bell.

"Introduce General Marbeau," he said to his secretary.

The latter returned in a moment with a dark little man in full uniform.
Then he went out again and closed the door. The little man bowed deeply
to the Minister of Marine.

"Be seated, General," said Delcasse. "M. Lepine, I think you already
know--as who does not! This other gentleman I will not name--I will only
say that he is a coadjutor whose services we value very highly. He has
certain questions to ask you, which I wish you to answer as though I
myself were asking them. Proceed, sir," and he nodded to Crochard.
"General Marbeau is the chief of our wireless service."

"What wireless stations are there in the city of Toulon, General?"
Crochard began.

"None, sir, except the one at the arsenal," Marbeau answered, looking at
his questioner with discreet curiosity.

"And in the neighbourhood?"

"None nearer than Marseilles."

"There are no private installations?"

"The government does not permit private installations."

"Yet there might be some, clandestinely built?"

"That is possible."

"However, you can assure me of this: if any such do exist, they are
outside the law?"

"Undoubtedly."

"Why are private stations prohibited?"

"They are prohibited because they would interfere with the government
stations. You understand, sir, that wireless waves clash in the air, as
it were; when they cross or intermingle, the result is a confusing
chatter, until the sending and receiving instruments have been carefully
tuned with each other. Even that does not always overcome it. A few
private stations have been authorised strictly for scientific purposes,
but there is none nearer than that at the University of Lyons."

"Do you ever suffer from interference here?"

"Oh, yes; the English have a very powerful station at Gibraltar and
another at Malta; their battleships are all equipped with it, as are
those of Italy. So are most of the passenger steamers which enter the
Mediterranean. The air is often filled with messages."

"Has there been any such interference during the past few days?"

"Yes, a great deal of it; one instance in particular of which my
operators have complained."

"Ah!" said Crochard. "Will you tell us exactly what it was?"

"Last Saturday," explained Marbeau, "about three in the afternoon, there
came from somewhere a series of long dashes, lasting nearly half a
second, and spaced about two seconds apart. This continued for perha