UNDER A CLOUD
For a moment Henry was dumbfounded. He could not imagine what had
gone wrong. Then it occurred to him that perhaps he had a faulty
connection somewhere. He ran his eye and hand over all the lengths
of wire in his outfit, but nowhere could he see anything wrong. More
than once he tested his key, but it did not come to life. Then he
thought of his auxiliary batteries and switched to them. The result
was the same. Everything appeared to be all right, but there was no
answering flash when he pressed the key. He thought of trying to
make some new sort of connection with this secondary battery. The
difficulty was that he did not really know what was wrong. He knew
enough about the equipment, he felt sure, to find the difficulty. He
started to make an examination, but stopped after loosening several
screws. It occurred to him that this might take him a long time. He
would not work so surely or so accurately as a man trained like the
chief electrician. Furthermore, he might, in trying to remedy
matters, make them worse.
Henry thought hard for a moment, then decided that the best thing to
do would be to tell the captain at once what had happened. The
crippling of the _Iroquois’_ wireless just at this juncture could
make no vital difference, for the ship was almost ready to drop her
anchor, and if the sailors had got the captain’s message, they would
be ready to come aboard. Doubtless the chief electrician would be
with them. He could probably repair the damage quickly.
The instant he had come to a decision, Henry raced up to the bridge.
“Captain Hardwick,” he reported, “something has gone wrong with the
wireless. I cannot get a spark out of it. I was unable to send your
last message. I do not know what is wrong, and I thought perhaps I
had better not tinker with the instruments, seeing that the chief
electrician is likely so near at hand.”
“Something wrong with the wireless?” echoed the captain, his face
becoming grave. “What have you done to it?”
“Not a thing, Captain. I handled it just as I have always handled a
wireless set. When I came up on the bridge a few moments ago it was
working perfectly. When I tried to send your message, the key was
dead.”
“Maybe you had a loose connection.”
“I examined the outfit for that, sir.”
“Are you sure that you didn’t do something to the instruments?
Didn’t forget about your power? If you allow too much direct current
to pass through your instruments, you will burn them out.”
“I know that, Captain. And I didn’t use too much current. The outfit
is just as it was when Mr. Sharp was in charge.”
“Where’s Mr. Belford?” asked the commander. “Find him.”
Belford was still talking to the quartermaster. They had been on the
bridge, on the sheltered side of the wheelhouse ever since Belford
had left the radio shack.
“Go take a look at the wireless,” directed the commander, “and see
if you can do anything with it.”
“Where’s Black?” demanded the captain, after Belford had run down
the ladder.
The quartermaster and Henry went in search of him. They found him in
his bunk, asleep. It was necessary to shake him roundly before he
woke. Evidently he had been long asleep. He went up to the bridge
with them.
“Do you know anything about this difficulty with the wireless?”
asked the captain, suspiciously.
“What difficulty? I’ve been in my bed asleep for an hour, sir. I
didn’t know there was any difficulty.”
“Is that so?” pressed the captain.
“We found him fast asleep, as he says,” spoke up the quartermaster.
The commander turned slowly to Henry. “The responsibility seems to
be up to you,” he said.
“It seems so, sir,” replied Henry. “Yet that set was all right when
I used it just before I came to the bridge. When I got back and
attempted to send with it again, it went wrong. Certainty I ought to
be entitled to the benefit of the doubt.”
The captain looked at him searchingly. “I didn’t think you were the
sort of boy who would try to crawl out of a difficulty instead of
standing up and facing it,” said the commander.
“Nor am I,” cried Henry. “If I had done the least thing to cause
trouble with the wireless, sir, I would tell you frankly and take
the consequences. But I did nothing—absolutely nothing. I can’t help
feeling that somebody tampered with it.”
“Who would dare do such a thing?” demanded the captain.
“I don’t know. I don’t accuse anybody. But I know too much about
wireless outfits to believe that this one suddenly went bad without
a cause.”
“We will investigate the whole matter thoroughly, Henry,” said the
captain. “Pending that investigation, I shall have to ask you to
remain aboard as my guest.”
“I will be glad to do so,” cried Henry. “In fact, I do not want to
leave this boat until we get to the bottom of this whole thing.”
“It may not take so long as you think to do that. The chief
electrician should be aboard in a few moments.”
Already the _Iroquois_ was at her anchorage. Her engines were no
longer running. Against a strong tide she was fast coming to rest.
“Let go your anchor,” said the captain suddenly.
The anchor slid into the water, and the ship swung in the tide and
came to rest. Immediately the launch was lowered. In a moment it was
skimming over to the landing. A few moments more saw it on the way
back, laden heavily with sailors.
The chief electrician was aboard. Like many of the others, he was
suffering from a terrible cold, but he declared he was fit for duty.
At once the captain sent him to the radio shack. Henry and his
friend Belford went with him. Like a finished workman, the head
radio man set about his task of finding the difficulty. He threw on
the current and tested his motor. To all appearances it was in
perfect condition. It operated with perfect smoothness, and the
speed was normal and perfectly sustained, but when Mr. Sharp looked
at the voltmeter of his generator, there was another story to tell.
The meter showed no voltage whatever. There was an open circuit
either in the generator or in the field.
At once the chief electrician attempted to adjust the field strength
by shifting the field rheostat. To his surprise he found the handle
of the rheostat was warm.
“The rheostat is burned out,” he said, “and there is likely an open
field circuit.”
“Then one of the field coils must have gone bad,” said Henry.
“Right. I see you do know something about wireless,” observed the
chief electrician.
Henry reached forward and began to examine the field coils. There
were four of them. The bottom one and the two on the sides were
warm, but the top coil was cool.
“Here it is!” cried Henry.
The chief electrician rapidly ran his hand over the coils and
verified Henry’s findings. “We’ll take it off,” he said, “and put a
new one in its place.”
Skillfully he set to work. It required care and deft handling, but
he soon had the defective coil removed and a new one set in its
place. Then he turned to the rheostat, which had been burned out by
the excessive charge sent through it by the defect in the coil. He
unclamped the instrument from the desk, unscrewed the wires from the
binding-posts, and removed the useless thing. He screwed a spare
rheostat in place and connected the wires to the binding-posts. Then
he picked up the offending coil and examined it closely.
“Can’t see a thing wrong with it,” he said. “When I have time, I’ll
take it to pieces and find out what’s wrong with it. Just now I must
get the captain’s messages off.”
He threw the coil in his desk, sat down in the chair, threw over his
switch and touched the key. A great fat stream of fire flashed
forth.
“It’s all hunky-dory,” he smiled. “Not so bad as it might have been.
Go tell the captain.”
Henry drew a deep sigh of relief and raced for the captain’s cabin.
The captain said little, but gave him further messages to take to
Mr. Sharp.
Rapidly the chief radio man flashed out the message that had brought
Henry to grief, and then set to work on the new communications.
When the electrician was done, Henry said to him, “Would it be
possible for Roy to come see me here?”
“Ask the captain.”
The captain considered a moment after Henry had gone again to the
cabin and stated his wish. “I know how you feel,” he said. “You
would like to see your friend. So would I in similar circumstances.
It’s pretty late, but wire him anyway, and ask him to spend the
night aboard. You’ve been a real help to me, and I’ll be glad to
have your friend come. Arrange with him so that we can send a boat
ashore to meet him, and tell Lieutenant Hill when to send it.”
Henry thanked the captain. Elated, he ran to the wireless house and
informed the chief electrician of the captain’s order. Mr. Sharp sat
down at his key, and in no time was in communication with the
wireless man of the _Lycoming_, who was listening in, in expectation
of a call from Henry. Mr. Sharp told him enough to make him
understand that there was some difficulty about Henry’s leaving the
ship, and that the captain wished him, Roy, to come aboard the
_Iroquois_ and spend the night.
Roy came, and was met by a boat. Henry greeted him at the top of the
ladder and wrung his hand. He first introduced Roy to the captain,
and then took him direct to the radio shack. Mr. Sharp was still
there. Henry made the two radio men acquainted, and then the three
drew up their chairs, and Henry related briefly the history of his
difficulty.
“May I see that coil?” asked Roy.
The chief electrician drew it out of his drawer and passed it to his
fellow wireless man.
Roy turned the coil slowly around in his hand, examining it
searchingly. It was a coil with a corded covering. Apparently
nothing was wrong with it. There was no external evidence of inner
deterioration. When he had turned it around several times, Roy
handed it back to Mr. Sharp.
“It’s odd,” he commented. “I never had a coil burn out for me. But I
suppose there must have been some weak spot in the insulation, and
finally it gave way under the high voltage. Most anything will burn
out in time.”
“When I have opportunity,” said the chief electrician, “I shall take
it to pieces. I’m curious to know how it went bad. If one coil will
do that, another might. I might be caught at sea that way some time
and be in a bad fix.”
“I’d do it without fail,” urged Roy. “You want to find out why that
coil went bad.”
“I’ll have to,” assented Mr. Sharp, “for the captain will make a
thorough investigation of the matter.”
They remained in the wireless shack, the two radio men chatting
about their experiences at sea, until young Black came in to take
his turn on watch. He had gone back to his rest after being
disturbed by Henry and Belford. Now Henry and Roy and Mr. Sharp went
to the stateroom. Belford entered with them.
When it came time to go to bed, Belford insisted upon sleeping below
deck with the sailors, so that Henry and Roy might remain together
in the stateroom. Roy was given Belford’s bunk, and Henry took
Black’s, and, slipping into them, they turned out the light. But for
some time Henry could not sleep. He was still excited and worried,
and he felt very uncomfortable.
But finally he quieted down. It gave him such a feeling of comfort
to have Roy at hand. Whatever happened, he knew that he had one
staunch friend who would stand by him to the very end, and who would
believe in him, and who also possessed the technical ability to be
of great service to him. He believed that Mr. Sharp and Belford and
the captain were also friendly to him and would be fair. But he knew
that Roy was his friend, and in that thought he found such solace
that presently he fell asleep. Soon there was no sound in the little
stateroom save the heavy breathing of the sleeping wireless men.