Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/269

 talk to him, though, if your conversation would excite him.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t do,” said the captain regretfully. “Yet I wanted very much to talk to him.”

“I don’t want to be inquisitive, Captain, but perhaps if you could give me an idea of what you want to say to him, I could judge if it would be best. Perhaps, though, it is a private matter.”

“No, it isn’t, Doctor. It’s a matter that concerns us all. You are one of my official family, and I may as well tell you. Only please do not talk about it.”

“Of course I wouldn’t repeat what you say, Captain, but don’t tell me unless you wish to do so.”

“You recall that we had a little difficulty with the wireless the evening we got back to New York from Boston, don’t you, Doctor?”

“Yes. That was the evening Sparks, here, got back aboard. I heard something had gone wrong. But the chief electrician soon fixed it up, I was told. I supposed that it didn’t amount to anything.”

“In a way, it didn’t. In another way, it was a very serious affair.”

“So?” queried the doctor.

“Yes. The difficulty was merely a grounded coil in the field. But the coil had been grounded