“You damned sneaks!” he said, and turned again to the testing apparatus.
He began slowly to turn the regulating screw on the recorder. He had given it but a few revolutions when the point of the little glass siphon, that had been tracing a straight black line on the sliding tape, moved up and down in curving zigzags. Hazeltine turned to the operator.
“Palmer,” he said curtly, “answer that call.”
The man addressed seated himself at the table, turned a switch, and clicked off a message. After a moment the line on the moving tape zigzagged again. Ralph glanced at the zigzags and bit his lip.
“Apologize to them,” he said to Palmer. “Tell them we regret exceedingly that the ship should have been kept waiting. Tell them our recorder was out of adjustment.”
The operator cabled the message. The three men at the end of the room glanced at each other; this evidently was not what they expected.
Steps sounded on the stairs and Peters hurriedly entered.
Mr. Langley, the superintendent of the station, had been in the company's employ for years. He had been in charge of the Cape Cod station since it was built, and he liked the job. He knew cable work, too, from A to Z, and, though he was a strict disciplinarian, would forgive a man's getting drunk occasionally, sooner than condone carelessness. He was eccentric, but even those who did not like him acknowledged that he was “square.”
He came into the room, tossed a cigar stump out of the window, and nodded to Captain Eri.
“How are you, Captain Hedge?” he said. Then, stepping to the table, he picked up the tape.
“Everything all right, Mr. Hazeltine?” he asked. “Hello! What does this mean? They say they have been calling for two hours without getting an answer. How do you explain that?”
It was very quiet in the room when the electrician answered.
“The recorder here was out of adjustment, sir,” he said simply.
“Out of adjustment! I thought you told me everything was in perfect order before you left this morning.”
“I thought so, sir, but I find the screw was too loose. That would account for the call not reaching us.”
“Too loose! Humph!” The superintendent looked steadfastly at Hazeltine, then at the operators, and then at the electrician once more.