Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/167

 forward door and two electricians stood by the Number Two periscope ready for duty. The place was a white vault of shining machinery that made no noise in which the quiet conversation of the two officers was strangely distinct.

Martin led the way through to the forward battery compartment where some half-dozen of the crew were at rest in their bunks or seated about the table. The cook was busy at the electric range, for the hour, as Nelson had seen by the clock in the central station, was close on ten. Martin exchanged remarks with the fellows around the table and led the way aft to another watertight door. Passing through this, Nelson found himself in the wireless room, a small compartment at present holding one man, who, with a telephone receiver strapped to his head, was listening at the Fessenden Oscillator, or submarine signal apparatus. The compartment was a maze of wires, meters, switches, coils and other electrical contrivances. Beyond the wireless room were small staterooms occupied by the officers. They were tiny bare white-walled cells containing little more than a bunk, a chest of drawers, a small writing desk and a lavatory each. Beyond the open door of one Nelson glimpsed the 142