Directly they recovered their sea legs, both lads made for the cabin
door. A wonderful but alarming spectacle met their eyes. The sunset had
been blotted out as if by magic. In its place was a ragged, inky-black
cloud curtain that was being swept across the sky as if invisible,
titanic hands were swiftly pulling it.
The sea immediately about them was heaving wildly in great swells that
tumbled the _Sea Gypsy_, rendered less stable by her top-heavy load,
from side to side. Far off, under the rushing black cloud, the forefront
of which was almost over them by this time, was a jagged line of white.
Mr. Booth, the second mate, bundled up in oilskins, ran past the boys on
his way to the bridge.
“Better get under cover,” he advised as he passed. “This is going to be
a hummer.”
But, fascinated by the majestic sight, both boys stood still, clutching
the rail and bracing themselves for the shock they felt was coming, for
both had guessed that the jagged white line in the distance was a giant
wave. Like a cliff of water it grew as it swept toward them, accompanied
by a howling of the wind that sounded like a witches’ carnival. So swift
was its advance that the boys had hardly time to run toward the cabin
when it broke upon them.
The _Sea Gypsy_ heeled like a ship that had been struck a mortal blow.
For one instant she hung balanced as if she was about to capsize. The
door of the cabin in which the boys had taken refuge was ripped from its
hinges by the terrific force of the impact as if it had been matchwood.
The next moment both lads were struggling for their lives in a surging,
sweeping smother of water that filled the cabin to the roof. Jack felt
himself clutched by the hands of his chum. Fighting to keep himself
above water, Jack saw that Raynor had been hurled against some object
and been wounded. There was a jagged cut in his forehead.
He had hardly noticed this, when the _Sea Gypsy_ staggered back to an
even keel. As she did so the water swept out of the cabin like a
millrace, carrying both boys helplessly with it.
Jack felt Raynor torn from his arms, and the next thing he realized he
was struggling for his life in the waves that reared and roared above
the floundering yacht.
A month before the events we are describing took place, Jack Ready, the
young wireless operator of the _Sea Gypsy_, and his inseparable chum,
Billy Raynor, had been summoned to Mr. Jukes’ New York office and told
that they were detached from duty on the big _Columbia_, the crack liner
of the Jukes’ ships, and ordered to pack their things forthwith and meet
the ship-owner at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco within a week.
Neither had demurred, supposing some interest of the ship-owners called
for their presence there. But, much to their bewilderment, they had each
been handed a substantial check by Mr. Jukes on his arrival in the
western metropolis, told to outfit themselves for a long voyage, and
nothing more. Two days later the _Sea Gypsy_ cleared the harbor.
The acquaintance of Jack and Mr. Jukes had its beginning in certain
events which took place near Jack’s quaint home, which he shared with an
eccentric uncle on an old schooner in the Erie Basin in New York. The
rescue by Jack of Mr. Jukes’ little daughter, and the result on his
affairs, were fully detailed in the first volume of this series, which
was called “The Ocean Wireless Boys on the Atlantic.” This is not the
place to re-tell all the exciting adventures that befell Jack and young
Raynor, who was third engineer on the steamer to which Jack was
assigned, in fulfillment of his ambition to be a “wireless man.”
Nor can we do more here than to hint at the contents of the second
volume. This was called “The Ocean Wireless Boys and the Lost Liner,”
and set forth the fate of the _Tropic Queen_. In this book we found Jack
and his inseparable chum steadily progressing in their chosen
professions, and also met several other characters, all of whom had an
important bearing on the events of the boys’ lives. Mr. Jukes took
formal recognition of the part Jack played in the disaster that overtook
the _Tropic Queen_, and inwardly resolved that his heroism and devotion
to duty had made him a lad worth watching.
Still a third volume followed, describing the boys’ further adventures.
In the “Ocean Wireless Boys of the Iceberg Patrol,” much interesting
information about the manner in which the ocean lanes are guarded from
the white menace of the north, was given. The boys shared in many
thrilling adventures also, and ended by discovering something that an
expedition, at the head of which was Jack’s Uncle Toby, had almost lost
through the tricks of a band of hard characters.
The fourth book setting forth their doings was called “The Ocean
Wireless Boys and the Naval Code.” Captain Simms of the U. S. N., after
devising a novel code for the use of this government, through the
machinations of a band of daring rascals, found himself robbed of it.
Wireless played a big part in the recovery of the documents in the long
run, Jack acquitting himself to the delight of the naval officials and
the government by his work in this connection. Some of the miscreants,
whose tricks Jack had helped to frustrate, were sent to prison but
others got free. These latter the boys, though they little suspected it,
were destined to meet again.