CHAPTER XXII
SUBMARINE B-2
At the dock of the navy yard a submarine lay ready for departure.
There was nothing about its appearance to indicate that its mission wasof more than ordinary importance. But it was an unusual thing to see awoman aboard, and the curiosity of the crew was matched by that of theyoung officers who had come down to see Summers off on his voyage ofmany chances.
The officers got little reward for their considerate interest. EnsignSummers was engaged. He was explaining to Pauline, as they stood onthe deck of the war-craft, the entire history of submarines from thetime of Caesar, or Washington, or somebody to the present day, andPauline was listening with that childlike simplicity which women usefor the purpose of making men look foolish.
"By Jove! I thought he was tied, heart and hope, to the lovelyforeigner," exclaimed one of the shoreward observers.
"So he is," said another. "But Mlle. de Longeon isn't interested inhis daily toil. Do you know who the young lady up there is?"
"No. She must have got a dispensation from the secretary himself to goon this trip."
"So she did--easy as snapping your thumb. She's Miss Pauline Marvin,daughter of the richest man that has died in twenty years."
The boat gong sounded the signal of departure.
Summers, with a hasty apology, left Pauline and stepped forward. Theengines began to rumble. The deadly and delicate craft--masterpieceof modern naval achievement--drew slowly from the pier.
There was a shout.
Summers, delivering rapid orders on deck, turned with an expression ofannoyance to see his faithful man servant, Catin, out of breath andexcited, rushing toward the boat.
Summers ordered the vessel stopped. It had moved not more thanstepping distance from the pier and in a moment Catin was beside hismaster on the deck.
"She told me it must--" he paused, gasping for breath.
"Who told you what?" demanded Summers.
"Mlle. de Longeon. I am sure it is a message of importance. She toldme I must give it to you before you risked your life on the voyage."
"Mlle. de Longeon!" He caught the letter from Catin's hand.
"My Hero--I cannot keep the secret any longer, cannot wait to tellyou that it is you I love. Estelle de Longeon."
Summers walked slowly, dizzily up the deck was in an ecstasy. He wasoblivious to all the world--even to Pauline, who stood questioning anofficer at the rail. The fact that his servant, Catin, slippedsilently down the hatchway to the main compartment, and thence on tothe pump room at the vessel's bottom, would hardly have interested him---even if he had known it.
"Shall we put off, sir?"
The second officer saluted.
The Ensign came to himself instantly. "Yes, of course. I put backonly for an important message," he said. "My man got off, did he?"
"I think so."
"All right. Go ahead."
Catin, with that rare fortune which sometimes favors the wicked, hadchosen precisely the right moment for his ruse. The crew of thesubmarine were all on deck save those in the engine room, and his quickpassage to the vitals of the vessel was unseen.
Once in the pump room, he hastily drew from under his coat the bombplaced in his hands at the conference of diplomats, wound itsclock-work spring and laid it beside the pumps.
There was a strange look on the man's face as he did this--a look atonce proud and pitiful. Catin had not sense of treachery or shame.The deed in itself did not lack the dignity of courage, for, with theothers, he was planned his own death. And while the others were to diesuddenly, ignorant of their peril, Catin was to die in deliberateknowledge of it.
On deck Pauline was eagerly questioning an under officer about thetorpedoes, when Summers came up.
"You'll have to come down and see for yourself," he said, overhearingher.
"First I'll show you the pump room--the most important part of us,"he was saying as Catin, in the boat's bottom, first caught the sound ofnearing voices.
Catin leaped up the steps from the pump room. He was in the nick oftime. A large locker in the main compartment gave him refuge just asPauline and Summers reached the room.
"The pumps are our life-savers," said Summers, as he directed Paulinedown the second ladder. "If they go wrong when we're under water wecan't come up."
"And what do you do then?" asked Pauline innocently.
"Oh, just-stay down."
Catin waited breathless in his hiding place until they returned. "Byheaven, they didn't find it!" he breathed eagerly.
Pauline and Ensign Summers stood at the rail watching the foamy rush ofa fast motor boat, when a hail sounded across the water.
A man was standing up in the motor boat and calling through amegaphone.
Summers raised his glasses. "Do you know who that is?" he askedlaughingly.
"Of course not. What does he want?"
"It's Harry, and I suspect he wants to take you away from us."
Pauline uttered an exclamation of annoyance.
"Isn't he silly!" she cried, "One would think I was, a baby, the way hewatches me."
Soon the voice of Harry could be plainly distinguished.
"Clear your ship; I am going to sink you," he called.
"Cargo too precious this trip; don't do it," answered Summers.
"Let me take the megaphone," demanded Pauline.
"What do you mean by following us?" she cried.
"I don't trust that sardine can, and I want a regular boat on hand whenyou are wrecked."
"I am very angry with you. It looks as if--"
Her words were drowned in Summers' laughter.
"Never mind. I know a way we can escape from him," he said.
"How?"
"Why, sink the boat."
"That will be splendid."
He stepped aside and gave a terse order. Delightedly, Pauline watchedthe brief, machine-like movements of the crew trimming the deck.Summers escorted her back to the conning tower. They descended.Within a few moments the wonderful craft was buried under the waves.
"There he is--looking for us," laughed Summers, as he made room forPauline at the periscope.
Amazed, fascinated, she gazed from what seemed the bottom of the seaout upon the rolling surface of the waves. Harry's motorboat was nearand he was standing in the bow, scanning the water with binoculars.
"And he can't see us?" asked Pauline.
"Oh, yes, he'll pick up out periscope after a while. Shall we firethe torpedo at him?"
"Yes, please," said Pauline.
Summers' laugh was cut short. As if someone had taken his jest inearnest and really fired a projectile, the crash of an explosion camefrom the bottom of the boat.
"Stay here--" ordered Summers with a set face as he joined the rush ofseamen into the pump room.
But Pauline followed.
An officer, with blanched face but steady voice, came up to Summers.
"What was it, Grimes?"
"It seems to have been a bomb, sir. There was no powder down there."
The face of the Ensign darkened with suspicion and alarm.
"A bomb? So they were going after us--the enemy! We'd better getright up and back to port, Grimes."
"I have to report, sir--the pumps are disabled."
Summers turned with a look of pity toward Pauline, who stood at hiselbow.
"And we can't get up again?" she questioned.
"There is one chance, but--" He stopped openly and listened. "Openthat locker," he commanded.
A seaman pulled back the door of the locker and disclosed the cringingform and defiant face of Catin.
"Catin! You!"
The man stepped forward with a smile of triumph.
"You set off the bomb? You wanted to kill me?"
"I did my duty. I obeyed my orders as you obey your orders. I had noenmity for you. I am, in fact, sorry that you were fool enough not tosee that I was a little more than a valet."
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bsp; "You are a spy, Catin?"
"Yes, sir. And I have done my work, and I am willing to die with therest of you."
Pauline drew back, shuddering. She touched Summers' arm.
"Oh, Mr. Summers, I believe--"
"What is it?"
"I believe I know of the plot. I was in the conservatory at the navalball. A man and a woman--"
"A woman?"
"Mlle. de Longeon and her diplomatic friend--you remember."
"Yes--well?"
"They talked together in whispers. The man said 'The thing will bedone on Submarine B-2 tomorrow.'"
A look of agony that the fear of death could not have caused came intothe face of the young Ensign.
"Mlle. de Longeon? No!"
"Yes! Mlle. de Longeon," sneered Catin stepping nearer. "Mlle. deLongeon is the principal proof of my statement that you are a fool.Mlle. de Longeon recommended me to you as a capable valet, did shenot? Mlle. de Longeon frequently was your guest. Now Mlle. de Longeonhas the plans of your submarine and your torpedo--plans which I tookthe liberty of removing from the little cupboard over the desk in yourworkroom."
Summers sprang forward but he recovered himself.
"I should have told you," wailed Pauline.
"How should you have known?" said Summers. In a moment he had lost hislife work and his love. Suddenly he straightened himself. The soldierin him mastered the man.
"There is still a chance--one little chance," he said.
"To get out?" cried Pauline.
"Yes--through the torpedo tube."
She shuddered.
"I am going to make you do it," he said, "because it is the onlychance. The men will follow you. Harry's boat will be near."
"And you?"
"I do not matter any more. Come."
A gunner opened the great tube as Summers led Pauline into the torpedoroom. Obediently she entered the strange passageway of peril and ofhope.
"Goodbye," he said, "and good luck."
"Goodbye," she answered. "You are a brave man. You are as brave--you are as fine--as Harry."
From the end of the torpedo tube a woman's form shot to the surface ofthe water. Choking, dazed, but courageous, Pauline tried to turn onher back and gain breath. But they were well out to seat and the waveswere crushing.
"What is that?" asked Harry, pointing and passing his glasses to theboatman.
The man looked and without a word swung the craft about and put theengine at top speed. And in a few moments Harry's strong arms drew herfrom the water.
"My darling, what has happened?" he gasped.
"Don't think of me--think of them!" she begged, weakly. "They weretrapped--down there. There was a bomb--a plot--the machinery isruined. Harry, help them!"
The boatman who overheard Pauline's first cry of appeal, now cameforward respectfully. "There's a revenue cutter--the Iroquois--coming out," he said, significantly.
Harry looked. "Splendid!" he cried. "Can we signal her?"
"No, but we can catch her?"
Shouts from a speeding motorboat brought the Government vessel to astop. Officers came to the rail and helped Harry and Pauline to thedeck.
"Ensign Summers and his crew are sunk in their submarine. The pumpsare gone. There was a bomb explosion. Can you get help?"
"Where are they?"
"You can pick up their buoy with a glass--there."
The chief officer looked through his glass. "Yes," he said. "You'llcome abroad, or keep your own boat?"
"We've got another piece of work to do--if we can leave our friendsto your guarding," said Harry.
"Well have the wrecking tugs and divers in twenty minutes."
Harry and Pauline climbed back to the motorboat and sped up the bay.
"What did you mean another piece of work?" asked Pauline as she clungto his arm.
"My car is at the Navy Yard pier," was his only answer.
She still clung to him in tremulous uncertainty as the motor sped themup through Broadway, into Fifth avenue, and on to the door of Mlle. deLongeon's hotel.
She and the diplomatic grandee who had held the confidential conferencewith her in the conservatory at the naval ball were together in hersuite.
"And you have the plans actually in your possession?" he said.
"Yes. It has been a tedious process. It was easy to make him fall inlove, but he is so fearfully scrupulous about his work. It took evenhis valet three months to locate the secret hiding place of thepapers."
"A little more caution mingled with his scruples and he would not nowbe dead at the bottom of the bay."
"Oh, this is the day, is it?" asked Mlle. de Longeon, wearily. "Afterall, it is rather cruel to Catin."
"To die for his country?"
"Nonsense! He dies because he knows he would be killed in a cruelerway if he refused to obey you."
The diplomat smiled. "Will you give me the plans?"
"Yes--why, Marie, what is it?"
A maid had entered with cards. "I am not at home today."
Mlle. de Longeon moved to her writing desk, removed from it a packet ofpapers, and, with a little courtesy gave it into the eager hands of thediplomat.
"It has been a splendid achievement, Mademoiselle," he said,enthusiastically. "I shall see that--what? Who is this?" heexclaimed, as Harry and Pauline burst into the room.
"Marie, Marie, I told you that I was at home to no one!" screamed Mlle.de Longeon.
"How dare you intrude in these apartments?" demanded the diplomat.
"I dare, because I want those papers," declared Harry.
The packet was still in the diplomat's hands. He tried to thrust itinto his pocket, but Harry was upon him. They clinched, broke fromeach other's grasp and struggled furiously.
As the last resource the diplomat drew the packet from his breast andflung it across the room toward Mlle. de Longeon. She pounced uponit. But Pauline was beside her. Stronger both in body and in spiritthan the adventuress, she grasped her wrists, and in the luxurious,soft-curtained room there raged two battles.
But the struggles did not last long. Harry hurled his antagonist, anexhausted wreck, to the floor, and sprang to the side of Pauline.Throwing off Mlle. de Longeon's grasp, he picked up the packet from thefloor, and with Pauline ran from the room.
A revenue cutter was landing a group of faint and silent men, at thepier of the Navy Yard when an automobile flashed in.
"Hurrah! They did it! You're safe!" cried Pauline, rushing past Harryto greet Ensign Summers.
The officer took her extended hands gratefully, but there was no lightin his eyes as he answered.
"Safe--and dishonored," he said. "I am only glad for my men."
"Why dishonored?" asked Harry.
"Don't you understand?"
"The man," said Pauline, curiously, "the man who placed the bomb?Where is he?"
"Dead," said Summers. "He broke the tube after you were released andthen attacked me with a knife. I had to kill him."
"Good for you!" broke in Harry. "But what's all the gloom talk for?This stuff about dishonor? You've proved yourself a hero, man."
"I have lost the most important documents of the Navy Department--through a silly entanglement with a woman."
"No, you haven't. We went and got them for you," said Harry,presenting the packet of plans.