AWAITING ORDERS.
While awaiting orders, which the wireless had told the _St. Mark's_
captain were not ready for transmission, the big liner stood "off and
on" at the mouth of the channel. It was wearing work, and all looked
forward eagerly to the day when their destination would be settled and
they could proceed.
Jack felt the monotony of it no less than anyone else on board, but he
spent a good many busy hours perfecting an attachment for a wireless
coherer which he hoped would prove of great value in the future, and
possibly prove as profitable as the Universal Detector, to which
allusion has already been made in "The Ocean Wireless Boys" and "The
Naval Code." One night, after working for some time at some rather
abstruse calculations in this connection, he decided to abandon the work
for the night and take a stroll on deck before turning in.
Raynor, he knew, was finishing up the last of a series of match games of
checkers, so he did not bother to look up his friend. Knowing that Bill
was busily engaged, Jack was rather surprised when, at his fourth or
fifth turn up and down the deck, which was almost deserted, a steward
stepped up to him with a note.
It proved to be from Raynor and read as follows:
"Dear Jack:
"Meet me at once in the stern where we can talk without being
spied on. The steward will show you where. I have something
important to tell you about Radwig.
"BILL."
"This is very peculiar," mused Jack, and then, turning to the steward he
asked:
"Did Mr. Raynor give you this?"
"Yes, sir, and he told me to bring you to where he was waiting, sir,"
was the obsequious response.
"All right, lead on," said Jack and then to himself he added: "I can't
in the least make out why old Bill should be so secretive. I might just
as well have met him in his cabin. But maybe he is being watched, and
thinks the place he has appointed would be better."
The steward led the way aft through a maze of corridors and passages. At
last they arrived far in the stern of the ship where the unlighted
passages showed no cabins were occupied. The twenty first-class
passengers had all been booked amidships, thus the hundreds of cabins
opening on the stern passages were unoccupied and nobody went near them.
"You've no idea why Mr. Raynor selected this part of the ship to meet
me?" said Jack, as he followed the man who lighted the way with an
electric torch.
"No, sir," he replied, with a shake of his head. "I suppose he had his
reasons, sir."
"No doubt, but this is an odd part of the ship to keep an appointment,"
said Jack. "We must be far away from the occupied cabins."
"Oh, yes, sir. Almost a tenth of a mile. Wonderful, ain't it, sir, the
size of these big ships? A fellow could yell his lungs out in this part
of the vessel, sir, and things, being as they are, and the cabins empty
and all, nobody could hear him."
"I suppose not," said Jack idly. "Are we nearly there?"
"Yes, sir. Just turn down this passage, sir. Right to the left, sir,
mind that step and--" Crash!
A great burst of light, as if a sudden explosion had occurred in front
of him blinded Jack, and at the same instant he felt a violent blow on
the back of the head. Then the bright light vanished with a loud report
and he seemed to swim for an instant, in blackness. Everything went out,
as if a light had been switched off, and the lad pitched heavily forward
on his face.
"Good, that will settle his hash for a while," muttered a voice, and
Radwig, a short, wicked-looking bludgeon in his hand, bent over the
senseless boy. By the German's side was another man, a short, thick-set,
clean-shaven fellow with a projecting jaw, known on the passenger list
as Mr. Duncan Ewing, of Chicago.
The light of the steward's torch illumined their faces as they stood
above the recumbent young wireless boy.
"I say, sir," muttered the man, "I know you've paid me well and all,
sir, but I didn't bargain for no murdering business, sir. I----"
"Don't be an idiot," snapped Radwig impatiently. "We haven't hurt him.
See, he's beginning to stir. Now then, Schultz----"
Radwig bent and took up the limp body by the head while Mr. Duncan
Ewing, who answered with alacrity to the name of Schultz, laid hold of
poor Jack by the feet.
"Now, steward," said Radwig, as they carried their burden into an empty
cabin, "keep a stiff upper lip till we dock, and then I don't care what
happens. You'll be well taken care of. Don't forget that."
"Yes, sir, I know, sir," said the man, whose hand was trembling as he
held the torch; "but I don't like the business, sir. If it wasn't for my
poor wife being sick and needing the money, and all---"
"That will do. Go get us the lamp you promised. In the meantime we'll
revive this young fellow and show you that he's not dead."
From a carafe of stale water that stood on the washstand, Radwig dashed
a liberal application in Jack's face. He loosened the lad's collar and
chafed his wrists. Jack moaned, stirred, and opened his eyes. For a
moment his swimming senses refused to rally to his call. Then, with a
flash, he realized what had happened.
"Radwig, you scoundrel!" he exclaimed, "what is the meaning of this
outrage?"
"Just a delicate little way of reminding you that it is not well to
thwart the wishes of Herr Professor Radwig," was the reply. "Schultz, my
dear fellow, shut that door. No, wait a moment, here comes our man with
the lamp. That's better."
He took the lamp from the steward, and set it in a frame on the wall
provided for it in case the electric light failed from any cause. The
steward, still pale and shaky, hurried away after one glance at Jack.
"And now," said Radwig, "we will leave you to your reflections, my young
friend. It will do you no good to shout. Under present conditions this
part of the ship is uninhabited. No one comes near it. As for trying to
force the door after we have gone, it would be wasted labor. I have
taken the pains to affix bolts to the outside of it. Bread you will
find, and some water, under the bunk. I advise you to be sparing of it,
for you will not get any more and now--_auf wiedersehn_."
He opened the door, motioned Schultz out, and turned a malevolent smile
on the boy. With a shout, Jack flung himself forward, but the door
slammed in his face.
He heard a laugh from outside, a laugh that made his blood boil and his
fists clench. He fell against the door and wrenched at it furiously. But
already the bolts outside had been shot into place and the portal held
firmly.
"Now don't lose your temper," begged Radwig mockingly from without;
"it's very bad, very bad for the digestion. I would recommend you to
spend your time mediating over the manifest advantages of being
obliging. Good-night."
Jack, listening at the bolted door, heard their footsteps die away down
the deserted passageway.