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THE SECRET WIRELESS
or
The Spy Hunt of the Camp Brady Patrol
by
LEWIS E. THEISS
Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill
[Frontispiece: no caption]
W. A. Wilde Company
Boston ------ Chicago
Copyrighted, 1918,
by W. A. Wilde Company
All rights reserved
THE SECRET WIRELESS
To
WALTER K. RHODES, A.M., E.E.,
PROFESSOR OF ELECTRO-TECHNICS
IN BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY,
TO WHOSE KINDLY HELPFULNESS IS DUE
WHATEVER OF TECHNICAL MERIT THERE
MAY BE IN THIS AND COMPANION STORIES
OF THE "WIRELESS,"
This Book is Dedicated
Contents
I. WHAT CAME OF HENRY'S IDEA
II. HENRY OVERCOMES AN OBSTACLE
III. THE WIRELESS PATROL PREPARES FOR ACTION
IV. THE SCENE OF ACTION
V. THE MESSAGE IN CIPHER
VI. A NEW DANGER POINT
VII. CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED
VIII. WHERE MONEY TALKED
IX. A FRESH START
X. THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK
XI. AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH
XII. ANOTHER OBSTACLE
XIII. WHAT HENRY DISCOVERED
XIV. THE RIDDLE SOLVED
XV. ANOTHER MYSTERY UNRAVELED
XVI. AN UNEXPECTED MESSAGE
XVII. A CHANGE IN CIPHERS
XVIII. TOO LATE
XIX. THE ENEMY ESCAPES
XX. A CLUE FROM THE AIR
XXI. THE CAPTURE OF THE SPIES
XXII. A TASK ACCOMPLISHED
ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece
Up came a sliding inner tube
The Secret Wireless
CHAPTER I
WHAT CAME OF HENRY'S IDEA
Henry Harper was sitting in the doorway of the workshop in his father's
back yard, where the Camp Brady Wireless Club made their headquarters.
He was reading the morning newspaper. Suddenly he sprang to his feet.
His face grew black. His free hand clenched.
"That's terrible!" he exclaimed. "Terrible!"
He walked across the shop, spread the newspaper on the bench and began
to read aloud the big head-lines that had so aroused him.
LEAK IN NAVY DEPARTMENT
_Germans Knew of Departure of Transport Fleet_
_First Contingent of Pershing's Men Attacked, by Waiting
Submarines_
"It's terrible, terrible!" repeated Henry. "Their spies are
everywhere. They stop at nothing. Who could have been villain enough
to give them the information? It is terrible!"
In his agitation Henry began to pace up and down the floor of the shop.
His face grew blacker and blacker as he brooded over the story of
treachery. Though Henry was not yet eighteen, he was affected far more
deeply by the story than most boys of his age would have been. For
when the Camp Brady Wireless Club, of which Henry was president, had
been practising the previous summer, Henry had been called upon to
replace one of Uncle Sam's radio men who was suddenly stricken with
appendicitis, and Henry had taken the operator's oath of fidelity to
his government. So to him treachery appeared doubly black.
For some moments he paced up and down the shop. Suddenly he stopped
short. A new idea had come to him.
"How did they get the news to Germany?" he asked aloud. "Both the
cables and the mails are censored--and besides the mails would be too
slow. It must have been the wireless. Can there be traitors in the
wireless service, too?"
Henry was silent a moment, his brow wrinkled in thought. "Never!" he
cried suddenly. "Uncle Sam's radio men are true blue. It's a secret
wireless! A secret wireless! The Germans have got a hidden station
somewhere."
The black look left his face. The scowl was replaced by a gleam of
joy. "That means a job for us!" he cried. "The wireless patrol can
help find that station, just as we found the German dynamiters at Elk
City."
For when the wireless patrol had been at Camp Brady only a few weeks
previously, acting as official operators for the commander of the
troops guarding that section of the country, Roy Mercer had picked an
innocent-looking message out of the air one night and by accident had
found a code message in it revealing a German plot to dynamite a great
dam and destroy a munition city; and later the wireless patrol had run
down the dynamiters themselves in the very nick of time, after the
state police had failed to find them, and had saved the city.
With Henry, to think was to act. "I'll write Captain Hardy at once,"
he said to himself.
Captain Hardy was a young physician who had been leader of the club of
boys that had camped on his father's farm near old Fort Brady, and that
had subsequently become the Camp Brady Wireless Club. But Captain
Hardy was no longer leader of the club. He had offered his services to
his country, and was now Captain Hardy of the Medical Officers' Reserve
Corps. It was his standing and his friendship with the Chief of the
Radio Service that had made it possible to secure permission for the
Camp Brady boys to act as radio men for the state troops the preceding
summer, although the government had forbidden amateurs to send wireless
messages. And Henry, believing that his idolized leader could
accomplish anything, now cleared a space at his desk in a corner of the
shop, and wrote him a long letter, setting forth all that was in his
heart.
The promptness with which the answer came should have warned Henry that
the reply was not the one he hoped for. But his faith in his leader
was so great that he never doubted for a moment that if Captain Hardy
favored the proposal, he could effect its accomplishment. With a shout
of joy, Henry seized the letter from the hand of the postman and ran to
his favorite haunt, the workshop, to read it. As he did so, the smile
faded from his face and a look of utter despair succeeded it, for this
was what he read:
"MY DEAR HENRY:
"It was a very great pleasure to receive your letter, with the little
items of information about the members of the club, and your plan to be
helpful in the present emergency. I know exactly how you feel. Every
true American is filled with similar loathing for the treacherous
enemies that infest our land, and with the same ardent desire to hunt
them down and bring them to justice. You may be very sure that our
secret service men are hard on the trail of many of them. Yet the very
story of treachery that has so stirred your indignation shows that the
secret service men cannot cope with them. But the fault is not with
the secret service. It lies with Congress, which has persistently
refused to appropriate sufficient money to make the service adequate.
As far as it goes, it is the peer of any secret service. Of course
help is needed, but I very much fear it is not the sort of assistance
that the Camp Brady boys are prepared to give.
"You see, Henry, there are two possibilities. Either there is a leak
in the navy department itself, as your story says, or else the sailing
of the troops was observed at the port of embarkation and their
destination guessed at. There is nothing you could do in the way of
apprehending a spy in Washington, and I doubt if you could be of much
assistance in detecting German agents in our ports. Of course I know
how skilful the boys are with their wireless, especially you and Willie
Brown, and I know what close observers Roy Mercer and Lew Heinsling
are. And I realize, too, that in running down the dynamiters at the
Elk City reservoir after both the Pennsylvania troops and the state
police had failed, you proved that the wireless patrol was a mighty
efficient organization. But that campaign was accomplished in the
mountains and forests where your training in scouting and woodcraft has
made you at home. Conditions in a great seaport would be so strange
and confusing to all of you that I fear you would be more of a
hindrance than a help.
"I am sorry about it, for I know how keenly you feel and how eager you
are to help your country. The best way you can do that is to continue
in school, learning all you can and making yourselves more and more
efficient as wireless operators. In a very short time, I suspect,
Uncle Sam will be in pressing need of good radio men. Then, although
you are still young, your chance will come; for your ability is already
known to the Chief of the Radio Service through your capture of the
dynamiters last summer.
"As you know, our camp is just outside of Washington. I happen to be
going into the city to-morrow. Of course, I shall take occasion to lay
your suggestion before the Chief. But do not build any hopes on that
statement. I have no idea anything will come of it. But it may help
the Chief to bear you in mind later on. I am sorry to dash your hopes,
but I cannot do otherwise than to tell you the truth. Of course if
anything should come of it, I will let you know promptly. Remember me
to all the other boys.
"Sincerely yours,
"JAMES HARDY."
Henry's face became longer and longer as he read. When he had finished
the letter there was more than a suspicion of moisture in his eyes.
"Oh!" he cried, "if only I could be with Captain Hardy when he sees the
Chief of the Radio Service, I'd _make_ the Chief understand that we can
help. We could be just as useful to the radio men as the Baker Street
Irregulars were to Sherlock Holmes. Oh! I just wish I could be with
him. I wonder when he will see the Chief."
Henry picked up the envelope and examined the postmark. "This was
mailed yesterday morning," he muttered, "and Captain Hardy said he was
going to Washington to-morrow. That's to-day. Maybe he's with him
this afternoon. Maybe he went this morning. I'm sure he knows by this
time what the result is. Oh! I wish I were with him. I'd just _make_
that Radio Chief take us."
As he spoke a telegraph messenger entered the yard. He caught sight of
Henry in the workshop door. "Hey!" he called. "Does Henry Harper live
here? Got a message for him."
Henry was almost too much amazed to answer. He had never received a
telegram in his life before.
"Hey!" called the messenger again. "Are you asleep?"
"No," was the answer, "and I'm Henry Harper."
"Then why didn't you say so?"
Henry ran forward and seized the yellow envelope. "Where's it from?"
he asked.
"Washington," said the messenger.
"Washington!" repeated Henry. "Washington! Then we're to go."
"If you'll sign here," said the messenger, "I'll go. I can't stand
here all day. Nothin' to pay."
Henry signed the messenger's book, then tore open the envelope and took
out the following telegram: "Want you, Roy, Lew, and Willie to meet me
Pennsylvania Station New York City Friday two P. M. for work suggested
in your letter."