THE ISLAND HUT.
Rob, in his place of concealment, could hear the two men talking as they
rowed.
Their conversation related, in the main, to the affairs of the night.
Apparently, so far as Rob could gather, the stealing of the plans of the
submarine was not yet complete. It appeared that Barton was to remain on
the island in his capacity as trusted aide to Mr. Barr, and to gather up
all he could of the details of the new submarine, down to the smallest
particular.
Scarcely daring to breathe, Rob listened with all his might to the
conversation of the oarsmen.
At the same time the thought was running through his mind that he had
acted rashly in taking the step he had. But the boy pluckily made up
his mind to stick to his resolution of discovering just what was going
on inimical to the plans of the United States Government and Mr. Barr.
Before very long the prow of the boat grated on a sandy beach, and the
two men, gathering up some rolls of paper and several bulky-looking
objects, left the craft, first securing it by an anchor and line.
As their footsteps died away, Rob ventured to raise his head above the
gunwale of the boat and follow them with his eyes. He saw them ascend
the beach and enter the hut, apparently a structure once used by
fishermen or hunters.
After an interval a light shone from the solitary window of the hut, and
Rob came to a sudden resolve to find out just what was going forward.
With this object in view he clambered out of the boat, taking every
precaution against making unnecessary noise. On hands and knees he then
approached the lighted window.
The night was dark, and, standing at a fair distance from the casement,
he did not feel much fear of being seen from within. It is hard for
persons in a brightly lighted chamber to perceive what is going on
outside.
Seated around a rough table in the hut, which consisted of only one
room, Rob saw three men. Two of them, undoubtedly, were those who had
unconsciously rowed him to the island. The other he recognized with a
start as the possessor of the face which had peered through the transom
on the memorable night in Hampton, when plans for the experiments on the
island were in process of being formulated. In other words, the third
member of the party was none other than Nordstrom Berghoff, the spy.
Instantly many things that had been vague to Rob crystallized into a
clear understanding of the situation. The signals from the island, the
indignation of Barton over the presence of the Boy Scouts, and the
stealing of the plans and models, all stood out plainly now as being
part of an elaborate plot of which Berghoff was the mainspring.
A wave of indignation swept over the boy as he contemplated the rascals
within the hut gloating over the things they had obtained from the
treacherous Barton.
"The scoundrels," he thought; "so they think they can rob Uncle Sam of
one of the greatest submarines ever invented, and do so with impunity! I
don't care what happens, I'll fool them if I can."
With this resolve firmly embedded in his mind, Rob crept closer to the
window. By skillful maneuvering he was at last almost under the
casement. In this position every word uttered within the hut was clear
to him.
He heard Berghoff chuckling gleefully over the manner in which the
night's work had been carried out.
"Undt not a vun of dose Boy Scouts knew anting aboudt idt," he
exclaimed.
"No," rejoined one of his companions, a swarthy man with a pallid face
on which there stood out a bristly beard; "those kids were out of the
game so far as we were concerned. That Barton is a slick one, all
right."
"Well, he's getting well paid for the job," struck in the third man, who
was short and stocky, with a crop of rough, reddish hair and a
protruding chin that gave him a "bull doggy" aspect.
"Of course, he gedts vell paid," rejoined Berghoff; "dis job is vorth de
naval supremacy of the worldt to der country vot I represent."
"As if we didn't know that as well as you," rejoined the red-haired man.
"It was lucky we worked in the same machine shop in Bridgeport with
Barton and knew he was a man who could be bought."
"Yes, there isn't much that he wouldn't do for money," chimed in the
pallid-faced man.
"Vell, ledt us see if dese plans are all righdt, or if ve must get some
more of dem," remarked Berghoff.
From his manner of examining the intricate prints and plans, Rob knew
that the man, as were most probably his two companions, was an engineer
of no mean ability. With a small pocket scale he went over every scrap
of paper and then fell to examining the models. From his expression, Rob
judged that Barton had served the rascal well. Berghoff declared the
plans and the models all that would be required to produce a
_Peacemaker_ almost the exact duplicate of Mr. Barr's diving-boat.
"Well, when do we make our getaway?" queried the red-haired man when the
examination was concluded.
"To-morrow ve go," declared Berghoff. "In New York I catch der steamer
for Europe undt you two scatter verefer you like."
Rob felt his face flush with indignation, and at the same time he
experienced a sort of hopeless feeling of indecision. The plans and the
models lay there, almost within his reach, but so far as the possibility
of recovering them was concerned, they might as well have been in China.
"If only all the boys were here," he thought, "it would be possible to
'rush' those scoundrels and secure all their loot."
Finally Rob came to the decision to remain where he was for the present
and see if some opportunity would not present itself to recover the
articles of such vital importance to Uncle Sam's Government.
The men talked on, conversing in low tones, and presently the red-headed
man started to prepare some food on an oil stove, which must have been
brought from the motor boat earlier in the day. Till sundry appetizing
odors began to drift out to him from the plotter's cookery, Rob did not
realize that he was hungry. Before long, however, his desire for food
became almost overwhelming. It was tantalizing to lie out there in the
dark, tired and hungry, and hear within the hut the clatter of knives
and forks and inhale the odors of what was evidently a hearty meal.
At length the men stopped eating, and Rob heard them discussing whether
they should sleep in the hut or on board their motor boat. The boy
pricked up his ears as he listened. If only they decided to sleep on the
boat and leave the models and plans in the hut, he would have a chance
to recover the stolen property and make away with it in the beached
rowboat before dawn.
Rob could hardly restrain an exclamation of delight when the men came to
the decision to pass the night on their boat.
"What are you going to do with this stuff?" inquired the pallid-faced
man with the stubbly beard, indicating the mass of papers and models.
"Oh, we'll leave that here till morning," was Berghoff's response; "dere
is no use in taking idt by der boat now."
"Goodness," thought Rob, "I sure am in luck! It will be no trick at all
to get that stuff as soon as they have gone, and carry it back to the
island. I almost wish it was going to be a harder task. It's a bit too
much like burglary to suit me."
But Rob was not to have such an easy time of it as he anticipated.