The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1922-04-07
True
Detective Stories
OUT OF THE AIR


the shadow Of doubt, but the way
In which the messages were trans
mitted was a mystery-dark and APP
parently unfathomable.
This was in the days before Amer
lea entered the war, in the days when
the United States was, theoretically
|hat 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 the
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 how?
"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
sea-press bulletins, stock quotations.
and the like. We've studied them
carefully, but haven't been able to find
thing"
."How about the outburst from
,Nauen every morning?"
1.-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 it for an hour early
every morning? Why not all day long?
And why that hash of language that
doesn't mean a thing? 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, IF
you think there's 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 e. Apgar,
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 that?' Apgar asked. Talbot
nodded.
Looks like an old-fashioned cylin-
drical photograph record" he said.
"Just what it is" admitted the ex-
pert, "only you use it in connection
with wireless monograph"
"a wireless Photographic" and the
government operatives voice showed
that he had never heard of such
contrivance.
''Yes, a photograph attached to the
receiving end of a radio station.
finished working on it few days ago.
and I 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
question Of being everlastingly at it."
Apgar was right. Talbot found
that it took him nearly four months
to get on to the system-four months
Of ceaseless listening-in at the end of
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 it
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 it almost by heart,
trying out the various combinations
and symbols until he stumbled across
the right one.
Then, one morning, when the chief
of the secret service least expected
him, he burst into the Office with the
exclamation
"Tve got 1.-THE fifth, tenth and
fifteenth flashes! See?" and he held
out sheet of paper on which were
row upon row of figures and letters.
commencing with "5--S-K-14-B."
Looks interesting" admitted the
chief, "but what does it mean?
SCOT a German dictionary here?
Novel;, have. Luckily it's an old
edition-just the one they're using for
the code. The letters give the num-
hers of the pages, and the figures des-
ignate the words, the big ones in bold
type. Five and eight X means the
fifth and eighth words on page eleven,
IA B means the fourteenth word on
page two, and so OH. BY spacing 'em
so far apart in the meaningless WIRE
less messages-Or even in the press