About two months before this story opens, Professor Chadwick had left home, bound, so he informed the lads, on a biological investigation cruise among the Florida Keys and the West Indies. The lads had heard nothing more of him, or of his steam yacht, the Sea King, with the exception of a letter from Key West, and another from the island of Jamaica, stating that all was going well.
Imagine their bewildered astonishment and excitement therefore, when, two weeks before, a brief letter came to High Towers telling them to proceed, with Jupe, to Galveston, where the motor cruiser Vagrant would be awaiting them. Their instructions continued to inform them that they were to equip the Vagrant with wireless, and also purchase a portable bungalow and shed, with which to establish a wireless station on Lone Island. The letter, signed by Professor Chadwick, closed in his customary abrupt manner, without vouchsafing any explanation of his orders.
But Jack and Tom hardly needed any. The letter opened up before them a delightful vista of fun and adventure.
“Just fancy, a wireless island all to ourselves!” Jack had exclaimed as the boys joined hands in a wild war dance of delight. They had pleasant recollections of former jolly days in camp on the Gulf.
The letter enclosed a liberal draft on Professor Chadwick’s bank, and within forty-eight hours after receiving the missive which was to mean so much to them, the two cousins and chums, with the faithful Jupe attending them like a black shadow, were off for Galveston. On arrival there they went to the boatyard mentioned in the Professor’s letter, where they found the Vagrant,—the smart craft already mentioned as lying at the Lone Island wharf,—already equipped for sea, awaiting them.
To install a wireless plant on board did not take long. The most difficult part of their task lay in finding a suitable mast for the support of the aerials. Jack solved this problem by constructing a telescopic staff of steel tubing which, when not in use, could be lowered to a height of twelve feet. In use it could be raised to an altitude of sixty feet, giving a very fair radius of scope.
The materials for the wireless on the island, like those for the floating plant, had been brought from Boston. But the portable shack and bungalow were purchased in Galveston.
The Professor’s letter had instructed the lads to wait on the island for a message by wireless. Now it had come; come, too, with a startling suddenness that might be likened to a jolt. Tom, watching Jack’s fingers with burning eyes, finally saw this message inscribed on the receiving pad:
“Lone Island Station.—Proceed with all speed to Long. 96° W. by Lat. 27° N. Urgent. We are in dire peril.—Bangs, operator Sea King.”
The patter of the electric waves against the receivers ceased. No further word came, and Jack, after a brief interval, took off the headpiece and laid it down beside him on the table. For an instant the message, so utterly, wildly different from any they had expected, almost deprived him of speech.