“That’s more’n four hundred miles from here, isn’t it?” said Tony. “Where’s the Herculanea?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t found that out yet.”
Walter continued to listen in silence for some time, eagerly hoping to catch the location of the vessel, but he was disappointed. She might be 100 or 500 miles from the icebergs. He caught many messages from the Herculanea and other ships speaking with her, but no more latitude and longitude.
Time passed rapidly, and the interest of Walter did not wane. In fact, he would not have thought of going to bed at all, so long as he was able to catch messages from the Herculanea, if Tony had not called his attention to the lateness of the hour.
“Walter, do you know what time it is?” asked Tony after looking at his watch. The ship’s clock was not wound and had struck no bells all evening.
“I guess it’s pretty late,” replied the diligent radio listener mechanically.
“No, it’s early in the morning—after midnight.”
“You don’t say. Well, we’ll have to quit soon and go to bed. But I do hate to stop as long as I can get a message from Guy’s and mother’s ship. Maybe Guy’s standing beside the operator right now. It’u’d be just like him to hang around the radio room for hours at a time if they’d let ’im.”
“He’s more likely in bed.”
“Perhaps you’re right. Well, one more message, and I’ll quit.”