that point of rock, the wireless man tuned up his instrument, and
waited. The commercial messages came first, and there were a lot of
them; four for the _Ottilie_, three for the _Adriatic_, five to be
relayed far ahead to the _Mauretania_, one for the incoming _Majestic_,
and one for the _Rotterdam_. Then the Poldhu man announced that he was
ready to receive, and as many more were sent out into the night to him,
for relay on to London, and from there to far-separated points on the
continent. At last there was a moment's pause, a moment's silence, and
then the SP, SP, SP, which told that the news service was about to
start. And every man within hearing picked up a fresh pencil and made
ready to write, as from dictation.

"SP, SP, SP," snapped Poldhu. "Time 12:54 G. Three hundred wds.

"War between Italy and Turkey seems inevitable stop Italy gives Turkey
twenty-four hours to agree to Italy's occupation of Tripoli stop Six
thousand troops at Palermo ready to embark stop Turkish munitions and
reinforcements already landed stop Board of Inquiry into _La Liberte_
disaster goes into secret session stop Rumour of attempt to destroy _La
Patrie_ also stop Moroccan situation grows more serious stop Germany
demands equal rights with France abrogating Algeciras treaty stop
Directors steel trust declare company is legal corporation and will not
take voluntary steps to dissolve stop Officially announced at Chicago
that one hundred thousand men on Harriman lines will strike Saturday
stop September coffee sells at twelve-ninety-eight New York exchange
record price stop Boy Scouts called out to fight plague of wasps in
England stop...."

And so on to the end of the message. And when the end was reached, the
man at Poldhu waited fifteen minutes and then started all over again and
sent the message a second time, so that every one would be sure to get
it all. Then he shut off and went to bed.

Thursday dawned clear and warm, and the _Ottilie's_ passengers,
appearing on deck by twos and threes, rejoiced that the day was to be a
fine one. They found the world-news of the day before awaiting them on
the bulletin board at the head of the main companion-way, and had great
fun deciphering it, very few of them stopping to think how wonderful it
was that it should be there at all. And then some of them celebrated
their first morning at sea by a three-mile tramp before breakfast;
others, less strenuous, lounged at the rail, waiting impatiently f