A SPY ON BOARD
Porky rubbed a hand across his eyes, as though to shut out a
disagreeable sight. Beany shook his head. The boys evidently
hated the pictures that memory drew.
"Let's have the rest of it, boys," said the Captain of the
Firefly. "We may as well have the whole thing at once."
"Well!" said Porky 'sighing, "that's how things went until
to-day--or I guess it was yesterday, wasn't it? Anyhow, I can't
tell just when anything happened. All I know is that everybody
was just as though they were strung on wires.
"And that Captain got uglier and uglier. He talked German to the
men, and then he would turn around and speak the best English you
ever heard. It seemed awfully funny. He knew a lot of people
back home, all the high-brows, and when he got pretty full, he
would commence to sing. And say he had that Caruso guy lashed to
the mast, I bet. He sang love stuff, and sob stuff, and a lot of
opera stuff that sounded like gargling. Gee, it was great!
"Then he would make me and Beany stand at attention, and he would
tell us all about the German army, and how strong it is, and all
about their navy, and how we just had to be wiped off the map.
The United States, I mean, and he would make us repeat all sorts
of statistics about what the Germans had won and done."
"He said there was one chance in a million of our escaping," said
Beany, "and he wanted us to have a lot of inside dope to tell our
people. Of course it was all brag, almost every bit of it. We
could see one thing. Those fellows were all sore. They didn't
know what at, but they were sore just the same. Our fellows are
never like that."
"You bet they are not!" said Porky, fondly and proudly. "The
difference is plain as the nose on your face. I tell you what I
did do; I made some little drawings of some of the things we
heard. Sort of plans they were talking over. But you can see
the submarine yourselves. You say she is safe."
"Get to what happened this morning--I mean yesterday," said
Beany.
"Well," said Porky, "first thing we knew, the Captain looked
through the periscope, and then he turned around and told the
others something, and, say, they were pleased to death! You see
they wanted to make up their required number of ships torpedoed,
and get back to port. The Captain called me over, and told me
to look, and there you were, way off, but plain. It was not
really light. We submerged right away, and the Captain told me
to fix some coffee. They wanted coffee nineteen times a day or
so. I went over to the little corner where they cooked what few
things they did cook, and then I happened to think of that bottle.
The one with Anesthetique on it. That looked near enough to
Anesthetic to be the same thing; and I wondered what would happen
if I dumped some of it in the coffee. I didn't know what it was;
but there was a chance anyhow for it to work. It might make 'em
sick if nothing else, and I couldn't seem to see them pegging
away at one of our ships with one or two or three of those
torpedoes, even if I had monkeyed with their tail feathers.
"So I tipped the wink to Beany to kind of hold the center of the
stage, and, say, that was funny! Beany braced up to the Captain,
and saluted and said, 'Is it an American ship out there, sir?'
and the Captain said, 'Sure thing, kiddo!' He could talk just
like anybody, you know. Then Beany looked as though he was going
to cry; and he said, 'Can't you make an exception, Capt, let this
one go?' The Captain thought that was a big joke and pretended
to think about it, and finally he said, 'No, I can't see my way
clear to do that; but I'll tell you what we will do. We won't
leave a single boatful to starve. We will destroy every
human-being on the transport and the convoys. I think we will
meet a sister U-boat here this morning, and we will have a real
good time.'
"Beany saw I had dumped the stuff in the coffee pot, and he just
hung his head and walked off, the Captain looking after him and
sneering.
"Gee, I was in a cold chill! I didn't know but the coffee would
taste queer, and then they wouldn't drink it, and would kill us
besides, before we had a chance to report to anybody. And I
didn't dare taste it, for fear it was an instantaneous actor, and
would do for me first. So I just passed the cups, and filled
them up, and trusted to luck. And every man put his down without
a word until it came to the Captain and, he said, 'It was worth
keeping you for a little while. You make real German coffee,
best in the world.' Everybody wanted two cups, and it took all
there was; and the Captain thought that was a scream because
there wasn't any left for Beany and me.
"Well, then, we commenced to wait to see what happened. And
nothing happened. Nothing! The whole shooting match acted
peppy. Beany whispered to me, 'Was it the wrong bottle?' And I
didn't know what to think. I guess we came close enough to fire,
and as soon as the machinery was ready, they swung a torpedo into
the chute right behind that dead sailor, pressed the lever, and
the dead man and the torpedo went shooting out together. Then
they sent out another torpedo; and the Captain, at the periscope,
commenced to talk in German, and the gunner looked and, say, his
eyes bulged! But then something hit us a sort of glancing blow
and we submerged right away. And my word! Just as we got down
there, the Captain turned to the man at the steering gear to
order him to the surface again I guess, and there he was all
doubled over. He was out.
"The Captain took a couple of steps toward him, and a silly kind
of look came into his face, and he just went down in a heap, and
in one minute every man was flat on the floor. Well, there we
were, alone you might say, with that submarine to get to the
surface! And what we don't know about those boats would fill a
dictionary.
"Beany said, 'Get her up if you can, Pork,' and he jumped for
some rope, and commenced to tie everybody up. We didn't know how
long that Anesthetique stuff was apt to work, and we didn't feel
like taking any chances.
"So Beany made a good job of it, and I monkeyed with the steering
gear the way they had told me, and the way I had seen, and up she
came. Beany was just finishing, but I hurried up on deck, and,
say, I thought you were going to do for me, anyhow!"
Porky seemed wholly unconscious of having accomplished anything
out of the usual routine. He leaned back. "So that's all there
is of that," he said.
"When did those fellows wake up?" asked Beany, "or did it kill
them?"
Captain Greene laughed. "I am sorry you didn't keep the bottle,"
he said. "Your friends are only just now waking up. It is a
prolonged process, and rather distressing, I should judge."
"I did save the bottle," said Porky. "Here it is, if you want
it. I had to put it in my pocket, because I wanted to get it out
of sight as soon as ever I could.
"Sensible of you," said the Captain. "I will have that bottle
analyzed if there is anything left in it. There may be a new
combination there that will be of value sometimes."
"What else happened!" asked the Colonel.
"Not a thing, sir," said Porky; "don't see why we are so done up,
either. We didn't do much."
"It was a slight nervous strain, I think," said the Captain,
"cooped up there, expecting to be killed."
"Did he threaten you many times?" asked the Colonel.
"Yes, sir, a lot; but we got so we didn't mind much except the
time he did for Heinrich. Then we sort of felt as though it was
getting personal, as you might say. Oh, I'm glad to be out of
it!"
The ship's doctor stepped up to Porky and felt his pulse.
"Just a trifle under par yet," he said, arranging Beany's
bandages. "I would suggest another nap or two."
"All right," said the officers and they moved toward the door.
"We aren't sleepy," said Porky. "How could we be sleepy at this
time of day?" He yawned widely. Everybody laughed.
"Just try it and see what you can do in the way of snoring," said
the doctor. "One more good snooze, and you will be ready to
bring in another submarine and some more prisoners."
He left the room, and in two minutes the boys were both asleep.
They were exhausted, with the trying mental exhaustion that
people feel who have undergone great anxiety and danger.
The two Captains and the Colonel went into Captain Greene's cabin
and for a long time talked the matter over. They could hear the
crew and the soldiers making merry. It had been a great
experience; an experience which fortunately had had a good ending.
Already a lot of the boys were writing highly-colored, lengthy
accounts home--accounts which were doomed never to pass the censor!
Colonel Bright was happy as a boy. He chuckled and laughed and
patted his friends on the back. He was so glad to have his two
boys restored to him that he didn't know what to do. He kept
tiptoeing back to look at the boys as they slept. And sleep they
did hour after hour, until their young bodies were renewed and
refreshed. When they finally awoke, it was with the feeling that
they never could sleep again. They went up on deck to take their
usual morning look around. It was not yet time to report to
Colonel Bright. To their great surprise, they were lying outside
a harbor. In the distance they could see through the morning
haze the lines of shipping and the bright tiled roofs of the
houses. There was a feeling of expectation on board the ship.
Porky hailed a sailor and asked where they were.
"In Europe," said the Jacky, smiling, and hurried away.
"In Europe!" repeated Porky. "I bet Colonel Bright will tell
us." They hurried below. But to their eager questions the
Colonel merely repeated the sailor's reply. The boys hurried on
deck again. They stood by the rail, staring at the purple shore,
when they were startled by a shot below, the sound of a scuffle,
and as they turned a man raced past, leaped the rail and was
swallowed by the sea. Scarcely had his head appeared again when
with a rush Captain Greene gained the rail. For a moment he took
aim; a steady, relentless aim. A puff of smoke marked the shot,
and the black head, bobbing on the waves, disappeared. A hand
was raised, and seemed to wave a good-by.
The boys watched breathlessly, then turned to stare at the
Captain, who was peering intently at the water. There was
something in his stern, set face that forbade questioning. For
once they were completely silenced.
When the head, did not come to the surface, the Captain turned
and went hastily down the companionway. The boys looked at each
other.
"What on earth does it all mean?" Porky demanded of no one in
particular.
They, too, hurried, down. The door of the Captain's cabin was
ajar. Colonel Bright, very pale, and supported by the purser,
sat opposite the door. When he saw the boys' anxious faces he
nodded, and they went silently to his side.
Then they saw that on the Captain's bunk a form, limp and
ghastly, was stretched out under the hand of the surgeon. It was
the Captain of the Firefly, and as they looked, the surgeon stood
upright.
"He is dead," he said briefly. He came around by Colonel Bright,
and assisted him to his feet.
"Better come to your own cabin, sir," he suggested.
"Come, boys," said Colonel Bright. Then to the surgeon, and the
purser: "I am merely scratched. I do not need further
assistance. See you can't do something further for that poor
fellow." He turned and, followed by the boys, walked slowly down
the passage to his own large, comfortable cabin, where he dropped
wearily into a chair, and with a gesture directed the boys to
remove his tunic. No one spoke until he had been partly
undressed, and had laid down on the bunk.
"Well, boys," he said then, with the little twinkling smile they
loved, "I certainly was born lucky! I suppose you are both
simply bursting to know what has happened, and I don't blame you.
I want to say first of all, though, that you have shown a great
deal of discretion; a great deal of discretion indeed."
The boys looked wildly at each other. They were not very strong
on long words, and while they were sure that they were being
praised, they were not sure just exactly what discretion meant.
Beany simpered and let it go at that; Porky mumbled, "Much
obliged."
Colonel Bright pulled his torn shirt over the spot on his broad
shoulder where a wad of absorbent cotton and a lot of
crisscrossed surgeon's plaster marked the slight wound. He moved
the shoulder curiously. "That will be stiff for a couple of
days, I suppose, but that is all there will be to it. Nothing
but a scratch. Did you see the man go overboard, boys?"
"Yes, sir, we did," said Porky; "but we didn't see who it was.
Was it any one we knew? We saw the Captain shoot him."
"Yes," said Beany of the eagle eye, "it made me feel funny,
somehow. The Captain shot quick. Just bing! and the bullet hit
him, about an inch above the back of his neck just a shade to the
left of the middle of his head."
"Close enough to keep him down below until the day of judgment,"
said the Colonel, sighing. "So you didn't see his face? Well,
boys, if you had, you would have seen a familiar countenance. It
was our second mate; and a spy!"
"What?" cried both boys, startled at the words and tone.
"Just that!" said the Colonel. "We have had a scene, I can tell
you. If one of you will order a cup of coffee for me I will tell
you all about it." He leaned back and closed his eyes. Beany
made for the door; and Porky sat in silence until his brother
returned with a tray of coffee, toast and bacon.
Then while the Colonel ate, they busied themselves about one
thing and another around the cabin, until at last the Colonel set
down the empty coffee cup, and spoke.
"I often wonder," he said, "how you boys learned some of the
great truths that you know."
Porky laughed. "Like not talking when you ate?" he asked. "That
was Mom. She always says that you can't expect to learn anything
from a hungry man."
"A very wise woman," the Colonel said. "She is perfectly right."
He looked at his watch.
"There is a little time, and while I smoke I will tell you all
about the little fuss we have just finished. Yes, boys, the man
you saw killed was the second mate of this ship, and a spy; a
miserable spy. No use wasting pity on him; he got what he
deserved."
The Colonel scowled.