e. This held at
an elevation of nearly four hundred feet, and then, after having cabled
his assistants to begin sending certain signals previously agreed upon,
at a certain hour in the afternoon and continuing until night, Guglielmo
made allowance for the difference in time and sat with the telephone
receiver at his ear, listening, wondering, hopeful. It must have been a
moment of almost painful expectation. He looked out from his position
high on the cliff and could see the dim, rocky outlines of Cape Spear,
the most eastern point of the North American continent. Beyond this
rolled the blue Atlantic, two thousand miles across which was the coast
of the British Isles. Only two persons were present in the old
barrack-room besides the inventor. There were no reporters--no one had
been apprised of the attempt. Marconi's faith in the success of his
experiment was unshaken. He believed from the first that he would get
signals across the great stretch of ocean.

"Suddenly there was the sharp click of the instrument that could only
come from some electric disturbance; but it was not the signal. Marconi,
without excitement, asked Mr. Kemp, the assistant, to take the telephone
receiver connected with the instrument and listen for a time. A moment
later, faintly, yet distinctly and unmistakably, came the three clicks
indicating the dots of the letter S, according to the Morse code, the
signal that had been agreed upon with the assistants on the English
coast. A few minutes later more signals came and the inventor and his
assistant assured themselves again and again that there could be no
mistake. Thus was tested successfully one of the great scientific
discoveries.

"Then the achievement was given to the public, after two days of
repeated signaling. The honors that were at once heaped upon Marconi
would have turned the head of anyone less modest and sane. From every
quarter of the world came plaudits. The cable company, fearing injury to
its business, demanded that he cease operations in its territory, which
was a high compliment, indeed. The people of the Colony of Newfoundland
honored him, wondering at his youth; he was then only twenty-seven, but
an experimenter of wide knowledge.

"Such was the practical achievement upon a great discovery reached by
Marconi the Italian and now, more correctly, the cosmopolitan. Though he
still makes his home in his native land, he belongs to all countries, to
all oceans, for it is everywhe