Henry’s Exoneration
277
messages over to Henry. Jimmy had written the messages close together, like this:
Henry looked at the sheet of paper lazily for a moment. Then he almost sprang out of his chair. “Look, Jimmy!” he cried. “See how the letters of those two calls combine.” He pointed to the signals his companion had written down at the commencement of each line. “If you begin with O, then jump up to R, and keep on moving from bottom line to top, you get the word ‘Orient.’ I believe we’ve caught something important.”
Belford pulled the paper toward himself and studied the riddle. “Jiminy crickets!” he cried. “You're right, Henry. What do you suppose it all means? I thought from the first that there was something queer about those calls.”
“Well,” replied’ Henry, “it is perfectly evident that OIN must be mighty close at hand, the way her signal comes cracking in. That’s just the way a signal would sound from the Orient. And RET is either very far away, or else has a weak little set. Inasmuch as we are