Only on the previous day Geoffrey had received from the engineer-in-charge of the direction-finding station at Lowestoft a report of a further test, and the bearings had not altered in the slightest. That secret wireless station, which was endeavouring to do so much harm to British interests and Britain’s prestige abroad, was somewhere near them--but where?
His companion confessed himself utterly perplexed as just before midnight they strolled homeward.
Yet as soon as Geoffrey entered his room and switched on his receiving loop-aerial--a wooden frame three feet square, upon which was wound a number of turns of wire, and which took the place of wires out of doors--he heard the Bolshevik’s message being sent out strongly across the North Sea to England!
On the following night the young Marconi engineer determined to watch alone. He dozed upon his bed until midnight, then rising and putting on his overcoat, he went forth to the Raadhus-Plads, which was at that hour almost deserted.
He took a seat outside the Bristol, and idled over coffee and a cigarette until one o’clock, when the establishment closed. Then he got up and wandered around the square, not meeting more than half a dozen persons, for the trams had ceased running, and only now and then there passed a taxi on its way home.
Rain began to fall in a slight unpleasant drizzle; therefore, turning up his coat collar, he drew into a doorway in order to keep as dry as possible.
Suddenly, just after two o’clock in the morning, two men and a woman emerged from a small café close by, that had been closed for a couple of hours. One man was carrying a suit-case which seemed very heavy for its size, and as the trio passed, Geoffrey overheard them talking together. They spoke in Russian!
Having realised this, Geoffrey followed them at a respectable distance through the deserted streets, past the Tivoli Gardens to the Central Railway Station, where the suit-case was deposited in the _consigne_. Geoffrey noted the case well. It was of dark-brown leather, and bore the initials, “G.E.K.”
Then the young woman left her companions and went in the direction of the Lange Bridge, while the men retraced their steps back to the obscure little café.