THE NAVY DEPARTMENT "SITS UP."
Jack could not refuse the proffered hand. But he took it with an uneasy
air. There was something not quite "straight" about Thurman, it seemed
to Jack, but as the former offered his congratulations he appeared
sincere enough.
"After all, it may be just his misfortune that he can't look you in the
eyes," Jack told himself.
But if he had been in the wireless room that night he would have deemed
his suspicions only too well founded. Thurman busied himself with
routine matters till he was sure Jack was asleep. Then he began calling
Washington with monotonous regularity.
An irritable operator answered him. By the wave length the Washington
man knew that it was not a naval station or vessel calling.
"Yes--yes--what--is--it?" he snapped.
"I know the fellow who has that Universal Detector."
"What!" The other man, hundreds of miles away, almost fell out of his
chair. Recovering himself, he shot out another message:
"Who is this?"
"Never mind that, just for the present."
"Say, you're not that fresh fellow himself talking just to kid us, are
you?"
"No, I'm far from joking. I expect to make some money out of this."
"A reward?"
"That's the idea."
"Well, there's no doubt but you would get it if you really have the
information. The department's been all up in the air ever since that
fellow butted in."
"Are you going to report this conversation?"
"Most assuredly."
"Don't forget that I demand a substantial reward for the information."
"I won't. When will you call me again?"
"About this time to-morrow night."
"All right, then. Good-by."
Thurman took the receiver from his head with a slow smile of
satisfaction.
"I guess that will cook that fresh kid's goose," he said. "It's a mean
thing to do, maybe, but I need the money, and I'm glad to get a chance
to set him down a peg or two."
Thurman could hardly wait for the next night to come. During the day
Jack had been having some more fun with the navy men, driving them
almost wild. When Thurman finally got Washington, therefore, everything
in the government's big wireless station was at fever heat. A high
official of the navy sat by the operator, waiting for Thurman's promised
call to come out of space.
Men of the Secret Service were scattered about the room as well as
department officials. The air was tense with expectancy. At last
Thurman's message came.
His first question was about the reward.
"Tell him he will be liberally rewarded," ordered the naval official.
"Tell him to give us the information at once. That fellow has been
playing with us all day, and we've been powerless to outwit the
Universal Detector, or whatever device it is he uses. The man must be a
wizard to have solved a problem that has baffled the keenest minds in
the Navy Bureau."
"Reward is assured you," flashed back the naval operator. "Now give us
your information. Time is precious."
But Thurman's answer proved disappointing to those in the room.
"Impossible to do so now. Inventor is on the high seas. Will wireless
you later when he will return."
"Confound it," grumbled the naval official. "I thought we would have had
our hands on the fellow before daylight. Now it seems we shall have to
play a waiting game."
"If the man is on the high seas, it is not unlikely that he is the
wireless man on one of the liners," put in Burns, a spare, grizzled man
and Chief of the Secret Service.
"That's probable, Burns," rejoined the navy official.
"More than likely, I think," put in another member of the group, "but
it's impossible to find out which one."
"Yes, we are at the mercy of our unknown informant," said Burns. "Why
the deuce was he so mysterious about it?" He tugged at his gray mustache
as a sudden thought struck him.
"Jove!" he exclaimed. "You don't think it's a put-up job to get money
out of the government? Put up, I mean, by an agent of the inventor
himself."
"I don't know, Burns," was the official's reply. "It's all mighty
mysterious. I confess I can't hazard a guess as to the man's identity.
We've looked up all the most prominent wireless sharps all over the
country. I am satisfied this fellow is not one of their number."
"Some obscure fellow, I guess," said a Secret Service man.
"Well, he won't remain obscure long," remarked Burns, "if he has brains
enough to turn the navy department topsy-turvy for forty-eight hours."