THE TIMELY RESCUE
It was no pleasant thought to contemplate the presence of a bold, even
desperate, agent of an enemy government, on board an American transport
carrying approximately two thousand souls.
That he was capable of going any lengths, if necessary, already had been
proved; and the evidence of his evil genius might come in horrible form
at any instant.
Nevertheless, neither the excitement nor the potential danger of the
situation was sufficient to prevent Jerry and Slim from taking a full
eight hours of much-needed sleep, while Lieutenant Mackinson, Joe and
three other officers whom the captain had taken into his confidence in
the matter, followed out every possible clue in pursuit of a solution of
the baffling mystery.
The record of every enlisted man and officer on the vessel had been most
carefully probed, without building up enough suspicion to warrant the
singling out of any individual as the probable offender.
Likewise an investigation of the members of the crew had failed to
develop anything tangible, even directly suspicious. It was a case of
watch everybody, take every precaution, and be prepared for anything.
Only nine men on the vessel, however, including the spy himself, knew
anything about it, and the rest were in utter ignorance of the treachery
that might be directed against them at any time.
Refreshed by their sleep, Jerry and Slim arose about four o'clock that
afternoon. Joe, who had rested easily throughout the later excitement of
the preceding night, was still in the midst of the investigation and was
not then to be found. Jerry had some letters to write, so Slim went to
the upper deck alone.
Seeing no one that he knew, and his mind weighted anyway with the
menacing mystery of the strange happenings of the night before, he sat
down on a coil of rope, just in the lee of the forward smokestack, to
think the whole matter over for the twentieth time.
He was thus absorbed when something, at first vague and indefinite, then
clearer and clearer until it was unmistakable, began to impress itself
upon his mind. Like the awakening call that comes to a man in a sound
sleep--seemingly as a far-off whisper that gradually gathers volume and
strength until finally the sleeper awakes with a start to find someone
standing directly over him, loudly and insistently calling his name--so
Slim came to a realization of the strange series of sounds that were
being repeated within a few feet of him.
Could it possibly be only the crackling of the steam-pipe that ran along
the smokestack to the whistle--a crackling merely from the pressure
within? For a moment Slim thought an over-wrought imagination was
playing tricks upon him. But he rose hastily and crossed the short
intervening distance.
Clearly and distinctly it came to him then. Someone in another part of
the vessel was rapping desperately upon that pipe! And in the long and
short dashes of the international code that someone was repeating a
single word--"Help! Help! Help!"
In another instant, using the heavy end of his jackknife as a crude
transmitter, Slim was tapping off the reply:
"Who are you--and where?"
"Lieutenant Mackinson," the message began to come back. "Locked in
closet off engine room. Can't make self heard. Can you help?"
"This is Slim," the youth rapped back upon the pipe. "Caught your
message on deck. Am coming with help at once."
And he dashed down the deck toward the captain's quarters, almost
bowling over the captain's aide as he hurtled into the sanctum of the
ship's commander unannounced.
"Well?" the captain demanded sternly. "Why all the haste?"
"Lieutenant Mackinson," Slim blurted out; "he's locked in a closet down
near the engine room."
"Locked in a closet!" the captain repeated incredulously. "How do you
know?"
"He gave a telegraphic call for help on the steam-pipe which runs
through there and connects with the whistle," the lad explained. "I was
on deck and heard it. I talked with him over the pipe."
"There is no time to lose, then. Come with me." And the captain himself
hurriedly led the way down through the lower depths of the ship, where
it became hotter and more oppressive with every step they took.
They had taken a route by which they escaped the attention of anyone
else on the ship.
"It should be right about here somewhere," the captain announced, as
they approached a particularly dark passage. For a few steps they felt
their way along, and then stopped to listen.
There was nothing but the dull and constant hum of the engines and the
almost insufferable heat.
"The other side," said the captain in a lowered voice, as they failed to
find any trace of the imprisoned lieutenant where they were.
They were crossing a short gallery when Slim abruptly signaled a halt.
"I thought I heard something," he said. "It sounded like another call."
They stood silent a moment, and then, faint and indistinct, apparently
from somewhere several feet ahead of them, they both heard repeated that
which had made Slim stop. As the letters were tapped off upon the pipe
the lad repeated them for the information of the captain.
"S-M-O-T-H-E-R-I-N-G."
"Smothering!" echoed the commander of the ship. "Great Scott! I believe
I know now where he is. This way," and he started down the passageway
toward a narrow stairs leading to a still lower chamber in the vessel.
Three turns--two to the right and one to the left--and the captain
stopped again to listen. Seemingly from within the wall, right at their
elbows, there came a feeble knock. The officer whipped out a pocket
flashlight. They were directly in front of a heavy wooden door. It was
locked.
"Run get a cold chisel or a heavy screwdriver and hammer," the captain
ordered, and Slim hastened away, to return two minutes later with all
three tools.
"Stand back as far as you can from the door," said the captain, placing
his lips close to the keyhole. But there was no response from within.
Realizing now that Lieutenant Mackinson must have lost consciousness,
and that moments might mean life or death to him, the captain worked
with feverish haste. He drove the heavy chisel into the crack between
the door and the jam, and then, standing off to get a wider swing with
the hammer, struck it sidewise.
A panel of the door cracked and loosened. Two more attempts and the
panel fell in strips to the floor. Thus given something for a grip-hold,
the captain, who was a massive man, took hold with both hands, put his
right foot against the wall, and, with one tremendous tug, into which
he threw the whole weight of his body, brought the entire door from its
hinges.
The captain went staggering backward from the force of his effort and
the weight of the door.
The unconscious form of Lieutenant Mackinson tumbled out upon the floor.
His face was almost blue from suffocation.
The captain sounded three short, sharp blasts upon a whistle which he
had taken from his pocket, and two oilers came running to the spot.
"Help us carry this man to fresh air immediately," he ordered. "He has
been overcome."
With one of the oilers carrying the lieutenant by the feet, and the
other man and Slim at either shoulder, the unconscious young officer was
carried up flight after flight of steps until, the captain leading the
way, they arrived at the promenade deck.
A seaman was dispatched for the ship's surgeon, who arrived a few
minutes later to find the first-aid efforts of the four men just
bringing Lieutenant Mackinson back to consciousness.
As the physician forced some aromatic spirits of ammonia between his
lips the lieutenant opened his eyes and gazed about vaguely.
"What's the matter?" he asked weakly; but before anyone could answer he
had relapsed again, and there was another wait of several minutes.
But this time the lieutenant's mind was clearing.
"Somebody shoved me--in that closet," he gasped, "and then--slammed
and--locked--the door."
He recognized the captain and the doctor. As his eyes closed again he
added, in an almost inaudible whisper: "I was getting too close on
somebody's trail."
The captain looked at the ship's doctor significantly and dismissed the
two oilers with instructions to return to their duties.
"Found him locked in a small compartment down near the auxiliary engine
room," the commander said briefly. "Hotter than blazes, and no air
whatever where he was. He made his whereabouts known by tapping a
message on a steam-pipe."
"H'm," said the doctor, whose youthful appearance might not give a
stranger a proper measure of his long and varied experience. "Nearly
suffocated, too. He couldn't have lasted there much longer. His heart
action is pretty weak even yet. Better have him removed to his bed, and
kept there for the rest of the day, at least."
At that moment Jerry came hurrying down the deck. He was visibly
excited, but, unlike Slim, he did not forget that not only must a
soldier never permit his feelings to run away with him, but that he must
be equally mindful of respect for superiors.
And so, even as two men carried Lieutenant Mackinson away, he remained
standing at salute, waiting for the captain to recognize him with a
return of the salute.
"And now what?" asked the captain.
Jerry stepped forward, with difficulty repressing his excitement.
"I stepped out of the wireless room for only a few moments," he said.
"When I returned I found this lying upon the table."
He opened his left hand. In it lay a piece of light chain, both ends
broken.
"Beside it," he continued, "was this note."
From his pocket he extracted a piece of paper, the edges of which were
roughly torn. He handed it to the captain, who read aloud:
"Let this be a warning that no further interference will be of
avail."
The captain looked from the note to the chain. There was no further word
on the paper, and no signature.
"I believe, sir," said Jerry, "that this is the rest of the chain which
was attached to the iron cross torn from the man caught in the battery
room."
The senior officer of the vessel took from his pocket the cross, with
its two bits of chain still dangling from it. He placed the ends to the
chain which Jerry had found in the wireless room.
"You are right," he said simply. And there could be no doubt about it.
The captain's face clearly showed the worry on his mind. The ship's
physician, who had been told all about the affair, immediately after
Joe's discovery of, and battle with, the mysterious stranger, appeared
equally anxious.
"A man is discovered at night in the battery room of the wireless
department of this ship, clearly upon an unfriendly mission," said the
captain, half to himself and half for the benefit of the others, summing
up the evidence thus far known to them. "He gives battle to the man who
discovers him, and finally succeeds in knocking that man out and
escaping. But he leaves behind him a portable wireless instrument, and
a German iron cross, with two bits of the chain attached.
"A few hours later that same night he returns to the battery room and
succeeds in recovering the portable instrument.
"To-day Lieutenant Mackinson, while pursuing an investigation of the
affair, is shoved into a closet and only escapes death from suffocation
by making himself heard as he telegraphs for help over a steam-pipe.
"It must have been while we were rescuing the lieutenant that the same
man again enters the wireless room and leaves there this chain, which
had been attached to the iron cross, and also this note of warning.
"The impudent effrontery and the cunning treachery of this man
constitute him a menace to every other person aboard this ship. We are
not safe while he is free.
"This German spy must and shall be found."