258
The Wireless Operator
alone, he said to himself: “The trail grows warm. Black went to supper at the first pipe of the whistle. He likely finished before the others, and went out. Nails and hammer lay invitingly beside the stairway. Unobserved, he snatched up the hammer and some nails, and thrust them into his coat. A little later a nail of that same kind got into the wireless outfit. Later still, nails and hammer are found in Black’s possession, or, what amounts to the same thing.”
The captain frowned. “But Black was asleep when that nail got into the wireless,” he commented. He pondered a moment. “By George! I wonder if he was asleep,” he exclaimed. “Everything hinges on that. How am I going to find out?”
