"I believe you are one. Your dictograph has arrived. Shall I send
George Sea Otter over with it? And have you somebody to install it?"

"Oh, bother! Does it have to be installed?"

"It does. You place the contraption--hide it, rather--in the room
where the conspirators conspire; then you run wires from it into
another room where the detectives listen in on the receivers."

"Could George Sea Otter install it?"

"I think he could. There is a printed card of instructions, and I
dare say George would find the job no more baffling than the
ignition-system on the Napier."

"Will he tell anybody?"

"Not if you ask him not to."

"Not even you?"

"Not even a whisper to himself, Shirley."

"Very well, then. Please send him over. Thank you so much, Bryce
Cardigan. You're an awful good old sort, after all. Really, it hurts
me to have to oppose you. It would be so much nicer if we didn't have
all those redwood trees to protect, wouldn't it?"

"Let us not argue the question, Shirley. I think I have my redwood