Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/231

 radio shack. He was no longer a part of the wireless force, for the return of the chief electrician had taken his job from him.

But while Henry was disconsolately considering the matter, things were moving briskly in the wireless shack. Though he was now really sick, the chief electrician continued on duty. Alone on his watch, he was working patiently to uncover the difficulty with his grounded coil. Once more he had examined this coil thoroughly, yet he could see no external indications of impairment.

Slowly he now unwound the covering cords that formed the outer casing for the wrapped wires within. There was still nothing visibly wrong. But when he had cleared the cords away, and had gotten to the coil itself, his sharp eye detected a shining little dot, hardly bigger than a large pinhead, among the wire wrappings. With the point of his knife-blade he picked at this shining point and found it was hard, like metal. He believed he had found the difficulty.

Getting a large wooden spool, he began to unwind the copper wire from the coil, rolling it up on the empty spool as he unrolled it from the coil. Swiftly he transferred the wire from one cylinder to the other. As his coil grew thinner he saw that he had found the difficulty. The bright dot was the head of a long, thin finishing