Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/369

Rh with Miss Varris that she cleared you at once with her clever alibi.

I did not find out that morning by precisely what means she again took the honors from me. But, as it was clear that she did, I was very glad, indeed, to find her with you upon this vessel to meet me in a final contest. And, really, I began to regret that to beat her I had constantly to take recourse to the "wireless," which she entirely mistrusted, I knew, but which she could not understand.

So, as she alone suspected me and yet could bring nothing against me, I was safe in employing the same simple weakness of the "wireless," which helped me so at Polporru.

The first "wireless" message—the one which warned the captain of my presence on board—came directly from shore and was bona fide. The succeeding messages, until the one from Nantucket, were mine, and manipulated in this simple manner:

Since the ship has but one "wireless" operator, he was often out of the cabin. Now, 339