Curlie Carson Listens In

ndow. Through that window, a dizzy depth below, lay the city. Its square, flat roofs formed a mammoth checker-board. Between the squares criss-

gleam of the broad waters of Lake Michigan. Here and there across the surface

the same hue clinging tightly to his well-shaped head, he had the strong profile and

pocket he was not, but a detective he might be thought to be; a strange type of detective, however, a detective of the air; the kind that sits in a small room hundreds of feet in air and listens; listens to the schemes

service, had said, "do quite as much damage to the radio service as crooks. Fo

world. In catching the fine shadings of diminishing sounds which came t

switches, motors, dry-cells, storage batteries and all the odds and ends whic

hour when the crooked ones, the mean ones, come creeping forth like ghosts to carry on doubtful conversations by radio, a strange thing had happened. A message had gon

breeze fro

ce. There had been no answer though Curlie had listened long f

too fleet for Curlie. He had compassed its direction; measured its distance.

rt such as Curlie can sit in a hidden tower room such as his was and detect

ocation of the city's most magnificent apartment hotel. The hotel possessed a radiophone set. Its antenn[ae], hung high upon the building's

about that," he had

under. The thing might get out. This law-breaker might escape. Not five people in al

he decided to confide this ne

elf, "I'll tell him

s recalled to other matter

e automatically, "and the wind was due east. Don't mean much a

tain wave length, 200, 350, 500, 600, 1200 meters. Each was modulated down until sounds came to Curlie's delicately tuned ear drums as little more than whispers. A conce

zen switches were sent, snap, snap, snap. There followed a dead silence. Then in a

t I am a wireless operator, o

fingers guided a coil-wound frame from right to left. Backward and forward it glided, and

at's it!"

y won't learn to play the game square. Don't know the r

nt out for

2231," h

2231? Jus

reless running wild. Yes. Broke in on the concert. Don't be hard on him. No license? Yes, guess that's right. Take away his sending set. Give him anothe

ssed off his headpiece, snapped at five

eel so very sore about them though. It's the fellows that go in for long wave lengths and high power, that break in on 500, 1200 and

come creeping out. I'm going to tell you about that one last night, over the ham

rking without pay. At times when trouble developed on two different wave lengths at once

here, been able to take a hand from the very beginning and become at once a valuable servant of his beloved country? Had he not at times detected meddlers who were

e dangerous, easily traced. They did not use the telephone alone. That, too, would be dangerous. But when a radiophone had been connected to the telephone wire and tuned to a certain wave length, then they talked and not even the person they talked with would ever know whence came the message. This was a necessary precaution for, from this very t

tap on the door, "I believe that affair last night wa

the room. Down the winding stairs which led to the elevator several stories lower down they made thei