“YES, YES, I DID IT!”
Nedham’s _pulque_ drinking had completely shattered his nerves and the
effects of the liquor combined with the revelation of José Cerro had
well nigh made a physical wreck of the assistant engineer. Indeed, as he
stood in the center of the room in Mr. Ryder’s cottage, where he had been
brought by Lyman and Captain Alvarez, he swayed backward and forward,
and if Jack had not brought him a chair in all probability he would have
collapsed completely.
He looked at his inquisitors with staring bloodshot eyes, and his fingers
worked nervously at the buttons on the front of his shirt. His condition
was pitiable and Jack and Mr. Ryder both felt sincerely sorry for him.
“Nedham, where are those plans you stole from my desk! You are the
thief, aren’t you?” demanded Mr. Ryder.
“Plans?” said Nedham, trying his best to feign ignorance. “What plans?
I—I—know—”
“Stop,” roared the engineer, “don’t lie, we know you are the guilty man.”
“I tell you—I—I—Oh, God, yes, yes, I did it! It’s true.” Nedham could
control his shattered nerves no longer. He broke down completely. “I
stole the plans! I stole them! They are under the mattress of my bed!
They’ve been haunting me ever since I took them! Curse the things! If I
had had the courage I’d have burned them long ago! I did the rest too!
I crippled the generators! I smashed the searchlight! I offered the
three thousand pesos for your capture! I did it all—all—and now, thank
goodness, I’ve confessed! It’s all over! The strain! The strain! It was
horrible! I had to get drunk—beastly drunk.”
Thus he raved until he was almost completely exhausted, and his physical
self, unable to bear the strain any longer, caved in completely. His
head dropped forward on his chest and his hands fell helplessly over the
arms of the chair. He was unconscious for nearly a quarter of an hour
and it was only by administering violent restoratives that Jack and the
engineer managed to make the man himself once more.
For some time the four sat staring at the helpless engineer. Finally Mr.
Ryder spoke.
“Why did you do this deviltry, Nedham?” he asked with a trace of
disappointment in his voice.
“I—I—well I was ambitious—and—I guess a little jealous of you too,”
said Nedham weakly. “You know you only beat me out by two points in the
competition for chief engineer and—well—I couldn’t help feeling bitter
toward you. I wanted your job, and I wanted it badly, and from the time
you appointed me your assistant I started to scheme ways of getting you
out.”
“But what good would all your plant-wrecking have done? Why did you put
sand in the generators and disrupt the place in general?” queried the
engineer.
“Well, first off I hoped to frighten you into resigning. I—I—thought
perhaps when you found you had traitors among the men at the plant you
might fear for your own safety and resign, but when I learned how angry
Huerta grew with each new occurrence and how often he called you on
the telephone and raised the devil with you I saw a new way of getting
your job. I concluded that if the trouble was kept up long enough the
President would dismiss you entirely as an incompetent manager and put
me in charge. The day they called you down to Mexico City and had you up
before the directors I felt mighty confident that you would not last long.
“You brought this youngster back with you and from then on my plans
began to go wrong. I saw you two pass the office the first night Jack
was here. I followed you into the generating room and hid behind one of
the machines. I saw you sprinkle the cement dust and I knew you were
setting a trap. But as I watched it suddenly occurred to me that you were
unconsciously giving me a capital opportunity of throwing you off the
trail entirely. Thereafter I decided to work with my feet bared so that
you would think a peon was doing the damage. I forgot completely about
the scar on my heel until it was too late.”
“But the plans; the drawings of the lightning arrester. How did you even
know of their existence? I kept my work on that appliance very secret
indeed,” interrupted Mr. Ryder.
“Well, after I watched you set your trap I followed you back to the
cottage for I was curious to hear what you might have to say about the
situation. I saw the bundle of drawings drop from your shirt. Also I
saw where you put them. And although I did not have the slightest idea
what the plans were about I decided that so long as I had gone that far
I might just as well take a look at your private papers too. I thought
perhaps they were orders or instructions you had received from Huerta
that day.
“I waited until you were both sound asleep, and slipped into the room
and opened your desk. It did not take me long to learn that the papers
were drawings of a lightning arrester of a type I had never seen before.
Then it occurred to me that the appliance was one of your own invention.
I looked for patent marks and could find none and on the impulse of the
moment I slipped the yellow envelope into my pocket and went back to the
plant. I figured that I had made a double coup, for if you were to build
that lightning arrester and install it here you would win the favor of
President Huerta and consequently my efforts would all be wasted. Also I
was dishonest enough to think that perhaps I could easily secure a patent
on the appliance in my own name when I finally got you out of the way.”
“Nedham! I never would believe it of you,” said the engineer
reproachfully.
“Don’t, don’t, please don’t reproach me, Heaven only knows where my
manhood has gone to,” cried Nedham in agony.
“And do you mean to say that you deliberately brought on battle and
caused hundreds of lives to be sacrificed merely to get me out of my
position?” asked Mr. Ryder incredulously.
“Yes, yes, I did. I offered José Cerro three thousand pesos to get you
out of the way. I did not want you killed. No, no, I was not as base as
that. I merely wanted you captured and kept a prisoner so long that when
you were finally released I would be safely intrenched here and in the
favor of the President to such an extent that you could never regain your
position. José Cerro thought an attack the only way to get you, and I
smashed the searchlight and did everything else to help him. Oh, it was
villainous work, I know. Heaven forgive me, I must have been mad.”
The three Americans present were utterly amazed at the man’s treachery,
but Captain Alvarez did not understand fully, for his knowledge of
English was so meager that he could not follow the strange recital in
every detail. When the story was translated for his benefit, however,
his fiery temper became aroused to such a pitch that the three Americans
could hardly restrain him from rushing at the helpless assistant engineer
and beating him senseless with his fist.
“The dog! The traitor!” roared the Mexican in Spanish. “_He_ should be
killed! _He_ should face the firing squad! Come, drag him out! We will
shoot him! We will shoot him!”
“No! no!” shrieked Nedham, a look of horror coming into his ashen face.
“No! no! you cannot kill me! You cannot shoot me! I am an American
citizen!”
“He is right,” said Mr. Ryder. “We cannot execute him without bringing
on international complications that would be distasteful to President
Huerta. No, we can’t shoot him, even though he does deserve it. But we
can expel him from the Republic of Mexico. Put him in the guardhouse,
Captain Alvarez, and this afternoon we will ship him to Mexico City with
the rest of our prisoners. We can turn him over to the authorities there
and request that he be sent out of the country immediately.”
A look of relief spread over Nedham’s face when he heard Mr. Ryder’s
opinion.
“Oh, never fear, I’m only too willing to be quit of this country. I can’t
see how any man can keep straight in this hole of iniquity.”
“It was not a hole of iniquity until treacherous villains of your stamp
came into it,” retorted Mr. Ryder. Then turning to Captain Alvarez
he said, “Call in your trooper and have him taken to the guardhouse.
The train for Mexico City will be made up as soon as possible. In the
meantime you and Lyman stay here and sample one of Tom Why’s excellent
dinners. Things have gone so far to the devil lately that I haven’t had
time to enjoy a good dinner myself. After dinner I’ll accompany you to
Mexico City for I will have to make a report of this whole matter to our
directors. I guess the plant will be safe enough in the hands of my new
assistant, Mr. Lyman.”
The night operator’s face beamed when he heard, thus abruptly, of his
promotion and he blushed like a schoolboy when Jack and Captain Alvarez
congratulated him.
“I envy you,” said Jack Straw heartily, “for there’s nothing I’d like
more than to be connected with a huge generating station like this.”
“Well, we’ve room for a boy here, and we could teach you a great deal
about the electrical industry. Why don’t you apply for a position,” said
Lyman meaningly, at the same time glancing in the direction of Mr. Ryder.
“Oh, no,” said the lad from Vermont, “I’ve already been away from
Drueryville a month and I think it is about time I hurried back. In
fact, I’ve decided to go in on the train this afternoon with Mr. Ryder.
Some day after I have acquired a real training at ‘Sheff.’ or some other
engineering school I may visit Necaxa again. Who knows?”
“Well, if we are still here you can be certain of a welcome, my boy,”
said Mr. Ryder heartily.