A FRIENDLY WARNING.
The next day in court the fireman, whose name, by the way, was Lars
Anderson, and all the other smugglers were held for the higher tribunals
of the federal government, under whose jurisdiction their cases, with
the exception of Anderson’s, came.
Heavy sentences were prophesied for all of them. Many were the black
glances cast at Jack by the gang as they were led away. But these
malicious looks did not come alone from the malefactors. Out in the
courtroom was gathered a hard-looking crowd.
Coal passers and firemen of the _Ajax_ against whom nothing could be
proved, although it was morally certain that they were connected with
the gang, had gathered there to see how it fared with their companions.
When Jack was giving his testimony he saw many malevolent glances fixed
on him, and one man went so far as to shake his fist covertly at the
lad.
But Jack did not falter, and gave his story in a manly, straightforward
fashion that won him the approval of the court and the respect of the
attorneys. He left the courtroom with Mr. Brown, the captain having gone
uptown with some friends.
As they passed out of the door the firemen who had witnessed the scene
within were gathered about the doorway. They eyed Jack scowlingly and
more than one muttered threat was heard.
As soon as they had passed out of earshot, Mr. Brown spoke seriously to
Jack.
“I’d be very careful how I went about New York at night after this, if I
were you,” he said.
“Why?” asked Jack innocently.
“Simply because those fellows have it in for you.”
“But this is New York City. Surely they wouldn’t dare——”
“They’d dare anything fast enough if they could get you up a dark
street,” said the mate sententiously.
“But they’ll be sailing with us again, anyhow,” said Jack.
“They will not!” said Mr. Brown with emphasis. “But recollect that some
of them are desperate characters. Firemen, some of them at least, are as
bad as they make ’em. You’ve sent their pals to jail. Very well then,
their code of justice requires them to avenge themselves on you. So look
out for squalls!”
“Oh, I’ll be careful,” laughed Jack as they shook hands and parted.
At the Brooklyn Bridge he paused to buy a paper. The first thing that
caught his eye made him flush and then laugh.
There at the top of the page and spread out over two columns was a
portrait of himself, drawn by an artist possessed of a vivid
imagination, inasmuch as he had never seen Jack.
Then there was a half-tone of the _Ajax_, labeled “Scene of the
Thrilling Battle for Life.”
Underneath came headlines:
WIRELESS HERO BATTLES FOR
HIS LIFE WITH TOBACCO
SMUGGLING GANG.
JACK READY HERO OF NIGHT FIGHT
ON THE FREIGHTER “AJAX.”
Message to Police Wings the Air and
Results in Capture of Daring, Desperate
Band.
“Well, that’s going some, as Raynor would say,” laughed Jack, hardly
knowing whether to be amused or indignant.
“There’s one satisfaction,” he thought as he rode over the bridge on a
surface car and digested the long interview with himself that he had
never given, “nobody would ever recognize me from that picture.”
A few days later Jack received a letter from the company. It enclosed a
handsome check “for valuable and appreciated services.” This time Jack
did not return the check.
“Still,” he mused, “if it had not been for Captain Braceworth, there
might have been a different story to tell.”
The letter, however, delighted him more than he showed. It demonstrated
for one thing that the company appreciated what he had done, and that,
if all continued to go well, he was in the line of promotion. He dreamed
night and day of his next step upward, and longed for a berth on one of
the Titan Steamship Company’s coasting vessels that ran to Galveston and
Central American and West Indian ports. They carried passengers, and
they paid their operators much more than the _Ajax_ class of wireless
men received.
“If I can only get some more opportunities to show what I can do,”
thought the boy, “I’m bound to get on. ‘Keep plugging,’ my dad used to
say, and that is just what I am going to do, no matter how many
discouragements or hardships I meet. And then, perhaps, some day——”
Jack went off into a day dream, and it was an odd thing that his reverie
led him into a sudden determination to seek out Captain Dennis at the
address that had been given him, and to call on the captain. Perhaps
there was another member of the captain’s household that Jack was
anxious to see, too!
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