Part 21 (2/2)
”You'll have to tell if the government gets after you,” was the reply.
”Uncle Sam isn't going to have a fellow running round loose with anything like that.”
”What do you mean?”
”That you will be forbidden to use it.”
”Is that so?”
”Yes, that's so. I'm going to make out a report for my superiors about it right now. You're pretty fresh.”
”Put that in the report, too,” chuckled the _Columbia's_ wireless disdainfully.
”You'll find it's no joke to monkey with the government,” snapped back the naval man.
Jack didn't answer. A message from the _Taurus_, of the Bull Line, was coming in. She had sighted an iceberg, something very unusual at that time of year. Jack hurried the message, which gave lat.i.tude and longitude of the menace, to Captain Turner.
”Well, that won't bother us,” said that dignitary. ”We're far to the south of that. Those Bull fellows run to Quebec. Send a radio to Captain Spencer, of the _Taurus_, thanking him for his information.”
The great man, the captain of a liner, who has literally more power than a king, lit a cigar, and bent his head once more over the problem in navigation he was wrestling with. Jack saluted and hurried back to his quarters.
He was highly elated over the success of his Universal Detector. The threats of the government man did not alarm him, for he did not propose to place his invention on the general market, but to sell it outright to the government, whose secret it would then remain.
He resolved to test it again. A moment after he had put the receivers to his ears, a broad grin came over his face. The air was literally vibrant with the calls of the navy men, flinging their high-powered currents through s.p.a.ce.
”... he's a cheeky beggar, whoever he is, but he's got the goods,” was the first he heard.
”Hum, that's Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton,” thought Jack. Then, from some other point came another message.
”Great Scott! Uncle Sam won't let him get away with anything like that.”
”I should say not. The Secret Service department is already at work trying to find out who the d.i.c.kens he is.”
”That will be a sweet job,” came the naval station at Point Judith.
”Talk about a needle in a haystack,” sputtered the U. S. S. _Alabama_.
”Not a patch on it,” agreed the great dreadnought _Florida_.
Then came Was.h.i.+ngton again.
”I'll tell you it's stirred up a fuss here,” he said. ”I wonder who it can be.”
”Maybe that Italian fellow who invented the sliding sounder,” suggested the _Florida_.
”Or Pederson, out in Chicago,” came from a land station. All the navy men appeared to be joining in the confab.
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