Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/214

 cabin. It was a joyous meal for the lad. He told the captain about his friend Roy and the good times they had had at home, and about his coming meeting with him.

After supper, as they sailed up the channel in the dark, Henry started for the radio house again to relieve Belford. He passed the surgeon, who was hurrying forward with his medicine case.

“What is the trouble, Doctor?” asked Henry.

“One of the sailors mashed a finger while doing something to the anchor-chain,” replied the surgeon, hurrying on.

Henry entered the radio shack and relieved Belford. ‘The quartermaster called the latter up to the chart-room. Henry adjusted the head-phones and almost immediately caught the call of the Iroquois. They were almost at their anchorage, and the call came with startling distinctness. Henry threw open his switch and flashed an acknowledgment of the call. The commandant of the New York district of the Coast Guard was sending a message for Captain Hardwick. Henry wrote it down, copied it neatly on a telegraph blank, and climbed up the ladder through the darkness to the bridge.

The ship’s bell was musically striking the hour. It was seven o’clock. Henry thought he should miss that musical bell after he got ashore. Captain Hardwick stepped into the chart-room, read