Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/48

 from the bridge-gate. It was plain to see his feeling for the new operator was not an over-kindly one.

The new operator showed his head round one corner of the stateroom.

"I'll try again!"

Once more came the hiss and rattle and crackle of the spark, and once more the lean and sun-tanned face appeared round a corner of the stateroom.

"He's busy talking to the navy-yard!"

"To what?"

"To the navy-yard."

"What'd he tell you?"

The new operator hesitated for a moment or two before answering. His singularly quiet eyes were resting on Captain Yandel's nose, for it was a remarkable nose, something between a cardinal and magenta colour, stippled with the brighter hues of countless little broken veins.

"He told me to shut up, and cut out!" he answered at last, editing the irate officer's blasphemy out of the message.

The passenger in the raincoat fell to pacing the open deck. He stopped once or twice, quite casually, to glance in at the wireless apparatus. Then, seeing that the operator had taken off his ear-phones and was leaning back in his canvas chair, giving his open and undivided attention