“An expert radio aide in your division. You said he had a message for me.”
“I know the man you mean now; we have several aides, and I see so little of them individually I am apt to forget their names. But I recall nothing about any message. What was it?”
“You said he had a message he wished to deliver to me in person, but was in a great hurry to catch a train because of serious illness in his family. For that reason you undertook to deliver the message by special messenger.”
“Mr. Secretary, I am certain that I had no such conversation with you; this is the first I have heard of it. Some one else must have impersonated me.”
“That is strange,” said Mortimer, “for it was I that called this Bureau. I had received the message, and, being surprised at its contents, I called up the Radio Division, and asked for Tompkins. I was answered by your voice saying, ‘Commander Rich speaking,’ and following with the statement I just told you. I have since learned that the message as delivered to me was quite different from that which was originally sent.”
“Most extraordinary,” said Rich, frowning. “There must be some one up to mischief.”
He thought a moment, then resumed:
“Some one understanding the wires could have cut them and connected them with a portable phone.”
“But how was it that I heard your voice?”
“A good mimic could easily have deceived you over the telephone. Was the message very important?”