The Young Wireless Operator—With the U. S. Secret Service: Winning his way in the Secret ServiceTheiss, Lewis E. (Lewis Edwin)
General
The Young Wireless Operator—With the U. S. Secret Service: Winning his way in the Secret Service
Theiss, Lewis E. (Lewis Edwin)
Radio -- Juvenile fiction; Secret service -- United States -- Juvenile fiction
The coastwise steamer _Lycoming_ was being warped into her berth
along the Hudson River in New York City. A fussy, little tug was
pushing against the _Lycoming’s_ bow, while other puffing, bustling
tugs butted the great ship astern, in an effort to swing the vessel
at right angles to the stream and push her into her dock. On the
_Lycoming’s_ lower deck sailors stood ready to cast great hawsers
ashore the moment the ship should be within reach of the pier. As
motionless as though he were a part of the ship itself, the captain
stood on the bridge, silent and watchful, giving occasional orders.
The upper decks were alive with passengers, who swarmed to the rail,
eagerly scanning the faces of the still distant crowd on the pier.
Now some passenger identified the face of a friend ashore, and again
some one waiting on the pier discovered a friend on board the
steamer, and cheery greetings were called back and forth across the
ever-narrowing strip of muddy water that separated the great ship
from her pier.
As the vessel slid nearer, the excitement increased. More and more
persons on shipboard and on the pier recognized friends and called
to them. A very babel of voices arose. The scuffling and tramping of
feet intensified the noise. Passengers descended to the lower decks
and the people on the pier crowded forward toward the waiting
gangplank. The tugs snorted and puffed, churning the water into
yeasty foam. From the pier came the rumble and rattle of little hand
trucks and the crash and bang of boxes and cases, which a gang of
stevedores was piling in a corner for shipment. Outside arose the
roar of the street traffic—the clatter of iron shod hoofs on hard
paving-stones, the throbbing and churning of innumerable motors, the
rattle of trucks and wagons, and the shrill cries of newsies, street
venders, taxi drivers, and baggage porters.
The huge steamer was almost in her berth, and the sailors were in
the very act of casting their lines ashore, when the door of the
wireless cabin, a snug little structure perched on the very top deck
of the _Lycoming_, swung open, and a trim young man, dressed in a
well-fitting uniform of the Marconi Service, stepped to the side of
the ship. He was the wireless operator, and in his hand he carried a
pair of powerful binoculars. Steadying himself against the rail, he
slowly swept his glance along the line of faces that fringed the
pier. Presently his glasses came to rest. For a single moment they
remained stationary. Then the wireless man slipped his binoculars
into his pocket, cupped his hands in front of his mouth, and leaned
over the rail, giving a long, peculiar whistle. It was the signal of
the Camp Brady Wireless Patrol. Apparently the signal was unheard.
When the wireless man repeated it, a youthful face, almost hidden by
the people on the pier, was upturned. A smile came on the waiting
lad’s face. His arms shot up in silent greeting.
“Come to the gangway,” shouted the wireless man through his cupped
hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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