The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1922-06-29
True
Detective Stories
OUT OF THE AIR

>~SSANs~s " Any "ASessr oynoAoats. Aoc-
CoMnwHERD. somehow, the Ger
- mans wero getting messages
through from the United States
to the fatheriand. That much was
certain. Washington knew It beyond
the shadow Of doubt, but the way
In which the messages were trans
mitted was mystery-dark and ap-
parently unfathomable.
This was In the days before Amer
lea entered the war, In the days when
the United States was, theoretically
at least, neutral nation. But Won
Bernstorff. Won Papen and the rest Of
the embassy at Washington were do
Ing everything they could to further
their schemes from this side of tho
Atlantic.
But not even the secret service
could penetrate the mystery Of the
messages. That these were flashed
from the huge wireless towers on this
side of the Atlantic, or relayed from
the German radio stations. seemed
fairly obvious. But how7
'They must be sending the stuff
through the air." argued the chief Of
the secret service to Talbot, one OF
his best men, '.for the simple reason
that we've closed all their other chan
nels."
"Any idea as to the code they are
using" asked Talbot.
'None at all. but it's probably con-
cealed somewhere in the messages
which they send out to the ships at
| h,,1In
and the like. We've studied them
carefully, but haven't been able to fnd
a thing"
How about the outburst from
Nauen every morning?"
THE only explanation for that
seems to be that It's an attempt to
fog the air. so that ships and other
towers can't get anything through"
Eyes, but in that case would the
Germans send 1t for an hour early
every morning2 Why not all day longf
And why that hash Of language that
doesn't mean q thing7 If they were
trying to fog things they'd wireless the
Bible or NietZsche or excerpts from
some other long book instead OF that
mess Of meaningless rot"
"All right" retorted the chief, III
you think there's a clue there, go to It,"
But Talbot didn't begin his inves-
legations with study Of the Nauen
hast" He made his way at first to
the laboratory Of Charles K. Apgar, q
deep student Of wireless telegraphy.
1t was to Apgar that he told his trou-
bles and, when he had finished, the
expert leaned forward and picked up
something from the table In front Of
him.
"See thatf" Apgar asked. Talbot
nodded.
Looks like an old-fashioned cylin-
drical phonograph record" he said.
"Just what 1t is." admitted the eX-
pert, "Only you use 1t in connection
with q wireless phonograph."
"A wireless phonOgraph?" and the
government operatives voice showed
that ne had never heard Of such q
contrfvance.
Eyes. a phonograph attached to the
receiving end Of radio station. I
finished working on 1t a few days ago.
and l think It's just what you need
for this job. 1t will record and keep
track Of every SOUND that comes into
the station, enabling you TO listen in
on messages months after they have
been sent. With a supply Of these
records and the necessary patience you
ought to be able to figure out the sys-
tenn the Huns are using. without their
being any the wiser. 1t may take
weeks or even months, but it's Just q
question Of being everlastingly at It,"
Apgar was right. Tablet found
that 1t took him nearly four months
to get on to the system-four months
If ceaseless listening-in at the end Of
a DE Forest audion detectOr which
picks up sound waves from thousands
Of miles away. and even then he would
never have located the secret had Il
not been for the wax cylinders. But
with the aid Of these automatic detec-
tives he was able to repeat each mes
sage until he had 1t almost by heart,
trying out the various combinations
and symbols until he stumbled across
the right one.
Then, one morning, when the chief
# the secret service least expected
him. he burst into the Office with the
exclamatiOn:
"Tve got 1.-THE fifth. tenth and
fifteenth flashes! Seef" and he held
)ut sheet Of paper on which were
row upon row Of figures and letters.
commencing with "5-9-K-1+B."
| Looks interesting" admitted tho
'hief, but what does II meanf"
"GOt a German dictionary heref
Novel;. have. Luckily it's an old
,dition-just the one they're using for
the code. The letters give the num-
,ers Of the pages. and the figures des-
lgnate the words, the big ones in bold
type. Five and eight X means the
NTH and eighth words on page eleven,
Ia means the fourteenth word on
page two, and so on. BY spacing 'em
80 far apart In the meaningless wire.
less messages-Or even in the press
bulletins sent out from this side
| they are able TO All in with LOT, 30