A CLOSE CALL.
"My, but that water looks mighty inviting."
The Valkyrie was at anchor just outside a small cove of a small
island not more than a couple of miles in circumference and nearly
round in shape. It was late in the afternoon and the boat had limped
to its present position some hours before with a badly cracked
cylinder head. MacDonald, the engineer, had expressed the opinion
that it would take the better part of two days to complete repairs.
It was scorching hot and only Bob and Jack were on deck, all the
others except those working on the engine being below in their bunks
where it was a bit cooler.
"It does look good," Jack agreed.
"How about a swim?"
"You said it."
Being dressed only in trowsers and shirt it was only a matter of
seconds before they were in the water and for half an hour they swam
and dived.
"Guess I've had enough," Jack declared as he rose the surface, after
a deep dive and shook the water from his face.
"I'll be in in a minute," Bob, who was floating idly a few yards
away, told him.
Jack mounted the rope ladder and, after donning his clothes, went to
his cabin for a book. As he returned to the deck he looked out over
the water and a sight met his eyes which seemed, for an instant, to
freeze the blood in his veins. Bob was swimming slowly toward the
boat and was some two hundred feet away, while farther out, a black
triangular object was cutting through the water. For a second the
boy was spellbound then, galvanized into action, he shouted:
"Sharks, Bob, sharks!"
Bob heard the cry and, without waiting to look behind him struck out
with all his speed for the boat. When first seen the fin of the
shark was not coming directly toward Bob but was moving nearly at
right angles to the direction in which he was swimming. Jack prayed
that the big fish had not seen him, but, as soon as he had uttered
the warning, he rushed for his cabin and returned a moment later with
his favorite Winchester in his hands. Eagerly he looked out and saw
that Bob had covered fully half the distance to the boat, but, to his
horror, he also saw that the shark had sighted him and was now coming
straight for him. In fact the ominous fin was only a matter of fifty
feet from the swimmer and was rapidly cutting down the distance
between them.
"He'll never make it," he gasped as he raised the rifle.
Bob, now fully aware of his danger, was plowing through the water,
making the best speed of which he was capable, but it seemed to the
frightened boy on the boat, that he was stationary, compared with the
swiftness with which the fin was cutting through the water.
"Oh, God, send this bullet straight," he breathed as he aimed just a
bit in front of the fin and pulled the trigger.
For an instant, after firing the shot, he dared not look, then,
realizing that there might be time for another shot, he raised his
eyes.
"Thank God," he gasped as he saw the huge body of the shark floating
on the water and Bob almost at the foot of the ladder.
In another moment the two boys were in each other's arms.
"Oh, Bob," Jack sighed, the tears running down his face. "I thought
I was going to lose you."
"And you would have if it hadn't been for that wonderful shot."
"God sped that bullet."
"I believe you."
"What's all the shooting about?"
The boys turned to see their uncle emerging from his cabin.
"Jack shot a shark," Bob said, pointing at the dead fish now floating
only a short distance from the boat.
"What was he after?" Mr. Lakewood demanded. Then noticing that Bob
was naked, he asked: "You been in swimming?"
"Yes, sir," Bob replied.
"And you didn't know any better?"
"I was in too," Jack confessed. "You see, sir, it was so hot I
reckon we didn't stop to think about the sharks."
"Well, you ought to be spanked, and you will be if you ever do such a
thing again."
"Yes, sir," both boys replied meekly.
"Tell me about it."
"He--er--it almost had me when Jack shot it," Bob stammered.
"You mean that shark would have had you if Jack hadn't shot it?"
"It sure would."
"Then it's a miracle," his uncle told him. "Shooting a shark in the
water and killing him with one shot is something that can't be done
once in a hundred times, let me tell you. I know because I've tried
it and I'm considered a pretty good shot. Of course, when you have
one on a line, as we did a while ago, and can choose your time it's a
different matter."
"God did it," Jack whispered.
"Not a doubt of it," his uncle agreed. "And it is by His grace that
you're alive now," he added turning to Bob again.
"I--I know it, sir."
"And you'd better take your bath in the tub after this," Mr. Lakewood
remarked dryly as he turned back to his cabin.
"I sure thought I was a goner that time," Bob said, as he pulled on
his clothes after his uncle had left them.
"He must be all of twenty feet long," Jack said as he looked over the
rail at the dead fish.
"About one bite and it would have been all up with me," Bob sighed.
"Well, let's not talk any more about it. It's too horrible. How
about getting a line on him?"
"I suppose we ought to save the oil."
They got a rope and, lowering one of the small boats, they soon had
the shark securely tied, and later the crew secured several quarts of
the valuable oil from its head.
All the next day, the work of repairing the engine went on, and it
was not until supper time that MacDonald finally announced that they
could proceed as soon as they wished.
"I reckon we'd better wait till morning now," Mr. Lakewood decided
after a session with Captain Ole.
The boys had spent a part of the day on the little island, but as
there was nothing of it save a pile of sand, there was little of
diversion to attract them.
"That man Josh seems mighty uneasy," Bob whispered to Jack, as they
leaned on the rail near the bow shortly after supper.
The second mate was walking slowly back and forth on the deck, a
little way behind them, and seemed unaware of their presence. From
time to time, they noticed that he would gaze for some seconds toward
the south, as though expecting to see something. Then he would
resume his restless pacing, his eyes fixed on the deck.
"He's sure got something on his mind," Jack whispered back.
"He's on the lookout for something or someone."
"Maybe."
"Dead certain."
"Reckon you're right."
"I wonder if he knows how to send and receive wireless."
"I don't know, why?"
"Well, I missed the key to the wireless room this morning. I didn't
say anything about it, thinking probably I'd mislaid it. But I
hunted for it every place I could think of and didn't find it, and
then after dinner it was back again in its place."
"But he'd hardly dare send in the day time, or even to go into the
room."
"No, but he might have taken the key, and then filed one to match it."
"That's so, and it's probably just what he did," Jack agreed.
"Then he probably knows the code."
"Of course. It wouldn't be of much use to him if he didn't."
"You get the key, and let's go take a look and see if there's any
evidence that he's been in the room."
"Right. I'll be back in a minute."
But they failed to find anything wrong in the little room which was
used for the wireless. They tested the apparatus, and found it all
in good order, nor could they find any indication that anyone save
themselves had been in the room.
"If he's made a key to fit the door, I don't believe he's used it
yet," Bob said after they had made a thorough examination of the room
and its contents.
"But he must intend to."
"Of course."
"Then I reckon it's up to us to see that he doesn't."
"Of course again."
"To-night?"
"To-night what?"
"I mean does he intend to use it to-night?"
"I think it's more than likely. By his actions out there he
evidently thinks that someone's not very far away."
"Then I see where we play detective."
"I happen to know that he goes on watch at twelve o'clock to-night
and I think we'd better be on watch after that too."
"We will."
The boys went to bed shortly after eight o'clock that night, but
seeing that they had been up very early that morning, no one seemed
to think it strange. Bob had a small alarm clock and, before getting
into bed, he set it for twelve o'clock.
"It's raining," he announced in a whisper after the alarm had
awakened him and he had succeeded in shaking Jack out of his sleep.
"Well, I don't know's that makes any difference in our plans, does
it?"
"Not a dif. But come, snap out of it."
"Be with you in two shakes," Jack whispered as he leaped from the
bunk.
The wireless room was directly behind the wheel house and they had
decided to watch their chance and slip into the latter room and trust
to luck that the mate would not see them. They believed that once in
there they would be able to hear him if he made an attempt to enter
the other room.
"It's dark as pitch," Bob said trying to look out the window.
"So much the better."
"But we've got to be mighty careful just the same. If he sees us
he'll know what we're up for and all the fat'll be in the fire," Bob
declared.
"Think we'd better go one at a time?"
"No, we'll go together. Might's well both be caught as one."
"All right: just as you say."
They had slipped on trowsers and shirts but were in their bare feet
as they opened the door and cautiously stepped outside. For an
instant they stood still, close to the side of the cabin, and
listened. There was no sound to indicate that the mate was near and
they slowly crept along hugging the wall. It was so dark that they
could see nothing at all until they reached the corner and looked out
onto the forward deck. Here a single light slightly illuminated the
forward part of the boat and Bob, who was in the lead, saw the tall
form of the mate well up at the bow. He was sitting on a coil of
rope and had his head in his hands.
"We might get by and then again we might not," Bob explained as he
stepped back a pace.
"Better not take a chance," Jack whispered. "He won't sit there
long."
But it was all of a half hour before the mate changed his position
and the boys had about lost patience when Bob, who peeped around the
corner every few minutes, whispered that he was standing up. Soon
footsteps warned them that he was coming their way and they pressed
as closely as possible against the side of the cabin and waited. He
passed within a foot of them but, so intense was the darkness, he
failed to see them. They waited another minute and then Bob
whispered now, and in another moment they were up the stairs and
safe, for the time, in the wheel house.
"So far so good," Bob chuckled.
They stretched themselves on the floor close to the partition which
separated them from the wireless room and waited. There was little
danger now of discovery, they thought, even should he come into the
room unless he should turn on the light and they did not think he
would be likely to do that.
Another half hour passed before they heard his steps coming up the
stairs. He stepped onto the bridge and for another long period he
made no sound. Then they heard him enter the wheel house and the
creak of a chair told them that he had sat down. Followed an
agonizing period during which they hardly dared breathe. Once he lit
his pipe and, as the match flared up they thought surely they would
be discovered, but his back was toward them and he did not turn, at
least until the match went out.
"Well, I guess it's about time."
The man spoke the words aloud but in a low tone. Then they heard him
get up and, a moment later, pass out of the room.
"Time for what?" Jack whispered, his lips close to Bob's ear.
"That's what we've got to find out," Bob whispered back.
He passed the door of the wheel house and, a moment later, they heard
him at the door of the wireless room.
"You guessed right," Jack whispered.
There seemed to be some trouble in getting the door unlocked and the
boys hoped that the key would not fit. Several times they heard the
man mutter under his breath and more than once he used, what Jack
afterward referred to as "quite illuminating language." But finally
they heard the door open and close.
"Come on now," Bob whispered as he got quietly to his feet.
Without knowing what plan Bob had in his head Jack followed him from
the wheel house and around to the door of the wireless room. Through
the crack beneath the door they could see a gleam of light and knew
that he had turned on the electric but the shutters of the single
window were so tightly closed that no ray came through them.
"What you going to do?" Jack whispered.
"Just a minute and I'll tell you," Bob whispered back as he drew from
his pocket a pair of small pliers adapted for cutting wire.
He knew just where the lead in from the aerial entered the room and
that just beside the door was a large insulator through which the
wire passed. It was the work of but an instant to cut the wire just
below this insulator. Then he pulled the upper part of the wire up
about an inch and then stuck the piece, which he had cut off, up into
the insulator, pushing it far enough so that it securely held but
being careful that the two ends did not touch. In this way he put
the apparatus entirely out of commission and in such a way that it
would be likely to take a long time for anyone else to locate the
trouble.
This was done in much less time than it takes to tell it and, taking
Jack by the arm, he pulled him gently away from the door.
"He's welcome to all the messages he gets," he chuckled as soon as
they were around in front of the wheel house.
"What'd you do?"
Bob explained how he had split the aerial.
"Fine," Jack praised him. "He'll never find out where the trouble is
in a week of Sundays."
Just then they heard a faint snapping sound from behind them and Bob
whispered:
"He's trying to send."
"But he isn't using much power," Jack added.
"Afraid some of us'll hear it."
"Can we get it?"
"Listen."
For some moments the boys strained their ears to catch the faint
sparks which came from the wireless, but finally Bob said:
"It's no use. Either he's using some code which I don't know or else
it's so faint I've got it all balled up."
"Same here. I couldn't make head or tail out of it."
"Well, we have the satisfaction of knowing that the person or persons
he thinks he's sending to isn't making even that much out of it
because he isn't hearing it at all," Bob chuckled.
"But, Bob, if he expects to get him with a spark of that size he must
think he's pretty near."
"Reckon that's so."
Just then the sounds of the sparks stopped.
"He's listening for the answer now," Jack chuckled.
"He'll know right off that the thing's dead."
"Sure he will."
"S-s-s-s-h."
They heard the door open and the man step out.
"Something's the matter with the blamed thing," $hey heard him mutter.
"You said it, old man," Jack whispered.
From the sounds they judged that he was feeling for the lead-in wire
and they were, for a moment, filled with apprehension lest he find
the break for they knew it would take only a slight yank to pull
either end from the insulator. Soon, however, their fears were
relieved as they heard him mutter: "Must be something on the inside.
Everything seems to be all right out here." Then the door shut as he
passed in.
"Go to it," Jack whispered. "If you find it in there you're a whole
lot better than I think you are."
They were now in the wheel house again and, pressing their ear
against the partition, they could hear him as he was evidently
testing the different parts of the set.
"Hope he doesn't loose his temper and smash anything," Jack whispered
as they heard something drop on the floor.
"I don't think he'd dare do that."
"Nor I. But you never can tell what a man of his stripe will do."
For several minutes after that there was no sound from the wireless
room and then the sparking was heard again.
"He's trying to send again," Jack whispered.
"Well, he can't do any harm at that," Bob whispered back. "I only
wish we could read his stuff."
"He's sending the same thing over and over again."
"You mean he's trying to," Bob chuckled.
Then all was quiet again and the boys judged that he must be
listening again for a reply to his message. Five, ten and then
fifteen minutes passed without a sound. Then suddenly they heard the
door open and, a moment later, footsteps approached the wheel house.
Bob nudged Jack as a signal to make no noise and Jack nudged him back
in token of his understanding. For some time the mate stood on the
bridge moving uneasily from time to time and finally he entered the
room and sat down in the chair which stood directly in front of the
wheel.
"I more'n half believe those boys suspect me," they heard him mutter
after a few minutes had passed.
"You win," Bob thought to himself as he carefully nudged his brother
again.
"Something was the matter with that wireless but I'll be hanged if I
could find out what it was," they heard him say.
Then, as though unable to stay long in one place, he went out onto
the bridge again and, a moment later, they heard his steps as he
descended the stairs to the lower deck.
"What'll we do now?" Jack whispered.
"What do you think?"
"I don't know but we might's well go to bed. I hardly think he'll
try anything more to-night.
"What time is it?"
"Half after two."
"Well, I think we'd better stick it out till daylight. You see--"
But before he could finish his sentence they heard the mate coming up
the stairs again.
He stood just outside the door and, in a moment, they were
electrified to see a stream of light dart from his hand.
"He's signalling again," Bob thought.
From where they lay they were, of course, unable to see whether or
not he was receiving any reply to his signals and soon Bob was
determined that he was going to get out where he could see regardless
of the risk. Carefully he urged his body toward the door inch by
inch confident that Jack would understand and lie quiet. He reached
the open door without making the slightest noise and, even in the
intense darkness, he could see the mate as he stood by the railing
not more than six feet away. Slowly and cautiously he drew himself
to his feet until he was standing erect in the doorway. He knew that
the man might turn his head at any moment, but he trusted to the more
intense darkness, with the room as a background, to hide him in case
it happened.
The mate was now flashing his light rapidly out over the water and
Bob strained his eyes to catch the faintest sign of an answering
flash from out in the night. But, so far as he could see, none came,
and after a few more minutes, the man, with an exclamation of
disgust, turned after shutting off his light. Would he see the boy
standing like a statue in the doorway? Bob dared not make a move so
close was he to the mate and he held his breath for fear he might
catch even that slight sound. One, two and then three steps he took
toward him and so close was he that Bob could have reached out his
hand and touched him. Then suddenly, as though struck by a new idea,
he turned and quickly descended the stairs. Had he seen or heard
him? Bob was not sure. He had heard no sound from Jack, and, for a
second, he was undecided what to do. Then, he darted down the stairs
in pursuit of the man. As soon as he reached the lower deck he
paused and listened. No sound, to tell him which way he had gone,
was audible and he had no way of knowing. But, from the suddenness
of the man's movement as he had turned, he felt certain that he had
had some definite object in mind and he was determined to find put
what the object was if at all possible. So far they had learned
nothing that would be of any help. To be sure they had foiled his
attempt to send a message to his confederates, whoever they might be,
but with that he was far from satisfied.
Perhaps he had gone to see if they were in their cabin. The thought
struck him suddenly and, without waiting to analyze it, he started
off as rapidly as he dared. But, when he had reached the door of his
cabin he had not encountered the man and, after listening a moment,
he opened it and went in. Turning on the light for an instant he
satisfied himself that the room was empty nor could he see any
evidence that the mate had been there.
"Reckon I guessed wrong that time," he thought as he switched off the
light.
Stepping outside once more, for some moments he stood leaning against
the railing looking out across the dark water. He made no attempt at
concealment knowing that he could easily explain his presence in case
the man should discover him.
"Up early 'aint yer?"
The question came so suddenly that Bob gave at start. Then, turning,
he saw that the mate was standing close behind him.
"Great snakes, I'd as soon be killed as scared to death," he laughed.
"Didn't mean ter scare yer," the man apologized.
"Oh, it's all right," the other assured him. "It was a bit close in
the cabin and I thought there'd be more air out here," he explained.
"Yep, it's a close night. Looks 's though it might rain."
"Which way's the wind?
"Nor-east, what thar is of it, which same 'aint much."
"I'll say it isn't."
"Wonder yer brother didn't want some air too."
"Oh, Jack's a better sleeper than I am," Bob laughed easily.
"Reckon I could sleep all right if I had the chance."
"Go ahead and hit the hay," Bob told him. "I'll stand the rest of
your watch. I wouldn't sleep any more anyway and I'd rather stay out
here than inside."
"You mean it?"
"Sure I do. Go to it."
"But mebby the cap' might not like it."
"He won't care as long as someone is on the watch," Bob assured him.
"Then I reckon as how I'll do it. I'm mighty sleepy."
The mate turned and disappeared in the darkness going toward his
quarters. Bob waited a few minutes and then made his way to the
wheel house.
"Where you been?" Jack demanded as soon as he was inside.
Bob told him what had happened and added: "You'd better get back to
bed."
"Like fun I will and leave you alone."
"But, Jack, there's no danger."
"How do you know there isn't?"
"How could there be? You see, I'm not sure whether he really turned
in or not, and if he should see you up he'd know something was in the
wind. I honestly think you ought to go."
"Well, all right if you feel that way about it," Jack said after a
moment's thought. "But you have to promise that you won't get into
trouble or I won't go a step."
"Of course I won't," Bob laughed. "Now run along like a good little
boy."
He accompanied him as far as the door of the cabin and then went back
to the bridge. During the remainder of the night he made frequent
rounds of the boat, half expecting to meet the mate again. But in
this he was agreeably disappointed. Nor, although he watched
carefully, did he see anything which could be taken for a signal.