A little later, sitting in the plain but convenient office opposite the
great man he had come to see, Lawrence was impressed by the power and
force in the steady eyes that looked so straight into his own, and in
the kind mouth and forceful broad brow saw a promise of clean dealing
and deep wisdom.
"I cannot get over my surprise at your youth," said Mr. Ridgeway. "It
seems a foolish procedure to give such a great enterprise into the hands
of a boy like you. Are you sure," he added, laughing, "that you have not
a father or brother to whom I should be talking?"
"No, sir; I am the one you sent for," replied Lawrence. "I have been
fooling with airplanes and balloons ever since I graduated from kites."
"How old are you?" asked Mr. Ridgeway.
"I don't know, sir," said Lawrence, a flush mounting to his brow. "I am
a waif. I do not know my own name, or my age. I was taken from one of
the worst parts of the city to the Home where I was partly brought up. I
have no hope of ever finding anyone belonging to me."
"Have you no clues?" asked Mr. Ridgeway.
"I fear not, sir," he replied. "At least they are too slight to be
considered. I speak of this because I think you ought to know that
whatever becomes of me, there is no one to rejoice and no one to
grieve."
"I am sorry," said Mr. Ridgeway simply. "Yet for my purpose, that
simplifies everything. You will embark on a desperate enterprise if you
attempt what I have in mind for you to do. And I cannot tell you, indeed
I cannot guess the outcome. It depends largely on your own daring,
caution and ability. Your youth is your best safeguard because no one
would ever believe you to be embarked on anything like this."
"I am willing to take the risks," said Lawrence simply.
"Then you may try it," decided the great man. "I believe there were two
other men coming to see me this morning on this same errand. Step into
my private office until I see them. Perhaps one or both will do to work
in as mechanicians."
Still in the dark as to what Mr. Ridgeway wanted him to undertake,
Lawrence was about to go into the other room when a clerk rapped on the
outer door and entered without waiting for a summons. His face was pale,
and his eyes rolled wildly. "M-m-m-ister Ridgeway, sir," he stuttered,
"those two gentlemen who were waiting outside for you, they are both
asleep."
"Both _what_?" asked Mr. Ridgeway sharply.
"Both asleep, and we can't wake either of them."
"Drugged!" exclaimed Mr. Ridgeway, glancing at Lawrence. "Come on, you
may as well see this thing out before you decide to cast your fortune in
such dangerous places." He rushed to the door, followed by Lawrence and
the agitated clerk.
On a broad settee in the waiting-room two men were sprawled. Mr.
Ridgeway took one keen glance at their pallid faces and half closed
lids, between which their pupils, contracted to pin points, glared
strangely.
"Drugged!" he said again. Then stepping to the telephone, he called the
office of the great building and asked sharply, "Office, is the house
doctor there? Ask him to come to Mr. Ridgeway's office, nineteenth
floor, immediately."
He returned to the settee, where the men still sprawled. "Lay them flat
on the floor," he ordered.
Scarcely had this been done when the doctor, a small, keen young man,
entered with a little bag in his hand. His sharp eyes swept the group
and he nodded to Mr. Ridgeway as he hastened to the two men on the floor
and dropped on one knee beside them.
"Drugged," he said, glancing up.
"I thought so," said Mr. Ridgeway. "They couldn't get enough whiskey in
as dry a land as this is now to affect them like this. Besides, their
pupils; do you see them?"
"Contracted to nothing," said Doctor Lansing. He prepared a hypodermic
needle and made an injection in each left forearm.
"If there is no response of the heart action after fifteen minutes," he
said, "I will know that they are suffering from one of the three newly
discovered anesthetics which are so deadly in the hands of a criminal."
"Don't you think we had better get them to the hospital at once?" asked
Mr. Ridgeway.
"Not until the fifteen minutes pass," said the doctor. "If the needle
takes effect, they will be all right in an hour or two; at least they
could be taken home, but if it is the other, we will have a long tussle
with them."
"Well, this settles one thing," said Mr. Ridgeway decidedly. "We have
had every office building in this and every other large city supplied
with house physicians for the last three years, but another law must be
made requiring every building over a certain size to equip a hospital
room for first-aid."
"It would be a great thing," said Doctor Lansing, his keen eyes on his
two patients, "both for the patients and the doctors. I have had to send
many a sufferer home or to the hospital when some slight surgical or
electrical care would have finished the matter within a short time, and
with a great deal less suffering." He took out his stethoscope, listened
to each heart, and rose. "Well, Mr. Ridgeway, these men are suffering
from administration, by themselves or others, of one of the new poisons.
Do you know who they are?"
"Yes," said Mr. Ridgeway. "I can tell you about them, but first get them
to the hospital." He called for an ambulance, and as soon as he had seen
the unconscious victims of an unknown villain's dastard hand carried
away, he turned and beckoned Lawrence to follow him into his private
office. Sinking down in his chair, he passed a hand through the thick
masses of grey hair and sighed.
"There you have it, Lawrence," he said.
"I don't believe I understand," replied Lawrence.
"Sit down then," said Mr. Ridgeway, "and I will explain."
"In the first place," he commenced, "young as you are, you must have
felt the dangerous mood the whole world is in. Of course the adjustment
after a world war necessarily takes several generations. But to us who
happen to be on hand during that adjustment comes the task of hurrying
the thing along as much as we possibly can. For this comes the need for
absolutely safe transportation of papers, messages and money. Often,
too, there is the need for the transportation of millions of dollars'
worth of jewels--jewels enough to ransom whole principalities, let alone
a king or two.
"We have worked this thing out with the greatest difficulty, trying one
method after another, sending our papers in disguised packages, with
trusted messengers, and using the most intricate codes. But all the time
there are leaks. For instance, a short time ago a message to the King of
Morania, sent under a triplicate code, that is, a code that must be
translated three times, was intercepted and only the fact that it was a
false message sent to try out a new system kept us from the brink of a
fresh war.
"These things are only known to the inner circles, you understand. It
would not do to frighten and agitate the public with intimate affairs of
state. But we absolutely _must_ find a means of transportation that is
as free from danger, free from spies and thieves, as it is possible to
invent.
"As a last resort, we are going to make use of the dirigible. This of
course is where you come in.
"In my private business I have used planes, hydroplanes and one or two
dirigibles and as they are well known to be used exclusively for
passenger and freight service, they have never been interfered with in
any way. I am not known to be working with the government, and my one
hope was that we could take the new dirigible that has just been
completed for me and make use of it for the transportation of these
priceless documents that mean so much to the peace of the world.
"What has happened this morning troubles me more than I can tell you.
Someone suspects us, or else those two men are the victims of a private
enemy."
The telephone bell jingled. Mr. Ridgeway lifted the receiver and
adjusted the delicate needle point on the desk pad by means of which all
telephone conversations were recorded, a new invention which Lawrence
had heard of but had not seen. Mr. Ridgeway listened with a frown
darkening his brow.
"I will be right out," he said finally, and replaced the receiver.
"Well, the new dirigible was wrecked in the night," he said. "That looks
like business! Come on; we will go out and look the ground over. That
is, if you care to cast your lot with such a dangerous game."
"Of course," said Lawrence simply. "I shall enjoy it."
"Good!" said Mr. Ridgeway. "We will draw up the necessary papers this
afternoon. I want you on your past record as an airman, and your youth
is a good safeguard to you. Also you are not afraid. Your duties will be
whatever the moment calls for. You may have to drive the car, you may be
simply a passenger, a messenger, or a boy idling around the hangars. I
want you to be ears and eyes and hands and brain for me. Rather a large
order? Well, you will be paid well for it." He paused and then named a
sum that made Lawrence catch his breath, so large was it.
"All our transactions are confidential," he said.
Entering a small but perfect roadster, Mr. Ridgeway drove rapidly out of
the city to the aviation field, where he found a group of excited men
around the new dirigible.
Well guarded as the place evidently was, someone had entered in the
night and completely destroyed the delicate machinery. The propellers
too were unscrewed, and the blades hacked.
Lawrence was shocked, and the men around were furious. It rather
reflected on their care when such an outrage could occur inside of an
area where watchmen were supposed to patrol incessantly. Mr. Ridgeway,
however, showed no signs of anger. He ordered an investigation and told
the head mechanician to see what could be done with the wreck. Then,
pleasant as ever, he drove back to the city. "I am certainly glad that
happened," he said as they left the field behind.
"Glad?" said Lawrence in astonishment. "Glad? Why, it seems _terrible_
to me!"
"Not at all," said Mr. Ridgeway. "The point is this. Now we know that we
are suspected. We know that this spying is a serious matter. The
knowledge arms us. As for the dirigible--" he paused, and to Lawrence's
amazement laughed a merry, whole-souled laugh as though the loss of a
machine worth many thousands of dollars was a matter of no consequence
at all.
"Being my right hand man, Lawrence, I will tell you a secret," he said
after a moment. "That dirigible was not as new as it looked. It was an
assembled machine, made up of about a dozen old ones that had been
picked up here and there. I took good care, however, that all the papers
held long accounts of the wonderful new machine that was being built for
Hamilton Ridgeway, and as I own a lot of the papers, I assure you the
accounts were glowing. Well, whoever tackled that bunch of junk in the
night was unable to use more than a small glow from a pocket flash, so,
as all the brass work was carefully polished and every part looked spick
and span, there was no way for even a tried machinist to tell that the
dirigible was not just what had been so widely advertised and
photographed: Hamilton Ridgeway's new dirigible for passenger service
and light commercial enterprises." He laughed again.
Then as though from force of habit he looked over his shoulder.
"I declare, the only place I like to talk confidences is in a ten acre
lot," he said, "but there is no place for anyone to hang on behind
here." He leaned toward Lawrence. "The new machine, safe and sound last
night at least, is back on the sand hills in New Jersey, south of
Barnegat. Two fishing launches are there in the inlet, but under the
tarpaulins are small but effective machine guns. The fishermen fooling
around in them are _not_ as peaceful as they look. They are secret
service men. In a hut back on the rise of ground to the west three other
fishermen are smoking and lounging. They too have badges under their
smocks. So we fooled 'em this time anyway," laughed the great man.
Lawrence was silent. He felt the thrill of the old knight when he went
galloping forth in quest of a dragon. This monster, threatening his
country, was as dangerous and mysterious a dragon as any of the two- or
ten-headed monsters that sent the fighting men of a long past age
scouring over the downs and moors of merry old England.
Being younger, he was not so much inclined to laugh as Mr. Ridgeway. He
wondered where the leak was that made it so easy for the dragon to
approach.
Parking the car, they went to luncheon and then returned to Mr.
Ridgeway's office, where they found a thick-set man pacing the floor of
the waiting-room and showing a good many signs of impatience. As they
entered he walked quickly over to Mr. Ridgeway and said in a quick tone,
"I tried to beat you in from the field, Mr. Ridgeway, but of course we
busted a tire and had to stop, and then your man told me he thought you
had gone to lunch, so I just stuck around."
He looked curiously at Lawrence, and Mr. Ridgeway said,
"Come into my office, O'Brien. You may tell me anything you have to say
before this young man. He is in my employ now."
"Sort of a young kid for our work, isn't he, Mr. Ridgeway?" asked
O'Brien, smiling a wide, mirthful Irish smile at Lawrence.
"Pretty young," admitted Mr. Ridgeway, "but I don't think it will hurt
him."
"It is something he is sure to get over, give him time," said the
Irishman whimsically. Then as the heavy door closed, "Well, Mr.
Ridgeway, I am the bearer of news. The watchman that has the beat from
two until four was sick last night and I took his place, swearing him to
silence about the change. He went to bed in my room, and I went out on
the beat. At about three I sneaked close to the hangar and thought I
could hear something making a sort of scratchin' noise inside. I had a
auger hole all fixed a good while ago, and I peeked."