CHAPTER VIII
EPH FEELS LIKE THIRTY TACKS
As agreed, the young West Pointer was in a room at the Grindley House.As this room was equipped with a telephone, the young Army man was intouch both with Fort Craven and with the submarine boys, should thelatter find anything to report over the talking wire.
Here in the room Captain Jack found Ridder, for the boy had felt itbest to go direct to the hotel.
"Surely, you haven't found out anything as quickly as this?" asked theyoung lieutenant of engineers, looking up in surprise.
"I've learned a few things," replied Jack, quietly.
"Sit down, and let us hear what you've learned."
Jack dropped to the chair, but Lieutenant Ridder, when he heard the news,was so excited that no chair could hold him.
"Jove! and just our luck!" gasped the Army officer. "No policemanin sight! Now, if you three boys had kept together--"
"But, you see, when I dropped from the automobile, I wasn't sure it wasMillard. I had had only a glance, and his face was away from me."
"If you see that wretch again, jump on him wherever he is."
"I could have done it, this last time," Benson nodded. "Yet I had anidea that, if I followed him, he might lead me to the place where hekept his maps and his other stolen information. And he did, I guess,"added Jack, with a somewhat disappointed smile.
"Wait a moment. I'll try to get Major Woodruff over the wire," mutteredLieutenant Ridder. "He may have some orders for us."
Major Woodruff was at his home. He heard the message and sent hisorders crisply.
"The major thinks we had better keep this matter from the police, yet,and do our best to find Millard, either in his own garments, or behindthat gray dress and veil," announced the Army lieutenant.
"Then I wish we had the other boys here," muttered Jack, wistfully.
At that moment the 'phone bell rang. It was Hal, reporting, andinquiring whether any word had come from his chum.
"Mr. Benson is here, and I think you'll do well to get here as quicklyas you can," replied Ridder.
"Is there any word--" began Hal Hastings.
Ting-ling-ling! The 'phone bell rang, cutting off Hal. The latter hadreceived his orders, and his next concern was to obey them. That waslesson number one in brisk Army discipline.
Hal was on hand in five minutes. While Jack was recounting to him theadventure with Millard, Eph Somers came in. He stood in the background,listening, his jaw gradually dropping until his mouth was wide open.
"You heard how Benson ran into the fellow?" asked Lieutenant Ridder,turning to Somers.
"Yes," muttered Eph, disgustedly, "and I guess I have been enjoyingthe fool's part of the adventure!"
"How so?" demanded the Army officer quickly.
"I met that same woman, I'll bet a cookie," growled Eph,"and--and--I--"
"Well, sir?" demanded Lieutenant Ridder, briskly.
"I carried that bag for _her_--carried it nearly two blocks!"
"What's that?" cried Jack Benson, leaping up. "How--"
"No; I don't believe, on second thought, that I'm the prize fool."
"Come, come," directed Lieutenant Ridder. "Talk up quickly, young man."
"If you want to hear what I have to say," retorted Eph, with a slightflash of his eyes, "you'll have to wait until I get around to it."
It was serving direct notice on Ridder that Army briskness wouldn't doin Eph's case.
"Well, what have you to tell?" demanded the young lieutenant,impatiently.
"I was on my way back here," Eph continued. "Guess, maybe, I was eightblocks or so away from here. I had been to the hotels that I agreed tovisit, and--"
"Why did you go to the hotel, anyway, after you knew Benson had sightedMillard?" broke in the Army officer.
"Because it wasn't a sure thing that Jack had seen Millard. He thoughtso, and so did we. But, after we left him, the auto ran along slowly,and we heard no row behind, so we guessed that maybe Jack had been wrongin his guess. At least, Hal and I figured it out that way. So I wentto the hotels on my list, just the same, and I guess you did, didn'tyou, Hal?"
"Yes," nodded Hastings.
"This isn't bringing us, very fast, to your latest adventure," complainedyoung Ridder.
"It's your fault, then," continued Eph, placidly. "You asked a question,and I answered it."
"Well, what about meeting the woman in a gray dress and veil?"
"I met her," retorted Eph.
"Could you see through the veil?"
"No."
"Then how do you know it was Millard?"
"I don't know," Eph rejoined. "But there are mighty few women as tallas Millard. Besides, this one had rather a long foot, and wore rubbers.I noticed that. Huh! This makes me feel like thirty tacks!"
"How did you meet her--or him?" asked Ridder.
"I was crossing a street, maybe eight blocks from here," Eph replied,"and I saw that tall woman, in gray, slip on the crossing. There wasa street car coming, and she gave a little yell. I got to 'her' justin time to pull 'her' out of the way of the trolley and to set 'her'on 'her' feet again. Then I picked up 'her' dress suit case. Itstruck me that the one I supposed to be a woman was on the point ofspeaking to me when he--she--seemed to see my uniform and then get alook at my face. Then the party, whether it was he or she, made signsto show that he, or she, was deaf and dumb. The suit case was heavy,so I offered to tote it along, as I was headed the same way. I thoughtit was the least I could do for a woman who had just had a great shock.If that was Millard--and I'd bet a torpedo boat it was--how he musthave chuckled over the idea of having one of the submarine boys carryhis bag for him."
"How far did you go with this 'lady'?" asked the Lieutenant Ridder, witha faint touch of sarcasm.
"Two blocks," replied Eph.
"And you left her--"
"At a cheap hotel where I can find her again. And I guess it's up tous to start right away."
"Yes," nodded Jack. "And we can't start too soon."
It may have occurred to Lieutenant Ridder that he wasn't exactly beingconsulted. However, he saw that these submarine boys were used toacting swiftly, and he began to believe that they would work betterif left to their own devices. So he merely nodded, adding:
"I'll wait here. I'll hope to have a report before long."
Eph led his two comrades back unerringly to the cheap hotel. They wentstraight to the hotel desk, Jack asking, bluntly, whether any verytall woman, in gray, and carrying a dress suit ease, had registeredthere.
"No," replied the clerk, very positively.
Then they interviewed the porter. He remembered the "woman" havingstepped inside the hotel. She readjusted her veil in the lobby nearthe doorway.
"Then she went outside, spoke to a driver, got into his cab, and wentaway," continued the porter.
"She spoke to the driver, did she?" Eph asked.
"Of course, sir," retorted the porter. "You didn't think she made signs,did you?"
From their talk the submarine boys were satisfied that it was the same"woman" whom Eph had so gallantly assisted. They were equally surethat this veiled "woman" in gray was none other than Millard.
"Do you remember which driver it was whose cab she engaged?" Jack asked,turning to hand the porter a dollar.
"Jack Medway's cab, sir," was the quick answer. "And here it comes,now."
The submarine boys hurried out, transferring their attention to Medway.
"I'm just back from taking the lady," replied the driver, after JackBenson had slipped him, also, a dollar bill. "But say--was it a lady,or a joke?"
"Why?" queried Jack Benson.
"Well," replied the driver, "the voice was pitched high, but there wassomething peculiar about it. I wondered, at the time, if it was a manrigged and togged out like a woman."
"Where did she tell you to take her," Jack Benson wanted to know.
"To Furnam Square!"
"Did you take her to
any address there?"
"No; just to the square. Then I waited to fill my pipe, and I saw thewoman, if woman it was, walk across the square and get into another cab."
"If you haven't anything else to do," hinted Jack, "suppose you take usto Furnam Square now."
Within a very few minutes the three friends were gazing out of a cabwindow upon the square. It looked like a very quiet residence section.
"There was another cab here, you say, that took your last 'fare' fromthis square?" asked Jack.
"Yes; there is a fellow who has a regular stand here. It's his cab,"replied Medway.
"Let us know, then, when that particular driver gets back here," beggedJack. "We'll sit here in your rig and wait."
Medway grinned. Waiting, as well as driving, meant money for him.
Fully an hour and a half dragged by. Jack was beginning to wonder ifit would not be better to give up this present clue to the chase, whenMedway, leaning down from his box, called quietly.
"That's the other fellow and his rig, coming back into the square now."
"As soon as he stops," directed Benson, "drive us over alongside. Don'tsay anything to him. Let me do the talking."
In a moment more Jack was out on the sidewalk, talking earnestly withthe driver just returned.
"You've had a long trip of it," guessed Jack, noting the warm conditionof the horses.
"You bet," nodded the other driver.
"Just got back from taking the tall woman in gray somewhere."
"Yep. But do you call it 'somewhere'? I'd call it most anywhere."
"How far was it?" asked Jack.
"What do you want to know for?" demanded the Jehu, looking with suddensharpness at his questioner.
"Because we'd like to go to the same place that you took the woman,"returned Benson, promptly.
"Huh! I took her for three dollars. I wouldn't go over that tripagain for less'n five."
"We'll pay the five, and be glad to," proposed Jack Benson, displayingsome money. "More than that, if you play right fair with us, we'll putanother five on top of the first, just as a little present to yourhorses."
"You'd better use the young gentlemen right, Jim," advised Medway."They're good fellows, and they pay well."
"Why do you want to go where I took that last party?" questioned Jim,with a shrewd look.
"One of the things that the second five-dollar note pays you for isasking no questions," retorted Jack. "Do you want to take up ouroffer?"
"Yes; if you'll give me fifteen minutes to rest and water the horses,"agreed Jim.
"That'll be all right," nodded Jack. "And now, Medway, have we paidyou enough?"
"Plenty," cheerfully responded the first driver, taking the hint andleaving.
"Where did you take that woman?" questioned Jack, while the new drivergot out a bucket for watering his horses.
"Away down by the sea-coast. Know where the Cobtown fishing shantiesare?"
"No."
"Well, Cobtown is made up of three or four little villages of ricketyold houses. Some are occupied by fishermen, and some ain't. There'sthree or four coves down that way fishing craft anchor in. It's alonely, wild bit of country, and some rough characters 'mong themfishermen."
"Did you take your fare to any particular house or shanty down atCobtown?"
"Nope; she got out on the road, in sight o' Cobtown, an' walked along,toting her old grip."
"What kind of a 'grip' was it?"
"An old brownish suit case."
"That's the one," nodded Eph.
As the driver busied himself over his team, the submarine boys drewaside to talk over their new information.
"I reckon we're going to be too late," grumbled Captain Jack.
"What makes you think so?" Hal inquired.
"Fishing villages, smacks and fishermen," answered Jack, gloomily."Fishermen are a daring, reckless lot of fellows. They'd take a craftanywhere, in any kind of weather, for money enough. Fellows, I'mafraid Millard has hired a smack and started up or down the coast."
"Then we've got a craft that can chase any smack on the Atlanticcoast," declared. Eph, stoutly.
"Of course; if we knew which craft to overhaul, and had the authorityto do it."
"Authority? Then what's the matter with the people at the Fort?"demanded Eph.
"Their authority runs only on the land. Besides, by the time we gotthrough the red tape, and got started, any smart smack, in a good wind,would be forty miles the other side of the horizon."
"Are you going to take this long drive, then?" asked Hal Hastings,rather dubiously.
"Yes," declared Jack Benson, promptly. "Hal, old fellow, any trail isbest where it's freshest."
"I reckon you can git in, now, gents, if ye want," called the driver.
Seated in the cab the submarine boys set out to meet whatever mightbe before them in Cobtown. Had they possessed the gift of prophecy--
However, none of us possess that!