know, as well as I do, that I never had a cent to spend as I was a mind to. I never had anything that was pretty when I was a girl, and I've never had anything sense I was married only what you thought was necessary. And 'tain't fair. I've worked as hard as I could all my life, and I never had even the butter and egg money to spend without being told what to git with it. Ever sense I was a mite of a girl I've wanted a garnet ring more'n anything in the world, seem's if, and I couldn't have it. I asked you for one once, and mebbe you recollect what you give me."

She swallowed a little sob, and then, encouraged by his seeming stupefaction, went on boldly: "I'm glad I've got it. It's a comfort to me, and as far as the piece in the paper goes, all it says is true, for what I know, and anyway it's no worse to say it there than to put it on your barn roof for all creation to see. You git money for that, and you spend it as you're a mind to, and that's what I've done, and I ain't sorry for it."

He reached out the ring to her, still without speaking, and she took it and put it on her finger as if she was throwing down the gauntlet to fate, saying quietly, "There's no call to let dinner git cold, as I know of."

Jabez went out to the pump to wash his hands, as if dazed. He looked at his big barn roof, across which in monstrous letters was emblazoned the legend of the

Curera Company, about which he and his wife had so often argued, and a great light shone in on his mind, but he only said, softly, "Well, I snum!"

Dinner was eaten in silence. Anastasia apparently had no more to say. Her ring caught the light as she moved, and glowed cheerfully in the otherwise gloomy atmosphere. Just as she was taking off her apron after the dishes were washed, Jabez came to the door. He looked a trifle sheepish "meachin," his wife would have said and remarked casually, "I might hitch up and take you down to 'Lizbeth's. I s'pose she'd like to see yer new ring. And say, 'Stasia," stooping to pick up a pin that he seemed to have difficulty in locating, "I guess I might's well give ye back yer ten dollars to do whatever yer a might to with, and we'll call it the ring's a present from me."

On the way to Elizabeth's, he said, deprecatingly, "I dunno's I'll have them signs painted agin. I don't much like the looks of 'em, anyway." After a period of rumination, during which his wife sat silent. he continued: "Don't ye worry none about that piece in the paper. I'll see the editor, and I guess he'll print some other testimony after this. There ain't no harm done anyway, and I'm glad ye've got the ring, 'Stasia. I didn't rightly know how bad ye wanted it." And then Anastasia kissed him, without even looking to see if any one saw her.

.

HASTE

that it has not been thought of before.

The principle lies in the varying rates of transmission of electric waves through the air and of sound waves through water.

The practical application is found in a simple combination of the wireless telegraph and the submarine telephone, both of which devices are now being installed upon ship-board to constantly increasing extent for general uses. Professor McAdie proposes to substitute the messages sent by them in combination for the sound signals now in vogue.

Bells, syrens, guns, whistles, gongs and other sound signals transmitted through the air are notoriously unreliable, as the Hydrographic office of the U. S. Navy has announced. The aberration of sound in

fog, indeed in clear weather, is such that not only the distance, but the bearing of the sound, cannot be determined with any confidence whatsoever. Numberless marine disasters have been attributable to the erratic behavior of sound in air. Even with the best apparatus a signal may be heard distinctly at a distance of four miles, and be inaudible at half a mile. There may be zones or patches of audibility and of inaudibility over a large area.

This phenomenon is due to the varying densities of the atmosphere, diverting or altering the sound waves. Professor Tyndall thus describes the conditions:

"By streams of air differently heated, or saturated in different degrees with aqueous vapor, the atmosphere is rendered

flacculent to sound. Acoustic clouds, in fact, are incessantly floating or flying through the air. They have nothing whatever to do with ordinary clouds, fog or haze; and the most transparent atmosphere may be filled with them, converting days of extraordinary optical transparency into days of extraordinary acoustic opacity."

If such irregularities obtain on perfectly clear days, they are obviously existent to as great, or even greater, extent in fog, when obstruction of vision adds its perplexities to the mariner groping his way like a blindfolded man.

When a ship is proceeding in fog, she has nothing but sound to warn her of her proximity to danger, in the shape of either another vessel or the shore. Hitherto,

human ingenuity has been taxed in vain to improve upon the signals transmitted through air by means of bells, whistles, trumpets and the like. These, being all subject to the aberrations already de scribed, are so unreliable that instead of averting disaster, they have actually at times precipitated it, the hearer being often misled not only as to the distance, but as to the bearing of the sound.

In the wireless telegraph and the submarine telephone, Professor McAdie has found the solution of the great problem.

The wireless telegraph transmits its electric waves instantaneously, regardless of the "acoustic clouds." The submarine telephone transmits sound through water with reliability as to both distance and

direction that for all practical purposes approaches certainty.

He proposes that vessels and shore stations be equipped with both wireless telegraph and submarine telephone plants. During fog, these stations would simultaneously emit a signal. The electric waves from the wireless telegraph travel with the velocity of light, that is, 188,000 miles a second. The wireless signal would therefore be heard the moment it was sent.

The sound waves from the submarine telephone travel at the rate of 4,708 feet a second through water at the normal temperature of 10 degrees Centigrade. They would therefore be heard later than the wireless signal. The elapsed time would be the measure of the distance.

To illustrate, suppose the officer on the bridge of a ship traveling through fog hears the "click" of the conventional wireless signal. Instantly he notes the time and awaits the signal from the telephone, the receiver of which he has at his ear. When he hears this, he again notes the time. The elapsed time in seconds,

multiplied by 4,708, gives the distance of the station in feet, as both signals were despatched at the same time.

For example, suppose that three seconds elapse between the receipt of the wireless and the submarine signals. Three times 4,708 is 14,124 feet. As there are 6,080 feet in a nautical mile this would indicate that the source of the signals, whether another ship or a shore station, is about two and one-third miles away.

No time need be lost by the listener in making computations, as he would have at hand tables showing the distance corresponding to any elapsed time in seconds.

The times may be noted on watch, clock, chronometer or chronograph.

The great advantage of water over air as a medium of sound transmission is in its uniformity. Being homogeneous, with inappreciable variations in density, it transmits the sound waves with reliability.

At the present time, wireless telegraph outfits are provided to ocean going vessels in constantly increasing numbers, and there are numerous wireless telegraph stations along the coasts of nearly every civ