Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1922-05-06
True
Detective Stories
OUT OF THE AIR

- mans were getting messages
through from the United States
to the fatherland. Thet much was
certain. Washington knew 1t beyond
the shadow of doubt, but the way
In which the messages were trans.
mitted was mystery-dark and an
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 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 rs to the code they are
usingT 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
q thing"
"How about the outburst from
Nauen every morning.
"The only explanation for that
seems to be that It's an attempt to
fog tie 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 lOngf
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 a study of the Nauen
'hast." He made his way at first to
the laboratory of Charles E. Apgar, a
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 cS lin.
drical photograph record" he said.
"Just what 1t Is" admitted the e1-
pert, "only you use 1t in connection
with a wireless photograph"
"A wireless monograph" and the
government operatives voice showed
that he had never heard Of such a
contrivance.
Eyes, a photograph attached TO the
receiving end of radio station.
finished working on it few days ago,
and / 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'
TEN the Euns 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 1t took him nearly four months
to get on to the system-four months
Of ceaseless lstening-in at the end OF
a De Forest audiOn 6etector which
picks up sound waves from thousands
of miles away and even then he would
never have located the secret had II
DOT been for the wax cylinders. But
with the aid of these automatic detec'
lives 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
of the secret service least expected
1inl, he burst into the office with the
exclamation:
"rve got 1.-THE fifth, tenth and
flashes Seer and he hello
put sheet Of paper on which were
row upon row of figures and letters
commencing with "5--S-K-14--B"
Looks interesting" admitted the
thief, but what does 1t meanY
Got German dictionary herei
Novel;, | have. Luckily it's an old
the one they're using fol-
he code. The letters give the num-
'ers Of the pages, and the figures des'
gnate the words, the big ones In bold
ype. Five and eight X means the
fifth and eighth words on page eleven
"A B means the fourteenth word or
'age two, and so on. BY spacing 'e[
% far apart In the meaningless wire