On the night that young Raynor, far off on lonely Skull Island, sent out his calls after a day of vain efforts at communication, the Thespis was further to the north than she had yet cruised. Jack was unusually tired after a day of hard work, for several icebergs and fields and not a few growlers had been sighted, and he had been kept very busy sending out warnings and answering questions flung at him from all along the Atlantic track.
But at last the long day was over and his reports neatly written out and posted in the big “Berg Book� or log. He was at liberty to turn in, for if icebergs were sighted during the night by the watch, he knew that he would be at once notified so that he could spread the warning broadcast.
As usual, he slept soundly, but he was troubled by dreams. They were of Raynor. With remarkable vividness he saw his chum adrift on a sea of ice surrounded by perils. Then the scene shifted, and Raynor was on a small vessel in a furious storm. Jack saw the little craft lifted on giant billows and harassed by pounding ice masses. Then came a terrific crash and the small vessel broke up. For a flash, Jack saw Raynor swimming heroically in the boiling waves and then—he awakened with a cry of alarm.
“Gracious, what a dream,� he muttered. “I’m glad I don’t have a nightmare often.�
He looked at the clock on the bulkhead. It was time to turn out. As was his custom, Jack inspected the “tell-tale� tape of the wireless before he did anything else. This tape is an automatic contrivance that works under a “tapper� connected with the receiving part of the wireless. An inked roller checks off on it any dots and dashes that may have come over the wire while the operator was otherwise engaged. To anyone who can read code, therefore, it forms a complete record.
Jack picked up the tape in a rather perfunctory way. He expected to find nothing on it but the usual inquiries about bergs reported earlier and so forth.
But hardly had he cast his eyes on it this morning than he almost dropped it again as, if it had been red-hot.
Marked on it over and over again were these symbols:
| ... | .. | ... |
| S | O | S |
His trained eye skimmed over other markings on the inked tape. To him the array of dots and dashes was as plain as print.