Falconer, seated at the operating bench in the small wireless office, the window of which commands an extensive view of the aerodrome, with the city of Brussels in the distance, still retained the head-telephones, and waited.
About five minutes later he heard the strong continuous-wave sent out by Croydon, and a moment later another voice exclaimed:
“Hulloa, Brussels? Hulloa, Brussels? Croydon calling. Dennis speaking. Dennis speaking. Over.” Falconer drew over the transmitting switch and then asked Dennis, the pilot, whether he was bringing over the air mail in the morning. Receiving an affirmative reply, Falconer said:
“Do me a favour, old chap, and bring over two or three things for me. You can get them put on passenger train to-night if you’ll telephone to the Works at Chelmsford for them. I want them very urgently to-morrow.” And then he gave descriptions of two air condensers and a double note magnifier and a microphone, adding that the tests he was making at the new wireless station he had just fitted near Dinant, on the Meuse, were satisfactory, but he hoped to still improve them.
Dennis, having written down the list, promised to bring them over by air next day, adding that he would be at Brussels just about one o’clock.
Then Geoffrey rose, handed the telephones to the Belgian operator, and switched off.
He had been nearly two months in Belgium, and had had quite a pleasant time. The Marconi Company were fitting the new aerodrome at Bouvignes, opposite old-world Dinant, with a one-and-a-half kilowatt telegraph and telephone set of exactly the same pattern as the new one they had installed at Croydon. Bouvignes had been adopted as the centre of Belgian civil aviation, air lines having been arranged to perform daily services to Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Milan, and other cities; hence it was necessary to be in wireless communication with the aerodromes at those places.
Only three weeks before Mrs. Beverley had brought Sylvia over to see Brussels, as she had never been there, and Geoffrey had for a week acted as their guide and shown them the sights of the pleasant little Belgian capital. Of course, during the greater part of the day he was away at Bouvignes, but he returned to Brussels each evening, and the lovers spent many happy hours together.
Now, however, mother and daughter had gone on to Paris, leaving the young engineer to complete his work in preparation for the official tests before the new station was taken over by the Belgian authorities.
So next day about one o’clock Geoffrey returned to the aerodrome outside Brussels, and asked the Belgian wireless operator the whereabouts of the Handley-Page.