This is one of those strange cosmic coincidences, I'm sure, but it's still a bit creepy that you're explaining this just as I'm reading some old-school (circa 1930's) science fiction, and in the far-distant future of 1980 we are apparently going to still be using this sort of exchange. On our televisors. To Mars.

I mean, I glarked from context that the hero was making a phone call, but your explanation does reveal that what I thought was a typo (double caps) in the text was not, in fact, a typo. So, thanks. :)

(Project Gutenberg has SO MUCH STUFF, it'll take me a while to get through this list.)

--sofaspud
--there are some strange, strange gems in that thar slushpile, I tell you what