In a few moments I was on to my friend Professor Appleton, the Director
of the National Physical Laboratory, that department which, for years,
had studied aeronautics.
"I don't follow you, Mr Munro," he said, when I told him the facts.
"What name do you say?"
"Hale," was my reply. "H-a-l-e," and I spelt it.
"We've nobody of that name. There must surely be some mistake!"
"But he came with a visiting-card," I said. "He went to the firm of
engineers who are making certain alterations in my monoplane, and
demanded of the foreman the right to examine what was in progress. He
told them at Willesden that he was an official of your Department, sent
by you, with authority from myself."
"Well, Mr Munro," replied the professor, in that quiet, matter-of-fact
way of his, "this is the first I've ever heard of any Mr Hale. He
certainly has never been sent by us. In fact I was entirely unaware,
until this moment, that you had any experiments in progress."
"Really, professor, I'm awfully sorry to trouble you," I said. "But I'm
only trying to do my little bit--my very small bit--in the war. Thank
you for telling me this. One never knows when one meets enemies. The
Germans are so clever, so practical, and so subtle."
"They are," he answered. "Be wary, my dear Munro. If you are carrying
out experiments upon any extensive scale you may be quite certain that
somebody in enemy pay is watching. I have long seen it--long before the
outbreak of war."
Here again we had come up against the dead wall of fact.
"Then you think that the stranger was an enemy spy?" I asked.
"Well, in face of the facts, and of what I myself know, I'm perfectly
certain of it," the professor said. "I have no knowledge whatever of
any person called Harold Hale. He evidently went out to Willesden to
try and obtain certain knowledge, yet, by the sturdy attitude of the
foreman whom you mention, he was defeated. Truly the wily and dastardly
plots of our dear-brother-Germans--as they were called by some
irresponsible Englishmen those hot August days of the declaration of
war--have been amazing. It seems to me, Munro," added the voice over
the wire, "that if you are wary and watchful you may discover something
that may be of unusual interest to the Intelligence Department."
Then in my ear there was a loud buzz, followed by a sharp click, and all
became silent.