Then he asked: "Did you understand question?"
No answer.
The signalman was standing beside him, and he handed him the message with the order to take it at once to the bridge; then he went to the telephone and took off the receiver. "This is Sergeant Medlow. I've just received from Magdalen Bay the message now on the way to the bridge: 'Take care of—' then the connection was cut off.... All right, sir."
Two minutes later an excited lieutenant rushed in crying: "What's the matter with the apparatus?"
"It won't work, sir; it stopped in the middle of a sentence."
"Take a new coherer!"
"I've tried four."
They both tapped the coherer, but nothing happened. All questions remained unanswered, and they seemed to be telegraphing into space.
"Probably a breakdown," said the lieutenant naïvely.
"Yes, sir, probably a breakdown," repeated Medlow; and then he was alone once more.