CAPTURED BY RADIO.
It was two days later and they were nearing Southampton, but the stop
they had made to aid the _Oriana's_ crew had given the Britisher a big
lead on them. The passengers eagerly clustered to read Jack's wireless
bulletin from the other ship which was posted every day. Excitement ran
high.
Jack had seen no more of Professor Dusenberry, but he had spent a good
deal of leisure time pondering over the code message the queer little
dried up man had sent. Raynor, who had quite a genius for such things,
and spent much time solving the puzzles in magazines and periodicals,
helped him. But they did not make much progress.
Suddenly, however, the night before they were due to reach Southampton,
Jack was sitting staring at the message when, without warning, as such
things sometimes will, the real sense of the message leaped at him from
the page.
"Meet me at _three_ on the paving _stones_, the weather is _fine_ but
got no _specimens_, there is no _suspicion_ as you have _directed_ but
I'm afraid _wrong_."
Taking every fourth word from the dispatch then, it read as follows:
"Three stones. Fine specimens. Suspicion directed wrong."
Jack sat staring like one bewitched as the amazingly simple cipher
revealed itself in a flash after his hours of study. Granted he had
struck the right solution, the message was illuminating enough.
Professor Dusenberry was a dangerous crook, instead of the harmless old
"crank" the passengers had taken him for, and his cipher message was to
a confederate.
But on second thought Jack was inclined to believe that it was merely a
coincidence that placing together every fourth word of the jumbled
message made a dispatch having a perfectly understandable bearing on the
jewel theft. It was impossible to believe that Professor Dusenberry,
mild and self-effacing, could have had a hand in the attack on the
diamond merchant. Jack was sorely perplexed.
He was still puzzling over the matter when the object of his thoughts
appeared in his usual timid manner. He wished to send another dispatch,
he said. While he wrote it out Jack studied the mild, almost benevolent
features of the man known as Prof. Dusenberry.
"But there's one test," he thought to himself. "If the 'fourth word'
test applies to this dispatch also, the Professor is a criminal, of a
dangerous type, in disguise. But he contrived to glance carelessly over
the dispatch when the professor handed it to him and fumbled in his
pocket for a wallet with which to pay for it. Not till the seemingly
mild old man had shuffled out did Jack apply his test to it. The message
read as follows:
"_Columbia_ fast as motor-boat, watch her in Southampton. Am well
and will no more time throw away on fake life-preserver."
F.
With fingers that actually trembled, Jack wrote down every fourth word.
Here is the result he obtained:
"Motorboat Southampton. Will throw life-preserver."
"By the great horn-spoon," exclaimed Jack to himself, "it worked out
like a charm. But still, what am I going to do? I can't go to the
captain with no more evidence than this. He would not order the man
detained. I have it!" he cried, after a moment of deep reflection. "The
Southampton detectives have been already wirelessed about the crime and
are going to board the ship. I'll flash them another message, telling
them of the plan to drop the jewels overboard in a life-preserver so
that they will float till the motor-boat picks them up."
Jack first, however, sent the supposed Prof. Dusenberry's message
through to London, with which he was now in touch. He noted it was to
the same address as before, that of a Mr. Jeremy Pottler, 38 South
Totting Road, W. Then he summoned the Southampton station, and, before
long, a messenger brought to the police authorities there a dispatch
that caused a great deal of excitement. He had just finished doing this
when Jack's attention was attracted by the re-entrance of the professor.
He wanted to look over the dispatch he had sent again, he said, but Jack
noticed that his eyes, singularly keen behind his spectacles, swept the
table swiftly as if in search of something. The abstract that Jack had
made of the cipher dispatch lay in plain view. Jack hastily swept it out
of sight by an apparently careless movement. But he felt the professor's
eyes fixed on him keenly.
But if Prof. Dusenberry had observed anything he said nothing. He merely
remarked that the dispatch appeared to be all right and walked out again
in his peculiar shambling way.
"The old fox suspects something," thought Jack. "I wonder if he saw that
little translation I took the liberty of making of his dispatch. If he
did, he must have known that I smelled a rat."
Just then Raynor dropped in on his way on watch.
"Well, we're in to-morrow, Jack," he said, "but I'm afraid the Britisher
will beat us out."
"I'm afraid so, too," responded Jack. "Their operator has been crowing
over me all day. But at any rate it was in a good cause."
"Yes, and they're taking up a subscription for the shipwrecked men at
the concert to-night, I hear, so that they won't land destitute."
"That's good; but say, Bill, you're off watch to-morrow and I want you
to do something for me."
"Anything you say."
"This may involve danger."
"Great Scott, you talk like Sherlock Holmes or a dime novel. What's up?"
"I've got the man who stole those diamonds."
"What!"
"Don't talk so loud. I mean what I say. Listen."
And Jack related everything that had occurred.
"Now, what I want you to do is to watch Prof. Dusenberry, as he calls
himself, to-morrow when we get into the harbor. His is an inside
stateroom so that he can't throw it out of a porthole from there. He'll
most likely go to one at the end of a passage."
"Yes, and then what?"
"I'd do it myself but the old fox suspects me, I half fancy, and if he
saw me in the vicinity he'd change his plans. You'd better take two of
your huskiest firemen with you, Billy. He's an ugly customer, I fancy,
and might put up a bad fight."
"U-m-m-m, some job," mused Billy. "Why don't you put the whole thing up
to the captain?"
"It would do no good the way things are now, and he might get wind of it
and hide the jewels so that they couldn't be found. Anyhow, we've no
proof against him till he is actually caught throwing the jewels out in
that life-preserver to his confederates in the motor-boat."
"I see, you want to catch him red-handed, but what about those cipher
radios?"
"There's no way of proving that I read the cipher right," said Jack.
"Our only way is to do as I suggested."
"I hear that Rosenstein has offered a big reward for the recovery of the
diamonds," said Billy. "He's up and about again, you know."
"Well, Billy, I think he'll have his diamonds back by to-morrow noon if
we follow out my plan."
And so it was arranged. The next morning Jack received a message from
Southampton:
"All ready. Does our man suspect anything?"
This was Jack's answer:
"Not so far as I know. Have a plan to catch him red-handed. You watch
the motor-boat."
Saluted by the whistles of a hundred water craft, the _Columbia_ made
stately progress into Southampton harbor. As her leviathan bulk moved
majestically along under reduced speed, her whistles blowing and her
flag dipping in acknowledgment of the greeting, Jack with a beating
heart, stood on the upper deck watching earnestly for developments.
He knew that Billy and the two firemen he had selected to help him, on
what might prove a dangerous job, were below watching Prof. Dusenberry.
They all wore stewards' uniforms so that the man who Jack believed
struck down the diamond merchant and stole the stones might not get
suspicious at seeing them about in the corridors.
"I believe they must have changed their plans, after all," Jack was
thinking when, from the shore, there shot out, at tremendous speed, a
sharp-bowed, swift motor-boat. It headed straight for the _Columbia_. As
it drew closer, Jack saw it held two men. Both were blowing a whistle,
waving flags and pointing at the big ship as if they, like many other
small water craft, were just out to get a glimpse of the triumph of
American shipbuilders.
They maneuvered close alongside, while Jack's fingers grasped the rail
till the paint flaked off under the pressure he exerted in his
excitement. What was happening below? he wondered. Could Billy and his
companions carry out their part of the program? Not far from the boy the
diamond merchant, unconscious of the drama being enacted on his account,
stood, with bandaged head, explaining for the hundredth time the beauty
and the value of the gems he had lost.
"Five thousand thalers I give if I get them back," he declared.
Suddenly Jack's heart gave a bound. From a port far down on the side of
the ship, and almost directly under him, a white object was hurled. It
struck the water with a splash and spread out, floating buoyantly.
Instantly the black motor-boat darted forward, one of the men on board
holding a boat hook extended to grasp the floating life-preserver,
hidden in which was a king's fortune in gems.
Jack stood still just one instant. Then, driven by an impulse he could
not explain, he threw off his coat, kicked off the loose slippers he
wore when at work, and the next moment he had mounted the rail and made
a clean, swift dive for the life-preserver.
Billy rushed on deck, excitement written on his face, just as Jack dived
overboard.
"Jack! Jack!" he shouted.
But he was too late.
"Great Neptune, has the boy gone mad?" exclaimed Captain Turner, who had
passed along the deck just in time to see Jack's dive. Regardless of sea
etiquette, Billy grasped the skipper's arm and rushed into a narrative
of the plan he and Jack had hoped to carry out.
"But Dusenberry was too quick for us, sir," he concluded.
"Never mind that, now," cried the captain, "that boy may be in danger."
He looked over the rail, which, owing to most of the passengers being
busy below with their preparations for landing, was almost deserted.
Billy was at his side. In the black motor-boat two men stood with their
hands up. Alongside was a speedy-looking launch full of strapping big
men with firm jaws and the unmistakable stamp of detectives the world
over. Some of them were hauling on board the police launch Jack's
dripping figure, which clung fast to the life-preserver. Others kept the
men in the black launch covered with their pistols.
Half an hour later, when the passengers--all that is but Mr.
Rosenstein--had gone ashore (the diamond merchant had been asked by the
captain to remain), a little group was assembled in Captain Turner's
cabin. In the center of it stood Professor Dusenberry, alias Foxy Fred,
looking ever more meek and mild than usual. He had been seized and bound
by the two disguised firemen as he threw the life-preserver, but not in
time to prevent his getting it out of the port. Beside him, also
manacled, were the two men who had been in the motor-boat and who,
according to the Southampton police, formed a trio of the most daring
diamond thieves who ever operated.
"I think we may send for Mr. Rosenstein now," said Captain Turner with a
smile. "Only I hope that he is not subject to attacks of heart failure.
Ready," he said, turning to Jack, who stood side by side with Billy,
"take these and give them to Mr. Rosenstein with your compliments."
Jack blushed and hesitated.
"I'd,--I'd rather--sir--if you--don't mind----" he stammered.
"You may regard what I just said as an order if you like," said Captain
Turner, trying to look grim, while everybody else, but Jack and the
prisoners, smiled.
"You wanted to see me on important business, captain?" asked Mr.
Rosenstein, as he entered. "You will keep me as short a time as
possible, please. I must get to Scotland Yard, my diamonds----"
"Are right here in this boy's hand," said the captain, pushing Jack
forward.
"What! This is the fellow who took them?" thundered the diamond
merchant.
"No; this is the lad you have to thank for recovering them for you from
those three men yonder," said the captain.
"Professor Dusenberry!" exclaimed the diamond expert, throwing up his
hand.
"Or Foxy Fred," grinned one of the English detectives.
"Oh, my head, it goes round," exclaimed Mr. Rosenstein.
"This lad, with wonderful ingenuity, and finally courage, when he leaped
overboard to save your property, traced the guilty parties," went on the
captain, "and by wireless arranged for their capture."
"It's a bit of work to be proud of," said the head of the English
contingent.
"It is that," said the captain. "It has cleared away a cloud that might
have hung over this ship till the mystery was dispelled, which probably
would have been never."
Mr. Rosenstein, who had taken the diamonds from Jack, stood apparently
stupefied, holding them on his palm. Suddenly, however, to Jack's great
embarrassment, he threw both arms round the boy's neck and saluted him
on both cheeks. Then he rushed at Billy and finally the two firemen, who
dodged out of the way. Then he drew out a check book and began writing
rapidly. He handed a pink slip of paper to Jack. It was a check for
$5,000.
"A souvenir," he said.
"But--but----" began Jack, "we didn't do it for money. It was our duty
to the company and----"
"It's your duty to the company to take that check, then," laughed
Captain Turner, and in the end Jack did. The two firemen, who had helped
the boys, received a good share of it and later were promoted by the
company for their good work. As for Prof. Dusenberry and his companions,
they vanish from our story when, in custody of the detectives, they went
over the side a few minutes later. But Jack and Billy to-day have two
very handsome diamond and emerald scarf-pins, the gifts of the grateful
Mr. Rosenstein.
"Looks as if we are always having adventures of some kind or another,"
said Billy to Jack that evening as they strolled about the town, for the
ship would not sail for Cherbourg, her last port before the homeward
voyage, till the next day.
"It certainly does look that way," agreed Jack and then, with a laugh,
he added:
"But they don't all turn out so profitably as this one."
With which Billy agreed.