The instrument did indeed look a hopeless wreck as Jack took it. The base was cracked and charred, the rubber jacket about the magnet-coils was frizzled and warped, the fine wire connections beneath were gone, and the armature spring was missing.
But Jack was not one to give up while a single hope remained. “I could improvise a key,” he said, and with decision hastily sought the hardware merchant.
“Mr. Wells, did you save any screw-drivers?” he asked.
“In a box down there. Help yourself.”
Running thither Jack found the tool, and immediately began taking the relay apart.
An exclamation of disappointment greeted the discovery that the fine copper wire within one of the coil-jackets had been melted into a solid mass. On ripping open the sizzled jacket of the other, however, Jack found the silk covering the wire to be only scorched, and determined to do the best he could with the one magnet.
Removing the relay entirely from the burned base, he secured a thin piece of board from one of the boxes near him, from the miscellaneous tools in another box found a gimlet, and made the necessary perforations. And soon he had the brass coil-frame mounted.
Meantime Mr. Orr, not for a moment thinking Jack could do anything with the charred instrument, had joined the crowd of men and women watching the burning building from across the street.
“Father! Here, please!” called Jack.
In some wonder Mr. Orr responded, and with him the hardware merchant.