Produced by Chris Curnow, Michael, Mary Meehan and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS AND THE NAVAL CODE
BY CAPTAIN WILBUR LAWTON
AUTHOR OF "THE BOY AVIATORS' SERIES," "THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS' SERIES,"
"THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS ON THE ATLANTIC," "THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS AND
THE LOST LINER," "THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS OF THE ICE-BERG PATROL," ETC.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES L. WRENN_
NEW YORK
HURST & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1915,
BY HURST & COMPANY
[Illustration: "Huh, I don't think the idea's worth a cent," sniffed
Thurman.]
CONTENTS
I. VACATION DAYS
II. "SPEEDWAY" VS. "CURLEW"
III. CAPTAIN SIMMS, OF THE "THESPIS"
IV. ON SECRET SERVICE
V. NIGHT SIGNALS
VI. IN THE DARK
VII. THE NAVAL CODE
VIII. A MONKEY INTERLUDE
IX. NODDY AND THE BEAR
X. "WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF IT?"
XI. A SWIM WITH A MEMORY
XII. A TALE FROM THE FROZEN LANDS
XIII. A NIGHT ALARM
XIV. JACK'S CURIOSITY AND ITS RESULTS
XV. BILLY TAKES THE TRAIL
XVI. A "GHOSTESS" ABROAD
XVII. ONE MYSTERY SOLVED
XVIII. BILL SNIGGERS DECIDES
XIX. WHAT A "HAYSEED" DID
XX. THE "CURLEW" IN TROUBLE
XXI. THE END OF JACK'S HOLIDAY
XXII. "THE GEM OF THE OCEAN"
XXIII. JACK'S BIG SECRET
XXIV. THE NAVY DEPARTMENT "SITS UP"
XXV. A MYSTERY ON BOARD
XXVI. A "FLASH" OF DISTRESS
XXVII. A STRANGE WRECK
XXVIII. CAST AWAY WITH A PYTHON
XXIX. CAPTURED BY RADIO
XXX. THURMAN PLOTS
XXXI. THE "SUITABLE REWARD"
XXXII. THE PLOTTER'S TRIUMPH
XXXIII. IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY
XXXIV. THE SEARCH FOR JACK
XXXV. THE WIRELESS MAKES GOOD
The Ocean Wireless Boys and the Naval Code.
CHAPTER I.
VACATION DAYS.
"Up with your helm there, Noddy! Luff her up or you'll have the _Curlew_
on the rocks!"
"That's right, luff!" cried Billy Raynor, adding his voice to Jack
Ready's command.
"That's what I _luff_ to do," grinned the red-headed, former Bowery
waif, Noddy Nipper, as, with a dexterous motion, he jerked over the
tiller of the fine, speedy sloop in which the boys were enjoying a sail
on Alexandria Bay, above the Thousand Islands.
The mainsail and jib shivered, and the _Curlew_ spun round like a top
just as it seemed inevitable that she must end her career on some jagged
rocks that had suddenly loomed up ahead.
"Neatly done, Noddy," applauded Jack. "We'll forgive you even that awful
pun for that skillful bit of boat-handling."
The freckled lad grinned in appreciation of the compliment paid him by
the Wireless Boy.
"Much obliged," he said. "Of course I haven't got sailing down as fine
as you yet. How far do you reckon we are from home?"
"From the Pine Island hotel, you mean?" rejoined Billy Raynor. "Oh, not
more than ten miles."
"Just about that," chimed in Jack. "If this wind holds we'll be home in
time for supper."
"Supper!" exclaimed Bill; "I could eat an octogenarian doughnut, I'm so
hungry."
A groan came from Noddy. Although the Bowery lad had polished up on his
grammar and vocabulary considerably since Jack Ready first encountered
him as second cook on the seal-poaching schooner _Polly Ann_, Captain
"Terror" Carson commanding, still, a word like "Octogenarian" stumped
him, as the saying is.
"What's an octo-octo--what-you-may-call-'um doughnut, anyhow?" he
demanded, for Noddy always liked to acquire a new word, and not
infrequently astonished his friends by coming out with a "whopper"
culled out of the dictionary. "Is it a doughnut with legs on it?"
Jack and Billy broke into a roar of laughter.
"A doughnut with legs on?" sputtered Billy. "Whatever put that idea into
your head, Noddy?"
"Well, don't octo-octo-thing-a-my-jigs have legs?" inquired Noddy.
"Oh, you mean octopuses," cried Jack, with another laugh. "Billy meant
an eighty-year-old doughnut."
"I'll look it up when we get back," remarked Noddy gravely; "it's a good
word."
"Say, fellows, we are sure having a fine time out of this holiday,"
remarked Billy presently, after an interval of silence.
"Yes, but just the same I shan't be sorry when Mr. Juke's new liner is
completed and we can go to sea again," said Jack, "but after our
experiences up north, among the ice, I think we had a holiday coming to
us."
"That we did," agreed Noddy. "Some difference between skimming around
here in a fine yacht and being cast away on that wretched island with
nothing to eat and not much prospect of getting any."
"Yes, but if it hadn't been for that experience, and the ancient
treasure we found, we couldn't have taken such a jolly vacation," argued
Jack. "It's made Uncle Toby a rich man and put all of us on Easy
Street."
"Yes, it was certainly worth all the hardships we went through," agreed
Noddy.
"I guess we are in for a long spell of quiet now, though," remarked
Jack, after a pause, during which each boy thought of their recent
adventures.
"Not so sure of that," replied Noddy. "You're the sort of fellow,
judging from what you've told us, who is always tumbling up against
something exciting."
"Yes, I feel it in my bones that we are not destined to lead an
absolutely uneventful time----" began Billy Raynor. "I--hold hard there,
Noddy; watch yourself. Here comes another yacht bearing down on us!"
Jack and Billy leaped to their feet, steadying themselves by clutching a
stay. Billy was right. Another yacht, a good deal larger than their own,
was heading straight for them.
"Hi! put your helm over! We've got the right of way!" shouted Jack,
cupping his hands.
"Look out where you're going!" cried Billy.
But whoever was steering the other yacht made no motion to carry out the
suggestions. Instead, under a press of canvas, she kept directly on her
course.
"She'll run us down," cried Noddy. "What'll I do, Jack?"
"Throw her over to port lively now," sang out Jack Ready. "Hurry up or
we'll have a bad smash-up!"
He leaped toward the stern to Noddy's assistance, while Billy Raynor,
the young engineer, did the same.
In former volumes of this series the previous adventures of the lads
have been described. In the first book, devoted to their doings and to
describing the fascinating workings of sea-wireless aboard ocean-going
craft, which was called "The Ocean Wireless Boys on the Atlantic," we
learned how Jack became a prime favorite with the irascible Jacob Jukes,
head of the great Transatlantic and Pacific shipping combine. Jack's
daring rescue of Millionaire Jukes' little girl resulted in the lad's
obtaining the position of wireless man on board a fine ship, after he
had looked for such a job for months in vain. But because Jack would not
become the well-paid companion of Mr. Jukes' son Tom, a rather sickly
youth, the millionaire became angry with the young wireless man.
However, Jack was able, subsequently, to rescue Mr. Jukes from a
drifting boat after the magnate's yacht had burned in mid-ocean and,
following that, to reunite the almost frantic millionaire with his
missing son.
Other exciting incidents were described, and Jack gained rapidly in his
chosen profession, as did his chum, Billy Raynor, who was third
assistant engineer of the big vessel. The next volume, which was called
"The Ocean Wireless Boys and the Lost Liner," told of the loss of the
splendid ship "Tropic Queen," on a volcanic island after she had become
disabled and had drifted helplessly for days. By wireless Jack managed
to secure aid from U. S. vessels, and it came in the nick of time, for
the island was destroyed by an eruption just after the last of the
rescued passengers had been taken off. Wireless, too, secured, as
described in that book, the capture of a criminal much wanted by the
government.
The third volume related more of Jack's doings and was called "The Ocean
Wireless Boys of the Ice-berg Patrol." This book told how Jack, while
serving aboard one of the revenue cutters that send out wireless
warnings of ice-bergs to transatlantic liners, fell into the hands of a
band of seal poachers. Things looked black for the lad for a time, but
he found two good friends among the rough crew in the persons of Noddy
Nipper and Pompey, an eccentric old colored cook, full of superstitions
about ghosts. The _Polly Ann_, as the schooner was called, was wrecked
and Jack and his two friends cast away on a lonesome spot of land called
Skull Island. They were rescued from this place by Jack's eccentric,
wooden-legged Uncle, Captain Toby Ready, who, when at home, lived on a
stranded wooden schooner where he made patent medicines out of herbs for
sailors. Captain Toby had got wind of an ancient treasure hidden by a
forgotten race on an Arctic island. After the strange reunion they all
sailed north. But an unscrupulous financier (also on a hunt for the
treasure) found a way to steal their schooner and left them destitute.
For a time it appeared that they would leave their bones in the bleak
northland. But the skillful resource and pluck of Jack and Noddy won the
day. We now find them enjoying a holiday, with Captain Toby as host, at
a fashionable hotel among the beautiful Thousand Islands. Having made
this necessary digression, let us again turn our attention to the
situation which had suddenly confronted the happy three, and which
appeared to be fraught with imminent danger.
Like their own craft, the other boat carried a single mast and was
sloop-rigged. But the boat was larger in every respect than the
_Curlew_. She carried a great spread of snowy canvas and heeled over
under its press till the white water raced along her gunwale.
As she drew nearer the boys saw that there were two occupants on board
her. One was a tall, well-dressed lad in yachting clothes, whose face,
rather handsome otherwise, was marred by a supercilious sneer, as if he
considered himself a great deal better than anyone else. The other was a
somewhat elderly man whose hair appeared to be tinged with gray. His
features were coarse, but he resembled the lad with him enough to make
it certain he was his father.
"Sheer off there," roared Jack at the top of his lungs, to the occupants
of the other boat; "do you want to run us down?"
"Get out of the way then," cried the boy.
"Yes, sheer off yourselves, whipper-snappers!" came from the man.
"We've got the right of way!" cried Jack.
"Go chase yourselves," yelled Noddy, reverting in this moment of
excitement, as was his habit at such times, to his almost forgotten
slang.
"Keep her on her course, Donald; never mind those young jack-a-napes,"
said the man in the other sloop, addressing the boy, who was steering.
"All right, pop," was the reply; "they'll get the worst of the smash if
they don't clear out."
"Gracious, they really mean to run us down," cried Jack, in a voice of
alarm. "Better sheer off, Noddy, though I hate to do it."
"By jinks, do you see who they are?" cried Bill Raynor, who had been
studying the pair in the other boat, which was now only a few yards off.
"It's that millionaire Hiram Judson and his son Donald, the boy you had
the run in with at the hotel the other day."
But Jack made no reply. The two boats were now almost bowsprit to
bowsprit. As for Noddy, the freckles stood out on his pale, frightened
face like spots on the sun.