Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/252

 elapsed. Half a minute went by. There was no reply. Another half minute passed and the wireless was silent. Henry looked worried.

“Do you suppose her wireless has failed altogether?” he asked Belford. Before the latter could answer, Henry’s head-phones began to speak. “Sixty-five seconds difference,” came the reply, both brief and faint.

When the captain received the news he did a little figuring. “Thirteen miles distant,” he commented. “We ought to be up with her in a couple of hours.”

The two hours passed, and no ship was visible. Still the storm raged without abatement. Night had come. For two days and a night the Iroquois had been searching the stormy sea for this tanker that seemed to evade her so persistently. She ought to be at hand, but nowhere could she be seen. Through the blinding storm came no sign of the fugitive vessel. No shaft of light pierced the swirling curtain of snow and mist.

Then suddenly there was the Rayolite, almost abreast of them, not more than three hundred yards distant. It was impossible to send a line to her. No small boat could live in such a sea. It was doubtful if a shot would carry true. The captain swung the Iroquois directly to windward of the tanker, and cut down his speed almost to nothing. In a moment the huge ship was almost