CHAPTER V
The Warning
Steve Ames walked into the hotel dining room accompanied by a young Navylieutenant. He spotted the boys immediately and waved.
Rick breathed a sigh of relief. "There he is."
"We can turn this whole business over to him and then get out of here,"Scotty returned.
The events of the night before had culminated in two phone calls, one bythe hotel manager to the police, the other by Rick to Steve Ames.However, the duty officer at the UDT base had replied that Ames was notavailable. Rick had then asked for intelligence, and his query hadgotten fast results. Steve Ames didn't show up, but Navy Shore Patrolofficers did. The SP's had conferred with the local police, and theaffair had ended with the shadow and the stranger, whom Scotty hadpotted in the shoulder, being carried off by both groups. First,however, the senior Shore Patrol officer had listened to their story,then instructed the boys, "Wait for Steve Ames. Talk to no one else. Thepolice won't ask any questions."
After conferring, the Spindrift group decided to go ahead with theirplans. The scientists were anxious to transfer their activities toClipper Cay, not only to get on with their vacation, but to get the boysaway from the mysterious danger that dogged their footsteps in CharlotteAmalie.
The scientists had departed at dawn in the _Water Witch_, afterextracting a promise from Rick and Scotty that they would not stir fromthe hotel until Steve Ames contacted them, and that they would then flyat once to Clipper Cay.
The wait had been a long one. It was now nearly noon, and the boys,hungry because their breakfast had been at daybreak, were orderinglunch.
Steve Ames sat down and motioned the lieutenant to a seat. "Jimmy, thisis Rick Brant and Don Scott. Boys, Lieutenant Kelly. Have you orderedlunch?"
"We were just looking over the menu," Rick replied.
"Fine. We'll join you."
The four consulted menus, then ordered. Steve turned to Kelly. "Jimmy,being the athletic type, you've probably never heard of the SpindriftScientific Foundation."
The lieutenant, a heavily tanned young man with crisp black hair, shookhis head. "Sorry. I never have."
"Well, it's a reputable, highly competent and conservative group of someof the best scientific brains in the country. But somehow, these two gotattached to it. They're not very conservative, although they'recompetent--especially at getting into trouble."
Kelly gave the boys a comradely grin. "If he talks that way, he mustlike you."
The boys grinned back. The lieutenant was likable.
"All right. Last I saw of you two, Rick was lying across the legs of theguy who had been tailing me. The next thing I heard, two men we've beenkeeping an eye on were in the hoosegow, one with a slug in his shoulder.And I also heard some wild tales of jumping out of windows. Now fill inthe details."
Rick started from the moment they first noticed that a shadow had pickedthem up. He told the story in careful and accurate detail, knowing thatSteve's trained mind might find significance in things that meantnothing to him. Now and then Scotty elaborated on a point.
When Rick concluded the recital, Steve cupped his chin in one hand andstared at them thoughtfully.
Kelly complimented them. "Sounds as if you took care of things like realprofessionals, both in the water and in the hotel. And I must say, Iwish my people would learn to give reports like that."
The boys thanked him, and Scotty added, "I don't suppose you can tell usanything about what you do?"
"Sure I can. I'm not one of Steve's hush-hush crew. I'm a simple Navylieutenant."
Rick chuckled. "In other words, you can't tell us."
Steve said, "He's executive officer of the UDT group here. And he'sgroup intelligence officer. I might also add that he's brighter than helooks."
"Then what do you make of this business?" Scotty inquired.
"I'm not that bright," Kelly replied. "Seriously, this one has mestumped. First of all, it's easy to understand why a shadow picked youup. After all, it must have been obvious that you knocked Steve's tailoff. So they simply picked you up instead, hoping that you'd lead themback to Steve, or that you might be important in some way they couldn'tunderstand."
"It's nice to have someone do my thinking for me," Steve said. "Carryon, Lieutenant."
"Aye, aye, Sir. The tail stuck with you. When your party split in two,he decided to stay with you instead of Zircon and Briotti. There couldbe two reasons: First, you were the ones who contacted Steve on thestreet. Second, you stayed at the waterfront while the others went offin a taxi. I like the second reason better because of what happenedlater. How about you, Steve?"
"I'm with you. Go ahead."
"Well, at this point I get lost. You put on your gear and swam out, notwith any particular destination in mind, but looking for a rock or acoral head or something of the kind where you could see fish. The shadowwatched you. Suddenly he got excited, grabbed a boat, and tried to runyou down."
Steve grinned at the boys. "In fact, he got so excited that he stole aboat right out from under the owner's nose. What do you think of that?"
Rick scratched his head. "We'd about decided he was either desperate orstupid. I guess he was both."
Kelly continued. "The big point is, what made him desperate? It couldonly have been one thing, as I see it. You were getting close tosomething, and he was afraid you'd find it. So he lost his head. That'sborne out by the remark his pal made last night, that he'd pulled enoughstupid stunts for one day."
"But what could we have been getting close to?"
"I don't know. Whatever it was, it isn't there now."
Scotty and Rick sat up straight. Scotty demanded, "How do you know?"
Steve smiled. "Because a team of Navy frogmen went over the entire areainch by inch this morning."
At the boys' surprised looks, Kelly explained, "You told the ShorePatrol enough to get us interested. We put teams in the water atdaylight. There's nothing there."
"But there could have been," Scotty pointed out. "If they suspected weknew about it, they could have removed it yesterday afternoon or lastnight."
"Correct," Steve agreed. "They were worried, too. Otherwise why the callon you last night? And the questions?" Steve paused while the waiterserved them. "The conclusion is this: Something they value was in thewater near where you swam. You met me yesterday morning, and they hadalready identified me. Which means that they must have agents inWashington who warned them JANIG was moving in on the case. Since it'sno secret that I'm with the outfit, they could peg me easily. When youswam out toward this object, whatever it was, they were convinced thatsomehow JANIG had learned about it. The tail got desperate and tried toknock you off. Then, last night, they tried to find out what you knew,and how."
"Who are 'they'?" Rick asked.
"If I knew that, I'd wrap the case up and go home. Jimmy has beenworking on it for a week, but he hasn't any answers yet. I've been heretwenty-four hours, and I know even less."
"Could you identify the two men?" Scotty queried.
"Yes. Both small fry, both local. And both are obviously green at thiskind of business, otherwise you'd be a pair of real cold turkeys bynow."
That was true, Rick knew. Experienced agents wouldn't have given him andScotty the chances that they'd seized.
"The men must know what was under the water," Scotty said.
"Not necessarily. They just knew it was important, and they may havebeen ordered to protect it. But your former shadow was on the griddleall night, and told all he knew. It wasn't much. He didn't even know whohad hired him. He wasn't stalling, either."
"What's the next step?" Rick wanted to know.
"Jimmy and I will drive you to the plane. Then you take off for ClipperCay. And stay there until your vacation is over. Have you a short-waveradio, by the way?"
"Yes. Why?" Rick had an all-wave battery portable.
"Monitor the Navy command frequency. Here, I'll write it down for you.Listen every night at six for five minutes. If I want you, I'll
send amessage. I don't think I will, but it won't do any harm to set up aschedule."
Steve lowered his voice. "Now listen to me. This thing is big. The twoyou ran up against yesterday were not good samples. We're dealing withsome tough professionals. I don't know who they are, but from what I'veseen I can tell you they're dangerous. So you two are to stay out ofthis case. That is an order. Stay on Clipper Cay and have fun."
"I can add a small note to that," Lieutenant Kelly said. "I'm new here.I was ordered down from Norfolk only a week ago. A first-classintelligence officer had my job. He turned up in a hospital in theBritish Virgins after being missing for two days. He had a fracturedskull. He still doesn't know what happened to him, and neither do we."
"Okay," Steve said flatly. "I appreciate the way you handled thingsyesterday, but that's the end so far as you are concerned. Get out, andstay out! And that's final!"
The Wailing Octopus: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story Page 5