Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/232

 nail. Presently it was sticking up a half inch above the winding of the coil. The chief electrician started to pull it out, then thought better of it and desisted. But even his first slight tug at the nail showed him it was pretty tight. He went on unwinding. But now he examined the wire carefully as it unrolled. In piercing the coil, the nail had cut the insulation of practically every wire it had touched. In one or two places it had even severed the wire wrapping itself. When at last the chief electrician unwrapped the last winding of the coil, the nail dropped to his desk. Its end was bent over at an angle, and the metal core was scratched where the nail had been bent sidewise. The whole thing was as plain as day now. Some one had driven the nail through the coil, finishing the job with one or two hard blows that had bent the point against the core of the coil, sinking the head far below the corded cover. The question was, who had done it.

As soon as he had made this discovery, Mr. Sharp carefully removed all traces of his work, locked the parts of the damaged coil in his private drawer, bundled himself up, and sought the captain. The nail he had in his pocket.

“I have found the trouble, Captain Hardwick,” the chief electrician reported, when he was alone with the captain in the cabin. “There it