"Yes, a great deal of it; one instance in particular of which my operators have complained."
"Ah!" said Crochard. "Will you tell us exactly what it was?"
"Last Saturday," explained Marbeau, "about three in the afternoon, there came from somewhere a series of long dashes, lasting nearly half a second, and spaced about two seconds apart. This continued for perhaps half an hour."
"You had no idea as to their origin?"
"We thought that perhaps the English were tuning up a new and very powerful instrument at Gibraltar."
"You had no way of verifying this?"
"We did not try to do so."
"Was this interruption repeated?"
"Yes; our automatic recorder shows that the signals began again a little before five o'clock yesterday morning and continued for nearly two hours."
Crochard's eyes were shining.