THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS OF THE ICEBERG PATROL
Amidst a glare of red flame and lurid smoke, the young operator staggered backward.
CHAPTER I: ON THE OCEAN TRAIL.
The big, high-sided Cambodian, in ballast, that is, carrying no cargo, and outward bound from New York for Rotterdam, was shouldering through the green seas that came racing to meet her. The Cambodian was a brand new freighter of the big shipping combine controlled by Jacob Jukes, and as just then no better berth had been offered, Jack Ready found himself occupying her wireless room getting the newly installed radio apparatus in shape and tuned up for effective service.
As he worked over a refractory detector Jack, although normally of a cheerful disposition, felt a strong inclination to grumble at his present berth. He had been hoping for a chance at the wireless operator job on board the Empire State, the newest and greatest of the Jukes trans-Atlantic liners. But at the last moment he had been passed over and another operator appointed on the ground of seniority.
But Jack’s gloomy mood did not last long. As usual, the stimulus of work soon caused the clouds to dissolve, and by the time he had the detector adjusted, he was humming cheerfully. As he looked up from his completed job, a ruddy-faced, cheery-looking lad about two years older than Jack, who was eighteen, stuck his head in at the door of the wireless-room which, besides the apparatus, contained Jack’s bunk, a picture of the boy’s dead mother hanging at its head, and the desk at which he made out his reports.
“Hello there,” hailed Jack, as Billy Raynor appeared, “going off watch?”
“Well, don’t I look it, with this fine old coat of grime on my hide?” laughed Jack’s chum, now promoted to the post of second engineer on the new freighter.
“Thought when you got to be second you were just going to loll around with your hands in your pockets and give orders,” commented Jack.
“Um, so did I,” rejoined Raynor with a rather wry grin, “but, as you see, it didn’t just work out that way. By-the-way, I thought you were going to be the dandy, brass-buttoned wireless hero on a passenger packet this trip.”
It was Jack’s turn to give a rueful smile and he rejoined, “So did I.”
“Old Jukes was mighty nice about it though,”
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