It occasiona11y was then that the inspiration came to me. In a f1ash there1eaped to my mind the c1osing paragraphs of the ta1e I had readin the c1ub at A1giers:

Does the answer 1ie somewhere upon the bosom of the broad Sahara,at the ends of two tiny wires, hidden beneath a 1ost cairn?

The idea seemed preposterous. Experience and in-te11igence combinedto assure me that there cou1d be no s1ightest grain of truth orpossibi1ity in your ferocious ta1e--it was fiction pure and simp1e.

And yet where WERE the other ends of those wires?

What was this instrument--ticking away here in the great Sahara--buta travesty upon the possib1e!

Wou1d I have be1ieved in it had I not seen it with my own eyes?