The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1922-12-02
True
Detective Stories;
OUT OF THE AIR

Copyright ~ The wheeler synoicatss lac.
COMEWHERE. somehow, the Ger
y mans were getting messages
through from the United States
to the fatherland. That much was
certain. Washington knew It beyond
the shadow Of q doubt. but the way
10 which the messages were trans
mitted was = mystery-dark and ap-
rarently unfathomable.
This was In the days before Amer
lea entered the war. In the days when
the United States was, theoretically
at least. q 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
the German radio stations. seemed
fairly obvious. But how!
"They must he sending the stuff
through the air." argued the chief Ut
the secret service to Talbot. onef Of
his best men. "for the simple reason
that we've closed all their other chan
nels"
using7" asked Talbot.
"NOne at all, but it's probably con-
cealet 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 ind
. 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 20 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 morning? Why not all day long!
And why that hash Of language that
doesn't mean q thingf II they were
trying to fog things they'd wireless the
Bible or Nietxsche or excerpts from
some other long book instead Of that
mess Of meaningless rot"
"An right" retorted the chief. ff
you think there's clue there. 60 to IT,"
But Talbot didn't begin his inves-
tIgations with q study Of the Nauen
hast" He made his way Mt FIRST to
the laboratory Of Charles F.. Apgsr. .
deep student Of wireless telexraphy.
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 thatr' Apsar asked. Talbot
nodded.
Looks like an old.fashioned cylin-
drical phonograph record" he said.
"Just what It IT," admitted the ex-
pert, "oniy you use It in connection
with q wireless photograph"
"A wireless phonograph?" and the
government operatives voice showed
that he had never heard Of such
contrivance.
Eyes, q photograph attached to the
receiving end Of q radio station. l
finished working on It q few days ago.
and l think It's Just what you need
for this Job. It 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 supply Of these
records and the necessary patience you
ought to he able to figure ont the sys-
TEN the Huns art using. without their
being any the wiser. 1t may take
weeks or even months, but It's Just n
question Of being everiastingiy at IT. !"
| Apgar was right. Talbot found
that II took him nearly four months
to get on to the system-four months
Of ceaseless iisteninE-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 II
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 lesst expected
him. he burst Into the once with the
exclamation:
"I've got 1.-THE nth. tenth and
fifteenth flashes! Seer and he held
out q sheet Of paper on which were
row upon row Of figures and letters,
commencing with "5-e-K-14-B."
Looks interesting" admitted the
chief. but what does It meant"
"Got q German dictionary here
Novel. I 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 hold
tyre. Five and eight X means the
NTH and eighth words on pare eleven
| ~ a uoAana the fourteenth wOrd on