"Now you can listen in, Doctor," announced Mostyn, after he had produced and connected up a supplementary pair of 'phones. "There's not much doing, I fancy."
Selwyn adjusted the ear-pieces, while Peter, similarly equipped, stood by pencil in hand in order to give his companion some inkling of any stray message.
"There's something!" exclaimed the doctor. He was excited. As cool as the proverbial cucumber when he was performing a deft and rapid operation upon which human life depended, he was now as delighted as a child with a new toy, when he heard the high-pitched buzzing sound that indicated a message in transit.
"Niton," explained Peter. "Isle of Wight station. She's calling up—no—half a minute."
Mostyn's pencil was moving rapidly as he recorded the message.
"Cut out o.m. SOS signals out: stop sending."
Then almost immediately after came a plaintive wail from a ship:
"Please repeat whole of preamble and words after 'overcoat'."
"Explain, please," asked Selwyn.
Mostyn, busy altering the wave length in an attempt to pick up the SOS, did not reply. Explanations could come later.