“So we could run down ‘the man’ if he was on the sea. We decided, coming over, that he was more likely to do his experimenting on water than on land, and Tom thinks he can get him from his experimental waves.”
“I see,” said Dorothy. “Go ahead.”
“After chartering the yacht, I helped Tom all I could till last night, when I came up to London to meet you. Tom expects to get the machine set up to-day. That’s about all.”
“How is the war progressing?” asked Dorothy. “Everybody on board the liner was greatly afraid it would begin before we got across, and that we might be captured, but we reached Liverpool all right.”
“Nothing’s happened yet,” I answered. “But I think it’s coming, may come any minute. They say that the Emperor has refused to see visitors, since the Kaiserin Luisa went down, and I think the government expects war immediately. They’re mobilizing rapidly on both sides.”
“Then there certainly isn’t a minute to lose in reaching Folkestone,” said Dorothy decisively. “We’ll just stop for lunch and go right down.”
It was a day of wonders. Since the night when we had searched for Joslinn, Dorothy and I had never been alone together. The ride from the station to the Savoy was a glorified pilgrimage; the lunch, as we sat looking out on the embankment bathed in sunshine, was a celestial repast, even the time of waiting in the hotel for Dorothy to condense her luggage, and make ready for the coming trip, was a delight. But best of all was the trip down to Folkestone. The guard smiled widely at the golden sovereign which saved the compartment for us, and the porter heaped attentions on us for his tip, but the value which they purchased was priceless. Two hours of speeding through the lovely English country in a tête-à-tête with my lady.
All too soon came Folkestone, and there beside the train was Tom. “I’ve got him,” he whispered excitedly. “Hurry up, it’s just time to take another reading.”
As we bowled along through the old streets, Tom hurriedly told us of his experience. “He’s experimenting constantly now,” he said. “He sent off some waves yesterday afternoon about four o’clock, just after I got the apparatus going; sent off some more about ten, and some this morning, a little after nine. They’re all from some place out in the Channel, over towards the French coast. They’re from practically the same spot, so I got everything ready for an instant departure on our little boat, and the moment we hear from him again, we’ll start straight for him.”