The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE FLYING CHANCE. 21 ing like mad. Trying to give a bearing, but I can’t get it. There she goes again! If you'll wait a bit, sir, I'll try your ship again soon’s I’m clear.” Rankin waited, feeling vaguely uneasy about the breakdown of his ship’s wireless. The key crackled‘on, harsh, powerful, sug- gestive of imminent mystery somewhere. Rankin’s elementary study of the inter- national Morse presently recognized the recurring dash-dot, dash-dot as “ repeat.” Suddenly the operator sprang to his feet and stood to rigid attention. Rankin wheeled, and saw—the com- mandant! With him was the officer of the watch. Once again he was caught. A little thing this time; but still it was dallying with the thin edge of obedience. Rankin was sur- prised to find himself feeling his guilt. But the commandant noticed him no more than he did the stiff-standing mes- senger. That great man’s usually impassive face was flushed with uneasiness. The sheaf of decoded messages was clutched into a crumpled ball in his hand. It must surely be something of the most extreme urgency, thought Rankin, which .~ would bring the lord of all the navy-yard universe hurrying to the radio station in person. The commandant’s whole atten- tion, in fact, was directed fiercely at the operator. “Get me that bearing!” he shot at him. ‘“‘T must have that bearing! Seventy-two west, you say; is that correct? But the latitude, man; what’s the latitude?” “ Correct as I can catch it, sir. Receiv- er’s somethin’ awful to-day; but seventy- two’s what I make it out. An’ I just got latitude thirty-three, twenty.” The information seemed to upset the great man entirely. “ Great Heaven! Just what I thought. She’s steaming right into it! Call the destroyer Woodruff immediately and stand by to send this; my code number, prece- dence of everything!” The operator’s face went blank at the thought. “ Destroyer Woodruff? Sorry, sir. Can’t pick her up. Been trying for an hour. Wireless must be out of commission.” “You can’t pick— My God! Dead in her course, too!” The flush of excitement on the commandant’s stern face had paled. ‘Call again, man! Keep on calling, and don’t step!” The tenseness was broken by the flashing crackle which streamed again from the sender. The commandant waited, tapping his foot in his agitation. Into his ferment Rankin with all his inexperience of official propriety intruded. ‘Pardon me, sir. May I ask what is the trouble?” “Eh, what!’”? The commandant looked at him blankly for a moment. Then in- dignation added to his nervous irritation. ‘““What the— Your curiosity is out of place, Ensign Rankin.” “Pardon me. My ship, sir.” Rankin said it with a feeling of pride, as though it conferred a right upon him. “Your—ah, yes. And you missed her! Well, sir, your ship is steaming into a whole fleet of submarines! THat’s the trouble. Five of them; or maybe ten, or a hundred, as far as we can make out from these con- founded code flashes.”’ ‘“'Whe-e-ew!” The wireless operator whistled his startled amazement before he remembered that he was merely a machine who heard nothing and knew nothing of what passed in that little electric-charged room, a highly sensitized automaton, bound by many oaths to eternal dumbness; then he hid his confusion under the crisp hissing of his key. Rankin echoed his whistle. But his was a personal interest. There was a danger; and he thought somehow that he ought to be there to share it. “His ship” had taken a definite meaning in his mind. In the strained silence which followed, broken only by the intermittent crackling calls into the void, he pictured her rushing into the peril, all unwarned and unsuspecting. Vaguely the commandant’s voice came to him, talking to the operator seemingly out of the distance. “It is imperative to communicate. We must get in touch.” It woke him out of his abstraction with a start. A wild idea had begun to take shape in his brain. Thoughtless of all pros oO comicbooks CO