Garrick had secured two rather good-sized boxes from the boy, and was carrying them rather carefully, as if they contained some very delicate mechanism3.
Warrington, we found, occupied a suite2 in a large apartment on Seventy-second Street, and, as we entered, Garrick stopped and whispered a few words to the hall-boy.
The boy seemed to be more than usually intelligent and had evidently been told over the telephone by Warrington that we were coming. At least we had no trouble, so far.
Warrington's suite was very tastefully furnished for bachelor quarters. In the apartment, Garrick unwrapped one of the packages, and laid it open on the table, while he busied himself opening the safe, using the combination that Warrington had given him.
I waited nervously4, for we could not be sure that no one had got ahead of us, already. There was no need for anxiety, however.
"Here's the letter, just as Warrington left it," reported Garrick in a few minutes, with some satisfaction, as he banged the safe door shut and restored things so that it would not look as though the little strong box had been touched.
Meanwhile, I had been looking curiously5 at the box on the table. It did not seem to be like anything we had ever used before. One end was open, and the lid lifted up on a pair of hinges. I lifted it and looked in. About half way down the box from the open end was a partition which looked almost as if some one had taken the end of the box and had just shoved it in, until it reached the middle.
The open half was empty, but in the other half I saw a sort of plate of some substance covering the outside of the shoved-in end. There was also a dry cell and several arrangements for adjustments which I did not understand. Back of the whole thing was a piece of mechanism, a clockwork interrupter, as I learned later. Wires led out from the closed end of the box.
Garrick shoved the precious letter into his pocket and then placed the box in a corner, where it was hidden by a pile of books, with the open end facing the room in the direction of the antiquated6 safe. The wires from the box were quickly disposed of and dropped out of the window to the yard, several stories below, where we could pick them up later as we had done with the detectaphone.
"What's that?" I asked curiously, when at last he had finished and I felt at liberty to question him.
"Well, you see," he explained, "there is no way of knowing yet just how the apartment will be entered. They apparently7 have some way, though, which they wouldn't discuss over the telephone. But it is certain that as long as they know that there is anyone up here, they will put off the attempt. They said that."
He was busily engaged restoring everything in the room as far as possible to its former position.
"My scheme," he went on, "is for us now to leave the apartment ostentatiously. I think that is calculated to insure the burglary, for they must have someone watching by this time. Then we can get back to that empty apartment in the house on the next street, and before they can get around to start anything, we shall be prepared for them."
Garrick stopped to speak to the hall-boy again as we left, carrying the other box. What he said I did not hear but the boy nodded intelligently.
After a turn down the street, a ride in a surface car for a few blocks and back again, he was satisfied that no one was following us and we made our way into the vacant apartment on Seventy-third Street, without being observed.
Picking up the wires from the back yard of Warrington's and running them across the back fence where he attached them to other wires dropped down from the vacant apartment was accomplished8 easily, but it all took time, and time was precious, just now.
In the darkness of the vacant room he uncovered and adjusted the other box, connected one set of wires to those we had led in and another set to an apparatus9 which looked precisely10 like the receiver of a wireless11 telegraph, fitting over the head with an earpiece. He placed the earpiece in position and began regulating the mechanism of the queer looking box.
"I didn't want to use the detectaphone again," he explained as he worked, "because we haven't any assurance that they'll talk, or, if they do, that it will be worth while to listen. Besides, there may be only one of them."
"Then what is this?" I asked.
"Well," he argued, "they certainly can't work without light of some kind, can they?"
I acquiesced12.
"This is an instrument which literally13 makes light audible," he pursued.
"Hear light?" I repeated, in amazement14.
"Exactly," he reiterated15. "You've said it. It was invented to assist the blind, but I think I'll be able to show that it can be used to assist justice—which is blind sometimes, they say. It is the optophone."
He paused to adjust the thing more accurately16 and I looked at it with an added respect.
"It was invented," he resumed, "by Professor Fournier d'Albe, a lecturer on physics at the University of Birmingham, England, and has been shown before many learned societies over there."
"You mean it enables the blind to see by hearing?" I asked.
"That's it," he nodded. "It actually enables the blind to locate many things, purely17 by the light reflected by them. Its action is based on the peculiar18 property of selenium, which, you probably know, changes its electrical conductivity under the influence of light. Selenium in the dark is a poor conductor of electricity; in the light it, strange to say, becomes a good conductor. Variations of light can thus be transmuted19 into variations of sound. That pushed-in end of the box which we hid over in Warrington's had, as you might have noticed, a selenium plate on the inside partition, facing the open end of the box."
"I understand," I agreed, vaguely20.
"Now," he went on, "this property of selenium is used for producing or rather allowing to be transmitted an electric current which is interrupted by a special clockwork interrupter, and so is made audible in this wireless telephone receiver which I have here connected with this second box. The eye is replaced by the ear as the detector21 of light—that is all."
It might have been all, but it was quite wonderful to me, even if he spoke22 of it so simply. He continued to adjust the thing as he talked.
"The clockwork has been wound up by means of a small handle, and I have moved that rod along a slit23 until I heard a purring sound. Then I moved it until the purring sound became as faint as possible. The instrument is at the present moment in its most sensitive state."
"What does it sound like?" I asked.
"Well, the passage of a hand or other object across the aperture24 is indicated by a sort of murmuring sound," he replied, "the loudest sound indicating the passage of the edges where the contrast is greatest. In a fairly bright light, even the swiftest shadow is discoverable. Prolonged exposure, however, blinds the optophone, just as it blinds the eye."
"Do you hear anything now?" I asked watching his face curiously.
"No. When I turned the current on at first I heard a ticking or rasping sound. I silenced that. But any change in the amount of light in that dark room over there would restore the sound, and its intensity25 would indicate the power of the light."
He continued to listen.
"When I first tried this, I found that a glimpse out of the window in daylight sounded like a cinematograph reeling off a film. The ticking sank almost into silence as the receiving apparatus was held in the shadow of the office table, and leaped into a lively rattle26 again when I brought it near an electric-light bulb. I blindfolded27 myself and moved a piece of blotting28 paper between the receiver and the light. I could actually hear the grating of the shadow, yes, I heard the shadow pass. At night, too, I have found that it is even affected29 by the light of the stars."
He glanced out of the window in the direction of Warrington's, which we could not see, however, since it was around an angle of the building.
"See," he went on, "the moon is rising, and in a few minutes, I calculate, it will shine right into that room over there on Seventy-second Street. By using this optophone, I could tell you the moment it does. Try the thing, yourself, Tom."
I did so. Though my ear was untrained to distinguish between sounds I could hear just the faintest noise.
Suddenly there came a weird30 racket. Hastily I looked up at Garrick in surprise.
"What is that?" I asked endeavouring to describe it. "Are they there now?"
"No," he laughed. "That was the moon shining in. I wanted you to hear what a difference it makes. When a ray of the sun, for instance, strikes that 'feeler' over there, a harmonious31 and majestic32 sound like the echo of a huge orchestra is heard. The light of the moon, on the other hand, produces a different sound—lamenting, almost like the groans33 of the wounded on a battlefield."
"So you can distinguish between various kinds of light?"
"Yes. Electric light, you would find if anyone came in and switched it on over there, produces a most unpleasant sound, sometimes like two pieces of glass rubbed against each other, sometimes like the tittering laugh of ghosts, and I have heard it like the piercing cry of an animal. Gaslight is sobbing34 and whispering, grating and ticking, according to its intensity. By far the most melodious35 and pleasing sound is produced by an ordinary wax candle. It sounds just like an aeolian harp36 on which the chords of a solemn tune37 are struck. I have even tried a glow-worm and it sounded like a bee buzzing. The light from a red-hot piece of iron gives the shrillest and most ear-splitting cry imaginable."
He took the receiver back from me and adjusted it to his own ear.
"Yes," he confirmed, "that was the moon, as I thought. It's a peculiar sound. Once you have heard it you're not likely to forget it. I must silence the machine to that."
We had waited patiently for a long time, and still there was no evidence that anyone had entered the room.
"I'm afraid they decided38 not to attempt it after all," I said, finally.
"I don't think so," replied Garrick. "I took particular pains to make it seem that the road was clear. You remember, I spoke to the hall-boy twice, and we lingered about long enough when we left. It isn't much after midnight. I wonder how it was that they expected to get in. Ah—there goes the moon. I can hear it getting fainter all the time."
Suddenly Garrick's face was all animation39. "What is it?" I asked breathlessly.
"Someone has entered the room. There is a light which sounds just like an electric flashlight which is being moved about. They haven't switched on the electric light. Now, if I were sufficiently40 expert I think I could tell by the varying sounds at just what that fellow is flashing the light. There, something passed directly between the light and the box. Yes, there must be two of them—that was the shadow of a human being, all right. They are over in the corner by the safe, now. The fellow with the flashlight is bending down. I can tell, because the other fellow walked between the light and the box and the light must be held very low, for I heard the shadows of both of his legs."
Garrick was apparently waiting only until the intruders, whoever they were, were busily engaged in their search before he gave the alarm and hurried over in an attempt to head off their escape by their secret means of entrance.
"Tom," he cried, as he listened attentively41, "call up the apartment over there and get that hall-boy. Tell him he must not run that elevator up until we get there. No one must leave or enter the building. Tell him to lock the front door and conceal42 himself in the door that leads down to the cellar. I will ring the night bell five times to let him know when to let us in."
I was telephoning excitedly Garrick's instructions and as he waited for me to finish he was taking a last turn at the optophone before we made our dash on Warrington's.
A suppressed exclamation43 escaped him. I turned toward him quickly from the telephone and hung up the receiver.
"What's the matter?" I asked anxiously.
For a moment he did not reply, but seemed to be listening with an intensity that I knew betokened44 something unexpected.
"Tom," he cried abruptly45, stripping the receiver from his head with a jerk and clapping it over my own ears, "quick!—tell me what you hear. What does it sound like to you? What is it? I can't be mistaken."
I listened feverishly46. Not having had a former acquaintance with the machine, I did not know just what to make of it. But from the receiver of the little optophone there seemed to issue the most peculiar noise I had ever heard a mechanical instrument make.
It was like a hoarse47 rumbling48 cry, now soft and almost plaintive49, again louder and like a shriek50 of a damned soul in the fires of the nether51 world. Then it died down, only to spring up again, worse than before.
If I had been listening to real sounds instead of to light I should have been convinced that the thing was recording52 a murder.
I described it as best I could. The fact was that the thing almost frightened me by its weird novelty.
"Yes—yes," agreed Garrick, as the sensations I experienced seemed to coincide with his own. "Exactly what I heard myself. I felt sure that I could not be mistaken. Quick, Tom,—get central on that wire!"
A moment later he seized the telephone from me. I had expected him to summon the police to assist us in capturing two crooks53 who had, perhaps, devised some odd and scientific method of blowing up a safe.
"Hello, hello!" he shouted frantically54 over the wire. "The fire department! This is eight hundred Seventy-second—on the corner; yes, yes—northeast. I want to turn in an alarm. Yes—quick! There is a fire—a bad one—incendiary—top floor. No, no—I'm not there. I can see it. Hurry!"
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1
suites
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| n.套( suite的名词复数 )；一套房间；一套家具；一套公寓 | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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transmuted
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| v.使变形，使变质，把…变成…( transmute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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detector
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| n.发觉者，探测器 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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blindfolded
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| v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗 | |
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blotting
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| 吸墨水纸 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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betokened
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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feverishly
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| adv. 兴奋地 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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48
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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49
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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50
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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51
nether
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| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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52
recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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53
crooks
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| n.骗子( crook的名词复数 )；罪犯；弯曲部分；（牧羊人或主教用的）弯拐杖v.弯成钩形( crook的第三人称单数 ) | |
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54
frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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