dena, and as to the origin of which he himself remained in
complete ignorance. But these same messages enabled the _Evening
Standard_ in a brief space of time to establish a national reputation
for its naval news, which was at no time officially contradicted.

The matter did not, of course, pass unnoticed in Washington, for it soon
became evident that secret dispatches were being misappropriated.
Vigorous efforts were made to discover the guilty person in the Navy
Department, but they all proved vain for the following reason: Among the
wireless stations used for maintaining constant communication between
the Navy Department at Washington and the various naval ports and naval
stations, and the fleet itself when at sea, was the large station on
Wilson's Peak near the observatory, whose shining tin-roof can be seen
plainly from Los Angeles when the sun strikes it. All messages arriving
there for transmission to San Diego and Mare Island could be readily
intercepted by the wireless apparatus attached inconspicuously to the
huge wind-wheel on an orange plantation between Pasadena and Los
Angeles. The uninitiated would have concluded that the wires had
something to do with a lightning-rod. The Japanese proprietor of the
plantation had simply to read the messages from the Morse key of his
apparatus and forward what he considered advisable to Mr. Stephenson by
mail. A few hours later the _Evening Standard_ was in a position to make
a scoop with the dispatches of its infallible naval correspondent.

Thus Stephenson, without having the slightest suspicion of it, formed a
wheel in the great chain which prepared the way for the enemy, and since
the _Evening Standard_ had earned a reputation for publishing
absolutely reliable news in this field, no one for a moment doubted the
announcement of Admiral Perry's attack, although this was the first
spurious message which Stephenson had furnished to his paper.

_Chapter IX_

A FORTY-EIGHT-HOUR BALANCE

A steamer is lying at the pier taking in cargo. Long-legged cranes are
taking hold of bales and barrels and boxes and lowering them through the
ship's hatches with a rattle of chains. Wooden cases bound with steel
ropes and containing heavy machinery are being hoisted slowly from the
lorries on the railway tracks; the swaying burden is turning round and
round in the air, knocking against the railing with a groaning noise,
and tearing off large splinters of wood. The overseer is