CHAPTER XIII
OUR WIRELESS SECRETS
Something important was being attempted, but what it was neither RayRaymond nor myself could make out.
We had exerted a good deal of vigilance and kept constant watch uponHartmann's house in Pont Street since my return from Poland, but all tono purpose.
Vera had been staying in London with her aunt and had greatly assistedus in keeping observation upon two strangers who had arrived in Londonabout a month ago, and who were staying in an obscure hotel nearVictoria Station.
Their names were Paul Dubois, a Belgian, and Frederick Gessner, aGerman. The first-named was, we judged, about forty, stout,flabby-faced, wearing gold pince-nez, while the German was somewhatyounger, both quiet, studious-looking men who seemed, however, to bewelcomed by many of the prominent members of the German colony inLondon.
On five separate occasions we had followed the pair to King's CrossStation and watched them take third class tickets to Hull. They wouldremain there perhaps two or three days, and then return to London.
After a while they had grown tired of their hotel, and had taken a smallfurnished house at the top of Sydenham Hill, close to the CrystalPalace, a pleasant little place with a small secluded garden in whichwere several high old elms. They engaged a rather obese old Frenchwomanas housekeeper, and there they led a quiet life, engrossed apparently inliterary studies.
I confess that when it came my turn to watch them I became more thanever convinced that Raymond's suspicions were ungrounded. They seldomwent out, and when they did, it was either to dine with Hartmann, or tostroll about the suburban roads of Norwood, Sydenham, and Penge.
Late one afternoon, however, while I was down at Sydenham, I saw thememerge from the house, carrying their small suit-cases, and followedthem to King's Cross Station, where they took tickets for Hull.
Instantly I rushed to the telephone and informed Ray in Bruton Street ofmy intention to follow them.
That same night I found myself in the smoke-grimed Station Hotel inHull, where the two foreigners had also put up.
Next day they called at a solicitor's office at the end ofWhitefriargate, and thence, accompanied by a man who was apparently thelawyer's managing clerk, they went in a cab along the Docks, where, at aspot close to the Queen's Dock, they pulled up before an empty factory,a place which was not very large, but which possessed a very highchimney.
The managing clerk entered the premises with a key, and for about halfan hour the pair were within, apparently inspecting everything.
I was puzzled. Why they were in treaty to rent a place of thisdescription was an utter enigma.
They returned to the hotel to luncheon, and I watched them engaged inanimated discussion afterwards, and I also noticed that they despatcheda telegram.
Next day they called upon the solicitor, and by their satisfied mannerwhen they came forth from the office, I guessed that they had becometenants of the place.
In this I was not mistaken, for that same afternoon they went togetherto the factory and let themselves in with the key, remaining within forover an hour, evidently planning something.
That night I wrote a long report to Raymond, and next morning spoke tohim over the telephone.
"Vera wants to know if you want her in Hull. If so, she'll come," myfriend said. "I'm just as puzzled as you are. Those two men meanmischief--but in what manner is a mystery."
"If Miss Vallance can come, I'll be only too thankful," I replied. "Ifear the men know you, but they don't know her. And she can greatlyassist me."
"Very well, Jacox," was his reply. "She'll leave this evening. She'llwire to the hotel. She'd better not be seen with you. So, to the hotelpeople, you'll be strangers. Meet outside, and arrange matters. 'Phoneme when you want me up there."
"Right, old chap," I replied. "I'll ring you up at eleven to-morrow andreport. So be in. Good-bye."
And I rang off.
Vera arrived just before eleven that evening. I was in the hall of thehotel when the porter entered, carrying her dressing-case. She passed meand went to the office, but I did not acknowledge her. She wore a neatdark blue travelling gown, well cut by her tailor, and a little toquewhich suited her face admirably. She possessed perfect taste in dress.
Half an hour later I sent a note up to her room by a waiter, asking herto meet me outside on the railway platform at ten o'clock next morning.
She kept the appointment, and in order to escape observation we enteredthe refreshment-room.
"The numbers of the rooms occupied by the two men are sixty-eight andseventy-two," I explained. "Perhaps it will be as well if you watch themthe whole of to-day. They are at present in the writing-room, so you canat once pick them up."
"Certainly, Mr. Jacox," she said. "Jack is intensely anxious. He's verypuzzled as to what they intend doing."
"Yes," I replied, "it's quite a mystery. But we shall discover somethingere long, never fear."
Vera laughed as she sipped the glass of milk I had ordered.
Then I briefly explained all that I had discovered, telling her how thetwo men had evidently taken the factory on a lease, and how they werethere every day, apparently making plans for future business.
"But what business do they intend starting?" she asked.
"Ah!" I said; "that's what we have to find out. And we shall do sobefore very long, if we are careful and vigilant."
"Trust me," she said; "I am entirely at your orders."
"Then I shall wait and hear your report," I said. "When you return tothe hotel send a line to my room."
And with that arrangement we parted.
That day I spent idling in the vicinity of the hotel. It was mid-August,and the atmosphere was stifling. That district of Hull is not a verypleasant one, for it is one of mean provincial streets and of the noiseof railway lorries rumbling over the granite setts.
The afternoon I spent in playing billiards with the marker, when aboutsix o'clock a page-boy brought me a note from my enthusiastic littlefriend.
"I shall be in the station refreshment-room at half-past six. Meetme.--VERA."
Those were the words I found within the envelope.
Half an hour later, when I sat at the little marble-topped table withher, she related how she had been following the pair all day.
"They were in the factory from half-past one until four," she said."They've ordered a builder to put up ladders to examine the chimney.They appear to think it isn't quite safe."
She told me the name of the builder, adding that the contract was tohave the ladders in position during the next three days.
"They are leaving for London to-night by the last train," she added. "Iheard the Belgian telling the hall-porter as I came out."
"Then we'll wire to Ray to meet them, and keep an eye upon them," Isaid. "I suppose you will go up to town?"
"I think so. And when they return I will follow them down if Ray deemsit best," replied the pretty girl, who was just as enthusiastic in herpatriotism as ourselves.
So still mystified I was compelled to remain inactive in Hull, whileVera and the two foreigners whom we suspected of espionage went up toLondon.
For the next four days I heard nothing until suddenly, at eight o'clockone morning, Ray entered my bedroom before I was up.
"I've found out one thing about those Johnnies!" he exclaimed. "They'vebeen buying, in Clerkenwell, a whole lot of electrical appliances--coilsof wire, insulators, and batteries. Some of it has been sent direct tothe place they've taken here, and the rest has been sent to their housedown in Sydenham."
"What can they want that for?" I queried.
"Don't know, my dear chap. Let's wait and see."
"Perhaps, after all, they are about to set up in business," I said."Neither of them has struck me as being spies. Save that they've visitedHartmann once or twice, their movements have not been very suspicious.Many foreigners are setting up factories in England, owing to the recentchange in our patent laws."
"I know," said my fri
end. "Yet their confidential negotiations withHartmann have aroused my suspicions, and I feel confident we shalldiscover something interesting before long. They came back by the sametrain as I travelled."
After breakfast, we both strolled round to the factory. The ground itcovered was not much, and it was surrounded by a wall about twelve feethigh, so that no one could see within the courtyard. It had, at onetime, been a lead-mill, but for the past eight years had, we learned,been untenanted.
Even as we loitered near, we saw the builder's men bringing long laddersfor the inspection of the chimney.
We watched for a whole week, but as each day passed, I became moreconfident that we wer