“So the thieves know your secret, Geoff—the secret which you have been so long perfecting?”
“Yes, they do,” replied the young engineer, setting his jaws firmly. “They have outwitted me! And instead of being a rich man, as I had anticipated, I am just where I was! I did my best to secure to the world a better mode of amplification of wireless signals, but they have stolen my invention. Stolen it!”
And he stared wildly at his father as a man desperate.
An hour later Geoffrey was in the office of the Chief Constable of Essex, and there related to him the whole circumstances. Two detectives went over to Warley in a car, and examined the premises. That entry had been made in a very ingenious manner was quite clear, and it was equally clear that the object was solely to get sight of the improved amplifier, and to secure the diagrams and specifications for which Geoffrey was about to apply for patent rights.
There was no clue to the thief, but whoever it was certainly knew something of wireless. No ordinary burglar had committed the theft.
The examination of the room by the police took place at about eleven o’clock, but at five that evening a sensational discovery was made by a farm labourer near Ardleigh Green, about two miles away on the Romford Road. The man was on his way home from work when, crossing a field near the high road, he came across the body of a well-dressed man.
He was startled to find that he was dead—having been shot in the chest.
At once he informed the Romford police by telephone, and they, on examining the body, declared it to be a case of murder.
Late that night, after Falconer had returned from Chelmsford, he received a visit from a police inspector from Romford, who produced some documents.
“These,” he said, “we found on the body of the stranger who was apparently murdered last night. They appear to us to be wireless diagrams, and we wonder if they may, by any chance, be yours?”