eries on the
floor. Every three seconds the circuit was automatically closed, and a
long flash sent along the conducting wire out into the air. Marbeau
stood listening for a moment longer, then loosened one of the wires. The
signals stopped.

"Now let us see the aerial," he said, and led the way outside.

But there was no aerial in sight. Then Crochard's finger pointed out a
series of wires among the trees to the left of the hut. Walking directly
beneath them, Marbeau saw that there were three wires parallel with each
other, and that they were stretched between two trees about fifty feet
apart. From each of them dropped a lead-wire, and these were gathered
together into the single wire which led into the hut. An arm of wood had
been secured to each of the trees, and to these the wires were fastened
by means of porcelain insulators.

"But such an aerial would not be effective!" Marbeau protested. "It
would be muffled and deadened by the leaves and branches all about it."

"There are no branches in front of it," said Crochard. "If you will
look, you will see that they have been very carefully cleared away in
that single direction. As I understand wireless, the waves released from
those wires up yonder permeate the atmosphere in every direction."

"That is true."

"With equal intensity?"

"No; they would be most intense in the direction in which the wires
extend."

"Ah!" said Crochard. "And, as we may perceive from the way in which the
trees are trimmed, it was only in that direction that the builder of
this affair desired them to penetrate. Can you not guess what that
direction is? If you will climb this tree and look along the wires, you
will find that they point directly toward the wreck of _La Liberte_."

For a moment, the three stared at Crochard without speaking, then
Marbeau threw off his coat and started up the tree. It was not an easy
climb, but he was an agile man, and at last he reached the arm to which
the wires were affixed. He remained for some moments looking out along
them; then he slowly descended.

"It is true," he said, in a low voice, as he resumed his coat. "The
wires could hardly have been so placed by accident."

"It was not by accident," said Crochard.

"And yet," went on Marbeau, "I do not see what all this can have to do
with the disaster."

"Nor I," agreed M. Delcasse. "And yet as M. Cro----as our friend here
says, all this was not done by accident."

"I would suggest," said Cro