SAKI--STEWARD.
For the time being there was no opportunity to investigate the case of
the eavesdropper. It was important that they should get under way at
once. Herc hastened on deck after a few hurried words with Ned.
Just at that moment two bells--one o'clock--sounded in the slow, deep,
mellow tones of the ship's bell. Simultaneously there appeared, through
a doorway at one end of the wardroom, the figure of a dapper Japanese,
dressed in white garments.
"Hullo! Who are you?" demanded Ned, looking up from a reverie into
which he had fallen, following Herc's departure.
"Me Saki. Officer steward. Me getee lunch for honorable capitan,"
rejoined the Jap with a low bow.
"Mr. Summerville made no mention to me of you," said Ned, looking the
Jap over.
"No doubt, sir, no doubt," was the reply; "me only joinee ship in New
York."
Ned said no more, but, telling the steward to summon him when the meal
was ready, he resumed his meditations. Truly the young skipper of the
_Seneca_ was in need of time to think and ponder.
This command of his, of which he had been so proud, evidently was not
going to prove any sinecure. Then, somehow, the face of the Jap floated
before his mind. He had seen it somewhere before, he was certain.
Perhaps it was on some other naval craft, for Japanese stewards are
much affected in the United States Navy.
It was a striking face, too: thick, bushy hair brushed up above a
massive forehead, far squarer and more prominent than Jap's foreheads
usually are, forming a sort of bristly aureole for a yellow face with
dark, forbidding eyebrows and a heavy jaw. Saki was not a common type
of Jap. He was heavier, less obsequious and smiling, more sure of
himself.
But such thoughts quickly flitted from Ned's mind as the problem of
Kenworth put itself forward. Mated with this reflection came the image
of Rankin. Both were men who disliked and, in one case at least, hated
Ned and Herc.
True, Rankin had no cause but a purely unreasonable one--as it
were--for his antipathy to the young captain of the _Seneca_ and his
first officer, but it was none the less plain, even without taking the
overheard conversation on the bridge into account, that the man had
made up his mind to do all the harm he could.
How soon he would strike, of course, Ned had no idea; nor what form his
malice would take. That Ned had concluded that Kenworth had purposely
run upon the shoal, we already know, but with how much justice he had
arrived at such a deduction, he could not determine.
The course was soon worked out and Ned proceeded to the chart house. He
summoned Herc and gave him his sailing directions, and then proceeded
to make an inspection of the ship. On his return from this duty,
he suddenly recollected that he had left the door of his stateroom
unlocked.
He descended the stairs swiftly and almost noiselessly. As he reached
the foot of them, he saw a form suddenly emerge from his cabin and
glide silently as a cat across the wardroom in the direction of the
stern door, where he knew the steward's cabin and pantry, as well as
the store-room, were located.
"Who's that?" he called in a sharp, authoritative voice.
"That you, Mr. Capitan, sir?" came in Saki's voice. "Me just go by your
cabin, tell you lunch is ready, sir."
"Very well. Come here, Saki."
"Yes, sir," rejoined Saki, hurrying back and bowing low.
"You must never enter my cabin, do you understand? That's private
ground except when I am in it. And Saki."
"Honorable naval mister." Saki again bowed low, spreading his hands.
"Have I ever seen you before?"
"I have never had the felicity of looking upon the honorable capitan's
face."
"Very well. You may call Ensign Taylor." For Ned and Herc, as befitted
their respective ranks on board the _Seneca_, ate their meals in
solitary state.
Midshipman Kenworth and the other warrant officers followed them. Such
was the strict etiquette of the navy, even on so small a craft as the
_Seneca_.
"Funny," thought Ned, "it's odd, but I can't get it out of my head
that I _have_ seen him before somewhere. Jove! I have it! It was at
Nagasaki, on the world cruise. He was found examining guns and firing
systems on board the _Manhattan_. As he could give no satisfactory
account of himself, he was ejected. I'm sure it's the same man. I
wonder----"
But the entrance of Herc put a stop to further speculation. Saki waited
on them during the meal with silent dexterity. Once or twice Ned sought
a chance to study his face without being observed, but every time he
found that the Jap's eyes were fixed on him, although quickly averted
when the Oriental saw that he was being noticed.
After lunch he took an opportunity to make some inquiries concerning
the Jap, and learned that he had come on board at New York, as he had
said. Midshipman Kenworth was believed to have secured him, the Jap
having been highly recommended as a servant by a relative of the former.
"Kenworth, again," muttered Ned to himself. "It's odd, very odd, how he
is always bobbing up. Jove," he broke off suddenly, "I never thought
to overhaul that desk of mine. The way that Jap came out of there like
a rabbit out of a hole was suspicious, to say the least. I'll go below
and have a look."
But a narrow inspection of the cabin showed that nothing had been
disturbed. Carefully Ned locked up his orders in his desk, and when he
went out, secured the door.
"All right this time, but it's a risk I don't want to chance again," he
said to himself as he ascended to the bridge. "Somehow I don't trust
that Jap, any more than I do those other fellows."