THE FLASHLIGHT
Almost like conspirators themselves, the boys looked at one another as
the voice and knock sounded together. Blake was the first to recover
himself.
"Come in!" he called, in as welcoming a tone as he could muster under
the circumstances. Then as the knob of the door was ineffectually tried,
he added:
"Oh, I forgot it was locked! Wait a moment!"
A moment later he had swung the door open, and the man who, the boys
believed, was a German spy confronted them, smiling.
"You are locked in as if you feared another submarine," he said. "It is
not the best way to do. You should be on deck!"
"But not on deck as you were, with a flag to signal to the Huns,"
thought Joe; and he wished he dared make the accusation.
Blake motioned to the caller to seat himself on a stool.
"I came to see if I might borrow something," began the caller. "I find
that mine is out of order for some reason," and he held out a small, but
powerful, electric flash lamp, of the sort sold for the use of soldiers.
"Have you, by any chance, one that you could spare me?" asked Mr.
Labenstein.
"I do not want it, if it is the only one you have, but they are a great
convenience in one's berth, for the lights must be kept turned off, now
that we are in the danger zone made by those terrible Germans. Ah, how I
hate them!" and his anger seemed very real and earnest.
"Did you say you wanted to borrow a pocket electric flash lamp?" asked
Blake, wishing to make the caller repeat his request. As he asked this
question Blake looked at his chums, as though to ask them to take
particular note of the reply.
"I should like to, yes, if you have one to spare. There are three of
you, and, I presume, like most travelers, you each have one. I am alone
in a single stateroom, and I may have need of a light. I will return it
to you at the end of the voyage, or buy it of you at a good price. You
see, I have a little Jew in me. I will make a bargain with you. And I
will pay you well, something a Jew proverbially does not like to do. But
I realize the value of what I want, and that the market is not well
supplied, so you may take advantage of my situation. My battery is
either worn out or the light is broken. It will not flash."
He shoved down the little sliding catch, but there was no glow in the
tiny tungsten bulb.
"You have me at your mercy if you wish to sell me a lamp," he went on,
with a smile and a shrug of his shoulders, not unlike that of Lieutenant
Secor.
"Hasn't your friend a spare light?" asked Joe quickly.
"My friend?" repeated the German, as though surprised. "You mean----?"
"I mean Lieutenant Secor."
"Oh, him!" and again came the deprecatory shrug of the shoulders. "He is
an acquaintance, not a friend. Besides, he has but one lamp, and he
needs that. So, also, will you need yours. But as there are three of you
together, I thought perhaps----"
"We each have a light," said Blake, interrupting the rather rapid talk
of Labenstein. "In fact, I have two, and I'll let you take one."
"That is very kind of you. Ah, it is like mine!"
The visitor was watching Blake eagerly as he brought forth one of the
flat, three-cell nickel-plated holders of tiny batteries, with the
white-backed and tungsten-filamented incandescent light set in a
depressed socket.
"Yes, this is the best type," Blake said. "You may have this."
"And the price?" asked Labenstein, as his hand quickly went into his
pocket.
"Is nothing," answered Blake. "It is a gift."
"Ah, but, my dear sir, that is too much! I could not think of taking it
without pay!" insisted Mr. Labenstein, as he flashed on the light and
then slipped the switch back in place again. "I protest that I must pay
you."
"Please don't insist on paying," begged Blake, "for I shall only have to
refuse to take any money. Please consider the light a gift. I have a
spare one."
"You are very kind, I'm sure," said the other, bowing with some
exaggeration, it seemed to the boys. "I appreciate it, I assure you, and
I shall look for a chance to repay the favor."
"That's all right," said Blake, and he tried to make his voice sound
hearty. "You are welcome to the light."
"A thousand thanks," murmured Mr. Labenstein, as he bowed himself out.
And then, when the door had closed on him and they had taken the
precaution of closing their transom, Joe burst out in a cautious whisper
with:
"What in the world did you let him take it for, Blake Stewart? Don't you
see what his game is?"
"Yes," was Blake's quiet answer; "I think I do."
"Well, then----"
"What is his game?" asked Charlie.
"I presume he wants to use the flash lamp to give a signal at night to
some German submarine," said Blake quietly--very quietly, under the
circumstances, it might seem.
"And you let him take a light for that?" cried Joe.
"Wait a bit!" advised Blake, and he smiled at his chum. "Do you know
anything about these flashlights, Joe?"
"A little--yes. I know a powerful one, like that you gave Labenstein,
can be seen a long way on a dark night."
"Well, then maybe you know something else about them, or you may have
forgotten it. Like the proverb which says 'blessings brighten as they
vanish,' so the light of these lamps sometimes glows very strong just
before the battery goes on the blink and douses the glim."
Joe looked at his chum for a moment, uncomprehendingly, and then a smile
came over his face.
"Do you mean you gave him a light with a battery in it that was almost
played out?" he asked.
"Exactly," answered Blake, with another smile. "This is a light I have
had for some time. I noticed, only last night, that it was brighter
than usual. Just as a fountain pen--at least, the old-fashioned
kind--used to flow more freely when there were only a few drops of ink
left, so this battery seems to be strongest just before it gives out
altogether.
"I suspected this was going to happen, but I tested the battery with a
galvanometer to-day and I found out it has about ten flashes left. After
that the light will be dead."
"Is that why you gave it to him?" asked Charlie.
"The very reason. As soon as he asked for a light it occurred to me that
he wanted to use it--or might use it--to give a signal at night to some
watching submarine commander waiting for a chance to torpedo us. I
thought if I let him do it with this failing light he might do the Huns
more damage than he could us."
"How?" asked Joe.
"By not being able to give the proper signals. He'll need to flash a
light for some little time to make sure to attract the attention of the
submarine, won't he?"
"Probably," agreed Joe.
"Well, then, if, while he's in the midst of signaling, his light goes
out, the submarine won't know what to make of it, and will come up
closer to find out what's wrong. Then our own guns, or those of the
destroyers, can bang away and catch the Germans napping."
"Say, that's great!" cried Charlie, as soon as he understood the plan
Blake had so quickly evolved.
"If it works," conceded Joe. "But how are we going to know when that
German spy signals the submarine and fails to convey his full meaning,
Blake?"
"We'll have to watch him, of course. Catch him in the act, as it were.
The defective lamp will help."
"So it will!" exclaimed Joe. "Blake, I take back all I thought of you. I
imagined you were making a mistake to let that lamp go out of your
possession; but now I see your game. It's a good one! But we've got to
be on the watch for this spy!"
"Oh, yes," agreed his chum. "And not only him but the Frenchman as well.
I didn't believe it possible that Secor could be in with this German,
but perhaps he is, and maybe he'll betray his own countrymen. Either one
may give the signal, but if they do we'll be ready for them. No more
moving pictures for us, boys, until we get to the war front. We've got
to be on this other job!"
"But hadn't we better tell Captain Merceau?" asked Charlie.
"Yes, I think so," assented Blake. "We'll tell him what we think, and
what we have done."
But they did not get a chance that day, for there was a submarine scare
toward evening--a lookout thinking he saw a periscope--and the
consequent confusion made it impossible to have a talk with the
commander. The boys did not want to report to any subordinate officer,
and so concluded to wait until the next day.
"But we'll keep watch to-night on our friend across the corridor," Blake
said. "And on Lieutenant Secor as well. His stateroom is next to
Labenstein's, and we can tell when either of them goes out after
dark--that is, if we keep watch."
"And we'll keep it, all right!" declared Joe "Now that we know something
about what to look out for, we'll do it!"
And so, as evening came on and the lights of the ship were darkened and
as she sped along in company with her convoy, the three boys prepared to
divide the night into watches, that they might be on guard against what
they regarded as an attempt at black treachery.
For somewhere under or on that waste of waters they believed a deadly
submarine was lurking, awaiting the favorable moment to send a torpedo
at the ship.