"Come, and I'll show you. We have the place to ourselves to-day. Uncle is in town. I saw him going to the station this morning, so he's not likely to burst in and interrupt us." Pamela rose and led the way down the garden to the stable where Avelyn had surprised her before. It was locked, but she took a key from a hiding-place under a stone, and undid the padlock. She motioned her friend to go up the ladder, and followed her. The room above was a bare loft. It was not quite empty, however, for in the corner stood a small table, with an object on it that looked like the receiver of a telephone. "Come here!" said Pamela. She took up the instrument and placed it on her friend's head. It had a band which fitted across the forehead, and a receiver for each ear. A cord connected it with the wall. "Do you hear anything?" asked Pamela. "Yes, a sort of humming." Pamela smiled significantly, and put back the instrument on the table. "What is it?" breathed Avelyn, rather awed. "Wireless messages. Uncle spends hours here." "Do you mean to say this is a wireless station?" Pamela nodded. "But they're not allowed." "I know that perfectly well." "If it were found out he could be arrested." "He deserves to be. Sometimes I wish he were." "Does your mother know?" "No, I'm sure she doesn't. She never comes to the stable, and if she did she wouldn't climb the ladder. Sometimes Uncle is very keen about the messages. He makes me stay here, with the receiver on my head, listening for them, while he sits in the cottage talking to Mother, and drinking brandy which he brings in a flask. When I hear that humming noise I have to go and tell him, and he flies down to the stable." "Can you understand the messages?" "No. It's something like ordinary telegraphy, I suppose, and I don't know the code. I wish I did." "I can't imagine how this wireless apparatus hasn't been discovered!" "It's so well hidden. The poles go right up among the boughs of the tree." "I don't think you ought to keep this secret any longer, Pam." "No more do I, but I've never dared to tell it to a soul before. Uncle would kill me if he knew I'd brought you in here to-day. What must I do?" Avelyn hesitated. "I'd like to ask somebody. Could you come home with me this afternoon? Can you leave the house?" "I'd lock the door and put the key under a stone, where Mother would find it if she gets back first. Ave, I'm just about desperate! I'd do anything to end the life I'm living now. There's treachery of some sort going on, I believe, and I'm being wound up in it without my knowledge and against my will. My father gave his life for his country. Is his daughter to help to betray it? Never! Never in this world! I'd suffer torture first. Oh, I wish I were braver! Sometimes I'm a terrible coward, and I feel so horribly afraid of Uncle Fritz. You don't know how he frightens me. My nerves are all on edge."