Chapter IX
A Night Test
"Come on, Ned," said Tom, after a moment or two of silent contemplationof Eradicate. "I don't know what this cheerful camouflager of mine istalking about, but we'll have to go to see, I suppose. You say you haveshut some one up in Boomerang's stable, Rad?"
"Yes, sah, Massa Tom, dat's whut I's gone an done."
"And you say he's a German?"
"I don't know as to dat, Massa Tom, but he suah done eat sauerkraut'mostest ebery meal. Dat's whut I call him--a Sauerkrauter! An' he suahwas spyin'."
"How do you know that, Rad?"
"'Cause he done went from his own shop on annuder man's ticket into desecret shop, dat's whut he went an' done!"
"Do you mean to tell me, Rad," went on Tom, "that one of the workmenfrom another shop entered Number Thirteen on the pass issued in thename of one of the men regularly employed in my new shop?"
"Dat's whut he done, Massa Tom."
"How do you know?"
"'Cause I detected him doin' it. Yo'-all done made me a deteckertiff,an' I detected."
"Go on, Rad."
"Well, sah, Massa Tom, I seen dish yeah Dutchman git a ticket-passoffen one ob de reg'lar men. Den he went in de unlucky place an' stayedfo' a long time. When he come out I jest natchully nabbed him, dat'swhut I done, an' I took him to Boomerang's stable."
"How'd you get him to go with you?" asked Ned, for the old colored manwas feeble, and most of the men employed at Tom's plant were of arobust type.
"I done fooled him. I said as how I'd jest brought from town in mahmule cart some new sauerkraut, an' he could sample it if he liked. Sohe went wif me, an' when I got him to de stable I pushed him in andlocked de door!"
"Come on!" cried Tom to his chum. "Rad may be right, after all, and oneof my workmen may be a German spy, though I've tried to weed them allout.
"However, no matter about that, if he was employed in another shop, hehad no right to go into Number Thirteen. That's a violation of rules.But if he's in Rad's ramshackle stable he can easily get out."
"No, sah, dat's whut he can't do!" insisted the colored man.
"Why not?" asked Tom.
"'Cause Boomerang's on guard, an' yo'-all knows how dat mule of minecan use his heels!"
"I know, Rad," went on Tom; "but this fellow will find a way of keepingout of their way. We must hurry."
"Oh, he's safe enough," declared the colored man. "I done tole Koku tostan' guard, too! Dat low-down white trash ob a giant is all right fo'guardin', but he ain't wuff shucks at detectin'!" said Eradicate, withpardonable pride. "By golly, maybe I's too old t' put on guard, but Ikin detect, all right!"
"If this proves true, I'll begin to believe you can," replied Tom. "Hopalong, Ned!"
Followed by the shuffling and chuckling negro, Tom and Ned went to therather insecure stable where the mule Boomerang was kept. That is, thestable was insecure from the standpoint of a jail. But the sight of thegiant Koku marching up and down in front of the place, armed with a bigclub, reassured Tom.
"Is he in there, Koku?" asked the young inventor.
"Yes, Master! He try once come out, but he approach his head very closemy defense weapon and he go back again."
"I should think he would," laughed Ned, as he noted the giant's club.
"Well, Rad, let's have a look at your prisoner. Open the door, Koku,"commanded Tom.
"Better look out," advised Ned. "He may be armed."
"We'll have to take a chance. Besides, I don't believe he is, or he'dhave fired at Koku. There isn't much to fear with the giant ready foremergencies. Now we'll see who he is. I can't imagine one of my menturning traitor."
The door was opened and a rather miserable-looking man shuffled out.There was a bloody rag on his head, and he seemed to have made more ofan effort to escape than Koku described, for he appeared to havesuffered in the ensuing fight.
"Carl Schwen!" exclaimed Tom. "So it was you, was it?"
The German, for such he was, did not answer for a moment. He appeareddowncast, and as if suffering. Then a change came over him. Hestraightened up, saluted as a soldier might have done, and a sneeringlook came into his face. It was succeeded by one of pride as the manexclaimed:
"Yes, it is I! And I tried to do what I tried to do for the Fatherland!I have failed. Now you will have me shot as a spy, I suppose!" he addedbitterly.
Tom did not answer directly. He looked keenly at the man, and at lastsaid:
"I am sorry to see this. I knew you were a German, Schwen, but I keptyou employed at work that could not, by any possibility, be consideredas used against your country. You are a good machinist, and I neededyou. But if what I hear about you is true, it is the end."
"It is the end," said the man simply. "I tried and failed. If it hadnot been for Eradicate--Well, he's smarter than I gave him credit for,that's all!"
The man spoke very good English, with hardly a trace of German accent,but there was no doubt as to his character.
"What will you do with him, Tom?" asked Ned.
"I don't know. I'll have to do a little investigating first. But hemust be locked up. Schwen," went on the young inventor, "I'm sorryabout this, but I shall have to give you into the custody of a UnitedStates marshal. You are not a naturalized citizen, are you?"
The man muttered something in German to the effect that he was notnaturalized and was glad of it.
"Then you come under the head of an enemy alien," decided Tom, whounderstood what was said, "and will have to be interned. I had hoped toavoid this, but it seems it cannot be. I am sorry to lose you, butthere are more important matters. Now let's get at the bottom of this."
Schwen was, after a little delay, taken in charge by the properofficer, and then a search was made of his room, for, in common withsome of the other workmen, he lived in a boarding house not far fromthe plant.
There, by a perusal of his papers, enough was revealed to show Tom thedanger he had escaped.
"And yet I don't know that I have altogether escaped it," he said toNed, as they talked it over. "There's no telling how long this spy workmay have been going on. If he has discovered all the secrets of ShopThirteen it may be a bad thing for the Allies and--"
"Look out!" warned Ned, with a laugh. "You'll be saying things youdon't want to, Tom and not at all in keeping with your former silence."
"That's so," agreed the young inventor, with a sigh. "But if things goright I'll not have to keep silent much longer. I may be able to tellyou everything."
"Don't tell me--tell Mary," advised his chum. "She feels your silencemore than I do. I know how such things are."
"Well, I'll be able to tell her, too," decided Tom. "That is, if Schwenhasn't spoiled everything. Look here, Ned, these papers show he's beenin correspondence with Blakeson and Grinder."
"What about, Tom?"
"I can't tell. The letters are evidently written in code, and I can'ttranslate it offhand. But I'll make another attempt at it. And here'sone from a person who signs himself Walter Simpson, but the writing isin German."
"Walter Simpson!" cried Ned. "That's my friend of the tree!"
"It is?" cried Tom. "Then things begin to fit themselves together.Simpson is a spy, and he was probably trying to communicate withSchwen. But the latter didn't get the information he wanted, or, if hedid get it, he wasn't able to pass it on to the man in the tree.Eradicate nipped him just in time."
And, so it seemed, the colored man had done. By accident he haddiscovered that Schwen had prevailed on one of the workmen in Shop 13to change passes with him. This enabled the German spy to gainadmittance to the secret place, which Tom thought was so well guarded.The man who let Schwen take the pass was in the game, too, it appeared,and he was also placed under arrest. But he was a mere tool in the payof the others, and had no chance to gain valuable information.
A hasty search of Shop 13 did not reveal anything missing, and it wassurmised (for Schwen would not talk) that he had not found time to goabout and get all that he was aft
er.
Soon after Schwen's arrest the "Spy Tree," as Tom called it, was cutdown.
"Eradicate certainly did better than I ever expected he would,"declared Tom. "Well, if all goes well, there won't be so much need forsecrecy after a day or so. We're going to give her a test, and then--"
"Give who a test?" asked Ned, with a smile.
"You'll soon see," answered Tom, with an answering grin. "I herebyinvite you and Mr. Damon to come over to Shop Thirteen day afterto-morrow night and then--Well, you'll see what you'll see."
With this Ned had to be content, and he waited anxiously for theappointed time to come.
"I surely will be glad when Tom is more like himself," he mused, as heleft his chum. "And I guess Mary will be, too. I wonder if he's goingto ask her to the exhibition?"
It developed that Tom had done so, a fact which Ned learned on themorning of the day set for the test.
"Come over about nine o'clock," Tom said to his chum. "I guess it willbe dark enough then."
Meanwhile Schwen and Otto Kuhn, the other man involved, had been lockedup, and all their papers given into the charge of the United Statesauthorities. A closer guard than ever was kept over No. 13 shop, andsome of the workmen, against whom there was a slight suspicion, weretransferred.
"Well, we'll see what we shall see," mused Ned on the appointedevening, when a telephone message from Mr. Damon informed the youngbank clerk that the eccentric man was coming to call for him beforegoing on to the Swift place.