"But our cables put it on the 17th."
"Your cables are mistaken."
And, sure enough, later despatches came with information that the destructive earthquake had occurred on the 15th, within half a minute of the time Professor Milne had specified. There had been some error of transmission in the earlier newspaper despatches.
Again, a few months later, the newspapers published cablegrams to the effect that there had been a severe earthquake at Kobe, with great injury to life and property.
"That is not true," said Professor Milne. "There may have been a slight earthquake at Kobe, but nothing that need cause alarm."
And the mail reports a few weeks later confirmed his reassuring statement, and showed that the previous sensational despatches had been grossly exaggerated.
Professor Milne is also the man to whose words cable companies lend anxious ear, for what he says often means thousands of dollars to them. Early in January, 1898, it was officially reported that two West Indian cables had broken on December 31, 1897.
"That is very unlikely," said Professor Milne; "but I have a seismogram showing that these cables may have broken at 11.30 A.M. on December 29, 1897." And then he located the break at so many miles off the coast of Haiti.
This sort of thing, which is constantly happening, would look very much like magic if Professor Milne had kept his secrets to himself; but he has given them freely to all the world.