“I’ll do that, Tom.”
Bill sat staring wonderingly at the wireless outfit. He watched Tom flit about as might a wizard among his trick apparatus. Tom flew to the operating table. He knew that somehow irregular work had been done by his two recent visitors. He wondered if he could head off the design they had in view, and was intent on getting word to headquarters.
Just ready to flash the signal, however, Tom ran over to a corner of the room and picked up a crumpled wad of paper. As he opened it, revealing two sheets, and reviewed their contents, he knew that he had discovered something worth while.
“The cypher message and the key to it,” exclaimed Tom eagerly. “Those fellows got what they came after and carelessly dropped these. Now to figure it out.”
Tom ran his eyes first over one sheet and then the other. The cypher message dovetailed with words he had heard the surreptitious operator use. With a pencil he wrote the words out with the help of the key. This was the result:
“Leave the steamer before arrival at Halifax,
as New York police have telegraphed there to
arrest you.”
“I see it all as clear as daylight,” murmured Tom. “The two men who imprisoned me are warning a friend, a criminal confederate. I’ll block the game.”
Tom was busy at the transmitter for the next half hour. He flashed a message to the Councillor, informing the captain that the passenger, Daniel Ritchie, had received a wireless message irregularly, and to prevent him from leaving the ship until he reported to the police at Halifax.
Then Tom sent a message to headquarters explaining the entire proceedings of the past hour, giving his construction of the episode, and advising an immediate report to the New York police authorities.
Pretty tired from his activities, he now sat down in a chair. He had to smile as he observed the face of Bill Barber. The latter sat like one entranced over the manipulation the wireless outfit had undergone.