The call-signal, “2.C.Q.,” showed it to be an experimental station, but he knew of none so powerful as to be able to transmit telephony to Central Italy.
The whole affair was a complete enigma.
Next day he awaited the arrival of his friend at Chelmsford, but though the hours passed, he did not appear. The following day went by, but he neither came nor wrote. The department at the works with which the station had been doing business was equally puzzled. He had ordered on behalf of the Coltano station a quantity of new apparatus for wireless telephony, and it was being constructed in all haste, yet though a whole week went by, he never returned to inspect it.
To his friend, Frank Boyd, Falconer told the story of that mysterious telephone message in the night. At first Boyd hardly gave it credence, but it was corroborated by the operators at Poldhu, who had been on watch at the time.
“Well, we must find out who ‘2.C.Q.’ is. They have a list of experimenters and their call-signals at Marconi House,” Boyd said. “Let’s ring up and see.”
They did, and the reply received was that the station, 2.C.Q., belonged to a retired naval officer living near Epsom Downs, a man who had experimented in wireless for some years, but whose station was certainly not equipped for long-distance telephony.
Next day Geoffrey came to London, and then went down to Epsom, full of eagerness to solve the mystery. The retired naval commander, a man named Kent, received him, but at once assured him that no telephony had been transmitted from there. He only possessed the ordinary amateur’s set, which he showed his visitor—a limited power of ten watts for continuous-wave transmission. His range of transmission was probably not more than over a ten-mile radius.
“Have you any knowledge of a young Italian named Enrico Rossi?” asked Geoffrey, as he stood in Mr. Kent’s wireless room.
“None whatever. To my knowledge I have never heard the name before,” was the reply.
So Geoffrey was compelled to return to London, where, on arrival, he called at the hotel near Charing Cross which Enrico had given as his address, but to his surprise was informed at the bureau that no person of that name had been staying there!