“Yes, thank you,” was the reply. “I’d dropped ’em in my stateroom.”
“You’re lucky.”
“You’re right, I’m lucky. I’d ’ave missed a very important wireless message if I hadn’t found that key.”
“Is that so!” Guy returned with puzzled curiosity. “You interest me, for I have a wireless outfit at home and I can’t see how the loss of a key could ’ave caused you to miss a wireless message.”
“Oh,” replied the strange fellow; “that’s easily explained. You see I’m on a business trip to America, and the business success of myself and my partner depends to a considerable extent on the schemes we resort to for the sake of economy. Now, it’s important that I receive a telegram from my partner every day, but not important that I should answer those telegrams. So I’ve provided myself with a wireless receiving set, and every day at an agreed time I am at my station to get his message. I just got today’s message which I’d ’ave missed if I hadn’t been able to find my keys.”
“Do you mean that you have an indoor receiving outfit set up in your stateroom?” Guy demanded in astonishment.
“That’s exactly what I do mean,” replied the “radio man.”
“You don’t mean to say that you expect to receive messages from England with an indoor set all the way across the Atlantic ocean,” Guy continued with increasing wonder.
“I certainly do,” was the others reply. “I’ve done it many times on trips to America. But of course there are not many receiving sets like mine. It’s almost an invention in itself. My partner was with the British signal service in France, and he had a good deal of experience with V-shaped antennae on scouting automobiles for locating German wireless stations. Connected with those antennae were loading coils, sufficient to give very small antennae the receiving range of aerials a hundred feet long or more.”
“Excuse my inquisitiveness,” said Guy, “but do you maintain a sending station in England? I don’t see where the economy comes in.”