SECRET SIGNALS AT DAWN
The next morning both Jack and Sam were on the _qui vive_ for a sight of
the mysterious steamer of the night. But not even a smudge on the
horizon gave indication of what had become of her. When Jack went down
to breakfast, he met First Officer Metcalf and spoke to him of the
strange signals.
“Yes; Muller, the third officer, who had the bridge last night, reported
them to me this morning,” was the reply. “He jotted them down as they
were 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,” was
the way that Mr. Metcalf, who, of course, knew nothing of the suspected
machinations of Jarrold, dismissed the subject.
A lingering suspicion was in Jack’s mind that, by some queer chance, the
message might have been for Colonel Minturn, so after the morning meal
he drew him aside. But when shown the message, Colonel Minturn declared
that, although the government used several codes, the one in question
was not one of them.
“Then it was for Jarrold,” declared Jack positively, for, knowing what
he did, he could not share Mr. Metcalf’s “joker” theory.
“I believe you are right,” responded Colonel Minturn, stroking his
mustache thoughtfully. “Jove, this thing is taking some strange turns!”
Their eyes strayed to where Jarrold, sprawled out in a deck chair, was
seemingly absorbed in a book. But Jack could have sworn that over the
top of it he was covertly watching them.
“It is evident, to my way of thinking,” Jack ventured, “that the strange
craft was the _Endymion_, and that, despairing of getting a wireless to
Jarrold, or else on account of a break-down in their wireless, they
decided 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 speed
is about sixteen. Therefore, it would be an easy matter for her to
overhaul us at night, slip away in the daytime, and sneak back at night
once 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 comes
down 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 stopping
him.”
“That’s just the trouble, sir,” said Jack, turning to go. “He’s too much
of a fox to put himself into a position where we can get anything
definite on him.”
The day passed uneventfully and the first part of the night was the
usual unbroken routine. Jack spoke with two or three vessels in the West
Indian and South American trade. But nothing unusual occurred to break
the monotony. Midnight found him on the watch. When Sam, as much
interested in the strange developments as was Jack, came to relieve him
at the wireless key, Jack decided to forego his sleep and do some
investigating.
Putting on a pair of light canvas shoes with rubber soles, Jack took up
a 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 unceasingly
under the blazing tropic stars. His vigil was not rewarded till some
time before dawn, when, out of the blackness to port, came the sudden
blinking 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 without
lights, 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 high
excitement.
But the decks were bare. Not a soul was to be seen. Had it been anyone
above, Sam was on the lookout there and would have notified Jack at
once.
Suddenly a thought flashed across the boy. A thought that sent him, with
a swift, noiseless stride, to the rail. He peered overside. It had just
occurred to him that Jarrold’s cabin was an outside one on the port side
of the _Tropic Queen_, which presented that flank to the stranger.
As he gained the side and peered over, he gave vent to what was almost a
shout of triumph. He had solved part of the riddle at any rate. After a
pause in the signaling from the stranger, there had come from the side
of the _Tropic Queen_ a sudden flash of red light. It was reflected
ruddily on the smooth water as it gleamed across the sea.
“So that’s it, eh, Mr. Jarrold!” cried Jack in a low undertone. “You’ve
got some sort of a flash lantern rigged in your stateroom, connected
with the electric light socket, likely, and you’re having a nice little
talk with your friends over yonder.”
All at once he slapped his thigh as a thought struck him. He knew that a
common switch controlled the lights in each separate corridor of the
ship. Thus, the four cabins in the section that Jarrold occupied, while
they each had their individual light switches, were also controlled by a
switch in the main corridor.
This was so that, in case of accident, the electricians could work more
conveniently.
“I don’t know what the skipper would say to this,” exclaimed Jack, “but
here goes.”
He darted below and soon reached the point in the main port corridor
from which the passage on which the four cabins in Jarrold’s section
opened. He fumbled for the switch in the half darkness. First, though,
he had looked to see that no other lights were shining in that section
except the one he was sure was being used in Jarrold’s room.
Click! The switch was turned.
“Now we’ll see,” exclaimed Jack to himself.
He hastened back on deck. Through the night, off to the port the strange
craft was signaling frantically. Jack chuckled.
“Spiked your guns, Mister Jarrold,” he laughed, as the signaling
continued. Plainly on the other ship they could not understand why they
no longer got flashed replies from Jarrold’s room.
“Oh, I’ll bet the air is blue below,” chuckled Jack, delighted at the
success of his plan. “Now I’ll just watch till they get sick of waiting
for Mr. Jarrold, and then go below and put that switch on again.”
For half an hour the vain red flashes came out of the night and then
they ceased.
“I guess they’ve sneaked off for fear daylight would discover them,”
said Jack. “Now to switch the light on again, and then for a snooze. I
think I’ve earned it.”