“There’s a time for work of that sort,” answered Coffee stiffly, “and there are persons assigned to do it. Didn’t you know that an officer—even a warrant officer—isn’t supposed to do the manual work of an electrician?”
“I’m afraid I didn’t,” answered Evans; “in fact, in the war with Germany, I heard the skipper of a destroyer rebuking a junior lieutenant for saying just that to an ensign.”
Coffee bit his lip and gulped, then drew himself up straighter than ever and said: “Well, understand hereafter that at Captain’s inspection you are to be in full uniform standing at attention.”
With these words he turned and marched out of the radio room.
But Coffee was not wholly satisfied with the success of his effort to improve Evans’s morale. Therefore, early in the afternoon he sent a message to Evans commanding his immediate presence in his room. When the messenger arrived and delivered his message, Evans, pliers in hand, was racing against time. If he could complete the installation of his new device in half an hour, he would be in time to test it by listening in on a schedule of signals from a distant station, and in his eagerness to see if it would fulfill his expectations he worked at a feverish speed.
On receipt of Coffee’s message he seized a piece of paper and wrote on it: “Am hastening to complete installation in time for J X Z schedule. If you approve, please give me written instructions to continue till job is completed.”
Handing it to the messenger he said: “Take that to Commander Elkins in the Flag Office, and wait for an answer.”
Then he continued to cut and fit the wires, handling them now and then with an almost vicious aggressiveness. Soon the messenger returned with the desired instructions.
“Please tell Mr. Coffee,” said Evans, “that Commander Elkins has instructed me to continue at this installation till it is completed.”
Soon the job was done. Hot and grimy, Evans seized the head-phones, made his adjustments and listened. The schedule began and the signals continued for some time, during which a variety of tests and measurements were needed to determine the success of the new device. In part these tests were satisfactory, but they revealed the need of further study and modification. The schedule over, Evans went to his room deep in thought, and was cleaning up preparatory to a session of slide-rule calculations, when again a messenger came from Coffee demanding his presence. Coffee had seen him walking slowly toward his room, and the installation was therefore no longer an “alibi.” To Coffee’s room he went and presented himself meekly at the door.