For what Ned judged to have been half an hour, or possibly a little
longer, the car plunged along. Then, as suddenly as it started,
it came to a stop. The conversation of the occupants of the car
was now perfectly audible, and Ned’s heart beat wildly as among
them he recognized the tones of Channing Lockyer. The inventor had
then recovered his senses, which, as the boy knew from what he had
overheard, must have been lost following the blow from Gradbarr.
“Look here, Ferriss,” Ned from his hiding place could hear Mr. Lockyer
saying, “what you are doing is not only dastardly, but senseless. I
tell you now once and for all that whatever you may do to me, I shall
never sign any paper or make any agreement with you concerning the
submarine.”
“We’ll see about that,” a gruff voice, which Ned supposed must be that
of Ferriss, responded. “But I warn you now, Lockyer, not to give us too
much trouble. You are absolutely in our power. We are about to take you
to a lonely island where we could hide you for ten years without any
one being the wiser. We shall keep you there till you have had time to
reflect whether it is better to accept our terms for your craft, or to
let her rot uselessly while you are reported missing.”
“Missing!” gasped Lockyer.
“Yes. Your friends will all believe that you have been drowned. You
don’t think that we are such simpletons as not to have provided for
that, do you? We have set the boat in which you were rowed ashore
to-night adrift. She is bottom up, and any one finding her will imagine
that she has capsized. Under one of her thwarts we have placed your
hat, so that there will be no doubt as to your fate. Your friends will
mourn you for a time as drowned, and then both you and the Lockyer boat
will be forgotten.”
“Good heavens, Ferriss!” exclaimed the inventor, as the full purport
of this cleverly concocted plot burst upon him. “Are you a man or a
monster?”
“A little of both,” rejoined the other complacently. “The Far Eastern
nation of which I told you before needs your boat. We have contracted
to get it for them. We’ll do it, too.”
“But even if I signed your papers what good would that do you?” asked
Lockyer. “Who would believe you had authority?”
“Everybody,” was the calm rejoinder. “We would arrange to have you
kept a prisoner till we were safe in the East with your plans and
specifications. The power we have mentioned as being interested in your
boat has the reputation of being a good friend to those who befriend
it. They would take care that we came to no harm, no matter what steps
you took after your escape.”
“But the United States----”
“Has far too much to attend to to go to war over one inventor, my
friend. Besides, we have influence at Washington that you know nothing
of. No, Lockyer, your best plan is to draw for us a complete set of
plans, and then you are at liberty to go.”
“And let you reap the benefit of my years of work and thought?”
“We intend to pay you as I told you. Of course, we should also require
a receipt from you. That receipt of payment alone would absolve us from
any guilt in connection with the transaction. It would show, don’t you
see, that you sold out your government willingly.”
“Great heaven!” groaned the unhappy inventor, as he saw the web being
drawn more tightly about him.
“But come, we’re wasting time here,” struck in another voice, that of
Watson Camberly, although, of course, Ned, burning with indignation
in his hiding place, did not recognize it. “We must get over to the
island. Will you come with us willingly, Lockyer, or shall we have to
bind you?”
“You need not bind me,” was the bitter reply. “I cannot see how I could
well be more helpless.”
“I am glad you realize at last that we have the whip hand,” snarled the
voice of Ferriss.
“Gradbarr, you stay here and guard the car,” ordered Camberly the next
moment, after an interval, in which Ned could feel them leaving the
auto. “We’ll take the boat out to the island and return before long.”
Ned listened to their retreating footsteps for a few minutes. As they
died away, he heard Gradbarr walking about the car, doubtless trying to
keep warm, for the fall air was sharp as it blew in off the Sound. But
still as he lay, the lad’s mind was hard at work. Presently, and very
cautiously, he raised the leather flap which hung in front of his place
of concealment and peeped out. The guardian of the car was leaning
against the front wheel with his back to Ned. He was whistling in a
low key. Any one seeing him would little have imagined what nefarious
business he was engaged in. Ned’s mind was made up in a flash. He must
act now, or not at all. Before long, there was no doubt from what he
had heard, that the others would be back.
Gripping his weapon tightly, he noiselessly slipped out of the tonneau,
the side door of which had been left open. Before Gradbarr could make
any preparations, or indeed was even aware of what was happening behind
his back, the ruffian was startled by a sudden voice in his ear.
“Don’t move an inch, Gradbarr, or there’ll be trouble.”
“What!” roared out the startled rascal, and would have said more, but
that at that instant he felt a certain chilly disc pressed against the
back of his neck, which instinct told him was the muzzle of a pistol.
“Now do as I tell you,” ordered Ned crisply. “Get up on the seat of
that car and drive back into Grayport.”
“Into Grayport?”
Gradbarr began to whimper like the coward he was, as he echoed the
words. Also he had recognized Ned’s voice and knew the lad was not to
be trifled with.
“That’s what I said,” ordered the Dreadnought Boy sharply. “Don’t
hesitate, or I’ll give you a lesson in navy tactics.”
“Oh, but I’ll be arrested,” whined the ruffian, still not daring to
turn.
“You certainly will,” Ned assured him. “You have been going a long
time, Gradbarr, but here is where your career reaches a sudden
termination.”
“Come on now.” To emphasize his words, Ned pressed the muzzle of the
revolver more closely to Gradbarr’s neck. The fellow moved forward,
cringing and whimpering, but before he had taken a step something
happened which completely turned the tables.
Ned felt himself suddenly enwrapped from behind by a pair of powerful
arms, while at the same moment a harsh voice grated out:
“Just in time it seems.”
Gradbarr whipped round at the sudden interruption and gave a cry of
delight. He laughed aloud as he saw Ned struggling desperately, but
ineffectually in the arms of his captor.
“Good work, Mr. Camberly,” he exclaimed with a chuckle. “I guess I
won’t go back to Grayport to-night, after all.”
As he spoke he aimed a vicious blow at Ned. The rascal’s fist struck
the Dreadnought Boy full in the face.
“You scoundrel,” flared out Ned. “Set me free and see if you dare to
strike me.”
“Set you free,” sneered the voice behind him, the owner of which still
held the boy’s arms tightly pinioned. “Not to-night, my boy, and
perhaps not for many nights. Gradbarr, get that rope that we meant for
Lockyer out of the tonneau. We’ll truss this young turkey cock up and
take some of the fight out of him.”
Raging furiously within, Ned was compelled resistlessly to submit
to the indignity of being bundled up hand and foot in the rope by
Gradbarr. The former machinist thoroughly enjoyed his job, as was
evinced by the way he grinned and chuckled as he viciously drew the
cords tight.
“Ho! Ho! Ho!” he jeered. “It looks as if I was going to get even at
last for the other night when you thought you had me bottled up at the
boat yard. Take that, you young sneak!”
He aimed another hard blow at Ned’s face, but this time Camberly
checked him.
“That will do, Gradbarr,” he warned. “Wait till we get him to the
island if you have any old scores to pay off. You can attend to them
there at your leisure.”
“Won’t Anderson be tickled to death when he sees him,” muttered
Gradbarr. “The dirty young spy. Just think he was hiding under those
cushions in the tonneau all the time we were driving out here.”
“We’ll make him tell us just how he got there later on,” said Camberly.
“For the present just run that car into that brush at the side of
the road. We don’t want to leave it standing where it will attract
attention.”
It only took Gradbarr a few seconds to obey, and then he came back to
gloat once more over Ned. But once more Camberly cut him short.
“You take his feet. I’ll take his head,” he ordered. “Come on, quick
march for the boat.”
“Oh, guv’ner, ain’t this a treat,” chuckled Gradbarr, as he obeyed.
“But how did you ever come to show up in the nick of time?”
“Why, we found when we reached the boat that one of the spark plugs
needed tightening up,” responded Camberly, with a snicker. “I
volunteered to come back to the car for a wrench. Luckily I came
softly, and arrived very opportunely for you.”
“I should say so,” agreed Gradbarr. “It seems that this young rooster
had it all cut and dried to send me to prison.”
“And you’ll get there yet, you scoundrel,” Ned burst out, and was angry
at himself the next minute for his exhibition, for Camberly broke into
a brutal laugh.
“My, isn’t somebody mad,” he chortled. “Well, we’ll see if a little
solitary confinement won’t prove a good cure for a fit of bad temper.”
In a moment more Ned felt himself being lifted from the ground and
carried rapidly through the woods toward the shore. As they emerged on
the beach, a voice hailed them. It was Ferriss.
“What on earth have you got there?” he demanded, peering through the
darkness at the bundle Gradbarr and Camberly were carrying.
“Why, a young man who has just accepted an invitation to a surprise
party,” laughed Camberly. “We’re the hosts.”