inst the tide as she slowly backed into the stream. Majestically
her monster bulk swung round, her bow pointing seaward. Her maiden
voyage had begun.

It is doubtful if among her delighted passengers and proud officers,
however, there were any more enthusiastic about the great vessel than
two lads who were seated in the wireless operators' cabin on the topmost
deck.

"Well, Billy, this is different from the old _Ajax_, eh?"

"Is it? Well, I should say so," responded Billy. "You ought to see the
engine-room. You could have put the _Ajax_ in it, almost."

"We ought to be proud of our jobs," continued Jack.

"I know I am. It's a great thing to be part of the human machinery of a
huge vessel like this, and the best part of it is that she flies the
American flag," added Billy enthusiastically.

"I heard that the _Gigantia_, of the London Line, sails to-day, too. By
Jove, there she comes now."

He pointed out of the open door back up the river. The great British
steamer, till then the biggest thing on the ocean, was backing out. Her
four red-and-black funnels loomed up imposingly above her black hull.

"Then we'll have a race for certain," said Billy, his eyes dilating with
excitement; "good for us, but my money goes on the _Columbia_."

"That Britisher can travel, though," said Jack.

"Oh, we won't have an easy time of it, but I'll bet my shirt we'll win
the blue ribbon of the ocean."

"I hope so," rejoined Jack with a smile at the other's enthusiasm. "But
what do you think of my quarters, Billy?"

"Why, they're fit for a king or a millionaire," laughed Raynor. "I'll
bet you never thought, when you were in that little rabbit hutch of a
wireless room on the old _Ajax_, that some day you'd be traveling in
such style?"

Raynor's eyes wandered to the instrument table, with its array of the
most up-to-date wireless apparatus.

"Hullo! What's that thing?" he asked suddenly, pointing to a device that
looked unfamiliar. It was a box-shaped arrangement, metal, with
complicated wires strung to it and had a "telephone" receiver attached
to it with a band to hold it securely to the operator's head.

"Oh, that's an invention of my own that I'm trying out," said Jack. "I
don't just know what success I'll have with it. I haven't really put it
to the test yet."

"What do you call it?"

"The Universal Detector," replied Jack.

"Just what is that?"

"Well, at present you know a ship can only receive wireless messages