“Jermyn?  What did you mean by Jermyn?” asked Waldon, as we climbed to the deck of the Nautilus.

He had evidently learned, as I had, that it was little use to try to quiz Kennedy until he was ready to be questioned and had decided to try it on me.

I had nothing to conceal and I told him quite fully all that I knew.  Actually, I believe if Jermyn had been there, it would have taken both Kennedy and myself to prevent violence.  As it was I had a veritable madman to deal with while Kennedy gathered up leisurely the wireless outfit he had installed on the deck of Waldon’s yacht.  It was only by telling him that I would certainly demand that Kennedy leave him behind if he did not control his feelings that I could calm him before Craig had finished his work on the yacht.

Waldon relieved himself by driving the tender back at top speed to the Lucie, and now it seemed that Kennedy had no objection to traveling as fast as the many-cylindered engine was capable of going.

As we entered the saloon of the houseboat, I kept close watch over Waldon.

Kennedy began by slipping a record on the phonograph in the corner of the saloon, then facing us and addressing Edwards particularly.

“You may be interested to know, Mr. Edwards,” he said, “that your wireless outfit here has been put to a use for which you never intended it.”

No one said anything, but I am sure that some one in the room then for the first time began to suspect what was coming.

“As you know, by the use of an aerial pole, messages may be easily received from any number of stations,” continued Craig.  “Laws, rules and regulations may be adopted to shut out interlopers and plug busybody ears, but the greater part of whatever is transmitted by the Hertzian waves can be snatched down by other wireless apparatus.

“Down below, in that little room of yours,” went on Craig, “might sit an operator with his ear-phone clamped to his head, drinking in the news conveyed surely and swiftly to him through the wireless signals—­plucking from the sky secrets of finance and,” he added, leaning forward, “love.”

In his usual dramatic manner Kennedy had swung his little audience completely with him.

“In other words,” he resumed, “it might be used for eavesdropping by a wireless wiretapper.  Now,” he concluded, “I thought that if there was any radio detective work being done, I might as well do some, too.”

He toyed for a moment with the phonograph record.  “I have used,” he explained, “Marconi’s radiotelephone, because in connection with his receivers Marconi uses phonographic recorders and on them has captured wireless telegraph signals over hundreds of miles.

“He has found that it is possible to receive wireless signals, although ordinary records are not loud enough, by using a small microphone on the repeating diaphragm and connected with a loud-speaking telephone.  The chief difficulty was to get a microphone that would carry a sufficient current without burning up.  There were other difficulties, but they have been surmounted and now wireless telegraph messages may be automatically recorded and made audible.”