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The Floating Press - Henry Goldfrap John

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115 pages

English

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The massive ship Tropic Queen suffers a crippling blow at sea and finally runs ashore on a deserted island. Jack Ready and Billy Raynor, the pair known as the Wireless Boys, use their skills to help locate the ship and direct rescue crews to the site. Will the passengers be rescued before it's too late?

Sujets

Adventure (Guyana)

Adventure

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 avril 2016
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776599035
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS AND THE LOST LINER
* * *
JOHN HENRY GOLDFRAP

*
The Ocean Wireless Boys and the Lost Liner First published in 1914 Epub ISBN 978-1-77659-903-5 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77659-904-2 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
*
Chapter I - At Sea Once More Chapter II - Wireless Conversations Chapter III - A Strange Request Chapter IV - A Peculiar Coincidence Chapter V - The Interrupted Message Chapter VI - A Daring Feat Chapter VII - Quartermaster Schultz Volunteers Chapter VIII - Safe Once More Chapter IX - The Midnight Intruder Chapter X - A Message in Secret Code Chapter XI - What Sam Heard Chapter XII - A Sudden Alarm Chapter XIII - A Dose of Sleeping Powder Chapter XIV - The Winking Eye Chapter XV - Secret Signals at Dawn Chapter XVI - S. O. S. Chapter XVII - A Derelict of the Skies Chapter XVIII - A Leap for a Life Chapter XIX - A Call in the Night Chapter XX - To the Rescue Chapter XXI - A Tale of the Sea Chapter XXII - A Decoy Message Chapter XXIII - False Friendship Chapter XXIV - Kidnapped Chapter XXV - Sam, a True Friend Chapter XXVI - A Wicked Plan Chapter XXVII - In the Lion's Mouth Chapter XXVIII - A Climb for Life Chapter XXIX - Freedom Once More Chapter XXX - In Search for a Clew Chapter XXXI - Look for a White Horse Chapter XXXII - A Bold Robbery Chapter XXXIII - Jarrold Again Chapter XXXIV - Bad News for the Colonel Chapter XXXV - Jarrold Gets Frantic Chapter XXXVI - Adrift Chapter XXXVII - The Irony of Fate Chapter XXXVIII - A Bolt from the Blue Chapter XXXIX - Jack's Radio Chapter XL - The Answer to the Wireless Call
Chapter I - At Sea Once More
*
The West Indian liner, Tropic Queen , one of the great vessels owned bythe big shipping combine at whose head was Jacob Jukes, the New Yorkmillionaire, was plunging southward through a rolling green sea abouttwo hundred miles to the east of Hatteras. It was evening and the buglehad just sounded for dinner.
The decks were, therefore, deserted; the long rows of lounging chairswere vacant, while the passengers, many of them tourists on pleasurebent, were below in the dining saloon appeasing the keen appetitesengendered by the brisk wind that was blowing off shore.
In a small steel structure perched high on the boat deck, between thetwo funnels of the Tropic Queen , sat a bright-faced lad readingintently a text-book on Wireless Telegraphy. Although not much more thana schoolboy, he was assistant wireless man of the Queen . His name wasSam Smalley, and he had obtained his position on the ship—the crackvessel of the West Indies and Panama line—through his chum, Jack Ready,head operator of the craft.
To readers of the first volume of this series, "The Ocean Wireless Boyson the Atlantic," Jack Ready needs no introduction.
Here he comes into the wireless room where his assistant sits reading infront of the gleaming instruments and great coherers. Jack has been offwatch, lying down and taking a nap in the small sleeping cabin that,equipped with two berths, opens off the wireless room proper, thusdividing the steel structure into two parts.
"Hello, chief," said Sam Smalley, with a laugh, as Jack appeared; "gladyou're going to give me a chance to get to dinner at last. I'm so hungryI could eat a coherer."
"Skip along then," grinned Jack; "but it's nothing unusual for you to behungry. I'll hold down the job till you get through, but leave somethingfor me."
"I'll try to," chuckled Sam, as he hurried down the steep flight ofsteps leading from the wireless station up on the boat deck to the mainsaloon.
"Well, this is certainly a different berth from the one I had on the old Ajax ," mused Jack, as he looked about him at the well-equippedwireless room; "still, somehow, I like to look back at those days. Butyet this is a long step ahead for me. Chief wireless operator of the Tropic Queen ! Lucky for me that the uncle of the fellow who held downthe job before me left him all that money. Otherwise I might have beenbooked for another cruise on the Ajax , although Mr. Jukes promised togive me as rapid promotion as he could."
Readers of the first volume, dealing with Jack Ready and his friends,will recall how he lived in a queer, floating home with his uncle, Cap'nToby. They will also recollect that Jack, who had studied wireless dayand night, was coming home late one afternoon, despondent from afruitless hunt for a job, when he was enabled to save the littledaughter of Mr. Jukes from drowning. The millionaire's gratitude wasdeep, and Jack could have had anything he wanted from him.
All he asked, though, was a chance to demonstrate his ability as awireless man on the Ajax , a big oil tanker which had just beenequipped with such an outfit. He got the job, and then followed manystirring adventures. He took part in a great rescue at sea, and was ableto frustrate the schemes of some tobacco smugglers who formed part ofthe crew of the "tanker." This task, however, exposed him to gravedanger and almost resulted in his death.
At sea once more, after the smugglers had been apprehended and lockedup, Jack's keen wireless sense enabled him to solve a problem insurgery. The Ajax carried no doctor, and when one of the men in thefireroom was injured, and it appeared that a limb would have to beamputated, a serious question confronted the captain, who, like most ofhis class, possessed a little knowledge of surgery, but not enough toperform an operation that required so much skill.
The injured man was a chum of Jack's, and he did not want to see himlose a limb if it could be helped, or have his life imperiled byunskillful methods. Yet what was he to do? Finally an idea struck him.He knew that the big passenger liners all carried doctors. He raised oneby means of the wireless and explained the case. The injured man wascarried into the wireless cabin and laid close to the table. Then, whilethe liner's doctor flung instructions through space, Jack translatedthem to the captain. The result was that the man was soon out of danger,but Jack kept in touch with doctors of other liners till everything wasall right beyond the shadow of a doubt.
This feat gained him no little commendation from his captain and theowners. Next he was instrumental in saving Mr. Jukes' yacht which was onfire at sea. In the panic Mr. Jukes' son Tom, who was the apple of theship-owning millionaire's eye, was lost. By means of wireless, Jacklocated him and reunited father and son.
His promotion was the result, when the regular operator of the TropicQueen went west to receive a big legacy left him. As the services ofthe retiring operator's assistant had been unsatisfactory, Jack wasasked to find a successor to him. He selected an old school chum, SamSmalley, who had owned and operated a small station in Brooklyn and wasan expert in theory and practice. The ship had now been at sea two days,and Sam had shown that he was quite capable of the duties of his newjob.
An old quartermaster passed the door of the wireless cabin. He poked hishead in.
"Goot efenings, Yack," he said, with easy familiarity. "How iss derbirdt cage vurking?"
This was Quartermaster Schultz's term for the tenuous aërials swung faraloft to catch wide-flung, whispered space messages and relay them tothe operator's listening ears.
"The bird cage is all right," laughed Jack. "Dandy weather, eh?"
The old man, weather-beaten and bronzed by the storms and burning sunsof the seven seas, shook his head.
"Idt is nice now, all righdt," he said, "but you ought to see derglass."
"The barometer? What is the matter with it?"
"Py gollys, I dink der bottom drop oudt off idt. You may have vurkaheadt of you to-night."
"You mean that we are in for a big storm?"
"I sure do dot same. Undt ven it comes idt be a lollerpaloozitz. Take myvurd for dat. Hark!"
The old quartermaster held up a finger.
Far above him in the aërials could be heard a sound like the moaningbass string of a violin as the wind swept among the copper wires.
"Dot's der langwitch of Davy Chones," declared Schultz. "Idt says, 'Lookoudt. Someding didding.' I'fe heardt idt pefore, undt I know."
The old man hurried off on his way forward, and Jack emitted a longwhistle.
"My, won't there be a lot of seasick passengers aboard to-night! Thecompany will save money on breakfast to-morrow."
Just then Sam came back from dinner and Jack was free to go below to hismeal. He was about to relinquish the instruments when there came asudden call.
"To all ships within three hundred miles of Hatteras: Watch out for storm of hurricane violence.
"Briggs, Operator Neptune Beach U. S. Wireless Service."
Chapter II - Wireless Conversations
*
Sam was looking over Jack's shoulder as the young wireless chief of the Tropic Queen rapidly transcribed the message on a blank.
"Phew! Trouble on the way, eh?" he asked.
"Looks like it. But we need not worry, with a craft like this under ourfeet."
But Sam looked apprehensive.
"What is the trouble? Not scared, are you?" asked Jack, who knew that,excellent operator though he had shown himself to be, this was Sam'sfirst deep-sea voyage.
"N-no. Not that," hesitated Sam, "but seasickness, you know. And I atean awful big dinner."
"Well, don't bother about that now. Lots of fellows who have never beento sea before don't get sick."
"I hope that will be my case," Sam replied, without much assurance inhis voice.
"Here, take this to the captain; hurry it along now," said Jac