Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/69

 long by four wide. The walls and floor were of hard-packed sand, the roof of heavy timbers supported by posts of unpeeled cedar set at intervals along the walls. Although the floor must have been a full two feet below the ocean level it was scarcely more than moist. Three narrow two-inch boards ran from wall to wall at the end of the chamber opposite the ladder and served to hold the instruments of the wireless outfit: battery, jars, coils, detector, spark gap, condenser, switches and key. The discarded receiver swung over the edge from its cords. As was discovered later, the wires to the aerial were led along the roof and up a corner of the shaft. At the right of the bench a green tin lamp was supported by a nail driven in a post. There was no furniture except the empty box that had done duty as a chair. Some nails in the supporting posts held the coats and hats of the four conspirators. A box of safety matches had been spilled and its contents lay scattered on the ground.

Nelson had no difficulty in picking out the leader of the four, the one whose bearing at a distance had stamped him as military. It was he who had fought so desperately with Jones and who now, somewhat the worse for the encounter, stood straight against the wall, hands upheld and 47