on that had given rise
to it. He thought rather wistfully how Roy had often called him Sherlock
Nobody Holmes.

To be sure, the man's apparent willingness to have the world turned
upside down for his personal convenience had quite a German flavor to
it, but it was not, after all, a very suspicious circumstance, and the
cheerful light of morning found Tom's surmise quite melted away. It
needed only the memory of Roy's taunting smile to turn his thoughts to
sober realities.

"When you get through, come aft and we'll jolly the gun crew," said
Archer, as Tom left the little room.

He made his way along the deck, bent on his new duties, bucking the
brisk morning breeze, and holding on to the peaked service cap which he
had been given, to keep it from blowing off. The steel-colored water
rolled in a gentle swell, reflecting the bright sunlight, and little
flaky clouds scurried across the sky, as if hurrying to their day's
tasks also. Far off toward the horizon a tiny fleck of white was
discernible, but no other sign of life or of man's work was visible in
the illimitable waste.

To Tom it did not seem an angry ocean, but, like the woods which he knew
and loved so well, a place of peace and quietude, a refuge from the
swarming, noisy land. And across the vast waste plowed the great ship,
going straight upon her business, and never faltering.

The door of the wireless room was thrown open as he passed, and the
young operator was sitting back, with the receivers on his ears and his
feet on the instrument shelf, eating a sandwich.

"H'lo, kiddo," said he.

In this strange environment Tom was glad to hear the operator say,
"H'lo, kiddo," just as he might have said it on the street. He paused at
the door for a moment and looked about the cozy, ship-shape little room
with its big coil and its splendid, powerful instrument.

"Do you live in here?" he asked.

"Nope," said the operator; "but I'm doing both shifts, and I s'pose I'll
have to sleep right here with the claps on this trip."

"Isn't there another operator?" Tom asked.

"Yup--but he didn't show up."

Tom hesitated, not sure whether he ought to venture further in familiar
discourse with this fortunate and important young man, whom he envied.

"The man at the gate said everybody was on board," he finally observed;
"he said all the passes were taken up."

The operator shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "I don't know
anything about that," said he.

"_I_ got