OUR WIRELESS SECRETS
Something important was being attempted, but what it was neither Ray
Raymond nor myself could make out.
We had exerted a good deal of vigilance and kept constant watch upon
Hartmann's house in Pont Street since my return from Poland, but all to
no purpose.
Vera had been staying in London with her aunt and had greatly assisted
us in keeping observation upon two strangers who had arrived in London
about a month ago, and who were staying in an obscure hotel near
Victoria Station.
Their names were Paul Dubois, a Belgian, and Frederick Gessner, a
German. The first-named was, we judged, about forty, stout,
flabby-faced, wearing gold pince-nez, while the German was somewhat
younger, both quiet, studious-looking men who seemed, however, to be
welcomed by many of the prominent members of the German colony in
London.
On five separate occasions we had followed the pair to King's Cross
Station and watched them take third class tickets to Hull. They would
remain there perhaps two or three days, and then return to London.
After a while they had grown tired of their hotel, and had taken a small
furnished house at the top of Sydenham Hill, close to the Crystal
Palace, a pleasant little place with a small secluded garden in which
were several high old elms. They engaged a rather obese old Frenchwoman
as housekeeper, and there they led a quiet life, engrossed apparently in
literary studies.
I confess that when it came my turn to watch them I became more than
ever convinced that Raymond's suspicions were ungrounded. They seldom
went out, and when they did, it was either to dine with Hartmann, or to
stroll about the suburban roads of Norwood, Sydenham, and Penge.
Late one afternoon, however, while I was down at Sydenham, I saw them
emerge from the house, carrying their small suit-cases, and followed
them to King's Cross Station, where they took tickets for Hull.
Instantly I rushed to the telephone and informed Ray in Bruton Street of
my intention to follow them.
That same night I found myself in the smoke-grimed Station Hotel in
Hull, where the two foreigners had also put up.
Next day they called at a solicitor's office at the end of
Whitefriargate, and thence, accompanied by a man who was apparently the
lawyer's managing clerk, they went in a cab along the Docks, where, at a
spot close to the Queen's Dock, they pulled up before an empty factory,
a place which was not very large, but which possessed a very high
chimney.
The managing clerk entered the premises with a key, and for about half
an hour the pair were within, apparently inspecting everything.
I was puzzled. Why they were in treaty to rent a place of this
description was an utter enigma.
They returned to the hotel to luncheon, and I watched them engaged in
animated discussion afterwards, and I also noticed that they despatched
a telegram.
Next day they called upon the solicitor, and by their satisfied manner
when they came forth from the office, I guessed that they had become
tenants of the place.
In this I was not mistaken, for that same afternoon they went together
to the factory and let themselves in with the key, remaining within for
over an hour, evidently planning something.
That night I wrote a long report to Raymond, and next morning spoke to
him over the telephone.
"Vera wants to know if you want her in Hull. If so, she'll come," my
friend said. "I'm just as puzzled as you are. Those two men mean
mischief--but in what manner is a mystery."
"If Miss Vallance can come, I'll be only too thankful," I replied. "I
fear the men know you, but they don't know her. And she can greatly
assist me."
"Very well, Jacox," was his reply. "She'll leave this evening. She'll
wire to the hotel. She'd better not be seen with you. So, to the hotel
people, you'll be strangers. Meet outside, and arrange matters. 'Phone
me when you want me up there."
"Right, old chap," I replied. "I'll ring you up at eleven to-morrow and
report. So be in. Good-bye."
And I rang off.
Vera arrived just before eleven that evening. I was in the hall of the
hotel when the porter entered, carrying her dressing-case. She passed me
and went to the office, but I did not acknowledge her. She wore a neat
dark blue travelling gown, well cut by her tailor, and a little toque
which suited her face admirably. She possessed perfect taste in dress.
Half an hour later I sent a note up to her room by a waiter, asking her
to meet me outside on the railway platform at ten o'clock next morning.
She kept the appointment, and in order to escape observation we entered
the refreshment-room.
"The numbers of the rooms occupied by the two men are sixty-eight and
seventy-two," I explained. "Perhaps it will be as well if you watch them
the whole of to-day. They are at present in the writing-room, so you can
at once pick them up."
"Certainly, Mr. Jacox," she said. "Jack is intensely anxious. He's very
puzzled as to what they intend doing."
"Yes," I replied, "it's quite a mystery. But we shall discover something
ere long, never fear."
Vera laughed as she sipped the glass of milk I had ordered.
Then I briefly explained all that I had discovered, telling her how the
two men had evidently taken the factory on a lease, and how they were
there every day, apparently making plans for future business.
"But what business do they intend starting?" she asked.
"Ah!" I said; "that's what we have to find out. And we shall do so
before very long, if we are careful and vigilant."
"Trust me," she said; "I am entirely at your orders."
"Then I shall wait and hear your report," I said. "When you return to
the hotel send a line to my room."
And with that arrangement we parted.
That day I spent idling in the vicinity of the hotel. It was mid-August,
and the atmosphere was stifling. That district of Hull is not a very
pleasant one, for it is one of mean provincial streets and of the noise
of railway lorries rumbling over the granite setts.
The afternoon I spent in playing billiards with the marker, when about
six o'clock a page-boy brought me a note from my enthusiastic little
friend.
"I shall be in the station refreshment-room at half-past six. Meet
me.--VERA."
Those were the words I found within the envelope.
Half an hour later, when I sat at the little marble-topped table with
her, she related how she had been following the pair all day.
"They were in the factory from half-past one until four," she said.
"They've ordered a builder to put up ladders to examine the chimney.
They appear to think it isn't quite safe."
She told me the name of the builder, adding that the contract was to
have the ladders in position during the next three days.
"They are leaving for London to-night by the last train," she added. "I
heard the Belgian telling the hall-porter as I came out."
"Then we'll wire to Ray to meet them, and keep an eye upon them," I
said. "I suppose you will go up to town?"
"I think so. And when they return I will follow them down if Ray deems
it best," replied the pretty girl, who was just as enthusiastic in her
patriotism as ourselves.
So still mystified I was compelled to remain inactive in Hull, while
Vera and the two foreigners whom we suspected of espionage went up to
London.
For the next four days I heard nothing until suddenly, at eight o'clock
one morning, Ray entered my bedroom before I was up.
"I've found out one thing about those Johnnies!" he exclaimed. "They've
been buying, in Clerkenwell, a whole lot of electrical appliances--coils
of wire, insulators, and batteries. Some of it has been sent direct to
the place they've taken here, and the rest has been sent to their house
down in Sydenham."
"What can they want that for?" I queried.
"Don't know, my dear chap. Let's wait and see."
"Perhaps, after all, they are about to set up in business," I said.
"Neither of them has struck me as being spies. Save that they've visited
Hartmann once or twice, their movements have not been very suspicious.
Many foreigners are setting up factories in England, owing to the recent
change in our patent laws."
"I know," said my friend. "Yet their confidential negotiations with
Hartmann have aroused my suspicions, and I feel confident we shall
discover something interesting before long. They came back by the same
train as I travelled."
After breakfast, we both strolled round to the factory. The ground it
covered was not much, and it was surrounded by a wall about twelve feet
high, so that no one could see within the courtyard. It had, at one
time, been a lead-mill, but for the past eight years had, we learned,
been untenanted.
Even as we loitered near, we saw the builder's men bringing long ladders
for the inspection of the chimney.
We watched for a whole week, but as each day passed, I became more
confident that we were upon a false scent.
The chimney had been inspected, the ladders taken down again, and once
more the German and the Belgian had returned south to that pleasant
London suburb.
In order to ascertain what was really in progress I called one morning
upon the solicitor in Whitefriargate, on pretext of being a likely
tenant of the factory. I was, however, informed by the managing clerk
that it was already let to a firm of electrical engineers.
Thus the purchase of electrical appliances was entirely accounted for.
Once again I returned to London. They seemed, by the electrical
accessories that had been delivered, to be fitting up a second factory
in their house in Sydenham.
That, being a private house, seemed somewhat mysterious.
They had become friendly also with a tall, rather well-dressed
Englishman named Fowler, who had the appearance of a superior clerk, and
who resided in a rather nice house in Hopton Road, Streatham Hill.
Fowler had become a frequent visitor at their house, while, on several
occasions, he dined with Dubois at De Keyser's Hotel, facing Blackfriars
Bridge.
In consequence of some conversation I one evening overheard--a
conversation in English, which the Belgian spoke fluently--I judged
Fowler to be an electrician, and it seemed, later on, very much as
though he had been, or was about to be, taken into partnership with
them.
As far as we could discover, however, he had been told nothing about the
factory in Hull. More than once I suspected that the two foreigners were
swindlers, who intended to "do" the Englishman out of his money. This
was impressed I upon me the more, because one evening a German woman was
introduced to their newly-found friend as Frau Gessner, who had just
arrived from Wiesbaden.
Whether she was really Gessner's wife I doubted. It was curious that, on
keeping observation that evening, I found that the lady did not reside
at Sydenham, but at a small hotel in Bloomsbury, not a stone's-throw
from my own rooms.
There was certainly some deep game in progress. What could it be?
Vera had watched Fowler on several occasions, but beyond the fact that
he was an electrical engineer, occupying a responsible position with a
well-known telegraph construction company, we could discover nothing.
After nearly three weeks in London, Dubois and Gessner returned to Hull,
where, while living at the Station Hotel, they spent each day at their
"works." They engaged no assistant, and were bent apparently upon doing
everything by themselves. They were joined one day by a shrivelled-up
old man of rather seedy appearance, and typically German. His name was
Busch, and he lived in lodgings out on the Beverley Road. He was taken
to the works, and remained there all day.
A quantity of electrical appliances were delivered from London, and
Dubois and Gessner received them and unpacked them themselves.
Ray Raymond was down at Sheerness upon another matter--a serious attempt
to obtain some confidential naval information--therefore I remained in
Hull anxiously watching. Vera had again offered her services, but at
that moment she was down at Sheerness with Ray.
Day by day old Busch went regularly to the factory, and by the
appearance of the trio when they came forth, it was apparent that they
worked very hard. I was intensely inquisitive, and dearly wished to
obtain a glance within the place. But that was quite out of the
question.
Busch, it seemed, had lived in Hull for a considerable period. Inquiries
of his neighbours revealed that he was a well-known figure. He did but
little work, preferring to take long walks into the country.
One man told me that he had met him twice away near Spurn Head, at the
estuary of the Humber, and on another occasion he had seen him
wandering aimlessly along the low-lying coast in the vicinity of
Hornsea. In explanation of this, it seemed that he had once lived for a
whole summer in Withernsea, not far from Spurn Head, and had grown fond
of the neighbourhood. Everybody looked upon him as a harmless old man, a
trifle eccentric, and a great walker.
That constant rambling over that low-lying district of Holderness had
aroused my suspicions, and I determined to turn my attention to him.
One day the old man did not go to the factory, but instead went forth
upon one of his rambles. He took train from Hull to Hornsea, where the
railway ends at the sea, and walked along the shore for several miles;
indeed until he was three parts of the distance to Bridlington, when he
suddenly halted near the little village of Barmston, and producing a
neat pocket-camera took a long series of snap-shots of the flat coast,
where I saw there were several places which would afford an easy landing
for the invader.
The truth was in an instant plain. Old Busch was a "fixed-agent," who
was carrying on the same work along the Yorkshire coast as his ingenious
compatriots were doing in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. The remainder of
that day I kept a sharp eye upon him, and witnessed him making many
notes and taking many photographs of the various farms and houses near
the sea. He noted the number of haystacks in the farmyards--for his
report on fodder stores, no doubt--and made certain notes regarding the
houses, of great use, no doubt, when the Germans came to billet their
troops.
It was not until nearly midnight that I was back at the hotel in Hull.
Then, by judicious inquiry of the hall porter--who had become my
particular friend--I ascertained that Gessner had left for London by the
last train.
Should I follow, or should I remain in Hull?
I decided upon the latter course, and retired to bed, thoroughly fagged
out.
Early next morning I went round to the telephone-exchange, rather than
use the instrument in the hotel, and rang up Raymond.
To my delight he answered my call. He was at home.
I gave him a rapid digest of what I had discovered, and told him that
the German had returned to Sydenham.
"All right, old chap," came his voice over the wire. "Vera will watch at
this end, while you watch yours. If what I guess is right, they're doing
something far more serious than surveying that flat coast north of the
Humber. Be careful not to betray yourself."
"Trust me for that," I laughed. "Are you going back to Sheerness?"
"Yes. I'll be there all day to-day--and to-morrow I hope to get one of
our friends the enemy arrested. That's what I'm trying for.
Good-bye--and good luck," and he rang off.
Busch went to the factory where Dubois was already awaiting him. As I
stood outside that building of mystery I wondered what devilment was
being plotted within. It had not been cleaned or painted, the windows
being still thick with soot, and several of them, which had been broken,
were boarded up. The place had certainly not been cleaned down for
years, and no wonder they had been suspicious of the stability of that
chimney which towered so high towards the murky sky.
There was no sign whatever of activity within, or of any business about
to be carried on. Thus, day followed day, Busch and Dubois spending most
of their time within those high walls which held their secret.
One curious thing was the number of telegrams delivered there. Sometimes
they sent and received as many as fourteen or fifteen in a day. How I
longed to know with whom they were in such constant communication.
Suddenly, after the third day, the shoal of wires entirely ceased. Busch
and Dubois, instead of going to the factory, spent the day in the
country, taking train to Patrington and walking through Skeffling went
out to Kilnsea, opposite Great Grimsby at the entrance to the Humber.
From the point where I watched I could see that the old man with
considerable gesticulation was standing upon the shore facing seaward
and explaining something to his companion.
The Belgian apparently put many questions to him, and had become
intensely interested. Then presently his companion produced a paper from
his pocket--evidently a plan, for he pointed out something upon it.
They both lit their pipes, and sitting down upon a rock discussed
something quietly. Apparently Busch was making an elaborate explanation,
now and then pointing with his finger seaward.
Where he pointed was the channel through which passed all the shipping
into the Humber.
Then, after a time, he rose from where he sat, and seemed to be
measuring a distance by taking paces, his companion walking at his side
over the level expanse of sand.
Suddenly he halted, pointing to the ground.
Dubois examined the shore at that point with apparent curiosity. With
what object I could not imagine.
They remained there for fully an hour, and the sun had already set when
they returned to Patrington, and took the train back to Hull.
That old Busch was a spy I had proved long ago, but what part Dubois and
Gessner were playing was not yet at all clear.
On the following evening, about ten o'clock, I saw Dubois near the Dock
office, and on watching him, followed him to the factory, which he
entered with his key. Beyond the gate was the small paved courtyard in
which rose the high chimney. Within the factory he lit the gas, for I
could see its reflection, though from the street I could not get sight
of the lower windows.
The night was bright and moonlit, and as I waited I heard within the
grinding of a windlass, and saw to my surprise, a thin light iron rod
about six feet long and placed vertically rising slowly up the side of
the chimney stack, evidently being drawn up to a pulley at its summit.
Dubois was hoisting it to the top, where at last it remained stationary,
its ends just protruding beneath the coping and hardly visible.
Scarcely had this been done when Busch came along, and I had to exercise
a quick movement to avoid detection. He was admitted by Dubois, and the
door was closed and locked as usual.
I stood beneath the wall, trying to overhear their words. But I could
understand nothing.
Suddenly a dull, crackling noise broke the silence of the night, as
though the sound was dulled by a padded room.
Again I listened. Then at last the truth dawned upon me.
The spies had put in a secret installation of wireless telegraphy!
Those intermittent sounds were that of the Morse code. They were
exchanging signals with some other persons.
Gessner was absent. No doubt the corresponding station was at that house
high upon Sydenham Hill to the south of London, two hundred miles
distant!
I waited for a quarter of an hour, listening to those secret signals.
Then I hurried to the telephone, and fortunately found Raymond at home.
I told him what I had discovered, and urged him to take a taxi at once
down to Sydenham and ascertain whether they were receiving signals
there.
This he promised to do, telling me he would 'phone me the result to the
hotel at eight o'clock next morning.
Therefore I returned to the factory, and through the long night-hours
listened to their secret experiments.
At eight next morning the telephone rang, and Ray briefly explained that
Gessner, who had placed his apparatus upon the high flagstaff in his
garden, had been receiving messages all night!
"Have you seen anything of Fowler?"
"No. But Hartmann has spent the night with Gessner, apparently watching
his experiments. Couldn't you manage to watch your opportunity and get
inside the factory somehow? I'll come north at noon, and we'll see what
we can do."
At five o'clock he stepped from the London express, and together we
walked down to the Imperial Hotel, to which I had suddenly changed my
quarters, feeling that I had been too long in the close vicinity of the
spy Dubois.
"It seems that they carry out their experiments at night," I explained.
"For in the daytime the wireless apparatus is no longer in position. I
see now why they engaged a builder to examine the chimney--in order to
place a pulley with a wire rope in position at the top!"
"But Gessner and Dubois are expert electricians, no doubt. Members of
the Telegraphen-Abtheilung of the German army, most probably," remarked
my friend.
"And who is Fowler?"
"A victim, I should say. He appears to be a most respectable man."
"In any financial difficulty?"
"Not that I can discover."
"But why have they established this secret communication between Hull
and London?"
"That's just what we have to discover, my dear fellow," laughed Ray.
"But if we are to get a peep inside the place it's evident we can only
do so in the daytime. At night they are down there."
"At early morning," I suggested, "after they have left."
"Very well," he said; "we'll watch them to-night, and get in after they
leave. I've brought a few necessaries in my bag--the set of
housebreaking implements," he added, with a grin.
"Well," I said, "neither of us know much about wireless telegraphy.
Couldn't we get hold of an operator from one of the Wilson liners in
dock, and take him along with us? A sailor is always an adventurer."
Ray was struck with the idea, and by eight o'clock that evening we had
enlisted the services of a smart young fellow, one of the operators in
the Wilson American service, to whom, in strictest confidence, we
related our suspicions.
That night proved an exciting one. Fortunately for us it was cloudy,
with rain, at intervals. Murphy, the wireless operator, listening under
the wall declared that we were not mistaken. The men were sending
messages in code.
"Most probably," he said, "they have another station across at Borkum,
Wilhelmshaven, or somewhere. I wonder what they're at?" he added, much
puzzled.
Through those long hours we watched anxiously; but just before the dawn
Dubois and Busch lowered their apparatus from the top of the chimney,
and a few minutes later emerged, walking together towards the hotel.
As soon as they were out of sight we held a consultation, and it was
decided that, while Murphy and I kept watch for the police, Ray should
use his jemmy upon the door and break it open. He would admit us and
remain himself outside to give us warning.
Those moments were breathless ones.
We parted, the wireless operator walking one way, while I went in the
opposite direction. Suddenly we heard the cracking of wood, followed by
a low cough.
By that, we knew all was well.
We hurried back, and a few seconds later were in the courtyard of the
disused factory. Ray had handed me his jemmy, and with it I broke open
the second door of the empty place, flashing a light with the electric
torch I carried.
We passed into the small office, but no second glance was needed to show
that the place was completely fitted with a wireless installation of the
most approved pattern.
"We'll try it," suggested young Murphy, and taking out the apparatus we
hauled it up to the top of the chimney. Then re-entering the office, he
placed the receiver over his ears, and listened intently, in his hand a
pencil he had found ready upon the paper pad.
I stood watching his face. Apparently he heard nothing.
Then he touched the key of the instrument and instantly a great blue
spark, causing a crackling noise, flashed across the room.
He was calling.
Suddenly his face brightened, and he was listening. Then he grew greatly
puzzled.
Taking the receiver off his head he began to search the table upon which
were several books; but at that instant I heard a light footstep behind
me, and as I turned I felt a heavy crushing blow upon the top of my
skull.
Then the blackness of unconsciousness fell upon me.
I knew no more till, on opening my eyes, I found myself lying in bed
with a nurse bending over me.
I gazed around in amazement. There were other beds in the vicinity. I
was in a hospital with my head tightly bandaged.
For a whole day and night I lay there, the nurse forbidding me to speak.
Then suddenly there entered Ray, whose arm was in a sling, accompanied
by young Murphy.
"The spies came back--unexpectedly, and went for me before I could raise
the alarm," Raymond explained. "Dubois hit you over the head with a
jemmy, and by Jove! it's a mercy you weren't killed. He's cleared out of
the country, however, fearing a charge of attempted murder. I've
informed the police, and they are looking for both him and Busch, as
well as Gessner, who is missing from Sydenham."
"Yes, but why had they established these two wireless stations?" I
asked.
"Yes," replied Murphy, "it's a most ingenious piece of work. By some
unknown means both the station here, and at Sydenham, had been tuned
with the one which I daresay you've seen stretched across the top of the
new Admiralty, in Whitehall, hence they could read all the orders given
to the Home and Channel Fleets and the reports received from them, while
I have to-day discovered that there is a similar secret station existing
somewhere near Borkum also in tune with these, and with our Admiralty.
Therefore the Germans are aware of every signal sent to our Fleet! The
station at Sydenham was only temporary, but the one here was evidently
devised in order that the German admiral in the North Sea, on seizing
Hull and establishing a base here, might have constant knowledge of our
Admiralty orders and the whereabouts of our ships. When I was listening
I was surprised at the code, but the truth was made plain by the
discovery of a complete copy of the British naval code lying upon the
table. By means of this, the spies could decipher all messages to and
from our ships. The Civil Lord of the Admiralty and three officials have
arrived in Hull, and I have been with them down at the factory this
afternoon. The chief wireless engineer declares that the secret of the
exact tuning must have been learnt from somebody in the office of the
constructors."
And both Ray and I then remembered the man Fowler, who had, as we
afterwards discovered, been on the verge of bankruptcy, and had suddenly
gone abroad, a fact which was sufficiently instructive for our purpose.
Next day I was well enough to leave the hospital, and I guided the
superintendent of the Hull police and two detectives to Busch's house,
where, on searching his room, we discovered a volume of plans and
reports of defences of the Humber and its estuary, estimates of food and
fodder supplies in the country north of Hull, together with a list of
the foreign pilots and their addresses, as well as an annotated chart of
the river, showing the position where mines would be sunk at the river's
mouth on the alarm of invasion.
But what, perhaps, would have been even more alarming to the general
public, had they but known, was the discovery of several great bundles
of huge posters ready prepared for posting up on the day of
invasion--the Proclamation threatening with death all who dared to
oppose the German landing and advance--a copy of which I have given in
these pages.
It shows, indeed, what careful preparation our enemies are now making,
just as the installation of the secret wireless showed the tactful
cunning of the invader.
For our exertions, Raymond, Murphy, and myself received the best thanks
of the Lords of the Admiralty, at which, I confess, we were all three
much gratified.