But no sound came into the receivers and with Sam’s call to dinner the instruments were laid aside.
But when dinner was over, the boys once more adjusted their receivers and prepared to listen to anything that might be passing through the air. Tom clamped the phones to his ears, Frank turned the resonance coil about and as it pointed towards the south, Tom fairly leaped from his seat.
“Jumping Jiminy!” he exclaimed. “They’re talking!”
“What?” cried Mr. Pauling. “Are you sure? Get what they say!”
Tense with excitement, leaning forward with breaths coming fast, all were silent, listening with straining ears to the faint buzzing sounds from the instrument while Tom rapidly jotted down the message. “They’ve stopped!” he announced at last. “I guess--Gosh! What’s that?”
As he had been speaking, Frank, thinking the signals over, had turned around and as he did so, sharp “dees and dahs” once more issued from the receiver. Instantly all were again silent, glancing at one another with wonder and amazement on their features, for the signals were coming in with the coil pointed to the east! A moment later the sounds ceased and Tom handed the slip of paper to his father.
“By glory!” ejaculated Rawlins. “Some one must have answered them!”
“Sounded like it,” agreed Mr. Henderson. “But it couldn’t be any one on the Devon. We know she’s captured.”
“And it did not come from the direction of Georgetown,” said Mr. Thorne. “Whoever was sending that message is to the east--in Dutch Guiana I think.”
“It’s meaningless gibberish,” declared Mr. Pauling who had been studying the sheet of paper. “Just numbers and nothing more.”