"What do you mean?"
"That you will be forbidden to use it."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, that's so. I'm going to make out a report for my superiors about it right now. You're pretty fresh."
"Put that in the report, too," chuckled the Columbia's wireless disdainfully.
"You'll find it's no joke to monkey with the government," snapped back the naval man.
Jack didn't answer. A message from the Taurus, of the Bull Line, was coming in. She had sighted an iceberg, something very unusual at that time of year. Jack hurried the message, which gave latitude and longitude of the menace, to Captain Turner.
"Well, that won't bother us," said that dignitary. "We're far to the south of that. Those Bull fellows run to Quebec. Send a radio to Captain Spencer, of the Taurus, thanking him for his information."
The great man, the captain of a liner, who has literally more power than a king, lit a cigar, and bent his head once more over the problem in navigation he was wrestling with. Jack saluted and hurried back to his quarters.
He was highly elated over the success of his Universal Detector. The threats of the government man did not alarm him, for he did not propose to place his invention on the general market, but to sell it outright to the government, whose secret it would then remain.