“I certainly was. I was giving some information to a ship more than a hundred miles off.”
“Sho! Go on, now. Was you, honest?”
“Just as true as I’m sitting here,” replied Joe, but he saw that Hank’s face bore an expression of disbelief, and doubted if he would be able to explain to the unsophisticated youth the rather intricate theory of the wireless. He contented himself, therefore, by replying:
“I felt just the same way as you do about it, Hank, till I found out for myself just what wonderful things the wireless could accomplish.”
Hank, with a look of keen curiosity on his rough features stepped close to the instruments. He cautiously stretched out his gnarled fingers and touched the detector. The next instant he gave a howl of pain and bounded up till his head almost touched the roof of the shanty.
“Wow! Ow! Ouch!” he yelled at the top of his voice.
“What on earth is the matter?” demanded Joe, who had not seen Hank’s movement.
“Ouch! She bit!”
“She? Who?”
“Them things thar,” and Hank pointed to the instruments.