“Yes,” nodded Tom, translating the message: “Lost boy named Ernest Warren. Look out for sun, moon and stars on his left shoulder.”
“Wonder who the lost boy can be?” said Ben in a ruminative tone.
They were soon to learn that—in a startling and unexpected manner.
[CHAPTER XI—A GREAT STEP FORWARD]
“Mr. Barnes, I believe?”
“Yes, I am Tom Barnes,” said the young wireless operator of station Z.
Tom was in the old windmill tower, and had been tidying up generally. He had just come from dinner, and was alone in the operating room.
He had checked himself in the middle of a whistling tune to survey a head and then the shoulders and body of a stranger, coming up through the trap door.
The intruder was a keen-eyed, sharp-featured man of about thirty, very neatly dressed, and very erect and soldierly in his general appearance.
He nodded briskly to Tom, crossed the room, and, uninvited, sank into the nearest chair.