electric light plant below without Mr. Reardon's knowledge and
consent, but when he asked Mr. Schultz about it the latter replied
that Cappy Ricks must have changed his mind about installing wireless
on the _Narcissus_, for he had cabled to the agents of the charterers
in Pernambuco to have a wireless plant and a competent operator
waiting for the vessel upon arrival. It was Mr. Schultz's opinion that
the owners had evidently arrived at the conclusion that it was wise to
have a wireless aboard during war times. Personally, Mr. Schultz
approved of the innovation.

So did Terence Reardon, for that matter. He found the new wireless
operator a charming fellow, possessed of talents far superior to those
of the young men who ordinarily pound the brass at sea. Indeed, after
the second day out, Mr. Reardon would have been heartbroken had
anything happened to that wireless. For Herr August Carl von Staden
sat at the key almost continuously, eavesdropping on the war news, and
Mr. Reardon never came to the wireless room that the operator did not
have some news of an overwhelming British defeat!

As the voyage proceeded, however, and Mr. Reardon's mind grew a trifle
uneasy, reluctantly he began to view Herr von Staden and the wireless
with apprehension. He asked the affable operator how much the Marconi
company charged the _Narcissus_ for his services and the rental of the
wireless plant, and von Staden, momentarily stumped, replied that the
tariff was two hundred dollars a month; whereupon Reardon knew he
lied, for the charge is one hundred and forty. The German, realizing
instantly that he was not on the target, added: "That is, for a
first-grade operator and a plant like this. Of course we furnish
cheaper operators and less powerful plants, Mr. Reardon."