"Man overboard!"
Bill, making his way along the deck to the wireless room companionway,heard the thrilling cry and joined the rush of passengers to the sternrail from whence the shout had come. Radwig and Schultz stood there withevery expression of alarm on their faces.
The captain came hurrying up.
"What is it? What's the matter?" he demanded.
"Somebody fell overboard," declared Radwig; "we heard a splash andhastened here at once to cut loose a life belt."
"Lower a boat at once," commanded the captain; "slow down the engines."
The petty officer to whom the command had been given, hurried off at topspeed to the bridge while the captain asked more questions of Radwig andhis companion. But they could tell nothing more definite than that theyhad heard a splash and a cry and that was all. They had not seen who wasthe victim of the accident.
The captain decided to call a roll of passengers and crew at once. Whilethe boat was lowered, and was rowed to and fro, on the dark waters, thiswork went on. When it was over, there was only one person on board foundto be missing. This was, of course, Jack Ready. The cunning of Radwighad evolved this clever plan to obviate the search that would be surelymade on the ship for the imprisoned young wireless lad when his absencefrom duty was discovered. If the lad was believed to be drowned, ofcourse, no effort would be made to find him on board and he and Schultzwould be safe from the results of their rascality. It was a cleverthough simple scheme and it worked to perfection, for after an hour ofinvestigation the captain was forced to conclude that Jack had, in someinexplicable manner, fallen overboard and had perished.
But there was one person on board who did not accept this theory, andthat was Bill Raynor. By no figuring could he bring himself to believethat Jack had fallen into the sea. In the first place, the rail wasalmost breast high, and in the second, Jack was too good a sailor tohave lost his head and toppled from the ship.
"I am convinced he'll turn up," he told Mullen in the wireless room.
"Yes, but a thorough search was made for him without result," objectedthe other.
"Never mind, something seems to tell me that he is all right," protestedBill.
"I'm afraid you are deluding yourself," said Mullen, shaking his head."When he fell overboard----"
"You mean _if_ he fell overboard," interrupted Bill.
"Why, you surely don't doubt that!" exclaimed Mullen; "a splash is heardand following that a canvass of the ship shows that Jack Ready ismissing. If he wasn't drowned, where is he?"
"I admit that it sounds like a poser," said Bill. "See here, I'm notabsolutely certain that he did go overboard at all."
"What?" Mullen stared at Raynor as if he thought he had suddenly beenbereft of his senses.
"I mean what I say," repeated Bill slowly. "I'm not sure that he did gooverboard."
"In that case he must be on board the ship."
"Exactly."
"But why should he be hiding?"
"He's not hiding."
"Then why doesn't he show up?"
"Because he's been hidden," replied Bill.
"Oh, that's too fantastic an idea," cried Mullen.
"I know it sounds wild--almost crazy, in fact, but I simply cannot helpfeeling it."
"I wish I could think the same way," said Mullen, and the tone of hisvoice left no room to doubt that he meant what he said.
In the meantime, how was it with Jack? Confined in the stuffy cabin,lighted only by the smoky lamp, his head ached intolerably from thecruel blow that had been dealt him. In fact, it was not till thefollowing morning that he felt himself again.
Neither of the men who had made him a prisoner came near the cabin inwhich he was confined, and although he tried shouting for aid till histhroat was sore, nobody appeared to hear him. The boy began to beseriously alarmed over his predicament.
Radwig had told him in so many words, that neither he nor Schultzintended to return to the cabin. The water and bread left him would notsuffice for more than a few hours. By the time the cabin was entered bysome employee of the ship, it was entirely probable that the aid wouldcome too late. Luckily for him, his mental anguish was not increased byknowledge of the story of his death by drowning that had circulatedthrough the ship. Had he known of this, it is likely that, plucky as thelad was, he would have given way entirely to despair.
The cabin was an inside one, so that there was no porthole through whichhe could project his head and call for aid. Examination of the smallchamber, even to the length of pulling up the carpet, showed that therewas no means of escape short of forcing open the door and that Jack,strong as he was, was unable to accomplish, although he wore out hismuscles trying it.
The hours passed by with dragging feet until it seemed to the boy thathe must have been in the bolted cabin for years instead of hours. Thelamp guttered and went out, leaving him plunged in pitchy darkness. Itwas the last straw. Jack flung himself on the bunk and buried his headin his hands. How long he lay thus he did not know, but he was arousedand his heart set suddenly in a wild flutter by the sound of approachingfootsteps and voices.
He shouted aloud:
"Help, for heaven's sake, help!"
Then he sat silent, hardly daring to believe that there was apossibility of his rescue. More probably the voices and footsteps werethose of Radwig and his rascally accomplice.
In an agony of apprehension, Jack sat in the darkness waiting for theanswer to his cry for aid.
CHAPTER XVIII.
A RASCAL BROUGHT TO BOOK.
We must now go back to an occurrence that happened earlier in theevening. The ship had finally received orders to dock at Southampton andwas proceeding at a fast clip up the Channel when the telephone in thewireless room rang and a voice inquired for Bill Raynor. Summoned to thewire by Mullen, Bill, who had just entered the station after a miserableday of anxiety for Jack, replied and found that he had been called bythe ship's surgeon, Dr. Moore.
"There has been an accident," said the doctor; "one of the men has beenbadly injured. He says he wants to see you without delay."
"But I know none of the crew," said Bill.
"This man evidently knows you, however," returned the doctor, "and Iwish you would come as soon as possible. He appears to be worrying oversomething and says he cannot rest till he has seen you."
Greatly mystified, Bill obeyed the summons. On entering the doctor'scabin he saw, stretched on the lower bunk, and swathed in bandages, thefigure of a man who turned a pair of sunken eyes on him.
"One of the stewards," whispered the doctor. "Poor fellow. Badly scaldedin the galley."
He turned to the sufferer.
"This is Mr. Raynor, whom you wanted to see," he said.
"Let him come here," said the man feebly.
Bill approached the man's side.
"What can I do for you?" he asked.
"I want to ease my conscience of a great burden. Bend low so that youcan hear me. It hurts when I talk loud."
Bill bent over the pitiable, bandaged form.
"What do you want to tell me?" he said.
"That your friend, Mr. Ready, is a prisoner on this steamer," was thereply that brought an exclamation of amazement from Bill.
He was half-inclined to believe the man was delirious for an instant,but a moment later revised this opinion.
"How do you know this?" he asked, when he had recovered from hisastonishment.
"I helped the plotters who put him there," moaned the man. "They wereGermans, like myself, and they told me that if he was not shut up hewould betray them to the English authorities as soon as the ship docked.They gave me money and I let them have the key to a cabin far in thestern of the vessel. They forged a note to him and trapped him when, inanswer to it, I led him to where they were waiting."
"And he is there now?" cried Bill.
The man nodded slowly.
"So far as I know. They had screwed bolts on the door."
&
nbsp; "He was not hurt?" demanded Bill.
"Not seriously; but they struck him on the head."
"The brutes," cried Bill.
"You know who they were, then?"
"I can guess--a man named Radwig and another named Schultz."
The bandaged man nodded again.
"You have named them correctly."
"Doctor!" exclaimed Bill, "you have heard what this man has said. Canyou leave him long enough to go with me to Captain Jameson?"
"Gladly, my boy. But of all extraordinary tales----"
"It is true, upon my word of honor," groaned the injured man. "Thenumber of the cabin is 14. The chief steward has the keys. I stole themfrom his desk to open the stateroom and placed them back again withouthis knowledge."
"And just to think," muttered Bill, as he and the doctor hastened fromthe injured man's side, "that if it had not been for that accident we'dnever have known a thing about poor old Jack's plight till too late.After all, that feeling I had was correct."
Captain Jameson summoned the chief steward as soon as he had heardBill's story and together the commander, and the others, hastenedthrough the maze of corridors leading to stateroom 14. Theirs were thevoices the boy had heard, and in ten minutes' time he was wringingBill's hand and telling, to an indignant group, the story of Radwig'soutrage.
The captain's indignation knew no bounds.
"I'll have those rascals in irons before we drop anchor!" he exclaimed."We are nearing Southampton now and if that man had not met with hisaccident they might have landed and escaped scot free."
Jack was weakened by his trying experience, but he was not too exhaustednot to be able to accompany the officer to Radwig's cabin. A knock onthe door brought an immediate answer:
"Come in."
"Keep back," whispered the captain to Jack, "I want to see how far theserascals will incriminate themselves."
Accordingly, Jack and the others kept out of sight as the door wasopened and Captain Jameson stepped inside, but as the portal was leftajar, they could hear what went on within.
"You know my friend, Mr. Ewing," said Radwig, in oily tones, indicatingSchultz, who, it will be recalled, had adopted that alias, and who wasseated in Radwig's cabin engaged over a valise full of papers.
The captain bowed his acknowledgment of the introduction.
"And to what am I to attribute the honor of this visit?" said Radwig."Possibly something connected with the formalities of landing? I aminformed we shall be in harbor in a short time now."
"That is correct," said the captain bruskly, "and we shall land minusone of the ship's company."
"You mean poor young Ready, the wireless operator," said Radwig. "It wastoo bad about that unfortunate lad. If my friend and myself had been afew seconds earlier we might have saved him before he went overboard."
"Well, of all the precious hypocrites," gasped Bill under his breath.
"He takes the grand trophy," breathed Jack, who had been told of thecleverly arranged story of his death that had been circulated.
"There is not a question but that he is drowned, I'm afraid," came fromSchultz the next minute. Then was heard the captain's voice.
"Why, yes, gentlemen, there is," he said; "in fact, there is everyquestion for _here he is_!"
As if he had been an actor answering his "cue," Jack stepped into thelighted doorway. At the sight of him, the two miscreants shrank back asif they had seen a ghost.
"Oh, I'm real enough, Messrs. Radwig and Schultz," smiled Jack, as theothers crowded in behind him.
"And it will be my duty to hand you both over to the Britishauthorities," snapped the captain to the speechless pair.
Radwig made a sudden dart for the valise full of documents. His move wasso unexpected that before they could stop him he had hurled it outthrough the open porthole. Then, with a snarl of rage, he flung himselfat Jack. But the captain's erect figure interposed.
"Stand where you are," he ordered, and Radwig found himself looking intothe muzzle of a revolver.
"Hold out your hands," he ordered and cringing, the two miscreantsobeyed.
"Jones," he added, addressing the chief steward, "oblige me by slippingthose handcuffs on the men."
The click of the steel bracelets appeared to arouse Radwig to speech.
"You--you--young whelp," he shouted, shaking his manacled fists at Jack."Whatever may be my fate, I'll remember you and see that you areattended to if it takes every penny and every resource I have."
"Violence won't do you any good," commented the captain quietly, "and ifI know anything of the English law you are apt to spend quite some timein Great Britain. Jones, march the prisoners to the smoking room anddetain them there till the ship docks."
Sullenly, the two prisoners shuffled out of the cabin and were marchedpast wondering passengers to their place of detention. Three hourslater, when the ship docked, the boys saw them being taken ashore byBritish officials. A thorough ransacking of their cabin had failed toreveal any incriminating documents, although the valise which Radwig hadhurled out of the porthole undoubtedly had contained such papers.
At Southampton they learned that the _St. Mark_ was likely to be tied upfor some time. Rumors of mines and torpedoes made the owners unwillingto risk her loss. The two lads, therefore, left the vessel, andproceeded to London, where their instructions were to visit agents ofthe line and learn if anything had been heard of Tom Jukes. They foundthe city thronged with marching soldiers and territorials, whileeverywhere proclamations calling on the men of England to enlist wereposted. Otherwise, however, everything appeared to be going on as ifthere were no war.
Inquiry at the agents resulted in a meagre clue to the whereabouts ofthe lad of whom they were in search. He had wired for funds fromMalines, a Belgian town, a few days before war was declared and theGermans invaded Belgium. Since then nothing had been heard of him.
The magnitude of their task appeared greater than ever to the two ladsnow that they had actually started the work. But Jack was not the sortof lad to give up at the first difficulty.
"We'll go to Belgium," he announced, but right here a stumbling blockappeared.
There were no longer regular steamers running to Belgian ports, and thesmall and infrequent craft that did venture had been warned by theAdmiralty that the North Sea was thickly sown with mines. It was ajourney full of peril but, nothing daunted, Jack and Bill journeyed toGrimsby, a town on the east coast, where they were told they might beable to engage passage on a trawler, provided they could find a captainadventurous enough to take them across.
All this took up valuable time, for in the confusion and turmoil of wartime, business was harder to transact than in normal times. Two dayswere consumed in London, but on the evening of the second they startedfor Grimsby. As they took their seats in the train, a newsboy came alongshouting "War Extras." They bought some of his papers and settled backto read them.
"Well, here's an encouraging item," said Bill ironically, as the trainmoved out. He pointed to a despatch headed:
"Trawler destroyed by mines in the North Sea."
"We'll have to take our chances," decided Jack, "but, hullo--what'sthis?" he exclaimed suddenly; "listen here, Bill."
He read excitedly from his paper:
"The two prisoners arrested as German military agents on the arrival ofthe American liner _St. Mark_ at Southampton two days ago have, in somemysterious manner, escaped. Four of their guards are under arrest. It ishinted that bribery was used to effect the Germans' liberty."
CHAPTER XIX.
THE "BARLEY RIG."
It was with Captain Hoeseason of the trawler _Barley Rig_ that the boysfinally succeeded in striking a bargain to land them in Antwerp. Thecaptain of the craft, who was also her owner, was a giant of a man, morethan six feet tall in his great sea boots and dressed in roughfisherman's garb. The boys found him in a small, waterfront inn, with athatched roof and red window curtains which bore the sign of the Magpi
eand Shark, apparently, in the owner's estimation, a happy combination ofland and sea.
Captain Hoeseason declared that he knew the North Sea like a book andthat there would be no danger of encountering mines if they sailed withhim. His craft would be ready at the long fish dock at six the nextmorning, he declared, and at that hour the boys presented themselves.
The crew of the _Barley Rig_ were a rough, weather-beaten looking set ofmen, and almost immediately, upon the boy's arrival, they set to work,under the hoarsely bawled orders of Captain Hoeseason, setting thefisher craft's great red sails. At last all was ready. Under a briskbreeze, that momentarily grew stronger, the trawler slipped out to sea.
"They're a rough-looking lot on this craft," observed Jack to Bill, asthe _Barley Rig_ began to toss about in a way that would have beentrying to less experienced sailors.
"Yes, I'm glad you've got that money in your money-belt," said Bill,referring to the American gold they carried. "They have none of themseen it, thank goodness, or we might have cause to worry."
"Oh, I don't know," declared Jack. "They may be honest enough for alltheir rough looks. I imagine that the North Sea fishery doesn't tend tomake men very refined looking."
"At all events it hasn't had that effect on this crew," laughed Bill.
At noon they were summoned, by the cook's beating on a tin pan, to adinner of fried fish and boiled potatoes. The little cabin where theyate it reeked of the fish that for years had formed the _Barley Rig's_cargo, and was lighted, for it had no openings but the companionwayabove, by a swinging, smoking lamp of what was known among the fishermenas the "pot" variety. But it would have taken more than this to dull thekeen edges of the boys' appetites, whet to razor sharpness by thefreshening wind.