Hasn't been here long." "That explains it." Houston was talking to himself again.

"He got the two messages and--" Suddenly he bent forward and examined a notation in a strange hand: "Missent Houston.

Resent Blackburn." It explained much to Barry Houston, that scribble of four words.

It told him why he had received a telegram which meant nothing to him, yet caused suspicion enough for a two-thousand-mile trip.

It explained that the operator, in sending two messages, had, through absent-mindedness, put them both on the wire to the same person, when they were addressed separately, that he later had seen his mistake and corrected it.