . . . . . .
In the laboratory, Kennedy was working over an oblong oak box,
perhaps eighteen inches in length and half as high. In the box I
could see, besides other apparatus, two good sized spools of fine
wire.
"What's all that?" I asked inquisitively.
"Another of the new instruments that scientific detectives use,"
he responded, scarcely looking up, "a little magnetic wizard, the
telegraphone."
"Which is?" I prompted.
"Something we detectives might use to take down and 'can'
telephone and other conversations. When it is attached properly to
a telephone, it records everything that is said over the wire."
"How does it work?" I asked, much mystified.
"Well, it is based on an entirely new principle, in every way
different from the phonograph," he explained.
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