other sounds and tune down to the low lengths used by the
Germans--and by nobody else. They had been like spectators at the
opera with their ears plugged to shut out the music.

Now, as Henry eagerly listened in, he caught a sharp, whining note that
vibrated powerfully in his ear. "There's the Navy Yard calling," he
said, and a deep frown passed over his face, for it made him think of
submarines and the failure of the wireless patrol. For a moment he
tuned to a short length and listened for a spy message, as he had done
so many times before.

"That's the Waldorf-Astoria talking," said Henry a moment later, and he
copied down the message and shoved it over to the police operator.

Then followed press despatches--stories of land and sea, of fires and
battles, of shipwrecks and the arrest of a spy. And again Henry
scowled and slid his tuning-coil and briefly listened in at lower range.

Down the river ploughed the little steamer, repassing, one by one, the
landmarks it had passed on its trip northward. As it steamed along and
the meaning of their failure became more apparent to the young scouts,
they became gloomier and gloomier. But Henry, exulting at the
opportunity to handle such an outfit, almost forgot their failure, and
drank in eagerly the gossip of the night. So engrossed was he, that he
was startled when he heard the order to slacken speed, and heard his
captain say, "Well, here we are, boys."

Reluctantly he removed the receivers. Then, as an after-thought struck
him, he clamped them again to his ears, tuned his coil to a low length,
and strained his ears in one last search for a forbidden voice in the
dark. For a moment he sat listening vainly. Then, with unwilling
fingers, he began to take the clamps from his head. But suddenly he
jammed the receivers back on his ears and sat tense.

"Hurry up, Henry," called Captain Hardy. "We're waiting for you."

"Hush!" said Henry, lifting a warning hand. Then he sat rigid, bending
eagerly forward. In his ear a call was sounding. It was the old
familiar call of the motor station. He seized a pencil and began to
write. A moment later he jumped to his feet and went rushing after his
captain.

"Here!" he called, thrusting a paper into Captain Hardy's hand. "The
motor-car station just sent this message."

"The motor-car station!" exclaimed Captain Hardy, in astonishment.
"Then Sanders can't be aboard the motor-boat. The Chief said he had
him covered