The Wireless Operator—With the U. S. Coast Guard/Chapter 15
CHAPTER XV
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 wheel-house 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? Ive 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. Certainly 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 thor-oughly, 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.