



Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net





[Illustration: There was a sudden blinding flash from the instruments
and a blaze of blue, hissing fire filled the room.]




THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS AND THE LOST LINER

BY

CAPTAIN WILBUR LAWTON

AUTHOR OF "THE BOY AVIATORS' SERIES," "THE DREADNOUGHT BOYS' SERIES,"
"THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS ON THE ATLANTIC," ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES L. WRENN

NEW YORK

HURST & COMPANY

PUBLISHERS




Copyright, 1914

BY HURST & COMPANY




CONTENTS

    CHAPTER I--AT SEA ONCE MORE
    CHAPTER II--WIRELESS CONVERSATIONS
    CHAPTER III--A STRANGE REQUEST
    CHAPTER IV--A PECULIAR COINCIDENCE
    CHAPTER V--THE INTERRUPTED MESSAGE
    CHAPTER VI--A DARING FEAT
    CHAPTER VII--QUARTERMASTER SCHULTZ VOLUNTEERS
    CHAPTER VIII--SAFE ONCE MORE
    CHAPTER IX--THE MIDNIGHT INTRUDER
    CHAPTER X--A MESSAGE IN SECRET CODE
    CHAPTER XI--WHAT SAM HEARD
    CHAPTER XII--A SUDDEN ALARM
    CHAPTER XIII--A DOSE OF SLEEPING POWDER
    CHAPTER XIV--THE WINKING EYE
    CHAPTER XV--SECRET SIGNALS AT DAWN
    CHAPTER XVI--S. O. S.
    CHAPTER XVII--A DERELICT OF THE SKIES
    CHAPTER XVIII--A LEAP FOR A LIFE
    CHAPTER XIX--A CALL IN THE NIGHT
    CHAPTER XX--TO THE RESCUE
    CHAPTER XXI--A TALE OF THE SEA
    CHAPTER XXII--A DECOY MESSAGE
    CHAPTER XXIII--FALSE FRIENDSHIP
    CHAPTER XXIV--KIDNAPPED
    CHAPTER XXV--SAM, A TRUE FRIEND
    CHAPTER XXVI--A WICKED PLAN
    CHAPTER XXVII--IN THE LION'S MOUTH
    CHAPTER XXVIII--A CLIMB FOR LIFE
    CHAPTER XXIX--FREEDOM ONCE MORE
    CHAPTER XXX--IN SEARCH FOR A CLEW
    CHAPTER XXXI--LOOK FOR A WHITE HORSE
    CHAPTER XXXII--A BOLD ROBBERY
    CHAPTER XXXIII--JARROLD AGAIN
    CHAPTER XXXIV--BAD NEWS FOR THE COLONEL
    CHAPTER XXXV--JARROLD GETS FRANTIC
    CHAPTER XXXVI--ADRIFT
    CHAPTER XXXVII--THE IRONY OF FATE
    CHAPTER XXXVIII--A BOLT FROM THE BLUE
    CHAPTER XXXIX--JACK'S RADIO
    CHAPTER XL--THE ANSWER TO THE WIRELESS CALL




CHAPTER I

AT SEA ONCE MORE


The West Indian liner, _Tropic Queen_, one of the great vessels owned by
the big shipping combine at whose head was Jacob Jukes, the New York
millionaire, was plunging southward through a rolling green sea about
two hundred miles to the east of Hatteras. It was evening and the bugle
had just sounded for dinner.

The decks were, therefore, deserted; the long rows of lounging chairs
were vacant, while the passengers, many of them tourists on pleasure
bent, were below in the dining saloon appeasing the keen appetites
engendered by the brisk wind that was blowing off shore.

In a small steel structure perched high on the boat deck, between the
two funnels of the _Tropic Queen_, sat a bright-faced lad reading
intently a text-book on Wireless Telegraphy. Although not much more than
a schoolboy, he was assistant wireless man of the _Queen_. His name was
Sam Smalley, and he had obtained his position on the ship--the crack
vessel of the West Indies and Panama line--through his chum, Jack Ready,
head operator of the craft.

To readers of the first volume of this series, "The Ocean Wireless Boys
on the Atlantic," Jack Ready needs no introduction.

Here he comes into the wireless room where his assistant sits reading in
front of the gleaming instruments and great coherers. Jack has been off
watch, lying down and taking a nap in the small sleeping cabin that,
equipped with two berths, opens off the wireless room proper, thus
dividing the steel structure into two parts.

"Hello, chief," said Sam Smalley, with a laugh, as Jack appeared; "glad
you're going to give me a chance to get to dinner at last. I'm so hungry
I could eat a coherer."

"Skip along then," grinned Jack; "but it's nothing unusual for you to be
hungry. I'll hold down the job till you get through, but leave something
for me."

"I'll try to," chuckled Sam, as he hurried down the steep flight of
steps leading from the wireless station up on the boat deck to the main
saloon.

"Well, this is certainly a different berth from the one I had on the old
_Ajax_," mused Jack, as he looked about him at the well-equipped
wireless room; "still, somehow, I like to look back at those days. But
yet this is a long step ahead for me. Chief wireless operator of the
_Tropic Queen_! Lucky for me that the uncle of the fellow who held down
the job before me left him all that money. Otherwise I might have been
booked for another cruise on the _Ajax_, although Mr. Jukes promised to
give me as rapid promotion as he could."

Readers of the first volume, dealing with Jack Ready and his friends,
will recall how he lived in a queer, floating home with his uncle, Cap'n
Toby. They will also recollect that Jack, who had studied wireless day
and night, was coming home late one afternoon, despondent from a
fruitless hunt for a job, when he was enabled to save the little
daughter of Mr. Jukes from drowning. The millionaire's gratitude was
deep, and Jack could have had anything he wanted from him.

All he asked, though, was a chance to demonstrate his