Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/376

Rh anxious waiting for you upon the dock and are now storming the ship. Before you go to them, I had intended to ask," he looked from one to the other, "your forgiveness. But instead, may I not now be the first to offer to you—"

A hurrying step from without interrupted, and the "wireless" operator burst in upon them.

"Message for Mr. Preston!" he cried, handing it over, smiling. "I was still up in the room testing the apparatus when I heard our call from somewhere, and this came in for you, sir!"

Preston snatched it and read it hurriedly. He, too, smiled largely, and handed it over to the girl beside him.

"You do not know at what station he is?" he asked the operator.

"No, sir. It is impossible to tell. He may have sent it even from one of the other ship stations in any of the slips about, and there are several shore stations near here in New 346