Brighton Boys in the Radio Service Read online

  CHAPTER VIII

  THE DEATH OF THE SPY

  The inability of Lieutenant Mackinson to add a single word of furtherinformation to what he had said as he regained consciousness on thepromenade deck increased the mystery.

  The young lieutenant, it seemed, had been following a trail which hebelieved was leading him closer and closer to the object of the hunt,and it was in forging the links of this chain of circumstantial evidencethat the young officer was led into the lower depths of the ship.

  "From a sailor who did not know why I was inquiring," he told thecaptain, "I learned that on the night the unknown man invaded thebattery room this sailor had seen another member of the crew, presumablyfrom the engine or boiler room, throw aside something as he hurriedalong the passageway leading from the wireless room. He was in hisundershirt.

  "The sailor said he was about to investigate when he saw us come along,and you stooped to pick up whatever it was that had been thrown away.

  "While I was talking to him another member of the crew, evidently alsofrom the boiler or engine room, brushed by us. He had disappeared whenthe sailor said to me, 'I think that was the fellow--the one that justwent by.' Not wanting to arouse his suspicions, I ended the conversationwith a casual remark, and then strolled away until I was out of thesailor's sight, and then hurried as fast as I could toward the engineroom.

  "I do not know that part of the ship well, and it was very dark downthere. I was groping my way along when I thought I heard steps justahead of me. I stopped to listen, and when the sound was not repeated Iproceeded onward.

  "All of a sudden I was grasped by the neck and one arm from behind, andthrown into that closet. Before I could utter a word I was a prisonerbehind a locked door. I called several times, and, receiving noresponse, realized that I must be some distance from anyone else andthat the noises of the engines completely drowned out my voice.

  "Every moment it became more stifling in there, and I had no doubt thatI had walked directly into a death-trap. It was then I began signalingon the steam-pipe. I guess it was a mighty lucky thing for me that SlimGoodwin strolled out on deck just at the time he did."

  And that was all that Lieutenant Mackinson could tell. The mysteriousstranger remained what he had been from the first--a desperate anddangerous and unknown spy, lurking somewhere upon the American transport_Everett_ with the evident intention of making the ship's position knownto German U-boats when the _Everett_ and her convoy of cruisers anddestroyers entered the danger zone.

  Then it was, with the lieutenant temporarily disabled as a result of hisexperience, that the three boys from Brighton, who seemed somehow tohave been selected by Fate as the despoilers of all the spy's plans, puttheir heads together to devise a scheme of capture.

  "We've got more than one good reason for wanting to get this fellow,"Slim reminded the others with considerable warmth, during the course oftheir deliberations. "First and foremost, of course, is our plain dutyto our country, to which he is an enemy and a traitor.

  "But, in addition to that, there is that knockout that he handed to Joe,and the midnight scare he gave Jerry and me, and finally his effort tokill Lieutenant Mackinson by slow suffocation, not to mention the nerveof the fellow in coming back the way he has."

  "Yes," added Jerry, "we owe him a lot, and it is up to us to figure outhow we can square the debt."

  "Well," said Joe, "I think I've got a plan that will work; but we've gotto remember that we are dealing with a very shrewd man."

  "Well, what's your suggestion?" Slim demanded.

  "That we divide our forces," answered Joe solemnly, "lie in wait and tryto ambush the foe."

  "Right!" cried Jerry. "Joe, you'll be a general before this war's over."

  "Along what lines do we disperse our forces, General?" asked Slim.

  "Along what lines would His Royal Stoutness suggest?" demanded Jerry.

  "Oh, you don't have to keep reminding me that I'm a trifle heavy," Slimreplied in a peevish tone.

  "A trifle heavy! Get that, will you," echoed Jerry with a gale oflaughter. "A trifle heavy! Oh, my!"

  "You'll find out if I sit on you," Slim threatened, in a belligerenttone.

  "Come now," said Joe, "this isn't making any progress toward capturingthe spy."

  "No," Jerry responded, "and that's our first duty, even if it is atrifle heavy."

  "I've warned you," Slim snapped out.

  "Quit it now," ordered Joe. "Let's get down to serious business."

  "All right," agreed Jerry. "Shake, Slim, just to show there's no hardfeelings."

  "Won't do it," Slim muttered.

  "Oh, yes, you will," counseled Joe. "Shake hands, the two of you."

  Slim's good nature overcame his feigned reluctance, but as Jerry graspedhis hand he gave Jerry a jerk that nearly took him off his feet.

  "Now we're square," said Slim, as Jerry rubbed his nearly dislocatedshoulder.

  "Well, that pull _was_ a trifle heavy," muttered Jerry, determined tohave the last word.

  "Now my plan is this," said Joe, facing the other two seriously. "Thenearer we come to the zone of the German submarines, the more this manwill try to arrange to notify them of our presence, and to do that hewill have to use the wireless somehow. It seems likely that he wouldmake his effort at night, because then it is easier for him to escapedetection.

  "Now if we let Lieutenant Mackinson sleep during the day we could sodivide up the work as for all of us to get some sleep, and then allcould do watch at night.

  "The lieutenant could be in the wireless room, and one of us in thebattery room, while the other two did duty outside. If one of us shouldhide under that stairway at the upper end of the passage, and the otherin that alcove at the other end, no one could reach the wireless orbattery rooms without our seeing.

  "It would be tiresome and monotonous work, all right, but it mightaccomplish the result."

  "I'm willing," said Jerry, "but you and I will have to do the outsidework. Slim's a trifle heavy to get into either one of those hidingplaces."

  "Well, I'll cover the battery room," said Slim, ignoring Jerry'sremark.

  "Let's see Lieutenant Mackinson, then," suggested Joe, and they went tofind the young officer who was convalescing from his encounter with thespy. When he had approved the plan they got the O. K. of the captain.

  And so it was, four hours later, with the lieutenant in the wirelessroom, and Slim in the battery room adjoining, and Joe and Jerry stowedaway in the hiding places selected, their long night vigil began.

  Hour after hour dragged itself by without a development, the intensesilence broken only by the sounds of the engines and the wash of the seaagainst the ship. To the three boys, unable to see or talk to eachother, and Joe and Jerry scarcely daring to move, the minutes laggedlike hours, and the hours like dull, black, endless nights.

  Dawn came, and with it new activities in all parts of the vessel, butwithout a reward for their watch, and as the two lads crawled from theirplaces of concealment at either end of the passage, to join Slim andLieutenant Mackinson, there were mutual feelings of disappointment, butnone of weakened determination.

  "What luck?" asked the captain, coming in at that moment.

  "None, sir, at all," the lieutenant responded.

  "Very well, then, try it again to-night," the commander ordered. "But inthe meantime all of you get some sleep. You may get better resultsto-night, for by then we will be coming to the outer fringe of thesubmarine zone. I will arrange for another man to stay in the wirelessroom during to-day, and if an emergency arises he will call you."

  So the four young men went to bed for some much-needed rest and sleep,and when they awakened it was almost time for mess--directly after whichthey were to take up their night watch again.

  "I hardly think we will be troubled with U-boats to-night," the captaintold them, "for it is perfectly clear and there will be a full moon. Thesea is calm and we readily could discern a periscope a long distanceaway."

  Truly it was a be
autiful night. And it was in this alluring quiet ofseemingly absolute peace that one of the tragedies of war soon was to beenacted.

  The Brighton boys and their friend and superior officer, the lieutenant,had been in their appointed places hardly more than an hour when Joeand Jerry at the same instant caught the sounds of some sort of scuffleon the deck above.

  It came nearer and clearer until finally, as it reached a point near tothe top of the stairway under which Joe was concealed, the latter coulddiscern the fog-horn voice of the first assistant engineer.

  "G'wan with ye, now," he commanded, breathing heavily, as though fromsome violent physical exertion. "G'wan with ye, I say, or ye'll befindin' it mighty unhealthy fer ye. It's meself that'll be moppin' upthe deck with ye if ye try to get gay once more."

  The first assistant engineer was a mighty mountain of a man, but hisvoice broke off as the commotion started again. Certainly he must have arough customer to deal with, thought Jerry, if he, with all his greatphysical strength, could not entirely quell him.

  "Ye will, will ye?" hissed the voice of the engineer again. "Thry tobite me, eh?" and there was the terrible smash of a fist, and theunmistakable sound of a man falling upon the deck. "Ye dirty hound, I'vea mind to boot ye into the sea."

  And then there were other voices. Jerry heard the captain demanding anexplanation, and the ship's doctor spoke.

  "I found him tamperin' with the wires near the dynamos," the firstassistant engineer was saying. "I niver liked his looks annyway, ifye'll pardon me, sir, fer sayin' it. And whin I asked him what he wasabout, he thried to git away. I grabbed him, and he showed fight. Iguess I give 'im all he wanted, though, that last time."

  "So?" said the captain, in a voice so stern it made Joe wince. "And whatdoes this fellow do aboard the ship?"

  "He's a third-class machinist, sir," the engineer replied. "But if ye'llexcuse a word from me, sir, I think he's a first-class crook."

  "Yes, and I believe he's worse than that," the captain added; and then,in a voice which seemed to shake the vessel: "Stand up!"

  There was a strained silence for a moment. Then--

  "Get Lieutenant Mackinson and those boys," the captain continued, andthe ship's surgeon started down the stairway to find that Joe and Jerryalready were summoning Slim and the lieutenant.

  "It looks as though we'd caught the man," the doctor whispered.

  As the four reached the deck where the captured man stood between thefirst assistant engineer and the captain, who had by this time taken outhis revolver, there was a gasp of astonishment from Joe, followed by alouder "Holy smoke!" from Slim.

  "Do you recognize this man?" the captain asked in a sharp tone.

  "I should say I do, sir," Joe responded. "_He is the man who wasplanting ammunition in the waters near the navy yard that night beforewe sailed_!"

  "The very same one, sir!" Slim exclaimed, with equal positiveness.

  The ship's surgeon, who had followed the others upon deck, steppedcloser for a better inspection of this enemy. At the same instant theprisoner, striking out with both hands, knocked the captain's revolverhand into the air, and thrust the engineer from him. Before anyone couldinterfere he was dashing down the deck toward the stern.

  Just as he took a wild, headlong leap over the rail the captain fired.While the captain, through a speaking tube, was instructing the man inthe pilot house to signal below "Reverse engines," the others rushed tothe stern of the ship.

  Far behind them in the foamy trail left on the moonlit water by thevessel they saw what seemed to be the head of a man bobbing up anddown--and then it entirely disappeared. The ship was turned, and thatportion of the sea searched, but without avail.

  "Gone," said the captain in tones of very evident relief. "Well, it wasdeath for him, one way or another, and he took his choice."

  As the captain and surgeon moved away from the stern rail of the_Everett_, the three lads and the lieutenant still stood there, gazingfar out to sea.

  "The man who made me nearly freeze to death in the water," spoke Joe, asthough thinking aloud.

  "And pummeled my stomach until it was sore for three days," echoed Slim,in sad reminiscence.

  "And made me run a mile in nothing, flat," added Jerry.

  "And fought me to a knockout finish later," mused Joe.

  "And nearly smothered me to death," spoke the lieutenant.

  "And was finally corralled by an Irish engineer!" said Slim.

  "Gone," concluded Jerry, "and no one here will mourn his departure."