"I hadn't thought of that. Of
course I'm with you."
"I thought you would be," drawled Percy Darrow slowly. "If you hadn't
decided to be, I'd have had another man put in your place. Hadn't thought
of that, either, had you?"
"No, sir," replied Simmons.
"Well, I prefer you. It's no job for a quitter, and I believe you'll
stick."
"I'll stick," repeated Simmons.
"Well, to work," said Darrow, lighting the cigarette he had been playing
with. "Send this out, and see if you can reach Monsieur X.
"'_M_,'" he dictated slowly. "'Do you get this?' Repeat that until you get
a reply."
Without comment the operator turned to his key. The long ripping crashes
of the wireless sender followed the movements of his fingers.
"I get his '_I_--_I_,'" he said, after a moment. "It's almighty faint."
"Good!" said Darrow. "Give him this:
"'McCarthy has disappeared. Can no longer reach him with your
messages.'"
"He merely answers '_I_--_I_,'" observed the operator.
"By the way," asked Darrow, "what is your shift, anyhow? Weren't you on at
night when this thing began?"
"I'm still on at night; but Mr. McCarthy sent me a message, and asked me
to stay on all this morning as a personal favor to him."
"I see. Then you're still on at night?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, tell Monsieur X that fact, put yourself at his disposal, and tell
him he'd better get all his messages to you rather than to the other
operators here.
Pages:
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83