“Yes,” drawled Mr. George Glover. “I usually come over to Europe twice a year on business, and I always look forward to it. Americans who haven’t travelled never realise the delights of dear old London, do they?”
Presently the trio went in to supper together. Quite casually Sylvia mentioned Geoffrey’s connection with wireless, whereupon Glover began to discuss some of the newest theories in a manner unusually intelligent for the uninitiated. This caused Geoffrey’s thoughts to wander far from that gay crowd by which he was surrounded.
The man seated opposite him was something of a mystery. On the trip over to Europe, at one o’clock one morning, he had despatched from the ship a curious wireless message. Geoffrey had happened to be in the cabin with the chief wireless operator when the message had been brought in. He was assisting the operator to adjust his spark, which was slightly out of order. Ships’ wireless sets, like watches, are sometimes liable to vagaries. Why, nobody can tell.
The message sent in was marked “very urgent,” but the “spark” was poor, and the range at the moment rather inefficient. As it lay beside the transmitting key, Geoffrey read it.
He remembered it quite distinctly because, by some strange intuition, he felt that it was not what it pretended to be. One sometimes experiences strange suspicions. And in this case Geoffrey wondered. He knew the sender, and perhaps because of his friendship with Sylvia and her mother, he had felt a little irritation, for he instinctively mistrusted the man.
The message was of a commercial character, and read:
“_Betser, King’s Arms Hotel, Norwich.--Don’t deal directly demand delay execute slowly.--Glover._”
Next day he had found himself reflecting upon that message, and returning to the wireless cabin, he copied it. For a whole day he puzzled over it, when at last--used as he was to all sorts of ciphers and codes--he discovered in it a four-figure code. The initial letter of the first five words was “D”--the fourth letter of the alphabet. Then “E”--the fifth letter--and “S”--the nineteenth. Hence the message was no doubt in figure-code, and read “4519.”
From that moment onward he had viewed the man Glover with considerable suspicion, but on landing at Southampton he had lost sight of him. And now he was much surprised to find him as guest of the rich widow.
