A CALL FOR HELP
Yet Henry, having come to a decision, proceeded with characteristic
directness to try to accomplish his purpose. The minute he had an
opportunity to speak to the commander alone, Henry said to him,
“Captain Hardwick, I’ve decided that I should like to become a Coast
Guard wireless man. Ever since my old chum, Roy Mercer, became
wireless man on the _Lycoming_, I’ve thought that I should like to
have a similar job. Yet I wasn’t quite sure that I should like the
sea. Now that I’ve seen the ocean, I have come to a decision. Is
there any way I can get a job in the Coast Guard as a wireless man?”
“Just at present we have our full complement of wireless men aboard
the _Iroquois_,” replied Captain Hardwick, “so there is no opening
on this vessel. There might be on some other ship. But in any case,
you would have to take an initial examination at the hands of a
ship’s chief radio man. You might as well take an examination here
and now. Mr. Sharp will put you through your paces, if you like, and
you will know whether you are competent to fill the place you want.
If you are not, Mr. Sharp would be glad to coach you, so that you
could become competent. So, whether there is an immediate opening or
not, this really looks like an opportunity for you, doesn’t it? And
if you prove to be competent, I can recommend you to another
commander.”
“You are very kind, Captain Hardwick. I see that it _is_ a real
opportunity. And if Mr. Sharp is willing to examine me, I’ll be only
too thankful to him and to you.”
The captain rose and rang his call-bell.
“Rollin,” he said, when his attendant appeared, “tell Mr. Sharp that
I would like to speak to him.”
In a few moments the chief electrician knocked and entered the
cabin. The commander said to him, “Our young friend here,”
indicating Henry, “has decided that he wants to become a Coast Guard
radio man. I told him we had no opening for him on the _Iroquois_,
but that we would examine him anyway and see whether he is
qualified. I wish you would see what he can do, Mr. Sharp. Test him
out thoroughly, and if he is a little weak, I would like it if you
would coach him a bit. When will it be convenient for you?”
“I go on my regular watch in half an hour, Captain, and we would
then be uninterrupted. I could give him a thorough examination.”
“Very good. That is the arrangement, then.”
Half an hour later Henry joined the chief electrician in the
wireless shack. The latter first questioned Henry concerning the
equipment and the theory of wireless. He found that Henry had a good
basic understanding of these matters. The brand-new instruments that
Henry had not hitherto been acquainted with, he understood at once
when their operation was explained to him. In general knowledge and
understanding Henry was, the examiner found, fully the equal of even
a first-class radio man. When it came to operating the key, Henry
showed that he was very proficient. That the chief electrician
already knew. Nevertheless he examined Henry thoroughly. He made him
flash out all the letters of the alphabet. Then he gave him a
message to send, and told Henry to get it off at his best speed.
Henry called the imaginary party to whom he was signaling and then
dashed off the message almost as fast as the chief electrician could
have done it himself. His sending was flawless.
“Now let me see how you receive,” ordered the chief operator.
Both men sat with phones strapped to their heads. Henry began to
search the air for messages, shifting from the very short
wave-length at which he was operating up through the longer
wave-lengths. Suddenly he ceased his shifting, and, seizing a
pencil, wrote down this despatch: “Hurricane warning displayed 10
P. M. in Louisiana, Alabama, extreme northwest Florida coast.
Storm now central about latitude twenty-seven north, longitude
ninety-two west. It has reached hurricane intensity and is
apparently moving northeastward toward the Louisiana coast which it
will reach late tonight or tomorrow morning. Dangerously shifting
gales indicated.”
When Henry had finished taking the message, he tore from the pad the
sheet on which he had written and passed it to his companion. The
latter also had been copying the message. “Absolutely correct,” he
said. “I’ll give you one hundred on that.”
“And what will you give me on my entire examination, providing, of
course, that the examination is ended?”
“It is. I can’t see that you lack anything as an operator. I’ll have
to take off at least one point for your unfamiliarity with the new
instruments. That would give you 99. I’d hate to give you such a
grade, though. That would be too good to be true. I’ll mark you 97.”
“But suppose I deserved the 99. Would that be fair?”
“Young man,” said the chief electrician, “I reckon there’s mighty
few of us can qualify as being so near perfect. You ought to be
mighty well pleased to get 97. The passing mark is 75, and mighty
few ever get much above 90.”
“Oh! I am well enough pleased,” Henry went on. “But that wasn’t the
point. It’s a question of what I deserve.”
“I’m giving you all you deserve—maybe more than you deserve.”
“Then mark me down,” objected Henry. “If I deserve 99 I think I
ought to have it. And if I don’t deserve 97, I ought not to have 97.
I want what’s right. This examination is taken under somewhat
unusual circumstances. I realize that. And I don’t want anybody to
think it wasn’t perfectly on the level.”
“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll give you a grade that I think you
are justly entitled to, and I’ll stand back of that grade to the
last ditch. When we get right down to it, there’s more at stake than
the matter of your grade. There’s my ability and honesty as an
examiner. I’m not forgetting my own reputation in giving you your
grade. That will be 97. Now I must copy in my log the message you
caught.”
“What do you mean?” asked Henry.
“Why, you know the wireless man has to keep a wireless log just the
same as the navigator has to keep a navigator’s log. I have to be
able to show what goes on in the wireless house.”
“Just as we had to keep a record at the Frankfort station, I
suppose. What do you put in your logbook?”
“Well, every day when we are not in port I have to send our position
at certain hours to the radio station in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I
have to send all other messages. Records of these must be kept. All
storm warnings and naval-station broadcasts must be taken. I must
record the messages received, and, from time to time, something that
one picks out of the air should be entered, merely to show that the
radio man was on his job. So I’ll just enter that hurricane warning.
It doesn’t concern us, but if it did affect us, I’d have to take it
to the captain at once.”
“You said you had to send all messages,” replied Henry. “You didn’t
mean that you send every message yourself, did you?”
“That’s exactly what I meant. I can’t take a chance on having
anything happen to this outfit. I’m responsible for it, and if it
got burned out, the result might be a court-martial, with possible
dishonorable dismissal and loss of citizenship. You see our power
transformer steps the current up to eight thousand volts. A green
operator doesn’t understand the rheostats, and would allow too great
a voltage to pass through the generator. That would burn out the
transformer or puncture the condensers or break down the insulation
in the spark-gap, according to which was the weakest. We usually
carry spare condensers and spare jackets for the spark-gap, but no
spare transformer. It’s a mighty serious thing to burn out a
wireless set. If anything happened to the ship, there would be no
way to call help, and the entire crew might, consequently, be lost.”
During the chief radio man’s entire watch of four hours, Henry sat
with him in the radio shack. After the examination was ended, Mr.
Sharp connected up with the loud speaker of the radio, and the two
watchers laid down their headphones. They could talk freely. The
loud speaker would tell them of every message in their wave-length
that passed their way. To Henry this was, indeed, a rare
opportunity. Again and again he went over every detail of the
wireless apparatus, until he could have reconstructed the intricate
outfit alone, had it been taken to pieces. And he asked the chief
electrician countless questions as to wireless practice. With the
wide knowledge he already possessed, he was in a position to learn
much in a short time. When he left the wireless shack at the end of
the watch, Henry felt that he had added much to his ability as a
wireless man.
If Henry could have heard Mr. Sharp’s report to Captain Hardwick, he
would have been pleased, indeed. For the chief electrician went
immediately to the captain’s cabin when the watch was ended.
“Does he know anything about wireless?” asked the commander, when
the chief radio man told him the examination was over.
“He’s a dandy, Captain,” smiled the wireless man. “So far as the
matter of wireless comprehension and ability to receive and send are
concerned, he’s easily superior to my regular assistants, much
superior. But what I like about him is his spirit and his
comprehension. He’s anything but a dumb-bell. I think he’s fairly
entitled to a grade of 97 on his examination.”
The captain smiled. “I guess you are favoring him a bit,” he said.
“No, I am not. You see he has had an excellent training. He was a
substitute operator in the Frankfort government station for a time.
They employ only first-class men in such a station, you know.”
“I’m glad to have such a favorable report of him. I’ve taken a great
fancy to the lad, and wish he could be one of your assistants.”
“So do I,” said the chief electrician.
“You might coach him a little and help him get ready for his second
examination. He’ll be taking it somewhere sometime.”
“I’ll be glad to do so, Captain.”
When Henry came to the cabin for the next meal, the captain said,
“Mr. Sharp tells me your work was sufficiently good to pass you. I
am glad. I wish there were a vacancy here to which I could appoint
you. I hope you will keep on studying and practicing so as to
acquire real proficiency. If you do, I shall be glad to do all I can
to help you get a job.”
“I don’t know how to thank you, Captain Hardwick,” said Henry
gratefully. “What I can’t understand is why you should be willing to
do so much for a boy who is a perfect stranger to you.”
“Would you really like to know?”
“Indeed I would.”
“Then I’ll tell you. It is because of what I read in your face.”
“What can you read in my face?” cried Henry in amazement.
“A great deal that you don’t dream of. Perhaps you do not know that
all of us write our histories on our faces.”
“Our histories on our faces!” repeated Henry. “What do you mean,
Captain?”
“I mean just what I say. I know exactly the sort of boy you are,
just as well as though I had known you all your life. And I would
know just as truly if you were mean or cowardly or dishonest.”
Henry was too much astonished for words. The captain’s remark made
him very serious for a time. “Gee whiz!” he thought. “If what the
captain says is true, a fellow has to be mighty careful what he
does. Why, just think of all the wonderful things that Captain
Hardwick has done for me, and he says he did them because of what he
read in my face. I can hardly believe it. Yet there must be
something in it, for there are those two assistant radio men and I
dislike the one and like the other, and it’s nothing in the world
that makes me feel that way except their faces. Gee! I’m glad the
captain didn’t dislike my face. And if what I do is going to affect
my face and so affect my fortune, you can bet I’ll be mighty careful
what I do.”
Imbued, from this time forward, with the idea of becoming a radio
man, Henry spent much of his time in the radio shack. His friendship
for young Belford grew rapidly, and the two spent many pleasant
hours together. They were about of an age and had much in common.
Henry tried to be friendly with young Black, too, but the latter did
not seem to welcome his advances. Nothing seemed to please him. He
did not like his life on the _Iroquois_. He said his job was a
miserable one, and when Henry asked why it was distasteful, he
replied that being a radio man wasn’t bad in itself if only a fellow
had decent companions to work with. Nobody, he said, could be
expected to like his work if he had a boss like the chief
electrician.
“Why don’t you like the chief electrician?” Henry asked the lad.
“He’s a slave driver. He’s nothing but a crank,” and the lad swore
viciously.
“Why do you think he is a crank?” asked Henry.
“He’s too particular,” and again he swore. “And he won’t let anybody
touch his blamed old key but himself. You might think he owned it.”
“But just think,” urged Henry. “This outfit is worth ten thousand
dollars. If it’s harmed, he is responsible for the damage.”
“Who’d hurt his old wireless? And, anyway, why should he care? It’s
Uncle Sam’s, ain’t it?”
Henry was shocked at the lad’s attitude. He wanted to tell him that
if Mr. Sharp considered his assistants fully competent to operate
the wireless, he would doubtless gladly let them do their full share
of the work. But he knew that would lead to a disagreeable argument,
if not indeed to an open quarrel, so he passed the matter off by
saying, “I suppose he has reasons we don’t know about.”
“Reasons,” sneered the operator. “Sure he has, and I know what they
are. He don’t want nobody but himself to get ahead. He wants to make
me stay a third-class man. He ain’t willing to let me use the
instruments so I can learn more about it. Oh! His reasons are plain
enough. He’s got it in for me.”
“How long have you been on the _Iroquois_?” asked Henry.
“Six months.”
“Then I suppose you have taken your examinations for second-class
operator.”
“Yes. And that old dumb-bell flunked me,” and again the lad swore
viciously.
But Henry had little time to ponder over the grievances of the radio
man, unreasonable though he believed them to be. Every minute was
filled with interest. Particularly was he pleased when a message
came out of the air for the _Iroquois_, ordering her to proceed to
Boston to take aboard certain stores at the Boston Navy Yard. Henry
had never dreamed of seeing Boston, and he was overjoyed at the
prospect. It might give him an opportunity to see Bunker Hill and
other historic spots he had read about.
The _Iroquois_, in her pursuit of the derelict, had run well up the
New England coast, and it was not much out of her way to touch at
Boston. The captain headed direct for that city, and Henry was
looking forward to seeing, within a few hours, the scene of the
Boston tea party, when another message came whining through the
ether that made Henry for a time forget all about Boston. For this
new message Henry read in the radio shack as young Black, who was on
watch, copied it down. It read as follows:
“First mate nearly dead with fever.
Can you give medical assistance?
Heard you give your location. Our
position is forty-three north latitude,
sixty-five west longitude. Will stand
by for reply.”
The message came from a Norwegian tramp steamer, the _Viking_. Henry
volunteered to take the message to the captain’s cabin. When the
commander had read the message, he drew a chart from a drawer of his
desk and picked up pencil and ruler.
“We ought to be about at forty-one north and sixty-four west,” he
muttered, marking the spot on his chart. “The tramp is here,” and he
made a second dot on his map. He drew an equilateral triangle on his
map and noted where the shoreward apex fell. “We won’t have to go a
fathom out of our way,” he said. Then he drew a radio telegraph
blank from the pigeonhole of his desk and wrote this message:
“Proceed to sixty-seven west and
forty-two north and wait for the
_Iroquois_. Will send surgeon aboard.”
When Henry returned to the radio shack with the message, the chief
electrician was there. “Would you like to send the message
yourself?” he asked.
“Indeed I would,” said Henry.
“All right. Go ahead.”
Henry sat down and flashed out the message as rapidly and surely as
Mr. Sharp would have done it himself.
“Enter that in the log,” said the chief to young Black.
The latter said nothing. Sullenly he picked up a pen and made the
entry. But if black looks could have killed anybody, both Henry and
the chief electrician would have dropped dead in their tracks.
Before the young radio man had finished writing, another message
came crackling aboard: “Will meet you sixty-seven west, forty-two
north.”