Rapidly he copied the first twenty letters. Below them he made a second line of the next twenty letters. Then the third set of twenty was written down. As he began the fourth row the three boys at his side held their breath.
"He's got it," Willie Brown cried, as Captain Hardy wrote down the first letter. "He's got it. It spells four."
Rapidly Captain Hardy finished out his line. The letters he had written down read like this:
FTSTITEIAFTDLLTNSYWT
ORPSLHVNRLEEYLIOTEIH
UAOSEIEGGEVNCENDRRTE
RNRADSNLEEITOCGEOSHM
He picked up the paper and slowly spelled out the following message:
"Four—transports—sailed—this—evening—Large—fleet—evidently—collecting—No—destroyers—with—them."
For a moment there was complete silence. Then Henry spoke. "They can see everything in Hoboken," he said. "It's a wonderful place to spy from."
"That message didn't come from Hoboken," said Roy, who had been listening to their conversation with one ear while he kept his receiver at the other. "It was for 5ZM all right, but it was signed 2XC instead of 2XB and the detector doesn't point toward Hoboken."
There was a rush for the wireless room. Captain Hardy seized a map, spread it on the table, and again applied the yardstick, extending it in the direction indicated by the detector. The stick pointed straight toward the Narrows, at the entrance to the harbor.
"That message came from Staten Island," said Captain Hardy with conviction. "They have got two secret stations."