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"Astounding" Lady Maccon was iy and Lord Akelda his equani room tuned to the appropriate frequency will be able to pick up therooraphor

"Receivers, nals A skilled operator is required to tune out ae then displays there"--he gestured, hands waving about like flippers, at two pieces of glass with black particulate sandwiched between and aabove--"one letter at a time"

"So someone must be in residence to read and record each letter?"

"And theythe delicacy of the mounts

"And they e destroys itself as it goes," Lord Akeldama added

"Now I comprehend the reason for the noise-proof room and the attic location This is clearly a most delicate device" Lady Maccon wondered if she could operate such an apparatus "You have, indeed, made an impressive acquisition"

Lord Akeldaave him a sly look "So what precisely is your compatibility protocol, Lord Akelda coquettishly up at the ceiling of the box "Really, Alexia, what a thing to ask on your very first showing"

Lady Maccon only smiled

Lord Akeldama sidled over and slotted her a little slip of paper upon which ritten a series of numbers "I have reserved the eleven o’clock ti all frequencies at that ti a week from today" He bustled off and reappeared with a faceted crystalline valve "And here is this, tuned to my frequency, just in case the apparatus you eressive than my own"

Alexia tucked the little slip of paper and the crystalline valve into one of the hidden pockets of her new parasol "Does any other private residence own one?" she wondered

"Difficult to know," replied Lord Akeldama "The receiver must be ible for air reconnaissance and float about looking for them, but I hardly think that an efficient approach They are very dear, and there are few private individuals who could see to the expense The Crown, of course, has two, but others? I only have the list of official compatibility protocols: that is a little under one hundred aethographors dotted about the e on, and if she intended to leave for Scotland, she had , she would have to send round to the queen to alert her to the fact that her s of the Shadow Council for the next feeeks

She made her excuses to Lord Akeldama Madame Lefoux did the sa his residence at the same time They paused to take leave of one another on the stoop

"Do you really propose to float to Scotland toray kid gloves

"I think it best I go after my husband"

"Should you travel alone?"

"Oh, I shall take Angelique"

Madahtly at the name "A Frenchwoman? Who is that?"

"My maid, inherited fro iron"

"I am certain she is, if she was once under Countess Nadasdy," replied the inventor with a kind of studied casualness

Alexia felt there was so to the coive her the chance for further inquiry, as she nodded her good-bye, clione before Lady Maccon had tiht

Professor Randolph Lyall was iuess it to look at hihtly seedy and very hairy dog, skulking about the bins in the alley next to Lord Akelda, could possibly be required to take tea with a vaood deal, apparently, if Lord Akeldama and Lady Maccon were involved Between the two of thes off a donkey He had encountered them in full steam on only one memorable occasion and ever since had avoided the experience assiduously Madah she probably was not adding much to the conversation It was odd to see her out of her shop and paying a social call Hehis Alpha should know about Not that he had orders to watch the inventor But Madaerous person to know

He shifted about, nose to the wind Soe new scent on the air

Then he noticed the va in the shadoell away from Lord Akeldama’s house Any closer and the effete vampire would sense their alien presence, larvae not of his line in his territory So, ere they there for? What were they about?

Lyall lowered his tail between his legs and slunk a quick circle behind the at them from doind Of course, vampires had nowhere near as fine a sense of s

He crept in close, trying to be as silent as possible

Neither of the vaents, that was for certain Unless Lyall et

They did not appear to be doing anything but sis!" said one of the can it take to have tea? Especially if one of theht his gun Difficult to carry, though, in one’s mouth

"Re Don’t want to go at it with the olves over nothing You know…"

Lyall, who did not knoanted to very badly, but the vampire, most unhelpfully, did not continue