The white moon shone brightly over the Sussex downs as he walked along the high road to where the wireless station was installed.
He called there and had another chat with the sergeant on duty. Then he resumed his walk in the direction of Nassington Hall.
When within a hundred yards of a side gate which gave entrance to a short cut from the hall to the railway station, he drew back under a huge thorn-bush and lit a cigarette.
He wondered whether he was not making a fool of himself. From where he stood he could see in the distance the many lighted windows of the Hall. No doubt, scenes of merriment were taking place within.
The clock of Crowborough Church chimed the hour of one—half-past—then two o’clock. The distant windows were still lit, and finding a fallen tree, he sat down to contemplate.
Soon after two o’clock the lights in the distant windows died away, one after another. The fun was over. The wind blew cold, and even in his thick overcoat he shivered. Yet when he was putting a theory to the test in wireless or otherwise, he never begrudged sleepless hours.
Just after four in the morning, while he still remained patiently at his post, Geoffrey’s quick ear suddenly heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Drawing back, he watched a dark figure coming hurriedly from the direction of the Hall, until, when it passed close by him, he saw in the dull half-light that it was a middle-aged countryman, evidently a local farmer who was up and about betimes.
In chagrin he drew back into his place of concealment, but a few seconds after the man had passed a fresh thought suddenly occurred to him. So, noiselessly, he followed the passer-by in the direction of the station. The man, however, did not go to the railway, but at a short distance from it he drew back into a hedge, in order, no doubt, to wait for the first train in the morning.
Geoffrey watched for a further half-hour, then withdrew and hastened to the wireless station, whence he called up a friend of his named Hemmington, who lived in Hampstead, and had an amateur wireless station there.
He had not repeated the amateur’s call-signal three times before he received an answering signal, after which his hand rapidly tapped the keys. Then a few seconds later he received the signal, “O.K.”