Jarrold was, as has been said, a bull of a man. Thick-necked, powerfuland possessed of no little science, he could have torn Jack to pieces ifhe could have gripped him right. But Jack, once free of his clutches,was careful to avoid this.
Jack possessed no little of the science of the gymnasium, too. He foughtcoolly, taking every advantage of his skill. Again and again he dodgedJarrold's mad rushes, and again and again he landed blows which seemedheavy enough to fell an ox.
But they did not appear to have any effect on Jarrold's big frame. Amere grunt was the only sign that he had noticed them. Jack began todespair of handling his man after all.
In the struggle, furniture was smashed, Jarrold's coat torn, and bothcombatants' faces were cut and bruised. Gasping for breath, dizzy fromthe thundering shock of the few blows Jarrold had driven home like fleshand blood sledge hammers, Jack was about to give up, when suddenly henoticed that no one was facing him. Jarrold, breathing heavily, his facepurple, lay stretched across a lounge as he had fallen.
A terrible thought flashed through Jack's mind. Suppose he had killedhim?
CHAPTER XIII
A DOSE OF SLEEPING POWDER
Jack rushed out into the hallway. It was not, as he had expected,smoke-filled, nor was there any odor of fire in the air. Somewhere hecould hear the voices of officers shouting above the distant hub-bub inthe saloon: "Keep your heads! There is no fire."
Doctor Flynn, the ship's surgeon, came hurrying by. Jack stopped him andexplained what had occurred in Colonel Minturn's cabin.
"We must send for help and carry them both out of danger at once," hesaid.
"Danger? But there is no danger," exclaimed the doctor.
"But the fire?" gasped the boy.
"There is none. It was either the overwrought nerves of a silly womanthat started the panic, or else there was some malicious designunderlying the whole thing."
The thought of what he had seen as he stood in the shadow of the saloonstairway rushed across Jack's mind: Miss Jarrold's sudden appearance andthen the scream of fire. Could it have been possible that this was thething that Sam had overheard her and her uncle debating? That, takingadvantage of the panic they knew would be caused by such an alarm in thedead of night, Jarrold had schemed a way to enter Colonel Minturn'scabin?
"Will you come into Colonel Minturn's cabin with me at once, doctor?"asked Jack.
"Certainly, my boy. But," and the doctor stared at him in amazement,"what has happened to you? Your face is bruised and marked. Have youbeen fighting?"
"A little bit," said Jack grimly.
"With whom?"
"With a man I believe to be a consummate scoundrel. By the merestaccident on earth, I happened along here just in time to frustrate whatI believe to be a plot against Colonel Minturn."
All this Jack explained hastily as they retraced their way down thecorridor to Colonel Minturn's cabin. The panic had died down, and thepassengers, reassured now, were making their divers ways back to theircabins. Some tried to turn the whole matter into a joke. Others lookedsheepish over the panic-stricken way in which they had behaved.
But when the two entered the colonel's cabin a surprise awaited them.
_Jarrold was not there._
Jack rubbed his mental eyes. He could have sworn he had left the manlying across the lounge, to all appearances stunned. Now, in the briefinterval that the boy had been out of the cabin, the man had gone.
"He must have been playing 'possum," said the surgeon, when Jack hadbriefly explained the circumstances; "but now let us see to ColonelMinturn."
The doctor bent over the officer's form as it lay in the bunk. Thecolonel was breathing heavily, his pulse was slow, his face gray.
"Run to my cabin for my medicine bag," ordered the doctor to Jack. "Youwill find it on my lounge. Hurry back."
Jack waited to ask no questions but sped off. The corridors were stillchoked with passengers discussing the fire scare. Most of them appearedto think it had been a grim and criminal form of joke on somebody'spart. There was talk of offering a reward for the discovery of theculprit.
But Jack, knowing what he did, placed, as we know, a more sinisterconstruction on the midnight alarm. He was soon back with the doctor'sbag. The surgeon took out of it a small syringe and injected some sortof solution into the unconscious man's arm.
"What is the matter with him, sir, do you think?" ventured Jack, as thedoctor, his hand on Minturn's pulse, sat by the side of the bunk.
"He has been drugged. That much is plain. Although what the agency was,I cannot guess," was the rejoinder.
A small glass article lying on the floor caught Jack's eye. It was anatomizer, such as are used for perfumes. But this was filled with a graypowder. He pressed the rubber bulb and an impalpable cloud of the powderwas sprayed into the air. He immediately felt sick and dizzy.
"Look here, sir, what do you make of this?" he cried excitedly, handingit to the doctor. "I found it on the floor. It must have dropped fromJarrold's pocket while we were struggling. I'm sure that that powder init is some sort of drug. When I sprayed it out, it made me feel weak andfaint."
The doctor took the glass vessel, unscrewed the top and shook out asmall quantity of the powder on his palm.
"This is an important discovery, indeed," he exclaimed. "It is asleeping powder used by a certain South African tribe. A sufficientquantity sprayed into the atmosphere would send anyone into a coma. Itis not poisonous, merely sleep producing."
"Then you think that some of it was sprayed into this room, possiblythrough the transom, by Jarrold before----"
"We'll leave Mr. Jarrold's name out of this for the present," said thedoctor shortly. "Remember, we have no proof against him. For all youknow, and for all that appears, he broke in here to try to save thecolonel when the cry of fire occurred."
"But he attacked me," protested Jack.
"His answer to that would be that you were not at your post, where youshould have been."
Jack colored. This was true. Jarrold had indeed a rejoinder toeverything he might say against the man. When it came to a point, thelad had plenty of suspicions and theories, but absolutely no proofs tooffer. He couldn't even state positively that the atomizer full of thesleeping powder was Jarrold's.
The colonel moved uneasily and opened his eyes. In a few moments he wasable to talk.
"Why, what has happened?" he asked drowsily, looking first at the doctorand then at Jack.
"First, will you tell us the last thing you recollect, Colonel?"
"Most assuredly. I came to bed early. Before turning in, I examinedcertain papers of mine and found they were all in perfect order. Thisdone, I lay down with a book. Suddenly I felt unaccountably drowsy,and--and that's all. But what has occurred in the meantime? I can tell byyour presence in the cabin that something out of the ordinary is up."
"Will you first oblige me by making sure your papers are safe?" askedthe doctor.
"Certainly; they are in this box under my pillow. Ah yes, everything isin perfect order. As you see, this is a combination lock. I could tellin an instant if it had been tampered with."
"Then, Colonel, I think that you should thank this young man here forsaving you from a theft that might have cost you dearly," said thedoctor, indicating Jack.
CHAPTER XIV
THE WINKING EYE
"I--I must confess I don't understand," said the colonel, lookingbewilderedly from one to the other of his two companions.
"Then let me enlighten you." And, supplemented from time to time byJack, the doctor gave a concise account of the incidents leading up tothe discovery of Jarrold breaking into the colonel's cabin.
The officer could hardly believe his ears.
"Of course I have suspected Jarrold all along, and cannot be toograteful to this young man for his vigilance," he said; "but thediabolical ingenuity of the man is beyond me."
"He ought to be in irons at this minute," asserted the doctor, "but sofar as I can see, he has covered up his tracks so cleverly t
hat we havenothing upon which to base a complaint against him."
"At the present time, no, unfortunately," said the colonel reluctantly."And if it had not been for Mr. Ready, here, the whole plot might haveproved a complete success."
"I think it is reasonably certain that when you awakened, which mightnot have been till late to-morrow morning, you would have found yourpapers gone," said the doctor.
"But in that case, I should have instantly suspected Jarrold," was thereply. "And exercising my authority as an officer of the United Statesarmy, I could have had him detained under suspicion while his baggageand his person were searched."
"I am afraid that that would have been very much like looking for aneedle in a haystack," said Dr. Flynn. "A rascal as clever as he iswould have found some way to dispose of the papers, where it would behighly improbable that they could be found."
"You are right," agreed Colonel Minturn. "Well, gentlemen, I think thatfor the sake of all concerned, we had better keep this secret among usthree and await developments."
"But Jarrold knows that Ready suspects him," objected the doctor.
"Oh, well, for that very reason, he won't do any talking," was thecolonel's response. "We must watch and wait, and the next time catch himred-handed."
"Then you think he will make another attempt?" asked Jack.
"I have not the slightest doubt of it. Whatever nation is paying him, ithas set a high price on the successful issue of his venture; and he willstop at nothing to put it through, if I have any knowledge of the man,"was the response.
"I think the best thing we can all do now is to turn in," said Dr.Flynn.
This was generally agreed and good-nights were said; but before Jacksought his cabin, he visited the doctor's room, where his face wasattended to so as to leave hardly any marks of his encounter withJarrold.
The latter did not appear the next day, but his niece, radiant andsmiling, was at breakfast as if nothing had occurred. Jack looked at herwonderingly. He had not the slightest doubt that her part in the plothad been the cry of "Fire"; but she appeared as carefree and debonair asif she had nothing more important on her mind than making a charmingappearance.
Jack could not help grinning to himself when Jarrold did not come down.
"I guess I gave him something to think about," he remarked with achuckle to Sam, as the two discussed the subject.
Jarrold appeared the next day. A dark mark under his left eye was theonly visible sign of the encounter in Colonel Minturn's cabin. Hestudiously avoided the other passengers, however, and spent most of histime pacing the deck with his niece.
The weather was steadily growing warmer now. Porpoises appeared inrolling, leaping schools, and flying fish were stirred up in wholecoveys by the ship's bow. The officers donned white uniforms, as did ourwireless boys, and everything indicated that the steamer was enteringthe tropics.
It was Jack's first voyage into such regions, and both he and Samthrilled with the anticipation of seeing the new sights and people. Butall the time, Jack was aware that under their feet was a smolderingvolcano. Covered for a time, and blanketed, it was still smoldering, ofthat he was certain. He caught himself wondering uneasily what form thenext attempt would take.
It was his watch one night and he was turning over these things in hismind as the ship plowed steadily onward, when, on going to the door ofhis cabin for a breath of fresh air, he was surprised to see, not faroff, the green starboard and white mast headlights of what, from thedistance between the lights on her fore and main masts, appeared to be afair-sized steamer. She was steaming in the same direction as the_Tropic Queen_ and going quite as fast.
Now, under ordinary circumstances, the sight of another craft on thesame course would not have astonished one. But nowadays, when almostevery ship is equipped with wireless, the operators of most vessels knowprecisely what craft are in their vicinity. Even in the case where shipsare slow, and not equipped with radio apparatus, they usually signal, byday or night signals, to craft which have wireless, and ask to bereported. So that the sight of this stranger, moving along parallel withthe _Tropic Queen_, gave Jack what was not exactly a thrill, but asensation of vague uneasiness.
All at once, on her bridge, a red light began to flash. Like ablood-shot eye it winked through the dark night.
"By Jove, signals!" exclaimed Jack.
He got his signal code book and was able to read off, by his knowledgeof Morse, the letters and words the strange craft was sending, asdistinctly as if they had been printed. But they simply formed ameaningless jumble.
"It's a code message to someone on board this ship," muttered Jack tohimself, as the crimson eye ceased to wink.
As it stopped transmitting its untranslatable--except to one who held thekey--message through the darkness, the strange ship began to drop backunder reduced speed. Whatever its mission, it had been accomplished.That much was plain. Jack wished that the jumble of words before him wasas clear.
He sat there racking his brains over the matter till almost midnight,when Sam relieved him. The assistant operator looked at the message,over which Jack was knitting his brows, with astonishment.
"What in the world is that?" he asked.
"I wish I knew," was Jack's enigmatic reply, "but there's one man onboard this ship who does, and I'm inclined to think that his name isJames Jarrold."
CHAPTER XV
SECRET SIGNALS AT DAWN
The next morning both Jack and Sam were on the _qui vive_ for a sight ofthe mysterious steamer of the night. But not even a smudge on thehorizon gave indication of what had become of her. When Jack went downto breakfast, he met First Officer Metcalf and spoke to him of thestrange signals.
"Yes; Muller, the third officer, who had the bridge last night, reportedthem to me this morning," was the reply. "He jotted them down as theywere flashed, but we can't make head nor tail of them."
"Nor can I," confessed Jack. "It was a code message of some sort."
"Some would-be funny chump having a joke at our expense, I reckon," wasthe way that Mr. Metcalf, who, of course, knew nothing of the suspectedmachinations of Jarrold, dismissed the subject.
A lingering suspicion was in Jack's mind that, by some queer chance, themessage might have been for Colonel Minturn, so after the morning mealhe drew him aside. But when shown the message, Colonel Minturn declaredthat, although the government used several codes, the one in questionwas not one of them.
"Then it was for Jarrold," declared Jack positively, for, knowing whathe did, he could not share Mr. Metcalf's "joker" theory.
"I believe you are right," responded Colonel Minturn, stroking hismustache thoughtfully. "Jove, this thing is taking some strange turns!"
Their eyes strayed to where Jarrold, sprawled out in a deck chair, wasseemingly absorbed in a book. But Jack could have sworn that over thetop of it he was covertly watching them.
"It is evident, to my way of thinking," Jack ventured, "that the strangecraft was the _Endymion_, and that, despairing of getting a wireless toJarrold, or else on account of a break-down in their wireless, theydecided to chance that method of signaling him."
"That certainly appears plausible," said Colonel Minturn. "The_Endymion_, when pressed, can make twenty-five miles an hour. Our speedis about sixteen. Therefore, it would be an easy matter for her tooverhaul us at night, slip away in the daytime, and sneak back at nightonce more."
"I think it would be a good plan to keep a sharp look-out to-night,"said Jack. "I've a notion that there may be something in the wind."
"I agree with you," was the colonel's rejoinder. "Although, if it comesdown to that, there's no reason why Jarrold shouldn't, if he wishes to,exchange messages with any ship. At least, I know of no way of stoppinghim."
"That's just the trouble, sir," said Jack, turning to go. "He's too muchof a fox to put himself into a position where we can get anythingdefinite on him."
The day passed uneventfully and the first part of the night was theusual unbroken routine. Jack spoke with two o
r three vessels in the WestIndian and South American trade. But nothing unusual occurred to breakthe monotony. Midnight found him on the watch. When Sam, as muchinterested in the strange developments as was Jack, came to relieve himat the wireless key, Jack decided to forego his sleep and do someinvestigating.
Putting on a pair of light canvas shoes with rubber soles, Jack took upa position on the main deck as soon as the ship was wrapped in sleep,except for the watch and the officer who paced the bridge unceasinglyunder the blazing tropic stars. His vigil was not rewarded till sometime before dawn, when, out of the blackness to port, came the suddenblinking of a scarlet disk, like the leering wink of an ensanguined eye.
It came so suddenly and startlingly that Jack knew that the stranger,the one he was now convinced was the _Endymion_, had crept up withoutlights, under cover of darkness. There came a few dots and dashes,indicated by the length of the flash of the red light. Then it ceased.
Then it began again, flashing like a night heliograph.
"By Jove! Somebody answered them from this ship!" exclaimed Jack in highexcitement.
But the decks were bare. Not a soul was to be seen. Had it been anyoneabove, Sam was on the lookout there and would have notified Jack atonce.
Suddenly a thought flashed across the boy. A thought that sent him, witha swift, noiseless stride, to the rail. He peered overside. It had justoccurred to him that Jarrold's cabin was an outside one on the port sideof the _Tropic Queen_, which presented that flank to the stranger.
The Ocean Wireless Boys and the Lost Liner Page 5