When they reached Gramercy Square and dashed into Henry’s room and told him of their talk with Mr. Henderson, he was as excited and pleased as Frank.
“Say, it was funny we didn’t think of that fellow using a telephone!” he exclaimed, when the boys had told him of Mr. Henderson’s theory. “And he’s right about that capacity effect of a fellow
near a phone. I was a fool not to have thought of it. Why, Jim told me about that long ago. He even said his brother Ed showed him with his set on the San Jacinto. But I guess it must have been because we were so intent on the messages that we couldn’t think of anything else. I’ll bet we can hear folks on the phone through my set right now.”
“That is funny!” declared Tom, when, a moment later, the boys were listening to a telephone conversation coming to them through Henry’s set. “Say,” he continued, “there isn’t much privacy nowadays, is there? Why, if you could amplify that enough, every one could hear everything that was going on over the telephones.”
“Yes, and to think we were so close to getting that other chap’s talk and never realized it,” said Frank. “Mr. Henderson must think we are great radio fans! I’ll bet he had a mighty good laugh at our expense after we left.”
“Well, we’ll not be fooled again,” declared Tom. “If that fellow begins talking to-night we’ll nail him, too.”
“But we can’t locate him,” objected Henry. “So what good will it do?”
“That’s so,” admitted Tom. “But the main thing is to hear what he says. Then perhaps we can make sense out of it.”
“Say,” suddenly exclaimed Henry, “did you fellows notice that every time we heard those messages the fellow mentioned a flower? First ’twas ‘Azalia’ and then ‘Magnolia’ and then ‘Hibiscus’ and last time ’twas ‘Frangi Pani.’ I’d like to know what that meant.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Tom. “Of course Azalia and Magnolia and Hibiscus are flowers, but what’s Frangi Pani—sounds like some sort of Japanese thing to me. I guess this fellow must be talking about boats. Lots of ships are named after flowers, you know.”