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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ocean Wireless Boys on War Swept Seas, by
+Wilbur Lawton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Ocean Wireless Boys on War Swept Seas
+
+Author: Wilbur Lawton
+
+Illustrator: Arthur O. Scott
+
+Release Date: May 30, 2014 [EBook #45841]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS--WARSWEPT SEAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Demian Katz, Roger Frank and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Images
+courtesy of the Digital Library@Villanova University
+(http://digital.library.villanova.edu/))
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Thank heaven you came before it was too late."--Page
+108]
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                                  THE
+                          OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS
+                                   ON
+                             WAR SWEPT SEAS
+
+                                   BY
+
+                         CAPTAIN WILBUR LAWTON
+
+         AUTHOR OF "THE BOY AVIATORS' SERIES," "THE DREADNOUGHT
+             BOYS' SERIES," "THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS ON THE
+              ATLANTIC," "THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS AND THE
+                LOST LINER," "THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS ON
+                              THE PACIFIC"
+
+                         With Illustrations by
+
+                            ARTHUR O. SCOTT
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                         HURST & COMPANY, INC.
+                               PUBLISHERS
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                            COPYRIGHT, 1917,
+                                   BY
+                            HURST & COMPANY
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+                       CHAPTER                        PAGE
+                     I THE GOLD SHIP                     5
+                    II WAR IS DECLARED!                 15
+                   III ON DECK ONCE MORE                23
+                    IV ICEBERGS AHEAD!                  32
+                     V A CLOSE SHAVE                    38
+                    VI SMOKE ON THE HORIZON             49
+                   VII A SHOT AT THE RUDDER             55
+                  VIII LAND HO!                         61
+                    IX A STRANGE QUEST                  69
+                     X UNDER OLD GLORY                  78
+                    XI THE "HERR PROFESSOR" AGAIN       84
+                   XII THE ARMED CRUISER                90
+                  XIII A MESSAGE IN CODE                96
+                   XIV THE CATTLE SHIP                 103
+                    XV JACK'S BRAVE LEAP               113
+                   XVI AWAITING ORDERS                 120
+                  XVII WHAT BEFELL IN THE AFTER CABIN  128
+                 XVIII A RASCAL BROUGHT TO BOOK        135
+                   XIX THE "BARLEY RIG"                147
+                    XX THE HIDDEN MINE                 154
+                   XXI THE NORTH SEA                   160
+                  XXII A NIGHT OF ALARMS               167
+                 XXIII MEETING AN OLD FRIEND           173
+                  XXIV THE SKY SLAYER                  179
+                   XXV IN THE GLARE OF THE FLAMES      187
+                  XXVI TWO YOUNG HEROES                194
+                 XXVII "THE GERMANS ARE COMING!"       201
+                XXVIII FAST TRAVELING                  207
+                  XXIX THE UHLANS!                     215
+                   XXX "YOU ARE A SPY!"                221
+                  XXXI COURT-MARTIALED                 227
+                 XXXII THE LONG NIGHT                  233
+                XXXIII THROUGH BULLET-RACKED AIR       243
+                 XXXIV A FLIGHT OF TERROR              248
+                  XXXV THE BULLY OF THE CLOUDS         254
+                 XXXVI A MYSTERIOUS CAPTURE            260
+                XXXVII THE MIGHT OF MILITARISM         266
+               XXXVIII MILITARY CROSS-EXAMINATION      272
+                 XXXIX SHATTERING THE SHACKLES         278
+                    XL OLD GLORY AGAIN                 285
+                   XLI WAR IN TIMES OF PEACE           292
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+               THE OCEAN WIRELESS BOYS ON WAR SWEPT SEAS
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                             THE GOLD SHIP.
+
+
+The newspapers announced in large type that the _Kronprinzessin Emilie_,
+the crack flyer of the Bremen-American line, was to carry from the
+United States to Germany the vast sum of $6,000,000 in bullion. On her
+sailing day the dock, from which she was to start on what destined to
+prove the most eventful voyage ever made since men first went down to
+the sea in ships, was jammed with gaping crowds. They interfered with
+the passengers, and employees of the company had to jostle their way
+among them as best they could.
+
+The thought of the vast fortune stowed within the tall, steel sides of
+the liner had attracted them, although what they expected to see of it
+was difficult to imagine. But just as a crowd will gather outside a
+prison where some notorious malefactor is confined, feasting their eyes
+on its gray walls without hope of seeing the lawbreaker himself, so the
+throngs on the _Kronprinzessin Emilie's_ pier indulged their curiosity
+by staring at the colossal casket that held such an enormous fortune.
+
+Among those who had to win their way through the crowd almost by main
+force, were two tanned, broad-shouldered youths carrying suitcases and
+handbags.
+
+"My, what a mob, Jack!" exclaimed one of them, elbowing himself between
+a stout man who was gazing fixedly at the vessel's side--and showed no
+disposition to move--and an equally corpulent woman whose mouth was wide
+open and whose eyes bulged as if she almost expected to see the ship
+gold-plated instead of black.
+
+"Yes, gold's a great magnet even if it is stowed away inside the specie
+room of a steamer," replied Jack Ready. "We ought to feel like
+millionaires ourselves, Bill, sailing on such a ship."
+
+"A sort of vacation _de luxe_," laughed Bill Raynor. "What a chance for
+the buccaneers of the old days if they could only come to life again.
+Then there would be real adventure in sailing on the _Kronprinzessin_."
+
+"I guess we've had about all the adventure we want for a time, Bill,"
+replied Jack, as they finally gained the gang-plank and two
+white-coated, gilt-buttoned stewards grabbed their hand baggage. "The
+Pacific and New Guinea provided what you might call 'an ample
+sufficiency' for me in that line."
+
+"We earned this holiday, that's one thing sure," agreed Bill, "and the
+best part of it is that the sale of those pearls gave us enough funds
+for a holiday abroad without putting too much of a crimp in our bank
+accounts."
+
+He referred to the pearls the boys' native chums in the Pamatou Islands
+in the South Pacific had presented them with, after their narrow escape
+from death in the sea-cave and the subsequent wreck on a coral reef,
+during the memorable Pacific voyage and adventures, which were described
+in detail in the volume of this series which immediately preceded the
+present book. This volume was called, "The Ocean Wireless Boys on the
+Pacific."
+
+In the first book of this series, which was called "The Ocean Wireless
+Boys on the Atlantic," we were introduced to Jack Ready, then the young
+wireless operator of the big tank steamer _Ajax_. His chum, Bill Raynor,
+was a junior engineer of that craft. A strong friendship sprang up
+between the two lads, which their subsequent adventures on that voyage
+cemented into a lasting affection.
+
+Jack also won the approval of Jacob Jukes, head of the great shipping
+combine that owned the _Ajax_ and a vast fleet of craft, both passenger
+and freight, besides, by his masterly handling of a difficult situation
+when the millionaire shipping-man's yacht burned in mid-Atlantic.
+
+This incident, and others which proved that the young wireless man was
+level-headed and cool, even in the worst emergency, resulted in his
+being transferred to the passenger service on board the West Indian
+service craft, the _Tropic Queen_. The thrilling events that accompanied
+the vessel's last voyage were set forth in the second volume of the
+Ocean Wireless Boys series, entitled, "The Ocean Wireless Boys and the
+Lost Liner."
+
+Still another book related how Jack and his chum took to the seas again
+on different vessels, only to be reunited in the strangest manner. "The
+Ocean Wireless Boys of the Iceberg Patrol," as this was named, told
+something of the work of the craft detailed by Uncle Sam to the duty of
+patrolling northern seas, sending wireless warnings of icebergs to
+trans-Atlantic liners--a work of infinite usefulness which, had it been
+instituted earlier, might have averted the loss of the _Titanic_, the
+greatest marine disaster in the history of the world. This was followed
+by an account of the exciting Pacific adventures already referred to.
+
+The boys, and their employer, Mr. Jukes, agreed with them, and felt that
+after their experiences in the South Seas with the millionaire's
+expedition in search of his lost brother, they had earned a holiday; and
+their determination to tour Europe was the outcome.
+
+But even as they stepped on board the "Gold Ship," the machinery of war
+was beginning to rumble in Europe, and before many hours had passed, the
+storm of well-nigh universal war was destined to begin. Of this, of
+course, they had no inkling, as they busied themselves in establishing
+their belongings in their main-deck cabin. These preparations had hardly
+been completed when the siren boomed warningly, and a tremor ran through
+the big vessel. As she backed out of her pier, the brass band began to
+play and the crowds on the decks, and on the docks, waved wildly,
+cheered and shouted last messages which, by no possibility, could have
+been heard above the din.
+
+"Well, off at last, Jack," said Raynor, entwining Jack's elbow in his
+own as the two leaned, side by side, on the railing, bidding good-bye to
+New York's wonderful skyscraper skyline as it slid past. "How does it
+feel to be a passenger?"
+
+Jack's eyes sought the lofty wireless aerials swung far above them
+between the two masts.
+
+"It feels mighty odd to think of somebody else sending out the T. R." he
+said slowly, naming the wireless method of saying "Good-bye," on
+sailing.
+
+"Well, I never saw such a fellow!" exclaimed Raynor. "For goodness' sake
+forget your everlasting coherers and keys and converters and the rest of
+them and enjoy taking life easy. But--hullo!" he broke off, "there's
+someone we know."
+
+Approaching them was a dapper little man, with a neat black moustache
+and dressed in a careful, almost dignified manner.
+
+"Why, it's Raymond de Garros, that French aviator we saved from the sea
+off Florida when we were on the old _Tropic Queen_!" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"That's the man. But what in the world is he doing here? I thought he
+was in France organizing an aeroplane corps for the army."
+
+"So did I. The newspapers have had several despatches about his work.
+But we shall soon find out about the reason for his being on board."
+
+A minute later they were warmly shaking hands with the little Frenchman,
+who, with many gesticulations and twirlings of his moustache, assured
+them how glad he was to "greet zee two brave boys zat save my life from
+zee sea."
+
+"You're the last person we expected to see," said Jack, when first
+greetings were over. "We didn't even know you were in America."
+
+The little Frenchman shrugged his shoulders and looked about him
+uneasily. Then he buttonholed the boys confidentially.
+
+"No one know zat I am here but my government," he said in low tones.
+
+"You are on a secret mission of some kind?" asked Jack.
+
+"Can I trust you to keep somethings to yourselves if I tell you what I
+am do in Amerique?" asked the aviator.
+
+"Of course, but if you don't wish---- I didn't mean to appear
+inquisitive," Jack hastened to say.
+
+"Zat is all right, my friend!" exclaimed de Garros. "You save my life. I
+should be ungrateful if I seemed secretive wiz you. I have been in
+Amerique buying and shipping aeroplanes to France from one of your
+manufacturers."
+
+"But I thought France already had a powerful air fleet," said Bill.
+
+The little aviator's next words were astonishing to the boys, who shared
+the common impression about the French strength in the air.
+
+"Before many days are past we shall need all and more aeroplanes than we
+have," he said. "I wish we had twice as many. But I can say no more now.
+But my advice to you is to watch zee wireless closely. You are going
+abroad on pleasure?"
+
+"Yes, we thought we'd earned a vacation," said Jack.
+
+The little Frenchman's rejoinder was a shrug and a smile.
+
+"Your vacation may be what you Americans call a 'strenuous one,'" he
+said meaningly, and with an emphasis the boys could not fathom. "By the
+way, on board this ship I am Jules Campion. There are reasons for my
+real name being unknown for the present. _Au revoir_, I go to arrange my
+luggage. We shall meet again."
+
+And he was gone, leaving the boys to exchange puzzled glances.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                            WAR IS DECLARED!
+
+
+"Vell, Yack Retty, you yust like to hang aroundt undt see me vurk,
+hein?"
+
+Hans Poffer, the yellow-haired, red-cheeked wireless operator of the
+_Kronprinzessin Emilie_ asked the question, on the afternoon of the
+third day out. Jack had discovered in young Poffer an acquaintance he
+had made in Antwerp when he was on board the _Ajax_, and had renewed the
+friendship, to Poffer's great delight, for the German wireless man had
+had trouble with his instruments the first day out which Jack had
+adjusted for him.
+
+Since that time Jack, to Bill Raynor's amusement, had spent most of his
+time in the wireless room enjoying, as Poffer put it, "watching me
+work." But there was another reason beside his deep-seated interest in
+everything appertaining to his profession that made Jack haunt the
+_Kronprinzessin's_ wireless coop. De Garros, with whom he had had
+several conversations since their meeting on board, had repeatedly told
+him to be on the lookout for something "that would before long come over
+the wires." Once, in discussing the boys' plans for amusing themselves
+in Europe, the aviator had said meaningly, "if you ever get there." But
+what he meant by these words he had steadfastly refused to explain,
+telling Jack that he would find out in good time.
+
+"Me, if I gedt idt a holliday," said Poffer, after greeting Jack a day
+later, "I go by as far avay from der vireless as I couldt gedt idt. I
+gedt sick undt tired hearing idt all day 'tick-tick' undt sending idt
+all day der same 'tick-tick' alretty. Donner! I'm hungry again. Holdt
+idt mein key a minute vile I gedt idt mineself a bite."
+
+The stout German slipped his wireless "ears" from his head and extended
+them to Jack, who, good-naturedly, took them. Then he made off for his
+cabin where he kept constantly a stock of provisions to satisfy his
+appetite between meals.
+
+"Well, I'm a fine chump," smiled Jack, as he slipped into Hans' vacant
+chair. "No wonder Bill says I'm crazy. Off for a holiday and the first
+thing I know I find myself back on the job. Hullo, here's a message
+coming. K. P. E., that's our call. Funny sort of sending, too. Doesn't
+sound like a commercial operator."
+
+Jack crackled out a reply.
+
+"This is the _Kronprinzessin Emilie_," he flashed back; "what do you
+want?"
+
+"Tell your captain to lie to in his present position till further
+orders," came the reply.
+
+"Well, I like your nerve," flashed back Jack, thinking somebody was
+trying to play a wireless joke on him. "Don't you know we are carrying
+the European mails from New York? You stick around where you are and we
+may bump into you on the way back again."
+
+"Never mind about that. Obey orders at once," came back bruskly.
+
+"Say, never mind that comedy," implored Jack. "I'm busy. Ring off."
+
+"No trifling there, young man," was flashed back. "This is the British
+cruiser _Essex_. We want to overhaul you."
+
+"But you can't stop a mail steamer."
+
+"In this case we can. War has been declared by England upon Germany and
+Austria. Lay to or it will be the worse for you."
+
+A step sounded behind Jack. He turned quickly, thinking it was someone
+who wanted to send a message, in which case he was anxious to "cut out"
+the man he thought was playing a senseless joke on him. The newcomer was
+de Garros.
+
+"Ah, sitting at zee wire, eh? I suppose our always hungry Teutonic
+friend iz taking ze light lunch somewhere. Ah, any news? I saw you
+working ze key as I came in."
+
+"No news since I came on," said Jack, carelessly. "I was just trying to
+convince some deep sea joker that he couldn't fool me."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, somebody just flashed a message to the ship that they were the
+British cruiser _Essex_ and that war had been declared between England
+and Germany and----"
+
+He got no further. De Garros's hands flew out and seized his shoulders.
+
+"Zat was no joke, _mon ami_," he exclaimed; "it was zee truth."
+
+"The truth? How do you know?" asked the naturally astonished Jack.
+
+"It has been in zee air for months in diplomatic circles. I thought zee
+declaration would have come before this. It was for that that I was in
+Amerique buying aeroplanes."
+
+"What, is France in this, too?" demanded the astonished Jack.
+
+"Yes, and Russia also. Russia declared war two days ago. Then came
+France, zee second member of zee Triple Entente, as zee is called, and
+now, as was expected, comes England to help against the German
+barbarians."
+
+"But how did you know all this?" demanded Jack. "There was nothing in
+the papers when we left New York, but something about a row between
+Austria and Servia."
+
+"Which caused all the trouble," came the reply; "or, rather, zee match
+to zee powder. But zee ask me how I know zee declaration of war of
+Russia and France. I am not the only man on zee ship zat does. Captain
+Rollok, he knows, zee officers know, like me zey have been getting
+wireless messages in code. Zey have been warned to look out for English
+cruisers in case England joined France and Russia. Zis Gerrman ship with
+six million dollars in gold on board would be a fine prize for Great
+Britain. My friend, before many hours have passed, you are going to have
+some excitement."
+
+"Great gracious, then that message wasn't a joke and that British
+cruiser may overhaul us and take all that bullion?"
+
+"If she can catch us,--yes. She will also make prisoners of the Germans
+on board and take the ship to an English port."
+
+"What had I better do?"
+
+"Here comes young Poffer now. Tell him of zee message and get it to zee
+captain at once. If we are caught we may be delayed indefinitely and zee
+haste is imperative with me at zee present time."
+
+The German wireless man entered the cabin, gnawing at a huge pretzel. At
+Jack's information of the message that had come, he dropped it to the
+floor in his astonishment and stood staring for a moment.
+
+"Himmel!" he exclaimed, when he found his voice. "Englandt is go var
+midt Yarmany! Undt a Bridish sheep chase us. _Ach du lieber_, if they
+catch us, Hans Poffer goes by a prison yet midt nudding to eat but bread
+undt vater----"
+
+"Never mind about that now," interrupted Jack quickly; "take that
+information to Captain Rollok at once. Take it yourself. Don't give it
+to a steward. If the passengers knew of this, there'd be a panic in a
+jiffy."
+
+Poffer, still with his mouth and eyes wide open, hurried off on his
+errand.
+
+"Captain Rollok will probably come back himself," declared de Garros,
+"and vee will be ordered out of the cabin. Ve had better go now. But vee
+must not say a word of zees till zee time comes. Vee have more as two
+thousand passengers on board and if zey zink a warship chase
+us,--_sacre!_"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                           ON DECK ONCE MORE.
+
+
+Jack was lolling in a deck chair fifteen minutes later, still digesting
+the astonishing news that had come out of space, when a deck steward
+approached him and, with an air of caution, leant over the lad and said:
+
+"Captain Rollok would like to see you in the wireless room at once,
+please."
+
+"Now what's up?" wondered Jack, as greatly astonished by this message,
+he made his way to the radio cabin. "I guess I'm in for a call down for
+sitting in at the key. Poor Poffer, I'll see that he doesn't get into
+trouble if I can help it, and as for me--I'm a passenger now and
+captains have no terrors for me."
+
+These thoughts occupied him as far as his destination. Within the cabin
+were Captain Rollok, a giant of a man, with a fresh complexion and huge
+blond beard, one of his officers and Hans Pollak, the latter looking in
+fear of his life as the big captain berated him, in German, with force
+and vigor. As Jack entered the cabin, the great bulk of the captain
+swung round on him.
+
+"So you are de young mans who sits in at der vireless vile dis
+cabbage-head goes stuffing himself midt pretzels, is it?" he demanded,
+with what appeared great severity, but with an underlying twinkle in his
+eyes.
+
+Jack contented himself with nodding and a brief admission that he had
+taken Poffer's place at the key while the latter refreshed himself. He
+half-expected an outburst from the big German but, to his astonishment,
+the captain clapped him on the back with a force that almost knocked him
+off his feet.
+
+"_Ach, du lieber!_" he exclaimed; "it was goot dot you vod dere,
+uddervise dis foolish Poffer would haf left der key anyvay undt dot
+British cruiser would have overhauled us. Now I got a proposition to
+make to you. You are a vireless man. Our second operator is sick undt
+idt is necessary dot dere is someones at der vireless all of der time.
+Vill you take der chob?"
+
+Jack hardly knew what to say. The proposal had come so abruptly that he
+found it hard to make up his mind.
+
+"You would want me to help out all the way to Europe?" he asked.
+
+"We are not going to Europe," was the reply. "I am going to run back for
+der American coast undt try to dodge capture. Six million dollars is a
+big enough prize to make der search for us pretty active. I don't
+believe dere would be a chance for us to reach der udder side."
+
+"Well," said Jack, after some consideration, "I guess my holiday is off
+anyhow, and I might as well get down to work now as later on. All right,
+Captain, you can count on me."
+
+"Goot for you. I vill see dot you are no loser by idt," said the big
+German, and so Jack, by a strange combination of undreamt-of
+circumstances, became the wireless man of the "gold ship," whose
+subsequent adventures were destined to fill the world with wonder.
+
+Poffer's hours of duty ended at dinner time that evening, and by the
+time Jack sat down at the key, it was dark. No more word had come from
+the British cruiser, and so far the _Kronprinzessin's_ course had not
+been altered. A hasty message in cipher had been sent to the offices of
+the line in New York, but so far no orders to turn back had come through
+the air.
+
+However, Jack had not been on duty an hour before the expected command
+came. The passengers strolling and sitting about the decks were suddenly
+aware that the big ship was slowing up and being turned about. The
+incredulous ones among them were speedily convinced that this was
+actually the case when it was pointed out that the moon, which had been
+on the starboard side of the ship in the early evening, was now to be
+seen off the port quarter.
+
+Rumors ran rife throughout the great steel vessel. There had been an
+accident to the machinery, there were icebergs ahead, some plot against
+the security of the gold in the specie room had been discovered--these,
+and even wilder reports, were circulated. The captain and the other
+officers were besieged for explanations, but none were forthcoming, for
+the time being.
+
+Shortly before midnight, however, the captain in person entered the
+smoking room with a telegram in his hand.
+
+"Gentlemen," he announced to those assembled there, "I am sorry to say
+that var has been declared bedween England and Germany, Great Britain
+siding against my Vaterland mit France and Russia."
+
+He held up his hand to quell the hub-bub that instantly broke loose.
+When a measure of quiet was restored, he resumed:
+
+"Id is therefore imbossible for the voyage of this ship to continue. As
+you haf observed, her course has been altered. Ve are on our way back to
+America."
+
+"To New York?" demanded a score of voices.
+
+The captain shook his head.
+
+"New York vill be vatched more carefully than any udeer port on der
+Atlantic coast," he said. "I haf not yet decided for vere I vill make;
+but I ask you all to take der situation philisophically and try to quiet
+any alarm among der lady passengers."
+
+The turmoil of questions and answers and excited conversation broke out
+again, and in the midst of it the captain's broad form disappeared
+through the doorway. A few moments later, Raynor was in the wireless
+room after a fruitless search for his chum in other parts of the ship.
+
+"Say, what are you doing sitting at that key?" he demanded. "Have you
+gone to work for the ship?"
+
+"Looks that way, doesn't it?" smiled Jack.
+
+"Did you know that we are running away from British cruisers?" asked
+Raynor, breathlessly.
+
+"Knew it before the ship was turned around," said Jack, calmly. "But I
+couldn't have told even you about it at the time. It was confidential.
+But there's no reason why you shouldn't hear it all now," and he
+launched into a narration of the events just passed which had had such a
+strange culmination. He was in the midst of it, when one of the junior
+officers of the ship appeared.
+
+He told the boys they would have to close the door of the wireless room
+and cover the ports. Not a ray of light must be visible about the ship,
+he informed them. In the darkness even the glow of a single port-light
+might give a clue as to the whereabouts of their quarry to the lurking
+British cruisers. In the passengers' quarters of the great ship, similar
+orders were issued. Stewards went about blanketing portholes and turning
+out all unnecessary lights. By ten o'clock, except in the "working"
+quarters of the ship,--and there, they were carefully concealed, as in
+the wireless room,--there was not a light on board.
+
+In order to insure obedience to his orders, the captain had had the
+cabin lights disconnected from the dynamos at that hour. On the darkened
+decks, little groups of timid passengers, who refused to go to bed,
+huddled and talked in low tones, constantly gazing seaward to catch
+sight of a tell-tale searchlight which would tell of pursuit or
+interception.
+
+Through the darkness, the great ship was driven at top speed without
+warning lights of any description. Watches were doubled, and on the
+bridge, the unsleeping captain kept vigil with his anxious officers.
+
+Through the long hours, Jack sat unwinkingly at his key. But it was not
+till the sky was graying the next morning that anything disturbed the
+silence of the air. Then came a break in the monotony. The British
+cruiser _Essex_ was speaking to the _Suffolk_. But the messages were in
+code and told nothing except that Jack caught the name of the liner and
+knew the radio talk between the warships concerned her.
+
+At breakfast time the passengers assembled in the saloon, for the most
+part anxious and haggard after sleepless nights. The captain spoke
+encouragingly, but even his words had little effect. Every one on board
+felt and showed the strain of this blind racing over the ocean with
+watchful naval bull-dogs lying in wait ready to pounce on the richest
+prize afloat on the seven seas.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                            ICEBERGS AHEAD!
+
+
+That night a dense fog fell. But the pace of the fleeing liner was not
+slackened by a fraction of a knot. Without running lights, and with
+darkened decks and cabins, she raced blindly onward through the smother,
+facing disaster if she struck an obstacle. The passengers, already
+nerve-racked for the most part, almost beyond endurance, named a
+committee which was sent to the captain to protest against the reckless
+risk he was taking in ploughing ahead at top speed through the blinding
+mist.
+
+They returned with a report that the captain had refused to slacken
+speed. With reckless fatalism, it appeared, he was prepared to lose his
+ship in a disaster rather than run the chance of its capture by cruisers
+of the country with which his ruler was at war. A new feeling, one of
+indignation, began to spread through the big ship. Little knots gathered
+and angrily censured the captain's action. Some even visited him in
+person, but while he was polite to all, he firmly refused to reduce
+speed or display lights.
+
+This was the condition of affairs when Jack came on duty accompanied by
+Bill Raynor, who had agreed to share his lonely vigil, for, from being
+one of the most sought out places on the ship, the wireless room was now
+deserted by the passengers, for strict orders had been given against the
+sending or receiving of any wireless messages lest the watching cruisers
+should get definite information of the liner's whereabouts and pounce
+upon her.
+
+There was little for Jack to do under this "ukase" but to lean back
+restfully in his chair, with the receivers over his ears on the lookout
+for what might be coming through the air. He and Raynor chatted,
+discussing the wild flight of the "gold ship," intermittently, as the
+hours passed. But suddenly Jack became alert. Out in the dark,
+fog-ridden night, two ships were talking through the air. They were, as
+he learned after a moment of listening, the _Caledonian_ of the English
+Anchor Line and the _Mersey_, which also flew the British flag.
+
+The young wireless man listened for a time and then "grounded" with a
+grave face.
+
+"What's up now?" asked Raynor, noticing this. "If it's the cruisers, I
+don't mind, for only the Germans and Austrians would be held as
+prisoners. I'd kind of like to be 'captured,' as a novelty."
+
+"This trouble's worse than cruisers," rejoined Jack, in sober tones.
+
+"What is it then?"
+
+"Icebergs," said Jack, sententiously.
+
+"Icebergs at this time of the year?" asked Bill, incredulously, for
+bergs are rare in August on the usual steamer lanes, though occasionally
+seen.
+
+"That's what," rejoined Jack; "the _Caledonian_ was telling the
+_Mersey_. She says they are sown thick to the northwest of us. You've
+got to remember that we're a long way to the north of the usual steamer
+tracks now, so it's not surprising that the 'growlers' are about."
+
+"No, but it's mighty unpleasant," said Raynor. "What are you going to
+do?"
+
+"Tell the captain about it at once," said Jack, decisively, rising and
+putting on his cap.
+
+"I hope he puts on the brakes when he hears about it," commented Bill.
+"I'm not particularly nervous, but going full speed ahead through the
+fog into a field of bergs doesn't just exactly feel good."
+
+"I'm only glad that the passengers don't know about it," said Jack.
+"They're scary enough now. If they knew about the bergs, I firmly
+believe some of them would have to be put in strait jackets."
+
+"Yes, about the only cool ones on board are the Americans and the
+English," declared Bill. "I heard to-day that a party of American
+millionaires got together in the smoking room and laid plans to make an
+offer to buy the ship and run her across anyhow."
+
+"That sounds like the American spirit all right," chuckled Jack. "What
+became of the idea?"
+
+"The captain told them the ship was not for sale," said Bill, "even if
+they offered to throw in the millions in the specie room."
+
+Jack found Captain Rollok and his officers in anxious consultation in
+the former's cabin.
+
+"Ha, so you haf the news, is it?" demanded the captain, as Jack entered.
+
+"Yes, and not very good news, I'm sorry to say," said Jack. "The
+_Caledonian_ has just been telling the _Mersey_ that there are icebergs
+ahead."
+
+The officers exchanged glances. They all looked at the captain.
+Evidently some orders were expected, with the greatest peril the sea
+holds lying ahead of the racing vessel.
+
+One of them,--Second Officer Muller, who had the watch,--put his anxiety
+into words.
+
+"Is it that you will change the course or reduce speed, Captain?" he
+inquired.
+
+The big, bearded captain turned on him like a flash. He raised his
+massive fist and brought it down on the table with a crash that bade
+fair to split the wood.
+
+"We keep on as we are going!" he exclaimed. "Rather than let this ship
+get into the hands of the English, I'll send her to the bottom."
+
+"But the passengers!" exclaimed Jack; "surely----"
+
+"Herr Ready," said the captain, "I am in command of this ship. The
+orders are full speed ahead."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                             A CLOSE SHAVE.
+
+
+Bill Raynor received Jack's news with a shrug.
+
+"I'm not surprised, to tell you the truth," he said. "I've met a good
+many Germans in the course of my sea-going years, and that's usually
+their idea,--rather sink the ship than give it up."
+
+"But the fearful danger, Bill," protested Jack. "At any moment there may
+come a crash and----"
+
+"We've got iceberg detectors," said Bill, "and maybe they'll sound the
+whistle and locate a big berg by the echo."
+
+"They won't sound any whistle to-night," declared Jack. "That skipper is
+determined not to give any cruiser the least inkling of his whereabouts.
+I'm going to take a run on the deck, the wireless bell will call me if
+something comes. Want to join me?"
+
+"All right. But it's not much of a night for a stroll outside."
+
+"Anything's better than sitting in that cabin waiting for
+you-don't-know-what to happen."
+
+"You're getting nervous, Jack."
+
+"Not so much for my own sake as at the thought of all these thousands of
+tons of steel being raced through this fog at a twenty-four knot clip
+and icebergs ahead. It's sheer madness."
+
+"Well, the captain's word is law at sea, so it's no use protesting. We
+must hope for the best."
+
+The upper decks were deserted except for the boys. On the lower deck the
+passengers huddled in the darkness behind canvas screens erected to
+prevent any chance ray of light from filtering out. It was an uncanny
+feeling this, of speeding through an impenetrable pall of blackness with
+the thought of the iceberg warning ever and anon recurring to both lads,
+though they tried to talk of indifferent subjects.
+
+The hours wore on and the fog did not lighten. Chilled to the bone,
+although it was August, Jack and Bill had about decided to turn in when
+there came a sudden sharp cry from the lookout forward. Involuntarily,
+Bill clutched Jack's arm. The strain had affected them both more than
+they cared to admit.
+
+Suddenly, dead ahead of them, as it seemed, there reared, seen white
+through the mist, a monstrous spectral form. It towered above the
+steamer's masts and appeared to their alarmed imaginations to hang like
+an impending cliff above the ship.
+
+From the bridge came quick shouts. Orders were given and harshly echoed.
+Somewhere down on the passenger decks, a woman screamed. Then came cries
+of consternation. The next moment there was a slight shock and a long,
+shuddering grind passed along the vessel's side. The mountainous ice
+mass appeared to sheer off, but in reality the ship was swinging clear
+of it. By a miracle she had escaped with a mere graze of her side. At
+diminished speed, she continued on her course.
+
+"Phew, what a narrow escape!" exclaimed Jack, as the fog shut in about
+the monster berg they had sheered.
+
+"I thought we were goners, sure," declared Bill, soberly. "A little of
+that sort of thing goes a long way. I---- Hark!"
+
+From the lower decks there now came the confused noise of a frightened
+crowd. Now and then, above, could be heard the shrieks of an hysterical
+woman. Sharp, authoritative voices belonging, as the boys guessed, to
+the officers, who were trying to quiet the panic-stricken throngs,
+occasionally sounded above the babel.
+
+"They're coming this way!" cried Jack suddenly, as a rush of feet could
+be heard making for the ascents to the boat deck, where the wireless
+coop was situated. "Bill, we'll be in the middle of a first-class panic
+in a minute."
+
+"Yes, if that crowd gets up here among the boats, there's going to be
+the dickens popping," agreed Bill. "What will we do?"
+
+"Run into the wireless room. In the drawer of the desk by the safe there
+are two revolvers. One's mine and the other belongs to Poffer. Get them
+on the jump."
+
+It did not take Bill long to carry out his errand, but in even the short
+time that he had been absent, the forefront of the terrified crowd from
+below was almost at the head of the companionway leading from the
+promenade to the boat deck. Jack had stationed himself at the head of
+it.
+
+"Keep cool, everybody," he was shouting; "there is no danger."
+
+"The _Titanic_!" shrieked somebody. "We've hit an iceberg. We'll sink
+like her."
+
+"The boats!" shouted a man. "We'll lower 'em ourselves. We're sinking!"
+
+In the gloom Jack could see the man's face, round and white, with a big
+yellow mustache.
+
+[Illustration: "Keep cool, everybody," he was shouting; "there is no
+danger."--Page 42]
+
+The fellow shoved two women, wedged in the throng, aside, and addressed
+himself to Jack, who stood at the head of the companionway.
+
+"Let me pass, you!" he bellowed, seemingly mad with fear. "I want a
+place in the first boat. I----"
+
+Jack felt Bill slip a revolver into his pocket. But he did not remove
+the weapon, the time had not yet come for its use.
+
+"Stop that noise," he told the yellow-mustached man bluntly. "Ladies and
+gentlemen," he went on, "there's no danger. We merely grazed the berg.
+Thank heaven the ship was swung in time to save her."
+
+"Don't believe him," shrieked the terrified man. "Stand to one side
+there. The boats!"
+
+He made a rush for Jack and struck heavily at the young wireless
+operator. But before his blow landed, Jack had crouched and the next
+instant his fist shot out like a piston rod. The fellow staggered back,
+but could not fall because of the pressure of humanity behind him.
+
+It is difficult to say what might have happened had there not been
+cooler heads in the crowd. Reassured by Jack's cool manner, these began
+quieting the more timid ones. Just then, too, Captain Rollok and some of
+his officers appeared. All carried drawn revolvers, for a disorganized
+rush on the boats would have meant that scores of women would have been
+trampled and many lives lost in the confusion.
+
+The captain's firm, stern tones completed the work Jack and Bill had
+begun. He assured the passengers that an examination had been made and
+that no damage had been done. He also promised thereafter to run at a
+more moderate speed. Gradually, the excited crowd calmed down, and some
+sought their cabins. The greater part, however, elected to remain on
+deck throughout the night.
+
+The next morning the fog had somewhat cleared and the break-neck speed
+of the ship was resumed. Jack was just resigning the key to young Poffer
+when the doorway was darkened by a bulky figure. It was that of a big,
+yellow-mustached man, whom Jack recognized instantly as the man who had
+led the panic of the night before, and whom he had been forced to deal
+with summarily.
+
+He furiously glared at Jack, and the boy noticed that under his left eye
+was a dark bruise, a memento of the previous night.
+
+"What did you mean by striking me last night?" he began angrily. "I
+demand your name. I will have you discharged."
+
+"My name is Ready," answered Jack calmly, "and as far as having me
+discharged is concerned, I'm afraid that will be impossible. You see I'm
+here in what you might call an extra-official capacity."
+
+"Bah! don't be impudent with me, boy. I am Herr Professor."
+
+"Oh, a barber," smiled Jack, amiably.
+
+The yellow-mustached man fairly growled. His light blue eyes snapped
+viciously.
+
+"I am Herr----"
+
+"Oh, yes, I see you're here," responded Jack calmly. "You seem to be in
+rather a bad temper, too."
+
+"Boy, I will see that you are punished for this. I am a gentleman."
+
+"Really, it would be as hard to tell it on you this morning as it was
+last night," responded Jack, in quite unruffled tones.
+
+"Be very careful, young man. I have already told you I am Herr
+Professor."
+
+"Oh, don't hang out the barber pole again," begged Jack.
+
+The other shot a glance full of venom at the perfectly cool youth before
+him. Then, apparently realizing that there was nothing to be gained from
+indulging in tirades, he turned abruptly on his heel and strode to the
+door. On the threshold he paused.
+
+"I am going to report your conduct to the captain at once," he said.
+"You will find out before long what such gross impertinence to a
+passenger means."
+
+"I shouldn't advise you to tell him about your behavior last night,
+though," observed Jack.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because from what I've observed of him, he is a rather hot-tempered man
+and he might feel inclined to throw you out of his cabin--and it's quite
+a drop from there to the promenade deck."
+
+"You will hear more of this," snarled the infuriated man; but at Jack's
+parting shot he made off, looking very uncomfortable.
+
+Poffer regarded Jack with a look in which admiration and awe were oddly
+blended.
+
+"I dink you haf for yourself made idt troubles," he remarked.
+
+"Trouble! In what way?" demanded Jack. "The fellow is an arrant coward.
+He----"
+
+"Ah yah, dot is so, but den he is Herr----"
+
+"Gracious, have you got hair on your brain, too?"
+
+"Yah," was the innocent response. "He is a big Professor at a Cherman
+War College. He is a great man in Germany, der Herr Professor Radwig."
+
+"Well, Mr. Earwig, or whatever his name is, may be a great man as you
+say, Hans, my boy, but he is also a great coward. As for his threat to
+make trouble with the captain, that does not bother me in the least. To
+begin with, I'm only a volunteer, as it were, and in the second place,
+I'll bet you a cookie or one of those big red apples you're so fond of,
+that Mr. Earwig will avoid discussing the events of last night as much
+as he can. I've heard the last of him."
+
+But in this Jack was wrong. In days that lay ahead of the boys, they
+were to find that Herr Professor Radwig was ordained to play no
+unimportant part in their lives.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                         SMOKE ON THE HORIZON.
+
+
+Late that afternoon Jack, who had just come on deck, was in time to
+notice an unusual thrill of excitement among the already overwrought
+passengers. On the northern horizon was a smudge of smoke, and a dark
+hull bearing down on them. Those who had glasses had already announced
+the other craft to be a warship, although, of what nation, it was as yet
+impossible to say.
+
+Jack hurried to the wireless room. Young Poffer declared that he had
+received no wireless, nor intercepted any message which might have any
+bearing on the identity of the strange ship. On the bridge, the ship's
+officers were in excited consultation. The warship was drawing closer
+every moment. She was black and squat, with two fat funnels from which
+volumes of dark smoke rolled. At her bow was a smother of white foam
+showing the speed at which she was being pushed.
+
+"Ach, now comes it!" exclaimed Poffer the next instant. He wrote rapidly
+and then handed the message to Jack. The wireless boy read:
+
+           "Heave to at once.
+
+           "Dutton, commanding His Majesty's ship _Berwick_."
+
+"I'll take it forward right away!" exclaimed Jack. "You listen with all
+your ears for any more messages, Hans."
+
+"You bet you my life I will undt den some," Hans promised. "Vot you
+dink, dey shood us up, Jack?"
+
+"I don't know. I suppose if we don't heave to, they will," said the
+wireless boy as he hurried off.
+
+"Chust as I thought," declared Captain Rollok, after he had read the
+message.
+
+"Shall I tell Hans to send back word we'll stop?" asked Jack.
+
+"Stop! I vouldn't stop for der whole British navy," declared Captain
+Rollok vehemently.
+
+He stepped to the engine room telegraph and set it violently over to
+"Full speed ahead." Then he picked up the engine-room telephone and gave
+orders to pile on every ounce of steam possible. The great ship quivered
+and then sprang forward like a grayhound from a leash. Clouds of black
+smoke rose from her funnels, deluging the decks with ashes as force
+draught was applied to the furnaces.
+
+Jack hastened back to the wireless room. He found Poffer, pop-eyed and
+frightened looking.
+
+"There's another cruiser coming up on the other side!" he exclaimed. "I
+just heard her talking to the _Berwick_."
+
+"That's nice," commented Jack, as Bill Raynor and de Garros appeared in
+the doorway.
+
+"Hullo, Bill," he continued. "You'll have a chance to be under fire
+now."
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded young Raynor.
+
+"Surely it is that the captain will stop?" asked the French aviator.
+
+"Stop nothing," rejoined Jack. "He doesn't appear to care what he risks,
+so long as he saves his ship."
+
+"I thought I felt her speeding up," said Bill. "So he's going to cut and
+run for it?"
+
+"That's the size of it," responded Jack, while the Frenchman shrugged
+his shoulders.
+
+"They are not understandable, these Germans," he commented.
+
+"Here comes it anudder message," struck in Hans, holding up his hand to
+enjoin silence.
+
+They all looked over his shoulder as he wrote rapidly.
+
+"Your last warning. Heave to or take the consequences."
+
+It was signed as before by the commander of the _Berwick_.
+
+"My friends, this captain had better heed that warning," said de Garros.
+"Englishmen are not in zee habit of what zee call 'bluffing.'"
+
+But when Jack came back from the bridge, whither he had sped at once
+with the message, it was to report the captain as obdurate as ever. His
+only comment had been to call for more speed.
+
+"I guess he thinks we can show that cruiser a clean pair of heels," said
+Raynor.
+
+"That looks to be the size of it," agreed Jack, "but he is taking
+desperate chances. Let's go outside and see the fun."
+
+The cruiser was coming toward them on an oblique line now. From her
+stern flowed the red cross of St. George on a white field, the naval
+flag of England. They watched her narrowly for some minutes and then
+Jack exclaimed:
+
+"Jove! I believe that with luck we can outrun her. The _Kronprinzessin_
+is the fastest ship of this line, and if her boilers don't blow up we
+may be able to beat that cruiser out."
+
+"I hope so," declared Raynor, fervently. "I'm not exactly a coward but I
+must say the idea of being made a target without having the chance to
+hit back is not exactly pleasant."
+
+"As I shall be in zee thick fighting not before very long, I might as
+well receive my baptism of fire now as any other time," said the
+Frenchman. "I expect to be placed in charge of zee aviation corps, and I
+am told zee Germans have some very good aeroplane guns."
+
+"Look," cried Bill, suddenly, "they are going to----"
+
+A white mushroom of smoke broke from the forward turret of the cruiser,
+followed by a screeching above their heads. Then came an ear-splitting
+report.
+
+"Great guns! Where is this going to end?" gasped Bill, involuntarily
+crouching.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+                         A SHOT AT THE RUDDER.
+
+
+"_Ach Himmel!_" groaned Hans Poffer. "Suppose dey hit us vee----"
+
+He got no further. There was another burst of smoke, a quick,
+lightning-like flash and the same screech of a projectile. But this
+time, accompanying the sound of the report, was a sound of tearing metal
+and the ship shook as if she had struck on the rocks.
+
+"The after funnel," cried Jack, pointing to a jagged hole in the smoke
+stack.
+
+"The next one may come closer," choked out Bill rather shakily.
+
+On the lower decks there was the wildest confusion. Women were fainting
+and the stewards and petty officers had all they could do to handle the
+frightened throngs. The striking of the funnel was the occasion for an
+angry and badly scared deputation to wait upon the captain and demand
+that he stop the ship at once.
+
+But the deputation did not reach the bridge. They were met at the foot
+of the stairway leading to it by a polite but firm officer who informed
+them that under no circumstances would the captain tolerate any
+interference with his method of running the ship.
+
+A third shot, which went wide, closely followed the one that had struck
+the after funnel. It flew high above them and caused Jack to observe:
+
+"I don't believe they mean to hit the hull, but only to scare the
+captain into heaving the boat to."
+
+"Looks that way," agreed Bill, "and as for the scare part of it, I guess
+they've succeeded, so far as everybody is concerned but Captain Rollok
+and his officers."
+
+"We are gaining on zee cruiser without a doubt," asserted de Garros,
+whose eyes had been fixed on the pursuing sea fighter for some minutes.
+
+"Yes, but look, there comes another," cried Jack, suddenly, pointing
+astern. "That must be the one Poffer heard signaling to the _Berwick_."
+
+"We're in for it now," said Bill. "I wish that pig-headed captain would
+heave to and let them take the gold and the Germans, if that's all they
+are after."
+
+"Hullo!" exclaimed Jack, suddenly, as they all stood waiting nervously
+to see the next flash and puff from the cruiser's turret. "I can see a
+gleam of hope for us. See what's ahead!"
+
+Ahead of them the sea appeared to be giving off clouds of steam as if it
+was boiling. As yet this vapor had not risen high, but it was rapidly
+making a curtain above the sunny waters.
+
+"Fog!" cried Bill, delightedly.
+
+"It cannot be too thick for me," said de Garros.
+
+"Perhaps Captain Rollok foresaw this and that was why he refused to
+halt," said Jack. "Certainly, if we can gain that mist bank before we
+get badly injured, we'll be all right."
+
+It was now a race for the thickening fog curtains. The cruisers appeared
+to realize that if the _Kronprinzessin_ could gain the shelter of the
+mist, there would be but small chance of their capturing her. Increased
+smoke tumbling from their funnels showed that they were under forced
+draught. But as their speed increased so did that of the "gold ship."
+
+The gun boomed again on the _Berwick_, the foremost of the pursuers. The
+projectile struck the stern of the liner and knocked the elaborate gilt
+work wreathing, her name and port, into smithereens.
+
+"Aiming at the rudder," commented Jack. "That's a good idea from their
+point of view."
+
+"But a mighty bad one from ours if they succeed in hitting it," said
+Raynor, with a rather sickly laugh.
+
+Two more shots, one of them from the second cruiser, flew above the
+fugitive liner and then the mist began to settle round her
+swiftly-driven hull in soft, cottony wreaths. In five minutes more the
+fog had shut in all about her.
+
+Then ensued a game of marine blind-man's buff. Captain Rollok, having
+steamed at full speed some miles through the fog,--and this time there
+were no protests from passengers,--altered his course and deliberately
+steamed in circles.
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed Jack, during one of these manoeuvers. "What was that?"
+
+Out in the fog somewhere they could hear a sound like the soft beating
+of a huge heart. It was the throbbing of another vessel's engines. To
+the fear of the chase now was added the peril of collision, for in the
+fog, dense as it was, the captain would not permit the siren to be
+sounded.
+
+It was almost impossible to tell from which direction the sound was
+proceeding. It seemed to be everywhere. Was it another peaceful vessel
+like themselves, or a man-of-war? Much depended on the answer to this
+question.
+
+All at once, with startling distinctness, a huge black bulk loomed up
+alongside them. Through the fog they caught a sudden glimpse of crowded
+decks and great guns projecting from grim-looking turrets. It was one of
+the British cruisers. By grim irony, the fog had delivered them into the
+hands of their pursuers.
+
+"Great Scott, it's all off now!" cried Bill, as they simultaneously
+sensed the identity of the other craft.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                                LAND HO!
+
+
+But the strange cruise of the _Kronprinzessin Emilie_ was not destined
+to come to an end then, although, for an instant, it appeared so.
+Whether the Britisher was mutually astonished, and in the confusion the
+right orders were not given, or whatever the cause was, before they had
+more than glimpsed her grim, dogged outlines, she faded away in the fog
+and was blotted out.
+
+"Phew! A few more close shaves like that and I'd be looking in the
+mirror to see if my hair hasn't turned gray," said Jack.
+
+"I wonder they didn't take some action," commented Bill, "although I'm
+glad they didn't."
+
+"Perhaps zey was so astonished zey forgot to fire zee gun," suggested de
+Garros.
+
+"I guess that was it," agreed Jack, "but just the same it was a mighty
+lucky thing for us they didn't come to their senses sooner."
+
+"Yes, this thing of playing tag in the fog gets on my nerves," muttered
+Bill.
+
+By nightfall, they had steamed through the fog belt, but every eye was
+anxiously turned astern as if their owners expected at any moment to see
+the ram-shaped bows of the black British sea bulldogs come poking put of
+the mist.
+
+But nothing of the sort happened, however, though late that night, far
+to the eastward of their course, they could see the glowing fingers of
+the cruisers' searchlights pointing in every direction across the sea.
+The next day passed without any untoward happenings, and when, the
+morning following, Jack gazed from the wireless coop he saw, in the
+first faint light of dawn, that they were steaming along a strange,
+unfamiliar, rugged coast.
+
+By the time the passengers were astir, the outlines of the coast had
+become dotted with cottages and houses, and in the midst of breakfast
+they steamed into a harbor, and the anchor was dropped with a roar and a
+rumble. Like a flash, the tables in the saloon were deserted. There was
+a general rush for the deck.
+
+"Why, that house over there looks just like my home at Bar Harbor,"
+cried one woman.
+
+Ten minutes later her words were confirmed. It _was_ Bar Harbor, Maine,
+into which the sorely-harried liner had taken refuge under the neutral
+protection of the Stars and Stripes. Not daring to run into New York or
+Boston, the captain had selected the world-famous summer resort as a
+harbor that the English cruisers would be the least likely to watch, and
+his judgment proved sound. And so ended the cruise of the "gold ship,"
+in whose strange adventures the boys were ever proud of having
+participated. An hour after the great liner's arrival, she was almost
+deserted by her passengers who were choking the telegraph wires with
+messages.
+
+The wireless disseminated far and wide the news of her safe arrival, and
+they learned, ashore, that for days the fate of the "gold ship" had been
+the puzzle of the country. All sorts of wild guesses had been printed as
+to her whereabouts. She had been reported off the coast of Scotland and
+again in the English Channel. One rumor had it that she had been
+captured, another that she had been sunk and most of those on board
+lost.
+
+Not one of these guesses, however wild or probable, came within striking
+distance of the extraordinary truth of the "gold ship's" flight across
+the war-swept seas. The day after their arrival, and while the town was
+still seething with excitement over the great liner's presence in the
+harbor, Jack received a telegram at the hotel where he, Raynor and de
+Garros had taken up temporary quarters. The message was from Mr. Jukes
+and read as follows:
+
+    "Learned by the papers of your safe return. Kindly call at my
+    office as soon as possible after your arrival in New York.
+    Important."
+
+"What's in the wind now?" exclaimed Jack to Bill Raynor, who was with
+him when he got the message.
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea," said Raynor; "but I have a sort of
+notion in the back of my head that your vacation is over."
+
+"If you can call it a vacation," laughed Jack.
+
+"Well then, perhaps experience would be a better word," substituted
+Bill, also laughing.
+
+That evening, arrangements having been made about the shipment of their
+baggage to New York, the boys and the young French aviator obtained
+their tickets from an agent of the steamship company, for the line was
+bearing all expenses, and took a night train for home.
+
+Almost as soon as they reached the city, Jack visited Mr. Jukes' office.
+
+"Thank goodness you've come, Ready!" he exclaimed as soon as he had
+shaken hands with the lad, upon whom, since their adventures in the
+South Seas, he strangely came to rely; "the _St. Mark_ sails to-morrow
+for Europe. I don't know yet, in the middle of this European muddle,
+just what ports she will touch at. That must be settled by her captain
+later on."
+
+"But Mullen is on the _St. Mark_," began Jack. "I wouldn't wish to usurp
+his job and----"
+
+"And anyhow, it's your vacation," interpolated the magnate. "I know all
+that, Ready, and depend upon it, you won't suffer by it if you agree to
+my wishes. It isn't exactly as wireless operator I want you to sail on
+the _St. Mark_, it's on a personal mission in part. My son, Tom, is
+among the refugees somewhere in France. I don't know where. I haven't
+heard a word since this war started, but the last I know he was auto
+touring north of Paris. He may even have gone into Belgium, for that was
+a part of his plan."
+
+"And you want me to try to find him?" demanded Jack slowly.
+
+"Yes, I know it's a big job, but I know that if anyone can carry it
+through, you can. Expense is no object, spend all you like but find the
+boy. This suspense is simply killing his mother and worrying me sick."
+
+"I'm willing and glad to take the job, Mr. Jukes," said the young
+wireless man, "but, as you say, it's a big undertaking and has about one
+chance in a hundred of being successful. Besides, you may have heard of
+him and his whereabouts even before the _St. Mark_ reaches Europe."
+
+"I'll take my chances of that," declared the millionaire. "It's action
+that I want. The feeling that something has actually been done to find
+him."
+
+"On these conditions, I'll go and do my best," said Jack.
+
+"Thank you, Ready, thank you. I knew you wouldn't fail me. Now about
+funds. They tell me finances are all topsy-turvy over there now. Nobody
+can get any American paper money or travelers' checks cashed. That may
+be Tom's fix. You'd better take gold. Here."
+
+He drew a check book out of a drawer and wrote out a check of a size
+that made Jack gasp.
+
+"Get gold for that," he said, as he handed it over, "and when that's
+gone, Linwood and Harding, of London, are my agents. Draw on them for
+what you need. And, by the way, is there anybody you want to take with
+you?"
+
+"I was going to say, sir," said Jack, "that for a task like this, Bill
+Raynor----"
+
+"The very fellow. I'll never forget him in New Guinea. A splendid lad.
+But will he go with you?"
+
+"I rather think he will," rejoined Jack with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+                            A STRANGE QUEST.
+
+
+Readers of earlier volumes of this series will recall Tom Jukes, who,
+after being cast away when his father's yacht burned at sea, was found
+by Jack's clever wireless work. This was the youth,--he was about Jack's
+own age,--whom the wireless boy had been commissioned to find. Although
+the task appeared, as Jack had said, one almost impossible of
+accomplishment, still Jack was boy enough to be delighted at the
+prospect of traversing war-ridden Europe and possibly playing a part in
+the mightiest struggle of all time. As for Bill Raynor, he was wild with
+excitement at the idea. Uncle Toby Ready, when he was told of the
+intended trip, shook his head and muttered something about "playing with
+fire," but he was eventually won over and presented Jack with a dozen
+bottles of the Golden Embrocation and Universal Remedy for Man and
+Beast.
+
+"If so be as you meet up with the Kaiser, or the King of England, or the
+Czar, just give 'em a bottle with my compliments," he said in bestowing
+the gift. "By the flying jib, it might be the means of building me up a
+big European trade. Think of it, Cap'n Toby Ready, P. O. H. R.
+H.--Physician in Ordinary to His Royal Highness. If you don't run acrost
+any of them skippers of state you can just distribute it around careless
+like, and draw special attention to the directions and to my address in
+case the prescription should require to be refilled."
+
+Jack promised, but it is to be feared that the Golden Embrocation never
+got nearer Europe than the cabin of the square rigger _Jane Harding_, of
+Halifax, Nova Scotia, which happened to be in the Erie Basin unloading
+lumber. Captain Podsnap, of the _Jane Harding_, was an ardent admirer
+of, and believer in, Captain Toby's concoctions which, as the compounder
+boasted, never were known to do harm even where they didn't do good. To
+Captain Podsnap, therefore, Jack hied himself perfidiously and made over
+to him the gifts intended for ailing royalty.
+
+The _St. Mark_ was what is known as a "popular" ship. That is, she
+usually crossed with full cabins. But on the present trip there were a
+bare score of passengers in the first cabin, not many more in the
+second, while in the steerage were a couple of hundred travelers, mostly
+reservists of the various countries at war, returning to Europe to take
+up arms.
+
+As they steamed down the harbor, the docks on each side of the river
+could be observed to be crowded with idle steamers of all sizes, from
+small freighters to huge four-funnelled liners. With smokeless stacks
+and empty decks, they lay moored to their piers, offering an eloquent
+testimonial to the almost complete paralysis of ocean traffic that
+marked the earlier days of the war. Off Tompkinsville, Staten Island,
+the dreadnought, _Florida_, swung at anchor, grim in her gray war
+paint,--Uncle Sam's guardian of neutrality. It was her duty to keep
+watch and ward over the port to see that no contraband went out of the
+harbor on the ships flying the flags of combatting nations and in other
+ways to enforce President Wilson's policy of "hands off."
+
+With dipping ensign, the _St. Mark_ slipped by, after a brief scrutiny
+by a brisk young officer. Then, down the bay she steamed, which the boys
+had traversed only a few days before on the hunted _Kronprinzessin_.
+
+"Well, Jack, old fellow," observed Raynor, as Jack leaned back after
+sending a few routine messages of farewell and business of the ship,
+"off again on our travels."
+
+"Yes, and this time, thank goodness, we're under Uncle Sam's flag, and
+that means a whole lot in these days."
+
+"It does, indeed," agreed the other fervently, "but have you any idea
+what port we are bound for?"
+
+"Not as yet. We are to get instructions by wireless, either from the New
+York or London offices."
+
+"This a queer job we've embarked on, Jack," resumed Raynor, after a
+pause in which Jack had "picked up" _Nantucket_ and exchanged greetings.
+
+"It is indeed. I only hope we can carry it through successfully. At any
+rate, it will give us an opportunity to see something of the war for
+ourselves."
+
+"It's a great chance, but as to finding Tom Jukes, I must say I agree
+with you that a needle in a hay stack isn't one, two, three with it."
+
+A heavily built man, dark bearded and mustached, entered the wireless
+cabin. He had a despatch ready written in his hand.
+
+"Send this as soon as possible, please," he said, handing it to Jack.
+
+As his eyes met those of the young wireless man he gave a perceptible
+start which, however, was unnoticed by either of the boys. Raynor was
+paying no particular attention to the matter in hand and Jack was
+knitting his brows over the despatch. It was in code, to an address in
+New York and was signed Martin Johnson.
+
+"I'm sorry, Mr. Johnson," said Jack, "but we can't handle this message."
+
+"Can't? Why not?" demanded the passenger indignantly.
+
+"Because it is in code."
+
+"What's that got to do with it?"
+
+"While the war lasts we have instructions not to handle code messages or
+any despatches that are not expressed in English that is perfectly
+plain."
+
+"That's preposterous," sputtered the passenger angrily. "This is a
+message on a business matter I tell you."
+
+"If you'll write it out in English, I'll transmit it," said Jack;
+"that's what I'm here for."
+
+The man suddenly leaped forward. He thrust a hand in his pocket and
+pulled out a roll of bills.
+
+"Can I speak to you confidentially?" he asked, turning his eyes on
+Raynor.
+
+"Anything you've got to say you can say before my friend," said Jack.
+
+"Then, see here--there's a hundred dollars in that roll," as he threw it
+on the desk, "forget that code rule a while and it's yours."
+
+"Look here, Mr. Johnson," said Jack coldly, "I've already told you what
+my orders are. As for your money, if it was a million it would be just
+the same to me."
+
+"Bah! You are a fool," snapped the other, angrily snatching up the money
+and flinging out of the cabin, crumpling the code message in his hand.
+
+"That infernal boy again," he muttered, as he gained the deck outside.
+"This only makes another score I have to settle with him. These
+Americans, they are all fools. Well, Von Gottberg in New York will have
+to go without information, that's all, if I can't find some way of
+getting at the wireless."
+
+"Say, Jack," asked Raynor, as the bearded man left the cabin, "did that
+fellow remind you of anybody?"
+
+"Who, Johnson?" asked Jack idly. "Why yes, now that you come to mention
+it, there was something familiar about his voice and his eyes, but for
+the life of me I couldn't place him."
+
+"Nor I, and yet I've a strong feeling that we've met him somewhere
+before."
+
+"Johnsons are as thick as blackberries," commented Jack.
+
+"Yes, but I don't connect that name with this man. It was some other
+name altogether. Oh, well, what's the use of trying to recall
+it--anyhow, Mr. Johnson, whoever he is, hasn't got a very amiable
+temper. I thought he was going to swell up and bust when you refused
+that message."
+
+But further comment on the irate passenger was cut short at that moment
+by a beating of dots and dashes against Jack's ears, to which one of the
+"receivers" was adjusted. He hastily slipped the other into place and
+then turned to Raynor with a grin.
+
+"It's our old friend, the _Berwick_," he said. "She's outside waiting
+for us, but this time, glory be, we're flying Old Glory."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                            UNDER OLD GLORY.
+
+
+Sandy Hook lay behind a dim blue line on the horizon, and the long
+Atlantic heave was beginning to swing the _St. Mark_ in a manner
+disconcerting to some of the passengers, before they came in sight of
+the cruiser that had led the _Kronprinzessin_ such a harried chase.
+
+"Looks familiar, doesn't she?" commented Jack, as they slowed down and
+the _Berwick_ steamed up alongside, about five hundred yards off.
+
+"If it hadn't been for that lucky fog, she'd have looked more familiar
+yet," declared Bill. "Look, they're lowering a boat."
+
+From the cruiser's side a small boat, crowded with uniformed sailors,
+and in the stern sheets of which sat a smart junior officer, dropped
+and, propelled by long, even strokes of the oars which rose and fell in
+perfect unison, was presently coming toward the liner. The _St. Mark's_
+accommodation ladder was lowered, and in a few minutes the young British
+officer was aboard.
+
+Every passenger was lined up in the saloon and compelled to answer
+questions as to their nationality, etc. All passed satisfactorily. Then
+came the turn of the second cabin and the steerage. From the second
+cabin, two admitted German reservists were taken as prisoners of war and
+in the steerage six more were found. They took their apprehensions
+stoically, although they knew that they would probably be confined at
+Halifax or Bermuda till the close of hostilities.
+
+Jack and Bill Raynor watched these scenes with interest.
+
+"I suppose it will be months, maybe years, before some of those poor
+fellows see their homes again," said Bill.
+
+"Yes, but it's what you might call the fortune of war," responded Jack
+briefly.
+
+So expeditiously was the work of culling out the reservists done that an
+hour after the _Berwick's_ officers had boarded the liner, the last of
+the prisoners was off and the ship's papers had been inspected and
+O.K.'d. With mutual salutes, the two craft parted, the _Berwick_ to lie
+"off and on," looking for commerce carriers of a hostile nation, the
+_St. Mark_ to resume her voyage to a Europe which was even then crowded
+with desperate, stranded American tourists unable to obtain money or
+passage home.
+
+At dinner time Muller, the _St. Mark's_ regular operator, relieved Jack,
+and he was free for the evening. He elected to spend his leisure time
+reading up in a text-book, lately issued, an account of the workings of
+a new coherer that had recently been brought out.
+
+But the fatigues of the day had made him drowsy and he soon dropped off
+to sleep in the chair he had placed on the upper deck in the shelter of
+a big ventilator. Despite the time of year there was a cool, almost a
+chilly breeze stirring, and most of the small number of first-class
+passengers were either in the smoking room or the saloon.
+
+How long he slept Jack did not know, but he was awakened by the sound of
+voices proceeding from the other side of the ventilator, which masked
+him from the speakers' view. One of the voices, which Jack recognized as
+belonging to Martin Johnson, grated harshly on his ears.
+
+"If it hadn't been for that cub of a wireless boy," Johnson was saying,
+"that message would have been in the hands of Von Gottberg by this
+time."
+
+"And so you haven't been able to send word about the British cruiser?"
+inquired the other speaker.
+
+"No, and from the same cause. I shall have to see what I can do with the
+night operator. He may not be so absurdly scrupulous, unless that young
+whelp who was on day duty has been talking to him."
+
+"Did you say, Herr Professor, that you had met him before?" asked the
+last speaker's companion.
+
+"Yes, confound him, on the _Kronprinzessin Emilie_. I was--er--I was
+trying to organize an orderly retreat to the boats after the alarm had
+been spread that British cruisers were after us, when this young
+scoundrel attacked me brutally."
+
+"Didn't you report him to the captain?"
+
+"Well, you see there were--er--reasons which made it unwise to do so."
+
+"You bet there were, Herr Professor Radwig,--for I know who you are now,
+Mr. Johnson," muttered Jack to himself. "No wonder I thought I knew you
+in spite of your disguise."
+
+"What are your present plans?" asked Mr. Johnson's, or rather, Herr
+Professor Radwig's companion.
+
+"I shall have to see. You understand wireless, Schultz?"
+
+"Intimately. Why, you have some idea--?"
+
+"Never mind now. It is getting chilly. Let us go to our cabins. I will
+talk to you more about this to-morrow."
+
+The voices died away as the two left the upper deck. Jack, wide awake
+now, sprang to his feet. Clearly there was some mischief concerning the
+wireless in the air. But of the nature of the impending scheme he could
+not hazard a guess.
+
+"Anyhow, I'll just put Muller wise to what's going on," thought Jack.
+"He's a decent, square fellow, who wouldn't stand for any monkey
+business. How to deal with Herr Radwig is another matter. I guess I'll
+sleep on it. If only those chaps on the _Berwick_ knew who they had
+overlooked on their hunt for Germans, wouldn't they be mad as hornets!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+                      THE "HERR PROFESSOR" AGAIN.
+
+
+It was not part of Jack's plan to apprise Muller of the identity of Mr.
+Johnson. He did not wish to act prematurely in any way till he had
+consulted Raynor and a plan of campaign had been worked out.
+
+"That guy certainly won't try any monkey-shines with me," Muller assured
+Jack slangily, but with a sincere ring in his voice, and Jack knew he
+could trust him.
+
+Then he sought out Bill, whom he found in the latter's cabin writing
+letters.
+
+"Well, Bill," he began. "I've solved the mystery of Mr. Johnson."
+
+Bill's writing was instantly forgotten.
+
+"You mean that peppery chap?"
+
+"The same person. He's an old friend of yours. You were not mistaken
+when you said that you thought you recognized his voice."
+
+"The dickens you say?" Bill was all attention now. "And who is he?"
+
+"Why,--as the nickel novels say,--none other than our old college chum,
+Herr Professor Radwig."
+
+"For gracious' sake!" Bill's expression left no doubt as to the
+genuineness of his astonishment. "Old Earwig turned up again, eh?"
+
+"Yes, and from some not very complimentary remarks he made about me,
+Bill," continued Jack, "I don't think he'd be averse to doing me some
+mischief, if he could."
+
+"He'd better not try." Bill doubled his fists pugnaciously.
+
+"The trouble is, I didn't overhear enough to find out just what his
+little game is."
+
+"That's too bad. It's a shame we didn't know his identity earlier. We
+would have earned the thanks of that English cruiser."
+
+"We certainly would. De Garros told me that Radwig is accounted a very
+clever and dangerous man. He has invented explosives and is active in
+the entire German military movement."
+
+"By the way, where is de Garros?" asked Bill.
+
+"I don't know any more than you do. After we left him at the depot in
+New York on our return from Bar Harbor, I lost sight of him. In fact,
+things have gone on with such a rush since then, that I haven't had time
+to think of him till now. He told me, though, that he would take the
+first ship possible to France."
+
+"Well, to get back to old Earwig."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you going to expose him?"
+
+"Expose him to whom?"
+
+"The captain, for instance."
+
+"What would be the good? He has committed no crime. If he wants to
+travel under a false name that is not our business so long as he does
+not interfere with us."
+
+"That's true, but just the same, if we are boarded by another British
+cruiser, I'll have something to whisper in the boarding officer's ear,"
+said Bill, truculently.
+
+"I wish we knew who this Schultz was," confessed Jack.
+
+"Does that name appear on the passenger lists?"
+
+"On none of them. Besides, if it had, the man would have been questioned
+by that officer from the _Berwick_. He quizzed everybody with a name
+that even sounded German."
+
+"That's so," admitted Bill; "he certainly went through the ship with a
+rake. I guess old Earwig's friend has some American sounding name that
+will carry him safe across the ocean no matter what happens."
+
+Soon after, Jack sought his berth in the wireless room. As he approached
+the opened door of the radio station, from which a flood of yellow light
+issued, he saw, or thought he saw, two lurking figures in the shadow of
+one of the boats. But even as he sighted them, they vanished.
+
+For an instant, Jack assumed that they were two of the boat crew but, as
+they scurried past an open port, he saw they wore ordinary clothes and
+not the sailor uniforms of the crew.
+
+"Odd," he mused. "Those fellows were certainly hanging around the
+wireless room for no good purpose. If they had been, they wouldn't have
+sneaked the instant they saw me coming. I'm willing to bet a cookie one
+of them was Earwig and the other his precious pal who understands
+wireless. Jack, old boy, it's up to you to keep your eyes open."
+
+"Anything doing?" he asked Muller, as he entered the wireless room.
+
+"Not a thing. Deader than a baseball park on Christmas Day," rejoined
+Muller.
+
+"You didn't see anything of our friend, for instance?"
+
+"Who, Johnson? No, he hasn't been near here."
+
+Jack nodded good-night and then turned in. But as the ship bored on
+through the darkness his eyes refused, as they customarily did, to close
+in his usual sound sleep.
+
+His mind was busy with many things. It was clear that Radwig was
+contemplating some use of the wireless which did not yet seem quite
+clear. That it was his duty to checkmate him Jack was convinced, but as
+yet he had little to go upon except the conversation overheard behind
+the ventilator.
+
+"I guess watchful waiting will have to be the policy," he murmured to
+himself as he fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+                           THE ARMED CRUISER.
+
+
+The next morning, when Jack and Bill turned out, there was quite a
+flutter among the passengers. A large ship had been sighted in the
+distance, coming rapidly westward. As she drew nearer it could be seen
+that she was a monster craft of four immense funnels painted a sombre
+black without colored bands to relieve the effect. Her upper works were
+a dull brown and her hull, black.
+
+Speculation was rife concerning her identity, but it soon became noised
+about that the craft was the _Ruritania_ of the Anglican Line, which
+had, apparently, been converted into an auxiliary cruiser by the English
+Government on the outbreak of the war. The sight of guns mounted on her
+fore and aft decks confirmed this.
+
+On she came, a fine, grim spectacle in her dull paint. An absorbed
+shipload watched her, leaning over the rails as she drew abreast.
+
+"Lie to!"
+
+The signals fluttered from her halliards and the same order was flashed
+by wireless.
+
+For the second time the _St. Mark's_ engines revolved more and more
+slowly. The two big vessels lay opposite each other on the swells,
+nodding solemnly. Before long a boat came bobbing over the seas from the
+_Ruritania_.
+
+"Now's your chance to give that fellow Earwig up," declared Raynor to
+Jack, as, leaning in the door of the wireless room, they watched the
+scene.
+
+"Somehow it seems to me that would be a shabby trick," said Jack, after
+a moment's thought. "I'll confess, though, that when the _Ruritania_
+hove in sight such a thought came into my mind. But--oh, well, I guess
+we'll let him get by this time."
+
+"Maybe you'll be sorry for it later on," said Raynor, little guessing
+that those words were prophetic. There was to come a time when Jack was
+to bitterly regret having let Radwig escape capture by the British.
+
+The inspection by the naval reserve officer of the _Ruritania_ did not
+vary from that which the _St. Mark_ had already undergone at the hands
+of the _Berwick_. Naturally, the German reservists having been already
+given up, there was little to do but to overhaul the ship's papers. This
+did not take long, and before half an hour had passed, the two
+steamships saluted each other and parted company.
+
+That afternoon Jack had a visitor in the wireless room. It was Mr.
+Johnson. He opened the conversation ingratiatingly.
+
+"I'm afraid I rather lost my temper the other afternoon," he said. "I
+want to apologize."
+
+"That's all right," said Jack briefly, choking back a longing to tell
+Mr. Johnson that he was perfectly aware of his identity.
+
+"I--er--perhaps what I offered was not enough," he continued. "I may
+tell you now that I will double or triple the amount if you will send a
+message for me,--using a code, of course."
+
+Jack jumped to his feet, his eyes ablaze.
+
+"See here, sir," he shot out, "you might offer me all the money there is
+in Germany but it would not be of the slightest interest to me. Now if
+you have nothing more to say, I'll ask you to leave this cabin before
+I----"
+
+The angry boy checked himself with his hands clenched and his eyes
+flashing. A murderous look came into Mr. Johnson's bearded face, but he
+appeared to be determined to keep himself in check.
+
+"Do not be foolish," he urged; "have an eye to your own interests. As
+for your reference to Germany----"
+
+"You are going to say that you don't understand it," cut in Jack.
+
+"Well, I must say I----"
+
+"Don't go any further," interrupted the angry young wireless boy, "and
+now 'Mr. Johnson,' or Herr Radwig, I'll ask you to leave."
+
+Radwig looked for a moment as if he was about to choke. His face turned
+purple and his hands clenched and unclenched nervously. The sweat stood
+out in tiny beads on his forehead.
+
+"What do you mean----?" he began.
+
+Jack leaned forward and looked at him significantly.
+
+"Just this, Herr Professor, that in spite of that fake beard and your
+dyed mustache, I know you. Your reason for being disguised and going
+under a false name is no business of mine _now_. See that you don't make
+it so."
+
+"You--you----" sputtered the man who was startled in the extreme.
+
+"And furthermore," continued Jack, "we are likely to run across some
+more British ships. If you annoy me any more, I shall point you out for
+what you are. That will be all. Now go."
+
+Utterly bereft of words, Radwig turned heavily and half fell out of the
+cabin. He collided with Bill Raynor, who was just coming in. He fairly
+snarled at Jack's chum, who airily remarked:
+
+"Don't slam the door when you're going out!"
+
+"You young whipper snapper, I--I----" choked out Radwig, and being too
+discomfited to find words, ended the sentence by shaking his fist at the
+two boys.
+
+"Well," said Raynor, as Radwig vanished, muttering angrily to himself,
+"it would appear as if you'd spilled the beans, Jack."
+
+"It does look that way, doesn't it?" said Jack with a smile. "I rather
+fancy our Teutonic friend will be good for a while now."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                           A MESSAGE IN CODE.
+
+
+"What happened?" was Raynor's next question.
+
+"Oh, he came in here and offered me untold gold to send a code message
+for him. I fancy that it was about the _Ruritania_, telling her
+whereabouts and so on."
+
+"So that was his game, eh?"
+
+"Well, he didn't work it. I got mad and told him that he needn't bother
+to conceal his identity from me, and that if he bothered me any more I'd
+show him up to the first British officer that again boarded us."
+
+"Phew! Going some. How did he take it?"
+
+"I thought he was going up like a balloon for a minute," laughed Jack.
+"Now, if we only could identify Schultz, we'd have both of them where we
+want them."
+
+"That's going to be a hard job," declared Bill. "They don't go about
+together. At least, I've watched closely, but never saw Radwig talking
+with anyone on board."
+
+"No, I guess they keep pretty well under cover for fear of accident. I
+wish I could have gotten a look at them that night I overheard them
+talking."
+
+"Yes, it would have simplified matters a good deal," Bill admitted,
+"but, as you say, I don't think either of them will try to bother us
+again."
+
+The day passed uneventfully. In the afternoon they sighted a small
+British freighter making her way west, and later on overtook a French
+oil ship bound for Holland. Jack flashed them the latest war news, for
+they had a small wireless outfit, and in return received the information
+that two German cruisers were somewhere in the vicinity and that the
+French ship was in fear of capture at any time.
+
+That evening the wind blew rather hard. A high sea was whipped up by the
+gale and the _St._ _Mark_, big as she was, rolled and pitched violently.
+It was what sea-faring men would have called "a fresh breeze," but to
+the passengers, that is, such of them as were unseasoned travelers, it
+was a veritable storm.
+
+Jack and Bill rather enjoyed the rough weather, coming as it did after a
+monotonous calm. After dinner they ascended to the boat deck and paced
+up and down, chatting for some time. Inside the wireless room Muller was
+at the key. Now and then, as they passed and repassed, they would
+exchange a word with him. It was on one of these occasions that Muller
+hailed them excitedly.
+
+"There's a ship just wirelessed the S. O. S.!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Great Scott," cried Jack, "and on a night like this. What's the
+trouble?"'
+
+"Don't know yet. I'm trying to get them again. Notify the captain, will
+you?"
+
+"On the jump," cried Jack.
+
+He despatched his errand in a few minutes, and was back in the wireless
+room with instructions to "stand by" and get further information as soon
+as possible.
+
+"Anything new?" he asked Muller.
+
+The wireless man shook his head.
+
+"Nothing but that first S. O. S.," he said.
+
+Suddenly there came a shout from Bill, who was standing in the door.
+
+"Look, Jack, what's that off there?" he exclaimed, pointing to the
+horizon.
+
+A dull glow was reflected against the night sky in the direction he
+indicated. Now it flashed bright as a blown furnace, and again it sank
+to a faint glare. Jack was not long in deciding what it was.
+
+"It's a ship on fire," he declared.
+
+At almost the same moment a hoarse shout from the forward lookout and a
+shouted reply from the bridge told that the glare had been observed from
+there, too.
+
+Possibly there is nothing at sea that thrills like the sight of a vessel
+on fire. Jack, it will be recalled, had witnessed such a spectacle
+before, but yet his heart bounded as he watched the distant glare now
+bright and glowing, now dull and flickering.
+
+"Hullo, the old man has rung for full speed ahead!" exclaimed Bill, as
+the next moment the _St. Mark's_ speed was perceptibly quickened and her
+course changed.
+
+Several seamen in charge of the third officer, a Mr. Smallwood, came
+trampling aft. They busied themselves loosening the fastenings of one of
+the boats and getting it ready for launching. Presently they were
+joined, and three additional craft were made ready for the work of life
+saving.
+
+All this time the glow had been getting brighter as the _St. Mark_
+approached the burning ship. But the distance was as yet too great to
+make out what manner of vessel she was.
+
+"I'd give anything to get in one of those boats," observed Jack to Bill,
+as the two lads watched the preparations for lowering away.
+
+"So would I," agreed Bill. "Do you think there's a chance?"
+
+"I don't know. I 'deadheaded' a radio for Mr. Smallwood to his sick
+mother the day we sailed. That might have some influence with him. I'll
+ask him anyhow."
+
+Jack vainly pleaded with the at first obdurate officer, but after a long
+interval, he returned to Bill with a smile on his face.
+
+"It's all right," he announced. "It was a hard job to get him to
+consent. I won him over at last. We go."
+
+"Hurray!" cried Bill. "Now for some oilskins! It's not the sort of night
+to be without them."
+
+"I've got mine in the cabin," said Jack. "I'll borrow Muller's for you."
+
+"Good for you. Gosh! Look at those flames. Seems to be a big steamer."
+
+Both boys paused a moment to look at the awe-inspiring spectacle of the
+blazing ship.
+
+As they did so, something occurred which chilled the hot blood in their
+veins and caused them to exchange startled, bewildered looks.
+
+Over the dark, heaving waters that divided them from the blazing vessel
+there was borne to their ears what sounded like an awful concerted groan
+of agony. Again and again it came, rising and falling in a terrible
+rhythm. It was not human. It sounded like the sufferings of demons.
+
+"Wow! But that's fearful!" exclaimed Bill, paling. "What under the sun
+can it be?"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                            THE CATTLE SHIP.
+
+
+The awesome sound continued while the boats were being lowered. The
+weird nature of the uproar and its mystery made even the rough seamen
+apprehensive. The more religious among them crossed themselves
+fervently.
+
+"Bad cess to it, if it don't sound like the howling of poor sowls in
+purgathory," muttered one of them.
+
+As the boat in which he and Bill were sitting beside Mr. Smallwood was
+lowered, Jack glanced upward and had a view of the lighted decks, the
+rails being lined with the heads of curious and excited passengers. Then
+came a sickening swing outward as the ship rolled.
+
+"Let go all or we'll be smashed!" shouted Mr. Smallwood.
+
+For a moment, as the ship heaved back, it seemed indeed, as if the boat
+was doomed to be dashed against her steel sides and smashed into
+splinters. But in the nick of time the "falls" were let go "all
+standing." The boat rushed downward and struck the top of a great wave
+with a force that shook her. The next instant, the patent blocks opened
+and on the crest of the great comber Mr. Smallwood's boat, and the
+others, were swept off into the darkness.
+
+Behind them arose a mighty cheer, but they hardly noticed it in the
+excitement and danger of the launching.
+
+"A bad night for this work," muttered Mr. Smallwood as the boat was
+lifted heavenward and then rushed down into a dark profundity from which
+it seemed impossible she could emerge. A blood red glow from the leaping
+flames enveloping the stern of the doomed craft, which was a large,
+single funneled steamer, lay on the roughened sea.
+
+"Are there passengers on board, do you think?" asked Jack, rather
+tremulously, as the blood-chilling uproar from the burning vessel
+continued.
+
+"Looks to me more like a freighter--hard there on the bow-oars,--meet
+that sea,--she has no upper decks," replied the third officer.
+
+"I don't see anybody on board her, either," said Bill, after an
+interval, during which the boat escaped swamping, as it seemed to the
+boys, by a miracle only.
+
+"Let's hope they got away," said the third officer, "but that devil's
+concert on board beats me. It's not human, that's one sure thing. What
+in blazes is it?"
+
+"It gives me the shivers," confessed Bill.
+
+The noise grew positively deafening as they got closer. The intense heat
+of the blaze and the shower of falling embers that enveloped them added
+to their discomfort.
+
+"Row toward the bow," roared Mr. Smallwood, cupping his hands, "or we'll
+have the boats afire next."
+
+Already several of the seamen had hastily extinguished portions of their
+clothing that had caught, and burns on hands and faces were plentiful.
+But as they pulled toward the blazing craft's bow, this annoyance was
+avoided, the wind blowing the heat and embers from them.
+
+All at once, as they swung upward on the crest of an immense comber,
+Jack uttered a shout:
+
+"The mystery's solved."
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded Mr. Smallwood.
+
+"The mystery of that horrible noise. That's a cattle ship yonder, and
+the poor beasts are mad with fear."
+
+The next wave gave them a clear view of tossing horns and heads as the
+unfortunate cattle, penned on the burning craft, rushed madly about the
+decks, in vain seeking some means of relief. It was a piteous sight, for
+there was no way of saving them from being burned alive unless the ship
+sank first.
+
+"Oh, but that's awful!" gasped Jack, with a shudder.
+
+"Look, look up on the bow!" cried Bill suddenly. "There's a man. He's
+seen us."
+
+"He's waving," cried Mr. Smallwood. "Hurrah! Give way, men! There's a
+poor beggar roasting on that ship."
+
+But the boat's crew needed no urging. In the lee of the burning cattle
+ship the water was smoother and they could make better time. Silhouetted
+against the glare, too, every man of them could see, by a twist of his
+head, that solitary marooned figure on the bow of the fire ship.
+
+As the first boat,--Mr. Smallwood's,--ranged in alongside the high steel
+prow, Jack's quick eye caught sight of a rope dangling from the great
+steel anchor chains. By what impulse he did it he could not have
+explained, but as the boat ranged close alongside he poised for an
+instant on the heaving gunwale and then launched his body forward into
+space.
+
+"Come back, boy!" shouted Mr. Smallwood. But by the time the words had
+left his mouth, Jack was scrambling up the rope amidst the cheers of the
+men in the tossing boats now far below him. It was the work of a few
+moments only to gain the anchor chain, and to climb up them was, for a
+lad of Jack's brawn and activity, an easy task.
+
+"Thank heaven you came before it was too late," cried the solitary man
+on the fore deck, staggering toward the boy with outstretched arms.
+
+"Are you the only man on board?" demanded the boy, deciding to leave
+explanations till later.
+
+"No, Dick Sanders is sick in his bunk below."
+
+"Where, down this hatchway? In the forecastle?" asked Jack quickly.
+
+"Yes, I was too weak to carry him up, heaven help me," muttered the
+other reeling weakly.
+
+Jack did not stop to listen. He knew that within a few minutes his
+shipmates would be on board and would rescue the half-crazed man on the
+bow. It was his duty to go after the sick man below. Into the
+ill-smelling darkness of the forecastle of the cattle ship he plunged,
+clawing his way down an iron ladder. At the bottom he struck a match. As
+its light flared up he heard a groan, and looking in the direction from
+which it came he espied the emaciated form of a boy lying in a bunk.
+
+"Have you come to save me?" gasped out the sick lad, who was almost a
+skeleton and whose eyes glowed with unnatural brightness in his
+parchment-like face.
+
+"Yes, but you must do exactly what I tell you," instructed Jack.
+
+"I will, oh, I will," choked out the other. "Only save me. I was afraid
+I was going to be left here to die alone."
+
+"Don't talk about dying now," ordered Jack. "Now clasp your arms round
+my neck and hold on tight. Do you think you can keep your grip till we
+get to the top of that ladder?"
+
+"Yes--that is, I think so," returned the sick lad, who had been cabin
+boy on the doomed ship.
+
+"Then, hold on," ordered Jack as, having carried his pitifully light
+burden across the forecastle to the foot of the ladder, he prepared to
+ascend the rounds. Once or twice he had to stop on the way up, and
+holding on with one hand, grasp Dick Sanders with his other arm to allow
+the lad to recruit his strength. At last they reached the deck and Jack,
+who was almost exhausted, laid his frail burden down with a sigh of
+relief.
+
+He looked about for his companions, who he fully expected to see on the
+forecastle. There was no sign of them.
+
+The lone man who had waved to them from the bow had also vanished. A
+rope ladder, one end of which was secured inboard, showed the way they
+had gone.
+
+"Queer that they didn't wait for me," muttered Jack. "They must have
+known I was below. I wonder----"
+
+There was a sudden warning shout from somewhere.
+
+"Look out for your life!" came in Mr. Smallwood's voice.
+
+Jack looked up, startled. The burning ship was a flush-decked craft.
+That is, her forecastle was not raised, but was on a level with the main
+deck where the cattle pens were. The terrified creatures, in their
+frenzy of fear, had broken loose from the flimsy timber structure, and
+now, urged on by the flames behind them, were charging down in a wild
+stampede upon Jack and the half-conscious form of the sick boy at his
+feet.
+
+It was not possible to effect a retreat down the forecastle hatch, for
+his efforts to support himself on the journey up had been too much for
+Dick Sanders' strength.
+
+Jack looked about him. It was imperative to act with desperate
+swiftness.
+
+Now, not fifty feet from him was the advance guard of the maddened,
+fear-crazed steers. In a few seconds, if he did not act swiftly, both he
+and the lad he had rescued would be pounded by their sharp hoofs into an
+unrecognizable mass.
+
+Suddenly he formed a resolution. With desperate eagerness he stripped
+off his oilskins and kicked off the light deck shoes he had not thought
+to change in the hurry of embarkment. Then, picking up the fragile form
+of Dick in his arms, he sped for the side of the forecastle.
+
+As the long-horned steers swept down so close to him that he could feel
+their breaths and see the whites of their frenzied eyes, the boy leaped
+up and outward into the night.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV.
+
+                           JACK'S BRAVE LEAP.
+
+
+What happened after the leap, Jack never knew clearly. He felt a wild,
+half-suffocating rush through the air and then a sensation of choking
+and strangling as a cold, stifling weight of water pressed in on him.
+Down, down, down he plunged. It seemed as if he would never rise. In his
+ears was an intolerable drumming. Everything was blood-red before his
+eyes.
+
+Then came a sudden blast of blessed air, following a swift upward rush,
+and he found himself struggling in the wild sea with Dick Sanders
+clinging desperately to him and almost making him go under again.
+
+Luckily Jack, without conscious thought, had chosen the lee side of the
+burning ship, where the boats hovered, for his leap for two lives. As
+his head appeared above the surface, the bright glare of the flames
+showed his form clearly to the anxious watchers who had witnessed his
+daring dive.
+
+"There he is! Hurrah!" shouted Bill Raynor, who was the first to see
+him. "Hold on, Jack, old boy, we'll be with you in just a second."
+
+"Keep up your heart! We'll get you!" bellowed Mr. Smallwood.
+
+Jack essayed a feeble wave in response, with the result that he was once
+more engulfed. But in a few moments he was safe and a dozen pairs of
+strong arms had drawn him and Dick Sanders into Mr. Smallwood's boat.
+
+"Heavens, lad, what a dive," cried the third mate admiringly, when Jack
+was somewhat recovered and Dick lay covered with seamen's coats on the
+floor of the boat.
+
+"Gracious, we thought you were a goner!" exclaimed Raynor, "when the
+cattle made the first charge. I guess you didn't hear it, being below.
+We all came close to being caught. The man on the forecastle, who was
+unconscious by the time we got on board, was reached in time to be
+lowered into one of the boats. In the confusion, we thought you were
+among us. It was not till we reached the boats again that we found our
+mistake."
+
+"In the meantime," said Mr. Smallwood, "those poor devils of steers had
+reached the rail and not liking the look of the water any better than
+the fire, charged back again. It was just as the second 'wave,' as you
+might call it, was coming for you that we saw you weren't with us.
+Suddenly we sighted you with that poor kid there," he nodded to the
+bottom of the boat, "right in the line of their charge."
+
+"If it hadn't been for your warning shout, I might not have been here
+now," said Jack.
+
+"I saw that and so I yelled with all my power," said the third officer,
+"but lad," he went on, slapping Jack on the back, "when I saw what you
+were going to do, I regretted having warned you."
+
+"It was the only thing to do," said Jack. "We wouldn't have stood a
+chance if we had remained where we were," and he explained that it was
+impossible to find shelter on the flush deck or to retreat back into the
+forecastle.
+
+"Well, all's well that ends well," said Mr. Smallwood, "but it gave me a
+turn when I saw you come sky-hottling off that bow. But,--great
+Christmas,--look yonder."
+
+He pointed back at the burning ship. By her own light they saw her pitch
+heavily forward, hesitate an instant and then, without further warning,
+and amidst a piteous bellowing that sounded like a death-wail, shoot
+downward to the depths of the ocean. In an instant the light she had
+spread across the rough sea had vanished, and by contrast, the night
+appeared to have suddenly solidified about them in velvety blackness. A
+moment later a blinding white light groped across the waste of tossing
+waters and enveloped them in its glow. It was the searchlight of the
+_St. Mark_ and it accompanied them with its cheering light till they
+reached the ship's side.
+
+They were greeted amid acclamation, and Dick Sanders was at once taken
+charge of by the ship's doctor and some lady passengers. The man who had
+been rescued had, by this time, however, sufficiently recovered to
+accompany Mr. Smallwood, Bill and Jack to Captain Jameson's cabin, where
+that officer was eagerly waiting to hear the details of the rescue.
+
+The rescued sailor, whose name was Mark Cherry, soon told them the story
+of the disaster to the _Buffalonian_, a British cattle ship which had
+left New York for London several days previously. Early that evening the
+craft had been overtaken by a German cruiser and ordered to surrender.
+Every one on board was made prisoner, and some of the cattle taken, when
+the British captain, seized by a sudden fit of anger, struck the German
+commander in the face. He was instantly ironed, as were his officers,
+Mark Cherry observing all this from under the cover of a boat where he
+had been working when the cruiser took the cattle craft, and in which he
+had remained hidden.
+
+In revenge, apparently, for the British captain's attack on him, the
+German commander had, on his return to his own ship, ordered the
+_Buffalonian_ fired upon by the big guns. The hidden sailor crouched in
+terror in his place of concealment while the cannon boomed. He thought
+his last hour had come. The projectiles shrieked through the sternworks
+of the ship and one, he thought, had struck amidships (which accounted
+for the vessel's foundering).
+
+At length, appearing to tire of this, the German cruiser put about and
+steamed away. Cherry crept from his hiding place where he had remained
+paralyzed with fright throughout the bombardment, and making for the
+wireless room sent out the only signal he knew, the S. O. S., which he
+had learned from a friendly wireless man, in case there ever came a time
+when it would be a matter of life and death to him to use it. This
+explained why no answer came to Muller's frantic calls after the first
+distress signal.
+
+It was only a few moments after this call that flames burst from the
+shattered stern, and Cherry knew that unless help came, his hours were
+numbered. So confused and terrified was he by his desperate situation,
+that it was not till Jack's appearance on the scene, he remembered
+little Dick Sanders, the cabin boy, lying sick in his bunk below. (It
+may be said here that with care and good treatment the lad quickly
+recovered his health, and he and Mark Cherry were put to work with the
+crew of the _St. Mark_.) Thus, without further incident, the English
+Channel was reached and Jack began busily to try to communicate with the
+firm's London agents for instructions as to docking orders.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+
+                            AWAITING ORDERS.
+
+
+While awaiting orders, which the wireless had told the _St. Mark's_
+captain were not ready for transmission, the big liner stood "off and
+on" at the mouth of the channel. It was wearing work, and all looked
+forward eagerly to the day when their destination would be settled and
+they could proceed.
+
+Jack felt the monotony of it no less than anyone else on board, but he
+spent a good many busy hours perfecting an attachment for a wireless
+coherer which he hoped would prove of great value in the future, and
+possibly prove as profitable as the Universal Detector, to which
+allusion has already been made in "The Ocean Wireless Boys" and "The
+Naval Code." One night, after working for some time at some rather
+abstruse calculations in this connection, he decided to abandon the work
+for the night and take a stroll on deck before turning in.
+
+Raynor, he knew, was finishing up the last of a series of match games of
+checkers, so he did not bother to look up his friend. Knowing that Bill
+was busily engaged, Jack was rather surprised when, at his fourth or
+fifth turn up and down the deck, which was almost deserted, a steward
+stepped up to him with a note.
+
+It proved to be from Raynor and read as follows:
+
+    "Dear Jack:
+
+      "Meet me at once in the stern where we can talk without being
+    spied on. The steward will show you where. I have something
+    important to tell you about Radwig.
+
+                                                             "BILL."
+
+"This is very peculiar," mused Jack, and then, turning to the steward he
+asked:
+
+"Did Mr. Raynor give you this?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and he told me to bring you to where he was waiting, sir,"
+was the obsequious response.
+
+"All right, lead on," said Jack and then to himself he added: "I can't
+in the least make out why old Bill should be so secretive. I might just
+as well have met him in his cabin. But maybe he is being watched, and
+thinks the place he has appointed would be better."
+
+The steward led the way aft through a maze of corridors and passages. At
+last they arrived far in the stern of the ship where the unlighted
+passages showed no cabins were occupied. The twenty first-class
+passengers had all been booked amidships, thus the hundreds of cabins
+opening on the stern passages were unoccupied and nobody went near them.
+
+"You've no idea why Mr. Raynor selected this part of the ship to meet
+me?" said Jack, as he followed the man who lighted the way with an
+electric torch.
+
+"No, sir," he replied, with a shake of his head. "I suppose he had his
+reasons, sir."
+
+"No doubt, but this is an odd part of the ship to keep an appointment,"
+said Jack. "We must be far away from the occupied cabins."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir. Almost a tenth of a mile. Wonderful, ain't it, sir, the
+size of these big ships? A fellow could yell his lungs out in this part
+of the vessel, sir, and things, being as they are, and the cabins empty
+and all, nobody could hear him."
+
+"I suppose not," said Jack idly. "Are we nearly there?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Just turn down this passage, sir. Right to the left, sir,
+mind that step and--" Crash!
+
+A great burst of light, as if a sudden explosion had occurred in front
+of him blinded Jack, and at the same instant he felt a violent blow on
+the back of the head. Then the bright light vanished with a loud report
+and he seemed to swim for an instant, in blackness. Everything went out,
+as if a light had been switched off, and the lad pitched heavily forward
+on his face.
+
+"Good, that will settle his hash for a while," muttered a voice, and
+Radwig, a short, wicked-looking bludgeon in his hand, bent over the
+senseless boy. By the German's side was another man, a short, thick-set,
+clean-shaven fellow with a projecting jaw, known on the passenger list
+as Mr. Duncan Ewing, of Chicago.
+
+The light of the steward's torch illumined their faces as they stood
+above the recumbent young wireless boy.
+
+"I say, sir," muttered the man, "I know you've paid me well and all,
+sir, but I didn't bargain for no murdering business, sir. I----"
+
+"Don't be an idiot," snapped Radwig impatiently. "We haven't hurt him.
+See, he's beginning to stir. Now then, Schultz----"
+
+Radwig bent and took up the limp body by the head while Mr. Duncan
+Ewing, who answered with alacrity to the name of Schultz, laid hold of
+poor Jack by the feet.
+
+"Now, steward," said Radwig, as they carried their burden into an empty
+cabin, "keep a stiff upper lip till we dock, and then I don't care what
+happens. You'll be well taken care of. Don't forget that."
+
+"Yes, sir, I know, sir," said the man, whose hand was trembling as he
+held the torch; "but I don't like the business, sir. If it wasn't for my
+poor wife being sick and needing the money, and all---"
+
+"That will do. Go get us the lamp you promised. In the meantime we'll
+revive this young fellow and show you that he's not dead."
+
+From a carafe of stale water that stood on the washstand, Radwig dashed
+a liberal application in Jack's face. He loosened the lad's collar and
+chafed his wrists. Jack moaned, stirred, and opened his eyes. For a
+moment his swimming senses refused to rally to his call. Then, with a
+flash, he realized what had happened.
+
+"Radwig, you scoundrel!" he exclaimed, "what is the meaning of this
+outrage?"
+
+"Just a delicate little way of reminding you that it is not well to
+thwart the wishes of Herr Professor Radwig," was the reply. "Schultz, my
+dear fellow, shut that door. No, wait a moment, here comes our man with
+the lamp. That's better."
+
+He took the lamp from the steward, and set it in a frame on the wall
+provided for it in case the electric light failed from any cause. The
+steward, still pale and shaky, hurried away after one glance at Jack.
+
+"And now," said Radwig, "we will leave you to your reflections, my young
+friend. It will do you no good to shout. Under present conditions this
+part of the ship is uninhabited. No one comes near it. As for trying to
+force the door after we have gone, it would be wasted labor. I have
+taken the pains to affix bolts to the outside of it. Bread you will
+find, and some water, under the bunk. I advise you to be sparing of it,
+for you will not get any more and now--_auf wiedersehn_."
+
+He opened the door, motioned Schultz out, and turned a malevolent smile
+on the boy. With a shout, Jack flung himself forward, but the door
+slammed in his face.
+
+He heard a laugh from outside, a laugh that made his blood boil and his
+fists clench. He fell against the door and wrenched at it furiously. But
+already the bolts outside had been shot into place and the portal held
+firmly.
+
+"Now don't lose your temper," begged Radwig mockingly from without;
+"it's very bad, very bad for the digestion. I would recommend you to
+spend your time mediating over the manifest advantages of being
+obliging. Good-night."
+
+Jack, listening at the bolted door, heard their footsteps die away down
+the deserted passageway.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII.
+
+                    WHAT BEFELL IN THE AFTER CABIN.
+
+
+"Man overboard!"
+
+Bill, making his way along the deck to the wireless room companionway,
+heard the thrilling cry and joined the rush of passengers to the stern
+rail from whence the shout had come. Radwig and Schultz stood there with
+every expression of alarm on their faces.
+
+The captain came hurrying up.
+
+"What is it? What's the matter?" he demanded.
+
+"Somebody fell overboard," declared Radwig; "we heard a splash and
+hastened here at once to cut loose a life belt."
+
+"Lower a boat at once," commanded the captain; "slow down the engines."
+
+The petty officer to whom the command had been given, hurried off at top
+speed to the bridge while the captain asked more questions of Radwig and
+his companion. But they could tell nothing more definite than that they
+had heard a splash and a cry and that was all. They had not seen who was
+the victim of the accident.
+
+The captain decided to call a roll of passengers and crew at once. While
+the boat was lowered, and was rowed to and fro, on the dark waters, this
+work went on. When it was over, there was only one person on board found
+to be missing. This was, of course, Jack Ready. The cunning of Radwig
+had evolved this clever plan to obviate the search that would be surely
+made on the ship for the imprisoned young wireless lad when his absence
+from duty was discovered. If the lad was believed to be drowned, of
+course, no effort would be made to find him on board and he and Schultz
+would be safe from the results of their rascality. It was a clever
+though simple scheme and it worked to perfection, for after an hour of
+investigation the captain was forced to conclude that Jack had, in some
+inexplicable manner, fallen overboard and had perished.
+
+But there was one person on board who did not accept this theory, and
+that was Bill Raynor. By no figuring could he bring himself to believe
+that Jack had fallen into the sea. In the first place, the rail was
+almost breast high, and in the second, Jack was too good a sailor to
+have lost his head and toppled from the ship.
+
+"I am convinced he'll turn up," he told Mullen in the wireless room.
+
+"Yes, but a thorough search was made for him without result," objected
+the other.
+
+"Never mind, something seems to tell me that he is all right," protested
+Bill.
+
+"I'm afraid you are deluding yourself," said Mullen, shaking his head.
+"When he fell overboard----"
+
+"You mean _if_ he fell overboard," interrupted Bill.
+
+"Why, you surely don't doubt that!" exclaimed Mullen; "a splash is heard
+and following that a canvass of the ship shows that Jack Ready is
+missing. If he wasn't drowned, where is he?"
+
+"I admit that it sounds like a poser," said Bill. "See here, I'm not
+absolutely certain that he did go overboard at all."
+
+"What?" Mullen stared at Raynor as if he thought he had suddenly been
+bereft of his senses.
+
+"I mean what I say," repeated Bill slowly. "I'm not sure that he did go
+overboard."
+
+"In that case he must be on board the ship."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"But why should he be hiding?"
+
+"He's not hiding."
+
+"Then why doesn't he show up?"
+
+"Because he's been hidden," replied Bill.
+
+"Oh, that's too fantastic an idea," cried Mullen.
+
+"I know it sounds wild--almost crazy, in fact, but I simply cannot help
+feeling it."
+
+"I wish I could think the same way," said Mullen, and the tone of his
+voice left no room to doubt that he meant what he said.
+
+In the meantime, how was it with Jack? Confined in the stuffy cabin,
+lighted only by the smoky lamp, his head ached intolerably from the
+cruel blow that had been dealt him. In fact, it was not till the
+following morning that he felt himself again.
+
+Neither of the men who had made him a prisoner came near the cabin in
+which he was confined, and although he tried shouting for aid till his
+throat was sore, nobody appeared to hear him. The boy began to be
+seriously alarmed over his predicament.
+
+Radwig had told him in so many words, that neither he nor Schultz
+intended to return to the cabin. The water and bread left him would not
+suffice for more than a few hours. By the time the cabin was entered by
+some employee of the ship, it was entirely probable that the aid would
+come too late. Luckily for him, his mental anguish was not increased by
+knowledge of the story of his death by drowning that had circulated
+through the ship. Had he known of this, it is likely that, plucky as the
+lad was, he would have given way entirely to despair.
+
+The cabin was an inside one, so that there was no porthole through which
+he could project his head and call for aid. Examination of the small
+chamber, even to the length of pulling up the carpet, showed that there
+was no means of escape short of forcing open the door and that Jack,
+strong as he was, was unable to accomplish, although he wore out his
+muscles trying it.
+
+The hours passed by with dragging feet until it seemed to the boy that
+he must have been in the bolted cabin for years instead of hours. The
+lamp guttered and went out, leaving him plunged in pitchy darkness. It
+was the last straw. Jack flung himself on the bunk and buried his head
+in his hands. How long he lay thus he did not know, but he was aroused
+and his heart set suddenly in a wild flutter by the sound of approaching
+footsteps and voices.
+
+He shouted aloud:
+
+"Help, for heaven's sake, help!"
+
+Then he sat silent, hardly daring to believe that there was a
+possibility of his rescue. More probably the voices and footsteps were
+those of Radwig and his rascally accomplice.
+
+In an agony of apprehension, Jack sat in the darkness waiting for the
+answer to his cry for aid.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+                       A RASCAL BROUGHT TO BOOK.
+
+
+We must now go back to an occurrence that happened earlier in the
+evening. The ship had finally received orders to dock at Southampton and
+was proceeding at a fast clip up the Channel when the telephone in the
+wireless room rang and a voice inquired for Bill Raynor. Summoned to the
+wire by Mullen, Bill, who had just entered the station after a miserable
+day of anxiety for Jack, replied and found that he had been called by
+the ship's surgeon, Dr. Moore.
+
+"There has been an accident," said the doctor; "one of the men has been
+badly injured. He says he wants to see you without delay."
+
+"But I know none of the crew," said Bill.
+
+"This man evidently knows you, however," returned the doctor, "and I
+wish you would come as soon as possible. He appears to be worrying over
+something and says he cannot rest till he has seen you."
+
+Greatly mystified, Bill obeyed the summons. On entering the doctor's
+cabin he saw, stretched on the lower bunk, and swathed in bandages, the
+figure of a man who turned a pair of sunken eyes on him.
+
+"One of the stewards," whispered the doctor. "Poor fellow. Badly scalded
+in the galley."
+
+He turned to the sufferer.
+
+"This is Mr. Raynor, whom you wanted to see," he said.
+
+"Let him come here," said the man feebly.
+
+Bill approached the man's side.
+
+"What can I do for you?" he asked.
+
+"I want to ease my conscience of a great burden. Bend low so that you
+can hear me. It hurts when I talk loud."
+
+Bill bent over the pitiable, bandaged form.
+
+"What do you want to tell me?" he said.
+
+"That your friend, Mr. Ready, is a prisoner on this steamer," was the
+reply that brought an exclamation of amazement from Bill.
+
+He was half-inclined to believe the man was delirious for an instant,
+but a moment later revised this opinion.
+
+"How do you know this?" he asked, when he had recovered from his
+astonishment.
+
+"I helped the plotters who put him there," moaned the man. "They were
+Germans, like myself, and they told me that if he was not shut up he
+would betray them to the English authorities as soon as the ship docked.
+They gave me money and I let them have the key to a cabin far in the
+stern of the vessel. They forged a note to him and trapped him when, in
+answer to it, I led him to where they were waiting."
+
+"And he is there now?" cried Bill.
+
+The man nodded slowly.
+
+"So far as I know. They had screwed bolts on the door."
+
+"He was not hurt?" demanded Bill.
+
+"Not seriously; but they struck him on the head."
+
+"The brutes," cried Bill.
+
+"You know who they were, then?"
+
+"I can guess--a man named Radwig and another named Schultz."
+
+The bandaged man nodded again.
+
+"You have named them correctly."
+
+"Doctor!" exclaimed Bill, "you have heard what this man has said. Can
+you leave him long enough to go with me to Captain Jameson?"
+
+"Gladly, my boy. But of all extraordinary tales----"
+
+"It is true, upon my word of honor," groaned the injured man. "The
+number of the cabin is 14. The chief steward has the keys. I stole them
+from his desk to open the stateroom and placed them back again without
+his knowledge."
+
+"And just to think," muttered Bill, as he and the doctor hastened from
+the injured man's side, "that if it had not been for that accident we'd
+never have known a thing about poor old Jack's plight till too late.
+After all, that feeling I had was correct."
+
+Captain Jameson summoned the chief steward as soon as he had heard
+Bill's story and together the commander, and the others, hastened
+through the maze of corridors leading to stateroom 14. Theirs were the
+voices the boy had heard, and in ten minutes' time he was wringing
+Bill's hand and telling, to an indignant group, the story of Radwig's
+outrage.
+
+The captain's indignation knew no bounds.
+
+"I'll have those rascals in irons before we drop anchor!" he exclaimed.
+"We are nearing Southampton now and if that man had not met with his
+accident they might have landed and escaped scot free."
+
+Jack was weakened by his trying experience, but he was not too exhausted
+not to be able to accompany the officer to Radwig's cabin. A knock on
+the door brought an immediate answer:
+
+"Come in."
+
+"Keep back," whispered the captain to Jack, "I want to see how far these
+rascals will incriminate themselves."
+
+Accordingly, Jack and the others kept out of sight as the door was
+opened and Captain Jameson stepped inside, but as the portal was left
+ajar, they could hear what went on within.
+
+"You know my friend, Mr. Ewing," said Radwig, in oily tones, indicating
+Schultz, who, it will be recalled, had adopted that alias, and who was
+seated in Radwig's cabin engaged over a valise full of papers.
+
+The captain bowed his acknowledgment of the introduction.
+
+"And to what am I to attribute the honor of this visit?" said Radwig.
+"Possibly something connected with the formalities of landing? I am
+informed we shall be in harbor in a short time now."
+
+"That is correct," said the captain bruskly, "and we shall land minus
+one of the ship's company."
+
+"You mean poor young Ready, the wireless operator," said Radwig. "It was
+too bad about that unfortunate lad. If my friend and myself had been a
+few seconds earlier we might have saved him before he went overboard."
+
+"Well, of all the precious hypocrites," gasped Bill under his breath.
+
+"He takes the grand trophy," breathed Jack, who had been told of the
+cleverly arranged story of his death that had been circulated.
+
+"There is not a question but that he is drowned, I'm afraid," came from
+Schultz the next minute. Then was heard the captain's voice.
+
+"Why, yes, gentlemen, there is," he said; "in fact, there is every
+question for _here he is_!"
+
+As if he had been an actor answering his "cue," Jack stepped into the
+lighted doorway. At the sight of him, the two miscreants shrank back as
+if they had seen a ghost.
+
+"Oh, I'm real enough, Messrs. Radwig and Schultz," smiled Jack, as the
+others crowded in behind him.
+
+"And it will be my duty to hand you both over to the British
+authorities," snapped the captain to the speechless pair.
+
+Radwig made a sudden dart for the valise full of documents. His move was
+so unexpected that before they could stop him he had hurled it out
+through the open porthole. Then, with a snarl of rage, he flung himself
+at Jack. But the captain's erect figure interposed.
+
+"Stand where you are," he ordered, and Radwig found himself looking into
+the muzzle of a revolver.
+
+"Hold out your hands," he ordered and cringing, the two miscreants
+obeyed.
+
+"Jones," he added, addressing the chief steward, "oblige me by slipping
+those handcuffs on the men."
+
+The click of the steel bracelets appeared to arouse Radwig to speech.
+
+"You--you--young whelp," he shouted, shaking his manacled fists at Jack.
+"Whatever may be my fate, I'll remember you and see that you are
+attended to if it takes every penny and every resource I have."
+
+"Violence won't do you any good," commented the captain quietly, "and if
+I know anything of the English law you are apt to spend quite some time
+in Great Britain. Jones, march the prisoners to the smoking room and
+detain them there till the ship docks."
+
+Sullenly, the two prisoners shuffled out of the cabin and were marched
+past wondering passengers to their place of detention. Three hours
+later, when the ship docked, the boys saw them being taken ashore by
+British officials. A thorough ransacking of their cabin had failed to
+reveal any incriminating documents, although the valise which Radwig had
+hurled out of the porthole undoubtedly had contained such papers.
+
+At Southampton they learned that the _St. Mark_ was likely to be tied up
+for some time. Rumors of mines and torpedoes made the owners unwilling
+to risk her loss. The two lads, therefore, left the vessel, and
+proceeded to London, where their instructions were to visit agents of
+the line and learn if anything had been heard of Tom Jukes. They found
+the city thronged with marching soldiers and territorials, while
+everywhere proclamations calling on the men of England to enlist were
+posted. Otherwise, however, everything appeared to be going on as if
+there were no war.
+
+Inquiry at the agents resulted in a meagre clue to the whereabouts of
+the lad of whom they were in search. He had wired for funds from
+Malines, a Belgian town, a few days before war was declared and the
+Germans invaded Belgium. Since then nothing had been heard of him.
+
+The magnitude of their task appeared greater than ever to the two lads
+now that they had actually started the work. But Jack was not the sort
+of lad to give up at the first difficulty.
+
+"We'll go to Belgium," he announced, but right here a stumbling block
+appeared.
+
+There were no longer regular steamers running to Belgian ports, and the
+small and infrequent craft that did venture had been warned by the
+Admiralty that the North Sea was thickly sown with mines. It was a
+journey full of peril but, nothing daunted, Jack and Bill journeyed to
+Grimsby, a town on the east coast, where they were told they might be
+able to engage passage on a trawler, provided they could find a captain
+adventurous enough to take them across.
+
+All this took up valuable time, for in the confusion and turmoil of war
+time, business was harder to transact than in normal times. Two days
+were consumed in London, but on the evening of the second they started
+for Grimsby. As they took their seats in the train, a newsboy came along
+shouting "War Extras." They bought some of his papers and settled back
+to read them.
+
+"Well, here's an encouraging item," said Bill ironically, as the train
+moved out. He pointed to a despatch headed:
+
+"Trawler destroyed by mines in the North Sea."
+
+"We'll have to take our chances," decided Jack, "but, hullo--what's
+this?" he exclaimed suddenly; "listen here, Bill."
+
+He read excitedly from his paper:
+
+"The two prisoners arrested as German military agents on the arrival of
+the American liner _St. Mark_ at Southampton two days ago have, in some
+mysterious manner, escaped. Four of their guards are under arrest. It is
+hinted that bribery was used to effect the Germans' liberty."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+
+                           THE "BARLEY RIG."
+
+
+It was with Captain Hoeseason of the trawler _Barley Rig_ that the boys
+finally succeeded in striking a bargain to land them in Antwerp. The
+captain of the craft, who was also her owner, was a giant of a man, more
+than six feet tall in his great sea boots and dressed in rough
+fisherman's garb. The boys found him in a small, waterfront inn, with a
+thatched roof and red window curtains which bore the sign of the Magpie
+and Shark, apparently, in the owner's estimation, a happy combination of
+land and sea.
+
+Captain Hoeseason declared that he knew the North Sea like a book and
+that there would be no danger of encountering mines if they sailed with
+him. His craft would be ready at the long fish dock at six the next
+morning, he declared, and at that hour the boys presented themselves.
+
+The crew of the _Barley Rig_ were a rough, weather-beaten looking set of
+men, and almost immediately, upon the boy's arrival, they set to work,
+under the hoarsely bawled orders of Captain Hoeseason, setting the
+fisher craft's great red sails. At last all was ready. Under a brisk
+breeze, that momentarily grew stronger, the trawler slipped out to sea.
+
+"They're a rough-looking lot on this craft," observed Jack to Bill, as
+the _Barley Rig_ began to toss about in a way that would have been
+trying to less experienced sailors.
+
+"Yes, I'm glad you've got that money in your money-belt," said Bill,
+referring to the American gold they carried. "They have none of them
+seen it, thank goodness, or we might have cause to worry."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," declared Jack. "They may be honest enough for all
+their rough looks. I imagine that the North Sea fishery doesn't tend to
+make men very refined looking."
+
+"At all events it hasn't had that effect on this crew," laughed Bill.
+
+At noon they were summoned, by the cook's beating on a tin pan, to a
+dinner of fried fish and boiled potatoes. The little cabin where they
+ate it reeked of the fish that for years had formed the _Barley Rig's_
+cargo, and was lighted, for it had no openings but the companionway
+above, by a swinging, smoking lamp of what was known among the fishermen
+as the "pot" variety. But it would have taken more than this to dull the
+keen edges of the boys' appetites, whet to razor sharpness by the
+freshening wind.
+
+The cook, an old, bent man, with a wild blue eye, stood by his rusty
+stove watching as they devoured what was set before them. Overhead they
+could hear the trample of feet and the occasional impact of a big wave
+as it broke in spray over the bow.
+
+"It's getting rougher," remarked Jack.
+
+"Seems to be," agreed Bill; "this is a small boat to be out in a storm."
+
+"They say that the trawlers are fine sea boats," declared Jack.
+
+There was no doubt that it was getting rougher. By mid-afternoon the
+green seas with breaking, white tops, were leaping mountainously under a
+scudding gray sky. Still, the captain of the _Barley Rig_ did not take
+in a reef of his sails. He stood beside the tiller, which was gripped by
+a young giant of a fisher in jersey and boots, giving an occasional
+order and puffing vigorously at his stubby clay pipe.
+
+Beside an occasional gruff word, Captain Hoeseason did not have much to
+say to his passengers, but they noticed that his eyes followed them
+constantly.
+
+"I can't shake off an idea that the fellow has some mischief in mind,"
+declared Bill, after he had noticed the furtive scrutiny the skipper of
+the _Barley Rig_ was bestowing on them.
+
+"Nonsense," declared Jack. "I made a few inquiries about him and he
+appears to bear a good character. Anyhow, we are going among dangers
+beside which this trip won't appear as anything, so don't get nervous at
+the start off."
+
+As dusk began to settle down, it showed a wild scene. The trawler
+appeared to be alone on the troubled ocean; at least, no other craft was
+within sight. The wind howled dismally through the cordage, and the
+reefed sails tore at their ropes as if they would part at any moment.
+
+"Bad weather, Captain," said Jack, as he and Bill stood bracing
+themselves against a back stay.
+
+"Oh, aye," rejoined the captain, taking out his pipe like a stopper to
+permit himself speech, "but she'll be worse afore she gits better."
+
+He was right. By nightfall, it was blowing a gale, and the big seas were
+breaking over the _Barley Rig_, drenching everything. Water fell in
+cataracts down the cabin companionway every time the hatch was opened.
+Cooking was impossible, and the boys made their supper on hard ship
+biscuit and water while a small flood washed about their feet.
+
+"This is awful, Jack," remarked Bill after a lurch that had sent him
+sliding across the cabin.
+
+"Cheer up, old fellow, it might be worse," retorted Jack cheerily.
+
+Bill gave a groan.
+
+"I don't see how it could be, unless we go to the bottom," Bill grumbled
+dismally. "You don't think there's any danger of that, Jack, do you?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. This craft has weathered many a storm as bad or worse
+than this, I don't doubt," declared Jack stoutly, although the laboring
+of the storm-stricken _Barley Rig_ was beginning to get on his nerves.
+
+Not long after the completion of their scanty meal, the captain came
+below and snatched a bite. He was dripping from head to foot and
+reported the gale as increasing in violence.
+
+"My advice to you younkers is to turn in," he said. "You can have my
+bunk--that one yonder. I'll be on deck all night and so will 'tother
+lads."
+
+The bunk in question was not much more than a shelf with some very
+dubious-looking blankets piled untidily on it. But the boys were tired,
+and so they clambered up and composed themselves to rest with the deck
+within a foot of their faces, so low was the cabin ceiling.
+
+For a time sleep was impossible. The buffeting blows that the big waves
+struck the laboring trawler made her shake and creak as if she would go
+to pieces at any moment. On deck the heavy trampling of sea boots kept
+up without intermission. The smoky lamp swung drearily. The motion grew
+so violent at times that they were almost pitched out of the bunk. In
+some corner into which he had dragged himself, they could hear the old
+cook snoring and mumbling in his sleep.
+
+But at last, despite all this, tired nature asserted herself and they
+dozed off, while outside, the storm howled and shrieked like a furious
+and sentient creature aroused to frenzy and extermination.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX.
+
+                            THE HIDDEN MINE.
+
+
+About midnight, Jack awakened with a start and a vague feeling that all
+was not well. The _Barley Rig_ was still tossing violently and for a few
+moments after he opened his eyes, the lad who had slept on the outside
+of the bunk felt dazed.
+
+Then he became aware that Captain Hoeseason was standing near to him,
+feeling about under the mattress.
+
+"He's trying to rob us," thought Jack. "What shall I do?"
+
+The thought flashed across him that he had no weapon, and that Hoeseason
+was probably armed. He was undecided whether to feign sleep or not, for
+the captain of the _Barley Rig_ was apparently not yet aware that the
+boy was awake, when he was saved the trouble of making a decision.
+
+He was grasped roughly by the shoulder and violently shaken. The giant
+captain, with an evil look in his eyes, stood above him, a huge seaman's
+knife glimmering in his hand under the light of the guttering lamp.
+
+"Now, younker," he said, in his hoarse tones, with a ferocious look, "I
+ain't goin' ter beat about the bush. I've come after that money of
+yourn."
+
+"What money?" demanded Jack, deeming it wisest to "spar for time," and
+see if he could not devise some way out of the dilemma.
+
+"Now, don't play foxey, Mister Yankee kid," snarled the huge fisherman;
+"you know as well as I do. The money in that belt I heard you talking to
+your chum about."
+
+"I know nothing about it," declared Jack. "When I paid you I gave you
+almost all the money I had. I am looking to get fresh funds in Antwerp."
+
+The man tightened his grip on the boy's shoulder and fairly yanked him
+out of the bunk. He placed his knife between his teeth and compelling
+Jack to hold his arms above his head he searched him. Jack's heart sank.
+He knew the money belt was in the bunk under the pillow. Beyond doubt
+this desperate ruffian would search the sleeping place before very long
+and discover its hiding place.
+
+"So it ain't on you," snarled Hoeseason, when he had finished his
+search, "but I'll bet a guinea it ain't far away. Stand where you are
+and don't move as you value your life while I overhaul the bunk."
+
+A moment later an exclamation of savage delight burst from his bearded
+lips.
+
+"Ah! Here it is. See, younker, I was bound to find it and---- What
+the----?"
+
+As the giant of a man stood half-facing him, Jack gathered himself for a
+crouching leap. He sprang straight at the man's legs and, catching him
+entirely by surprise, brought him to the floor with a crash that could
+be heard above the raging of the storm.
+
+[Illustration: Jack gathered himself for a crouching leap and sprang
+straight at the man's legs.--Page 156]
+
+"Bill! Bill!" he shouted.
+
+There was a stir in the bunk above.
+
+"Help me, quick. He'll be too much for me alone."
+
+"What in the world, Jack Ready----?"
+
+"Don't ask questions. Come, quick!"
+
+Bill clambered out of his bunk with alacrity as soon as he saw what was
+going forward. Hoeseason, who had been, luckily for Jack, slightly
+stunned by the fall, lay still. In his fall the knife had flown from his
+hand and lay half-way across the cabin.
+
+"The knife, Bill," panted Jack, "the knife before he comes to. I dare
+not take chances with him."
+
+Bill quickly fetched the weapon.
+
+"So he did try to rob us after all," he said. "The precious ruffian, I
+didn't like his looks from the start."
+
+"Never mind about that now, Bill, but hustle and get some rope. We must
+tie him, for when he comes out of this he'll be a match for the two of
+us."
+
+There were plenty of odd bits of rope lying about the cabin on lockers
+that ran down one side of it. Bill procured several lengths, and in a
+few moments, the semi-conscious giant was bound hand and foot.
+
+In the meantime, Jack fastened the money belt round his waist once more.
+
+"I wish we had pistols," he said, as they stood watching the slow return
+of consciousness to the bound captain's face.
+
+"Why, this fellow is harmless now," rejoined Bill.
+
+"Yes, but you have forgotten the rest of the crew, haven't you?"
+
+"Great Scott, I had for a moment. Do you think they are in league with
+him?"
+
+"I don't know, but they are bound to find out his plight sooner or later
+and we shall have to reckon with them. We're in a tight place, Bill."
+
+Captain Hoeseason began to stir. He rolled his eyes uneasily, and the
+next moment discovered that he was tied fast.
+
+"You young imps," he roared in stentorian tones, "cut me loose
+instantly, or when I do get free I'll have such a vengeance on you as
+will----"
+
+"It won't do you any good to rave like that, captain," declared Jack,
+"and, moreover, we----"
+
+The sentence was never finished. The fabric of the _Barley Rig_ seemed
+to heave suddenly upwards and then rush apart. There was a burst of
+blinding flame, and a report that drove the ear drums in. The next
+instant, as it seemed to them, there was an inrush of water on the tide
+of which the boys were swept out into the darkness of the raging seas.
+
+The trawler vanished almost as quickly as the terrific flash of flame
+from the mine that she had struck, and which had ended her career for
+all time.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+
+                             THE NORTH SEA.
+
+
+The moments that followed were the most terrible that Jack had ever
+known in his adventurous life at sea. Cast adrift in the dark night and
+wild sea, he was at first completely bewildered. The very suddenness
+with which the end of the _Barley Rig_ had come had benumbed him.
+
+But ere long, the blind instinct of life asserted itself. He struck out,
+hoping to find some wreckage with which to sustain himself, for in that
+rolling, breaking sea, he could not have hoped to remain afloat long
+without some support.
+
+Wave after wave swept over the bravely battling lad, half choking him in
+spite of the fact that he was an experienced and powerful swimmer.
+
+"Great Scott!" he thought with dismay. "If I can't find some support to
+cling to before long, I'm a goner. This is the worst ever."
+
+In addition to the difficulty of fighting the baffling waves, Jack now
+began to experience a fresh obstacle to keeping afloat. The weight of
+the heavy money belt at his waist seemed to be drawing him remorselessly
+down toward the depths.
+
+At first, he had difficulty in accounting for the leaden feeling that
+possessed him after being a short time in the water. But suddenly he
+recalled the money belt with its weight of gold.
+
+"I'll stick it out as long as I can," resolved the boy, "and then
+unfasten the buckle and let the money sink."
+
+A section of wreckage came within his grasp at that moment. He made a
+wild grab for it, but a great wave swept it beyond his reach. He began
+to feel numb and chilled and utterly incapable of battling for his life
+much longer. An odd, reckless feeling of indifference came over him. His
+movements became automatic, no longer consciously directed.
+
+Suddenly he recollected the money belt that dragged at his body like a
+leaden weight. He fumbled with the buckle with one hand while he trod
+water. But the strap proved obdurate. His chilled fingers could not undo
+it.
+
+"It is the end," murmured the exhausted boy. "I'm all in, and can't keep
+up the fight any longer."
+
+A strange, dreamy sort of feeling crept over him. He felt the water
+closing over his head. Then, suddenly he seemed to be dragged skyward.
+His senses swam and he knew nothing more. When he opened his eyes, it
+was daylight. He lay in the bottom of a small boat that was being tossed
+about like a chip on the rough sea which, although it had moderated to
+some extent, was still running high.
+
+"Where on earth am I and what has happened?" he wondered in the first
+few seconds of returning consciousness. "I remember that terrible
+feeling that all was over, that I was drowning and----"
+
+"Thank goodness you're all right again, old fellow."
+
+"Bill!" cried the young wireless man wildly, as he recognized the voice,
+"is that really you or your ghost? Am I dreaming or drowned?"
+
+"Neither, I hope," rejoined Bill, helping his chum to raise himself in
+the bottom of the boat, "but you came mighty near being the latter if I
+hadn't providentially come within reach of you just in time."
+
+"Thank heaven you did," replied Jack fervently, "but tell me, how did it
+all happen? I don't understand. The last I can recollect is going under
+and thinking that all was over."
+
+"Which must have been just about the time I grabbed you by the hair and
+got you on board somehow," continued Bill. "I don't know how I did it,
+but I succeeded."
+
+"But how did you come to be in the boat?" Jack wanted to know.
+
+"Well, you see when we were both swept out of that cabin--I guess the
+trawler must have been broken in half by the explosion,--when we were
+both swept out, I didn't know what was happening and just struck out
+blindly."
+
+"Same here," observed Jack. "I was looking for a bit of wreckage to
+float on, but none came my way."
+
+"I don't know, though I guess I answer that description," chuckled Bill,
+regarding himself with critical eyes. He was only half dressed, and the
+few garments he had on, for it will be recalled that neither of the boys
+had had time to dress, had been almost ripped from him. Nor was Jack in
+any better plight.
+
+"Anyhow," went on Bill, "the first thing I struck was this boat. It's
+the small one that hung astern of the trawler. The explosion, which
+struck about midships, I guess, hadn't harmed it and it must have torn
+loose from its fastenings when the _Barley Rig_ sank. I clambered into
+it and found it was half full of water. I managed, with an old tin
+bucket, which luckily, hadn't been washed overboard, to bale it to some
+extent, and--and then I heard you yell----"
+
+"I don't remember crying out," interrupted Jack.
+
+"Well, anyhow, you gave a good husky yowl and I glimpsed your head just
+alongside. I hauled you aboard and laid you in the bottom of the boat
+but I had not the least idea that it was you that I had the good fortune
+to rescue till daylight. You can imagine how glad I was."
+
+"But what are we going to do now? Have we oars?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Water?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor food?"
+
+Bill shook his head.
+
+"If we're not sighted and picked up we'll be in a bad fix, old fellow."
+
+"I'm afraid so. I guess we're the sole survivors."
+
+"Yes, poor fellows. One can't help feeling sorry even for that rascal
+Hoeseason."
+
+The boat, a small, not over tight ship's yawl, swung on the top of a
+high wave. The boys eagerly took advantage of this to gaze out over the
+crests of the tossing water-mountains.
+
+But the heaving, steel-gray sea was vacant of life. All they could see
+was a vast expanse of mighty rollers, desolate and cold under a leaden
+sky. They exchanged blank looks.
+
+"Bill, old fellow, we're up against it," came from Jack.
+
+"Well, I've known times when things looked considerably brighter,"
+admitted Bill dolefully.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII.
+
+                           A NIGHT OF ALARMS.
+
+
+Castaways on the open sea in a boat without water, food or oars!
+
+It was a situation to frighten the bravest. To add to the peril of the
+boys' position, they had too appalling evidence of the fact that the
+North Sea was strewn with floating mines which, even the impact of a
+small craft, like the one in which they were drifting at the mercy of
+the winds and waves, would serve to detonate.
+
+Small wonder, then, that after a while conversation grew more and more
+desultory until at length they each sat silent, gloomily surveying their
+predicament. Fortunately, there was no hot sun to beat down on them and
+aggravate the thirst both were already beginning to feel. But even with
+cool weather they could not hope to fight off the agonies of thirst for
+long. Food, so far, was a secondary consideration.
+
+Then, too, the frail nature of their craft gave them cause for anxiety.
+The gale showed as yet no signs of breaking up. From time to time the
+ragged tops of great waves were ripped off by the fury of the wind,
+deluging the boat in spray. It was necessary to keep bailing constantly
+if they hoped to remain afloat.
+
+The constant buffeting to which they were subjected was dizzying and
+nauseating. Both lads ached in every limb. In a way they were glad to
+have the exercise afforded by bailing, for it went a long way to keeping
+their minds employed and their limbs from stiffening in the cramped, wet
+boat.
+
+Yet their nerves showed no outward sign of a breakdown. From time to
+time they exchanged sentences intended to be cheerful; but it was a
+ghastly sort of merriment of which they soon tired. Thus the hours wore
+away and darkness set in with a slight dimunition of the violence of the
+wind and signs, by the clearing of the sky, that the break of the gale
+was at hand.
+
+But they dared not sleep through the hours of darkness, except in hasty
+snatches. Had the bailing pail been left alone for even an hour, the
+boat inevitably would have been swamped. By midnight, though, the sea
+was much smoother. Their dizzied heads, racked by the incessant tossing,
+became clearer. They looked about them. Suddenly Jack gave a shout.
+
+"Look! Look yonder!"
+
+A short distance off, and apparently bearing down on them, were the red
+and green sidelights and the bright white mast-head signal of a steamer!
+
+Bill broke into a shout.
+
+"Hurray, Jack, we're saved!"
+
+"Not so fast, Bill. They may not see us in the dark."
+
+"That's so. I'd give a million dollars, if I had it, for a box of
+matches and some good dry stuff to burn for a signal."
+
+"Not having those things, there's no use worrying about them," returned
+Jack quietly, "but say, Bill, see here."
+
+His voice was anxious. He gazed nervously at the approaching lights.
+
+"That steamer's coming right down on us. We can see both her
+sidelights."
+
+"Well, so much the better. She's bound to see us."
+
+"Haven't you thought of another possibility?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Of a great danger?"
+
+"I don't understand you."
+
+"She's headed straight for us and we can't get out of the way. If she
+doesn't change her course, it will be a miracle if she doesn't run us
+down."
+
+"I hadn't thought of that," said Bill in sobered tones. "What can we
+do?"
+
+"Nothing but to sit tight and trust to luck."
+
+Both lads now sat with anxious eyes fixed on the approaching lights.
+Nearer and nearer they came, traveling fast.
+
+"Shout, Bill, shout with all your might," enjoined Jack.
+
+They began yelling at the top of their lungs. But those inexorable
+lights, like the eyes of some savage monster, still bore down menacingly
+on them. Already, in anticipation, they felt the impact of the sharp
+bow, the crash of smashed timbers and the suction of the propellers
+drawing them down to death.
+
+"They don't hear us," said Jack. "If the lookout doesn't sight us, we're
+lost."
+
+The steamer was very close now. By straining their eyes they thought
+they could make out the dark outlines of her hull and spars against the
+clearing sky. Bill hid his face in his hands. He could not bear to look
+at the Juggernaut of the seas advancing to crush them. Jack, with more
+fortitude, sat erect with a thousand thoughts whirring through his
+brain.
+
+The mighty bow loomed above the tiny chip of a boat, throwing off a
+great wave. The comber caught the light craft and flung it aside. What
+seemed like a black cliff, with here and there a gleaming light piercing
+its face, raced past them, and the boat, with two white-faced, shaken
+boys in it, was left in the wake of the fast-moving steamer, safe, but
+being madly tossed about by the wash of her propellers. The danger had
+passed, almost by a hand's breadth, but it was some time before they
+were sufficiently masters of themselves to discuss their escape.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+                         MEETING AN OLD FRIEND.
+
+
+Morning broke on a comparatively smooth sea, and two utterly exhausted,
+sunken-cheeked lads, weak from exposure and lack of nourishment.
+
+"This thing has got to end one way or another before long," declared
+Bill, his voice coming in a sort of croak from his parched throat.
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid we can't stick it out much longer, Bill," assented Jack
+languidly.
+
+"I'm beginning to see things," muttered Bill; "black objects dancing
+about in the sun. Over there on the horizon, for instance, I can see a
+dark cloud that looks like a tower. I know it isn't there, of course,
+but----"
+
+"But, Bill, by hookey, it is!" cried Jack.
+
+"What, are you going crazy, too?"
+
+"That's not a tower, but a steamer's smoke, Bill," declared Jack, after
+prolonged scrutiny. In a few minutes Bill became convinced that his chum
+was right.
+
+"But will she pass near enough to see us?"
+
+It was a question upon which much, indeed, their very existence, might
+depend.
+
+On came the cloud of smoke, and now they could see the funnel and then
+the hull, of the steamer that was making it.
+
+"Bill, I--I believe she'll pass near us."
+
+Jack's voice trembled and his eyes shone as if he were a victim of
+fever. Bill did not answer, but he clutched the gunwale with hands that
+shook, and fixed his gaze on the oncoming vessel. Neither boy dared to
+speak, but both of them felt that if the steamer did not sight them, it
+would be more than they could bear.
+
+They stood up in the boat when they thought the craft was near enough to
+see and waved frantically, at the risk of upsetting the cranky little
+affair.
+
+"Bill, she's changing her course," came from Jack's parched and fevered
+lips.
+
+"I believe she is. Yes, see there!"
+
+Three white puffs of steam burst from the ship's whistle. Then came the
+booming sound of her siren thrice repeated. The sweetest music produced
+by the finest musicians of both hemispheres could not have sounded as
+good to the boys at that moment as did the harsh roar of the steam
+whistle that showed them they had been sighted and that rescue was at
+hand. From the steamer's stern flag-staff fluttered the Dutch ensign,
+proclaiming that she was a ship of a neutral power.
+
+This was an additional cause of congratulation to the boys, for had they
+been picked up by a craft flying a belligerent flag, they might have
+become involved in fresh difficulties. In half an hour the steamer, a
+small freighter, was lying to not far off the drifting yawl, and a boat
+had been lowered and was rapidly pulled toward the castaways. In a short
+time they were on board, and after being refreshed and provided with
+clothes, were able to tell their stories to Captain Van der Hagueen, the
+stout, red-faced little captain to whom they owed their safety.
+
+The _Zuyder Zee_, the name of the little steamer, was bound, to the
+boys' great joy, for Antwerp. She carried salt fish and herrings from
+Scotland and scented her entire vicinity with the aroma of her cargo.
+But the boys, as Bill expressed it, would have thought "a limburger
+cheese ship a paradise" after all they had gone through.
+
+The next morning they steamed up the River Scheldt and came once more in
+sight of the towers and spires of the historic city which, it will be
+recalled, they had visited some time before on Jack's first voyage.
+Captain Van der Hagueen told them that after discharging his cargo he
+meant to lay up his ship, in which he was part owner, at Antwerp till
+the war was over. The risk of floating mines in the North Sea was too
+great to encounter, he declared.
+
+It was in the earlier days of the war and Antwerp, a city strongly
+fortified, had not been threatened, although every preparation was being
+made to receive the enemy if they did come. Barricades were being thrown
+up in the streets and the suburbs, and the thoroughfares were full of
+the queerly uniformed Belgian soldiers the boys had been so much amused
+at on their previous visit. Their amusement at Belgian soldiers had
+given way, by now, however, to admiration and respect for the sturdy
+little country of fighters that had managed to give a good account of
+itself against the most formidable army ever assembled.
+
+The boys decided to seek out their good friend M. La Farge, the Minister
+of Government Railroads, who, it will be recalled, they had served on
+their first visit, and whose appreciation in the form of two handsomely
+engraved and inscribed gold watches were at that moment in Jack's money
+belt, where he had luckily placed them for fear of robbery before they
+embarked on the _Barley Rig_. It was fortunate that he had done so,
+otherwise it is doubtful if they would have obtained access to his
+offices, where they found him overwhelmed with work. The sight of the
+watches, however, proved an "open sesame" to the Minister's presence,
+and the boys--who had in the meantime provided themselves with new
+outfits,--presently found themselves warmly shaking hands with their old
+friend who was unfeignedly glad to see them.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+                            THE SKY SLAYER.
+
+
+After the first greetings were over, Jack plunged into an explanation of
+their presence in Belgium in such stormy times. M. La Farge looked
+grave, but promised to do what he could through diplomatic and other
+sources to locate Tom Jukes.
+
+"If, as you say, he has been traveling in state in a large auto, he
+ought to be easy to locate," he assured them. "I will let you know what
+I have been able to discover to-morrow morning. Every auto entering the
+country is registered and its occupants kept track of. Rest assured I
+shall do my best for the two young friends to whom I can never be
+sufficiently grateful."
+
+Jack thanked him warmly for them both, and explained that while in
+London they had communicated with the American consuls in Paris and
+Berlin, but that nothing had been heard at either place of Tom Jukes
+being among the refugees beseiging the American representatives.
+
+"Possibly I shall have better success. At least, we must hope so," said
+M. La Farge. "Much of the telegraph system is still intact, fortunately.
+At least rest on my promise that I will do all I can."
+
+As they had already visited the American consulate in Antwerp, where
+they had obtained no news, the two boys found themselves without
+anything to do but kill time as best they could till the next day. As
+they had spent much of their time on the Dutch steamer in sleep, they
+did not feel like turning in early and so, at Jack's suggestion, they
+visited a theatre. But it was a gloomy manner of spending the evening,
+as it transpired. The inhabitants of Antwerp were more interested in the
+bulletin boards announcing the inroads of the German troops than in
+entertainments. There was an air of anxiety and depression abroad that
+could not help but be contagious, and oppressed by the general
+atmosphere, the boys decided before the end of the performance to return
+to their hotel.
+
+But Jack could not sleep. He lay awake tossing and turning for an hour
+or more. In the street he could hear the regular step and quick
+challenge of sentries. Occasionally, far off, came the sound of bugle
+calls.
+
+All at once he became aware of another sound. It was one that was
+strange to him. He could liken it to nothing but the droning buzz of a
+giant bumblebee. It was at first faint; hardly audible in fact, except
+to strained ears, but it rapidly grew in volume, filling the whole air
+with the steady vibrating buzz.
+
+The sound irritated Jack, sleepless as he was.
+
+"It sounds for all the world as if there was a big buzz saw or a
+threshing machine at work," he mused. "Where on earth does the racket
+come from?"
+
+He lay awake listening for a few moments longer. Then he got out of bed
+and tiptoed across the room where Bill lay snoring violently.
+
+The lad looked out of the window. The street and a public square lay far
+below him. Only a few lights shone on the thoroughfare. It appeared
+deserted but for the sentries marching up and down unceasingly.
+
+"Nothing there," said the boy to himself. "I guess I'll turn in again."
+
+The buzzing sound had grown fainter now. It was hardly audible in fact.
+But for some reason it lingered in Jack's mind. It was like half a dozen
+things he could think of and yet he could not recall ever having heard
+that precise sound before.
+
+At last he dozed off, and then sank into a dream in which it seemed to
+him that he was somewhere far out in the country lying under a shady
+tree contentedly chewing on a bit of grass and gazing up through the
+leafy branches at the bright sky. But suddenly everything clouded over.
+The landscape grew dark and sinister, and the leaves of the tree above
+him began to toss and sway in a harsh wind.
+
+In his dream, Jack arose and standing up looked about him. It appeared
+to him as if he was gazing down from a height over an immense
+battlefield. He could see the dust and smoke as cannon were wheeled into
+position and then the flashes of flame and the belching of fire from the
+rifle pits. Men were mowed down like ripe grain in long windrows.
+
+It was horrible but fascinating.
+
+Then, all at once, came again that strange buzzing sound. But now it
+seemed to have in it a menacing note. It was like a terrible voice. The
+boy shuddered as he heard it, harsh and inexorable, filling the air,
+which seemed to vibrate to the steady humming.
+
+It grew sharper and louder. Above all, the noise of the dream cannon and
+rifles, the boy could hear it. He awakened with a start, his heart
+beating rather wildly.
+
+"That was a kind of a nightmare," he said to himself. "Glad I woke up. I
+guess--what's that?"
+
+Again that humming sound filled the air as if a pulsing chord, strung at
+high tension, had been twanged.
+
+"It's outside!" exclaimed Jack, for the second time going to the window.
+
+"It's in the air!" he cried an instant later.
+
+He turned his face upward. High above the city, against the stars, he
+could trace the outline of a gigantic cigar-shaped body. It was moving
+slowly far above him.
+
+"An airship!" gasped the boy, and then the next instant:
+
+"A Zeppelin!"
+
+Something seemed to launch itself from the dark body of the immense
+aircraft and streak downward like a falling star. The next moment, from
+a part of the city some distance off, there was a brilliant flash of
+flame, and then an appalling report that shook the earth. But Jack had
+no eyes for this at the moment. His gaze was fixed on the Zeppelin.
+
+Having dealt destruction in one part of the city it was now making
+directly toward the hotel!
+
+The boy watched it with a horrible fascination that held him speechless.
+
+The death-dealing craft was destined to pass directly above the building
+that sheltered them and how many others. Craning his neck, Jack watched
+its flight above the sleeping city. Dark as death itself and, with no
+indication of its presence but the drone of its engines, the sky monster
+moved majestically toward him. It was then that Jack suddenly found his
+tongue as the death in the air approached till it was almost above his
+staring eyes.
+
+"Bill," he yelled, "Bill, wake up!"
+
+He shook his chum's shoulder violently.
+
+"Whazzermarrer?" inquired Bill sleepily.
+
+"Get up for your life. Fling on any old clothes. Let's get out of here
+quick."
+
+"What's up?" demanded Bill, wide awake now, and hastily pulling on some
+clothes, for he knew Jack would not have aroused him needlessly.
+
+"It's a Zeppelin, a giant German airship. She's blown up a piece some
+blocks away and now she's headed over here."
+
+At almost the same instant, a roar of artillery burst forth. The
+defenses of Antwerp had awakened and were concentrating their fire on
+the death-dealing monster of the sky. But as the first reports ripped
+the silence of the night, there came another and a mightier report. The
+hotel rocked to its foundations. A shower of plaster and debris crashed
+into the boys' room, half burying them.
+
+The sky slayer had struck again!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+                        IN THE GLARE OF FLAMES.
+
+
+For a fragment of time,--while a man might have counted ten,--there was
+absolute silence following the shattering report of the bomb. Then came
+a babel of cries, shouts and women's screams. Hastily throwing on
+whatever clothes came first, the two boys rushed out of the wrecked
+room.
+
+But they did not do this without difficulty, for a mass of fallen
+plaster and debris blocked the door. In the corridor, an electric light
+still burned, and the force of the explosion appeared to have spent
+itself at the end of the passage where the boys' room was situated.
+
+"Wha--what happened?" stammered Bill, as they gained the corridor.
+
+"It was a bomb, a bomb dropped from a Zeppelin," answered Jack, equally
+moved. "What a fiendish bit of business."
+
+"I only hope they don't drop any more," Bill cried, as they hurried to
+where the stairway should have been.
+
+But it was not there.
+
+A great section of it had been blown to kindling by the force of the
+explosion. It was at that moment that Jack became aware of an acrid,
+sharp smell very different from the reek of the lyddite with which the
+shell had been loaded. It was a few minutes before he realized what it
+was,--fire!
+
+He looked behind them. A red glare lighted up the corridor, and even as
+he gazed, a sheet of flame burst from a doorway further down the
+passage. Below them, there was bustle and shouting in plenty, but
+apparently they were the only guests quartered in that part of the
+hotel.
+
+Jack looked grave. The position they occupied was a very dangerous one.
+The gap in the stairway was wide and they were trapped with that chasm
+in front and the flames behind them.
+
+"What are we going to do?" gasped Bill, turning pale.
+
+"I don't know; we are in a bad fix, Bill," confessed Jack.
+"Perhaps,--hello!" he broke off, as the tiny figure of a pretty little
+girl emerged from a room which adjoined the one they had just vacated.
+
+The tot held in her arms a doll and her eyes were wide with dismay.
+
+"Oh, man, what has happened?" she gasped.
+
+"Something very terrible, little girl," answered Jack, "but are you
+alone?"
+
+"Oh, no, my mamma's in the room. She's sick, I think."
+
+"Great Scott," groaned Jack, "this is serious. It was bad enough before,
+but now----" He looked at Bill desperately.
+
+"We've got to get that woman out of there," said Bill.
+
+"Yes, but how?" cried Jack desperately. "There's no way of bridging that
+gap."
+
+"I've got a plan that might work," said Bill.
+
+"Are you going to save us?" asked the tot in a trembling voice.
+
+"Yes, dear. Don't be frightened. Stay here while we bring mamma to you."
+
+"Oh, I'm scared," wailed the child, but she obediently sat down on a
+chair to await the boys' return.
+
+Inside the room they found a handsome, middle-aged woman lying half
+dressed on the floor, in a faint. Apparently, she had risen and begun
+dressing hastily when the first shock of the bomb came, but the effort
+had been too much for her, and she had collapsed. The boys picked her up
+as gently as possible and tried to revive her, but their efforts met
+with no success.
+
+Outside, the glare and roar of the flames were increasing. There was no
+time to be lost.
+
+"There's only one thing to do," said Bill seriously.
+
+"And that is what? I'm stupid," confessed Jack.
+
+"We must make a rope of bed clothes and lower her and the child down."
+
+"Good. I believe we can get out of this."
+
+They hastily tore the clothes of the two beds in the room and made a
+long rope of them. When this had been done, they took a turn of their
+"rope" round the marble pillar at the head of the wrecked staircase. But
+then came a fresh difficulty. There was no one on the floor below,
+though they shouted to attract attention. Obviously someone would have
+to be there to catch the woman and untie her when she was lowered.
+
+"You go," said Jack. "I guess I'm strong enough to lower you."
+
+"And leave you here in danger of the flames?" protested Bill, for it was
+getting uncomfortably hot now, and the smoke was blinding.
+
+"I'll be all right, if we hurry," said Jack. "Go ahead, Bill, there's
+not a minute to be lost."
+
+"I know, but----"
+
+"Never mind any 'buts'--it's a matter of life and death."
+
+So Bill reluctantly looped the "rope" under his arms and then Jack
+lowered the young engineer to the next floor. This done, Jack had a hard
+task in front of him. He had to fasten the life-line round the woman and
+lift her to the edge of the gulf.
+
+This he accomplished by knotting the rope to the marble pillar, tying it
+securely at just such a length as would allow its unconscious burden to
+be suspended over the gap in the stairway. This was accomplished. She
+was lowered, and in a short time the woman was received by Bill, who
+released her from the line with all speed. Then came the little girl's
+turn. She was terrified at the idea, but at last Jack, with the loss of
+much valuable time, succeeded in persuading her to make the attempt.
+
+But the delay had made his position terribly dangerous. The fire was so
+intensely hot now that its breath scorched him. The smoke was so dense,
+too, that breathing was difficult.
+
+"I'll have a close shave of it," thought Jack, as he glanced behind him
+and prepared to lower the little girl.
+
+As before, the feat was successfully accomplished, and then came Jack's
+turn. As he slid nimbly down the rope that had done them such good
+service, the flames actually singed his garments. He was none too soon
+in reaching the lower floor, for he had hardly landed when the fire
+reached the pillar to which the line was secured and burned through its
+fabric.
+
+"Well, 'a miss is as good as a mile,'" said Jack, "but that's about as
+close as I want to come to being roasted alive."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+                           TWO YOUNG HEROES.
+
+
+The corridor was deserted, but a few lights burned dimly. No damage
+appeared to have been done there, and it was clear that the bomb had
+wrought havoc only on the top floor, which was the one occupied by the
+boys and those they had rescued.
+
+"I wonder if the elevator is running?" asked Bill.
+
+The lift was at the upper end of the passage and they carried the woman
+to it, but there was no response to their rings. Outside they could hear
+fire apparatus clanging wildly up and the confused roaring murmur of an
+immense crowd.
+
+In the distance, the guns of the forts boomed, filling the air with
+their sonorous thunder as they fired at the daring night raider of the
+enemy. With this sound was mingled the sharper crackle of light
+artillery and specially built "sky guns." But as they learned afterward,
+the perpetrator of destruction on the sleeping city escaped scot-free,
+to make subsequent attacks.
+
+The elevator apparently not running, they had to face the task of
+carrying the unconscious woman down to the lobby and securing medical
+aid. Luckily for their tired muscles, Antwerp hotels are not like our
+skyscrapers, and it was not long before they reached the ground.
+
+The scene was a wild one. Hysterical women and white-faced, frightened
+men, in every stage of dress or undress, were huddled in the centre of
+the place while the hotel clerks and servants were doing their best to
+pacify them. In the confusion, the boys attracted hardly any attention,
+and they laid the woman down on a lounge while they summoned a doctor,
+of whom several were already busy attending to women who had swooned or
+become hysterical.
+
+The fear of the crowd was that another bomb might follow the first.
+Already word had spread that a hospital had been struck and a dwelling
+house wrecked, two women and a man being killed outright in their sleep
+in the latter.
+
+"What an outrage!" exclaimed Bill, looking about him at the wild scene
+while a doctor administered restoratives to the woman they had saved.
+"To attack women and children and harmless citizens from the sky."
+
+"I hope they get that old wind bag and blow it to bits," wished Jack,
+with not less warmth.
+
+"Well, this is our first taste of war, Jack, and I can't say I like it."
+
+"Nor I. It would do some of those jingoes in our own country, who were
+yelling for war with Mexico, a lot of good to see this," returned the
+young wireless man.
+
+"Let's go outside and see what's going on," suggested Bill. "I guess our
+charge is all right, now she's beginning to recover."
+
+If the scene in the hotel had been wild, like a nightmare more than a
+reality, that outside was pandemonium itself. Imagine a crowd of
+wild-eyed men and women, few of them wholly dressed, surging behind
+lines of policemen and the entire street lighted by the ghastly glare of
+flames upon which the engines were playing furious streams.
+
+"If that bomb-thrower sailed over here now he could wipe out half of
+Antwerp, I should think," said Jack, as they elbowed their way through
+the throng. Oddly enough, although the lads had only been able to throw
+on a few garments hastily, they did not, till that moment, recollect
+that their new outfits had been destroyed. It was Bill who called
+attention to this.
+
+"We ought to make the fortunes of a tailor," he commented. "We'll have
+to get a lot of new stuff to-morrow,--or rather to-day, for it's after
+three o'clock."
+
+"If this keeps up we'll be reduced to Adam and Eve garments before we
+get through," laughed Jack.
+
+Far in the distance, on the outskirts of the city and on the chain of
+forts, the white fingers of the searchlights were sweeping the sky
+questioningly, looking for the sky-destroyer to deal out death to him in
+his turn. The guns boomed and cracked incessantly, sending a rain of
+missiles upward.
+
+But flying high, and favored by a misty sky, the Zeppelin escaped
+without injury, leaving a panic-stricken city in its wake. There was no
+more sleep for any one in Antwerp that night. Vigilance against spies
+increased ten-fold, and it was bruited about that the real object of the
+aviators had been to blow up the royal palace, and by destroying the
+king and queen to terrify the Belgians into submission.
+
+Naturally, sleep was out of the question for the boys. They spent the
+rest of the night wandering about the city and visiting the ruins of the
+house that had been struck just before the hotel. Its entire front was
+torn out by the force of the explosion, and just as they arrived, three
+bodies had been found in the ruins.
+
+The sight of the shrouded, still forms brought home to them with still
+greater force the horror of it all.
+
+"Tell you what, Bill," said Jack, as they returned to the hotel to
+breakfast, and found that the fire had been extinguished and the panic
+quieted down, "war is a pretty thing on paper, and uniforms, and bands,
+and fluttering flags, and all that to make a fellow feel martial and
+war-like, but it's little realities like these that make you feel the
+world would be a heap better off without soldiers or sailors whose
+places could be taken by a few wise diplomats in black tail coats. It
+wouldn't be so pretty but it would be a lot more like horse sense."
+
+"Gracious, you're developing into a regular orator," laughed Bill.
+
+"Well, the sight of these poor dead folks and all this useless wreckage
+got under my skin," said Jack, flushing a little, for he was not a boy
+much given to "chin music," as Bill called oratorical flights.
+
+During the morning they secured new clothes for the second time since
+landing in the city, and then paid their appointed call on M. La Farge.
+
+"I have good news for you, boys," he said as they came into his office.
+"Your man was last heard from at Louvain. I suspect he is rather given
+to adventure, for I understand that he has been quite active in aiding
+our people. It's strange that his people have not heard from him,
+though."
+
+"Perhaps they have by this time," said Jack; "but if he has been
+actively siding with the Belgians, isn't his neutrality in grave danger,
+with all its serious consequences?"
+
+M. La Farge nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"I have heard much of your wealthy young Americans," he said, "and while
+their hearts are warm and it is good of this young man to be doing what
+he can, my advice to you is to get him to return home as soon as
+possible--the Germans shoot first and listen to explanations afterward,
+as they say in your country."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+                       "THE GERMANS ARE COMING!"
+
+
+It was in the early days of the war when the gallant defenders of Liege
+were still undauntedly holding back the Teuton thousands with their
+great "caterpillar" siege guns that were destined, ere long, to hammer
+down the stubborn defense of Belgium's neutrality. Trains were running
+and business, although seriously hampered, was still being carried on,
+though the foe was at the gate and the capital had been removed from
+Brussels to Antwerp.
+
+Armed with passes signed by M. La Farge, to which their photographs were
+attached for purposes of identification, the boys started for Liege the
+next day. It was likely to prove an arduous and not unhazardous task
+that they had embarked upon. In the first place "spy fever" was at its
+height. Anyone not in uniform was liable to be held up and questioned,
+and if satisfactory explanations were not forthcoming, they were liable
+to very unpleasant consequences.
+
+The word of any frightened peasant choosing to "denounce" anybody had
+led to riots and affrays in which men and women, suspected of espionage,
+had been rescued by troopers after being half beaten to death.
+
+Above all, the boys were warned not to carry weapons of any kind, an
+injunction which they obeyed as they did all the rest of M. La Farge's
+admonitions. The train journey proved exasperating. Sometimes it would
+be halted for hours on a side track while trains, loaded with
+young-looking soldiers in a strange medley of gay Belgian uniforms, went
+by, the men cheering and singing. Again, much time was wasted by careful
+reconnaissances, for there was fear that bridges might have been
+dynamited or the right of way mined by the spies who were rife
+throughout the country.
+
+A whole day passed thus, with the train creeping like a snail and
+continually stopping and starting. The roads at the side of the track
+were alive with peasants flocking to different centres from their lonely
+houses in the country. Some had their family possessions piled high in
+small carts drawn by dogs. Others carried what they had been able
+hastily to collect. It was another sad picture of war and the desolation
+it had brought on an inoffensive, industrious little country.
+
+Several aeroplanes soared above the train, reconnoitering the country.
+At first the boys were nervous lest there might be a repetition of the
+bomb-dropping at Antwerp, but they were assured by the official on the
+train, who had examined their passes, that the aircraft were all
+friendly French and Belgian aeroplanes, after which they watched them
+with less uncomfortable feelings. As Bill put it:
+
+"If we were at war and shouldering rifles for the dear old U. S. A.,
+we'd take the chances of war with the rest of them, but being a neutral,
+there's no sense in throwing away our bright young lives," a sentiment
+to which Jack agreed heartily.
+
+It was dark when the train rolled into Louvain. After innumerable
+challenges by armed sentries, they at last reached the hotel of the
+place where many of the soldiers were quartered. If Antwerp had seemed
+like an armed fortress, signs of military activity were much more marked
+in the old cathedral town.
+
+Lights were not allowed after eight o'clock. Citizens were kept off the
+streets at night after certain hours. Artillery rumbled through the city
+all night, going to the front, the boys were told.
+
+Disquieting rumors of the fall of Liege, and the advance of the Germans,
+had already reached the town, and on the outskirts, barbed wire defenses
+were erected and trenches dug hastily. Residents were warned, in the
+event of the Germans entering the city, to behave themselves strictly as
+non-combatants, the magnificent cathedral was fitted up as a hospital in
+case of emergencies. The thrill of warfare was in the air.
+
+It was early the next morning that Jack aroused Bill from his sleep.
+
+"Hark, Bill!" he exclaimed, holding up one hand.
+
+From far off came the boom of cannon. The ground seemed to tremble under
+the thunder-like reverberations. Down in the street a squadron of
+cavalry raced through the town. Then came the rumbling of guns being
+rushed to the front.
+
+"It's a big battle," declared Jack; "and what's more the sounds have
+been growing louder. It must be a retreat."
+
+Bill looked grave.
+
+"In that case we are likely to be in the thick of it."
+
+"I'm afraid so, and it may be mighty difficult to get away. We'll have
+to find Tom Jukes as soon as we can, and then get back to the coast."
+
+An aeroplane buzzed by overhead, its powerful engines whirring, buzzing
+thunderously. By daylight the town was almost empty of soldiers; they
+had all, except a few detachments, been called to the front during the
+night.
+
+The landlord of the hotel was in a great state of perturbation.
+
+"Ah, those terrible Germans!" he exclaimed, "they will wreck our
+beautiful town and put us to death. I know them. Oh, what unhappy
+times."
+
+"Perhaps they may be beaten back," encouraged Jack.
+
+"Oh, no! No such good fortune," said the landlord, wringing his hands
+miserably. Just after dawn, a mud-spattered courier arrived, and
+declared Liege had fallen, "the Germans are coming."
+
+Everywhere that was the cry as, after a hasty breakfast in the
+disordered hotel, the boys hurried out.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+                            FAST TRAVELING.
+
+
+The sound of firing was now much closer. Frightened faces were peering
+from behind shuttered windows. All traffic appeared to have stopped, and
+the only life beyond the few persons abroad, whose curiosity was
+stronger than their fear of the big German guns, was when an occasional
+body of troops would rush through the streets.
+
+The beautiful Hotel de Ville and the fine old cathedral, so soon
+destined to be damaged by fire and bullets, attracted the attention of
+the boys and gained a hearty expression of admiration from them both.
+All at once there was a whirr and the snort of a horn, and an armored
+war-automobile, carrying a machine gun, and painted a business-like
+gray, dashed around a corner and sped on. Another car came close behind
+it.
+
+The second machine carried an American and a Red Cross flag. It was
+coming fast and contained two occupants. Both were youths, and one
+carried a camera over his shoulder by a broad strap. But the other
+attracted Jack's notice, for in him he recognized instantly the lad they
+were in search of, Tom Jukes, the millionaire's son.
+
+"Hey, Tom Jukes!" he hailed.
+
+The car slowed up and the young driver turned questioningly in his seat.
+
+"Well, by all that's wonderful, it's Jack Ready and Bill Raynor!" he
+exclaimed, as the two lads came up to the car. "What in the world are
+you doing here?"
+
+"We've been sent to ask you that same question," responded Jack, who, it
+will be recalled, became well acquainted with Tom Jukes when the young
+wireless man was in the hospital in New York following his battle with
+the desperate tobacco smugglers he was instrumental in sending to
+prison.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Tom with wide-open eyes.
+
+"Why, your father hadn't heard from you and----"
+
+"Hadn't heard from me! Why, I've written several letters," declared Tom.
+"I'd have cabled, but they've stopped all that for the present, at
+least. I declare, that's too bad. And so the governor sent you on a
+searching expedition, eh?"
+
+"Well, it was to be a combination of that and a vacation," laughed Jack,
+and he told something of their adventures on board the "Gold Ship."
+
+"My word, you fellows are always having adventures," said Tom, with a
+smile on his good-looking face. "The fact is, I guess reading of your
+exploits made me stay over here when this row started to see if I
+couldn't have some of my own. I'm staying with Belgian friends, about
+half a mile from here, and so far I haven't done much but get ready to
+help in Red Cross work and so on. But now I guess it's up to me to get
+back to the U. S. A."
+
+"If we can," said Jack. "I don't know where the ship we came over on,
+the _St. Mark_, has been sent to. London and Paris are overrun with
+American refugees. When we were there, hundreds of them were unable to
+get passage, or even change their money."
+
+"Oh, the whole world seems to have been shuffled in this thing," frowned
+Tom, "but let me introduce my friend, Philander Pottle. He's a
+photographer for a New York newspaper."
+
+The boys shook hands with Pottle, a dark young fellow who talked as
+explosively as a machine gun.
+
+"Glad to meet you--fine fight--be here soon--great pictures--snap!
+bang!--action--that's the stuff!"
+
+"We're going out toward the front, that is, if we can get by," declared
+Tom; "want to come along?"
+
+The boys looked rather dubious.
+
+"I don't know what your father----" began Jack doubtfully.
+
+Tom interrupted him impulsively.
+
+"Oh, there's no danger so long as we don't get in any of the scrimmages
+ourselves," he declared, "and then the American flag and the Red Cross
+emblem will keep us out of trouble."
+
+Both boys were anxious to go, so that it did not take much more
+persuasion to make them get in.
+
+"Now then off we go--bang! biff!--big guns!"
+
+Outside the city lay an open country. Far off they could see a great
+cloud-like mass of smoke which, no doubt, marked the place where the
+fight was taking place.
+
+"We'll make a detour to the north," declared Tom. "There's rising ground
+there and we can look down without danger of getting hit."
+
+"Not want to get hit--cannon ball--gee whizz, off goes your head--much
+better keep it on," said Pottle, in his firecracker way.
+
+"He talks as fast as a photographic shutter moves," chuckled Bill to
+Jack in a low voice and the other could not but agree. As they rode on,
+they passed groups of soldiers and artillery. Now and then a lumbering
+wagon, bringing back wounded men lying on piles of straw, jolted by,
+bearing mute testimony of the havoc going on at the front.
+
+The boys began to feel sick and queer and even Tom sobered down at these
+sights. They were stopped several times by small skirmishing bands and
+made to show their papers, for a few days before German spies had been
+captured in a car flying an American flag. The car sped up a hill and
+then started swiftly down on the other side of the acclivity.
+
+At the foot of the hill, a long and steep one, was a wooden bridge. Tom
+was driving fast, when suddenly there was a sharp, snapping sound and
+the car leaped forward. Tom's foot was on the brake in a jiffy, but
+there was no diminution in the speed of the machine. Instead, it
+appeared to gain momentum every moment.
+
+"Bother it all," muttered Tom; "brakes bust. I can't slow down till we
+get to the bottom of the hill."
+
+"I hope we don't meet anything," cried Jack.
+
+"If we do grand bust--smash--crash--no chance--wow!" exploded the
+photographer.
+
+But there was nothing in sight, and beyond the bridge was another up
+grade where Tom hoped to gain control of the runaway machine. But within
+a few hundred feet of the bridge some soldiers suddenly appeared,
+running from the bridge as if they were in haste to leave the vicinity.
+
+As the car came in sight they waved it frantically back. One even
+leveled a rifle.
+
+"Can't stop," shouted Tom Jukes, "brakes bust."
+
+They flashed by the men who looked mere blurs at the pace the car was
+now going.
+
+Bang! came a shot behind them, but the bullet whistled by, making them
+involuntarily crouch low in the madly racing car. Behind them came
+shouts and yells. They could catch something about Germans.
+
+"They think we're German spies," gasped Bill, as the car thundered
+across the bridge.
+
+Hardly had it flashed across than there came a terrific explosion and
+looking back they saw the whole bridge blown skyward. Their lives had
+been saved by a miracle.
+
+"Those soldiers must have mined that bridge and set the fuse just before
+we appeared," declared Jack, looking rather white and dismayed.
+
+"We weren't a second too soon. If we'd been going slower we'd have been
+wiped off the map," added Bill soberly.
+
+"I'm going to keep running at this speed till we're out of this
+neighborhood," cried Tom Jukes. "It's not healthy."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                              THE UHLANS!
+
+
+But clearly fate was against their seeing anything of the battle that
+morning. They were still going fast, traveling through a wooded country
+that alternated with open stretches, where they could catch a glimpse of
+the far-off fight, when there came a sudden ominous sound:
+
+Bang!
+
+"There's a shot," cried Bill, looking round with alarm on his face.
+
+"That was no shot," returned Tom with a rueful grin, "it was one of the
+tires blowing out."
+
+"Pop--bang--air all out--pump her up--hard work--too bad," exploded
+Pottle.
+
+"Fritz, I'll be jiggered if you don't talk like a tire going on the
+fritz yourself," laughed Tom, as he succeeded in slowing the car down on
+a gentle grade by reversing the engine and then stopping at the bottom.
+
+"Fritz--German name--don't use it in Belgium--think you're a spy--then
+you'll be on the fritz," sputtered Pottle.
+
+The car was brought to a standstill opposite a neat white farmhouse
+approached by an avenue of slender dark poplars. A big dog bayed as the
+car stopped, but there was no other sign of life about the place except
+some chickens pecking and scratching in the dooryard. In the background
+were yellow stacks, for the harvest had just been gathered. It made a
+pretty, contented scene in contrast with the turbulent experiences
+through which the boys had passed only recently.
+
+But they did not spend much time comparing the rural peace with the
+unrest of the cities in the war area. There was work for them all to do.
+First the brake was mended by replacing a broken bolt that had caused
+the trouble that almost ended tragically for them. Then came the fitting
+of a new "shoe" and tube, at which they all helped by turns.
+
+The work took some time, and at its completion they were all dusty, hot,
+and very thirsty.
+
+"I'd give a lot for a good drink of cold water or milk right now,"
+puffed Tom, resting from his exertions with the tire pump. "What do you
+say if we go up to that farmhouse and see if we can buy something to
+drink?"
+
+"Oh, for an ice cream soda," sighed Bill.
+
+"You might as well wish for lemonade in the Sahara desert," scoffed Tom.
+"They wouldn't know an ice cream soda here if they met it."
+
+Laughing and chatting, they approached the house, walking up the avenue.
+But as they neared it, their cheerfulness appeared to receive a check.
+No indication of life but those mentioned appeared about the place. It
+was silent and shuttered. The stable seemed to be empty. No farm wagons
+stood about.
+
+Repeated knockings at the door failed to produce anyone.
+
+"There's a well yonder," said Tom Jukes. "What do you say if we help
+ourselves?"
+
+"We'll have to, I guess," agreed Jack. "Everyone about the place must
+have been scared away by the battle."
+
+"Or more probably the men were called to arms and the women have gone to
+some place of safety," was Bill's opinion.
+
+A great earthenware vessel stood by the well brink and they refreshed
+themselves from this with long draughts of cold, clear water.
+
+"That's better," declared Tom, as he set down the pitcher after a second
+application from it. "Now let's be getting on, for we've got to find
+another road back."
+
+"Wait a minute--great chance--deserted farm--men at war--women flee in
+haste leaving faithful dog!" exclaimed Pottle, unslinging his camera.
+
+"Well, hurry up and get through with your old picture box," conceded
+Tom, "and, by the way, you might let that dog loose. Poor creature,
+he'll surely starve to death tied up like that."
+
+Although the dog was a ferocious-looking animal, he seemed to know that
+the boys meant to give him his liberty, for he allowed them to take off
+his chain without any opposition and went to a small stream that flowed
+behind the house to slake his thirst.
+
+This had hardly been done, and Pottle had taken a few snaps, when down
+the road came a furious galloping and a squadron of Belgian cavalry
+appeared, spurring for their lives, while behind came hoarse shouts and
+shots.
+
+"Great Scott! We're in for it now!" exclaimed Tom in a dismayed voice;
+"a flanking party must have attacked those fellows and driven them
+back."
+
+The squadron, a small one, and probably a scouting party, galloped past
+the house without even noticing the boys and the auto standing in the
+road. It was plain they were hard pressed. They had hardly gone when
+another body of horsemen appeared. They wore gray uniforms. Their metal
+helmets were covered with canvas with the number of their troop
+stencilled on it in large figures. Each man carried a lance with a
+gleaming point. Like those they pursued they swept by without paying
+attention to anything but the pursuit.
+
+"Uhlans!" exclaimed Tom. "I hope we haven't blundered into the thick of
+this thing."
+
+They all stopped to listen. The noise of the pursuit had died out, but
+now more hoof beats could be heard approaching rapidly.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX.
+
+                            "YOU ARE A SPY!"
+
+
+In another moment a smaller body of men swept up to the farmhouse,
+drawing rein at the sight of the stalled car. By their uniforms and the
+fluttering ensign held up by a big trooper, the boys guessed them to be
+officers. They paused for a moment and then, after a few words, turned
+and came galloping up the poplar-lined approach.
+
+The boys exchanged blank looks.
+
+"Keep cool," urged Tom, "there isn't anything they can do to hurt us."
+
+"I don't know, I've heard some queer tales of the Germans," declared
+Jack, rather apprehensively, "for one thing they've no great love for
+Americans."
+
+"But they wouldn't dare to injure us," declared Bill.
+
+The horsemen, of whom there were six, and they saw that two were
+slightly wounded, came galloping up and drew rein. The leader of the
+party was a fierce, hawk-nosed old man with an immense drooping
+mustache. The others were young officers, rather foppish-looking. Two of
+them wore monocles.
+
+But it was the figure of the man who brought up the rear of the party
+that excited Jack's attention to the exclusion of the others.
+
+"Radwig!" he gasped to Bill as he recognized the figure of the former
+Herr Professor of the German War college, in spite of his wearing a
+uniform.
+
+"Wow! There'll be trouble sure now," muttered Bill. "See, he's looking
+at us."
+
+"Yes, he recognizes us and he doesn't look over amiable."
+
+Radwig spurred his horse to the side of the hawk-nosed old colonel and
+spoke rapidly. The old man bent keen eyes on the party of boys.
+
+"Herr Radwig informs me that two of your party are spies," he said in a
+chilling voice; "is that the truth?"
+
+"Of course not," declared Jack, paling a trifle. "We are all Americans."
+
+"Unfortunately, a great many persons, including English spies, are
+protecting themselves under that banner nowadays," was the rejoinder.
+"I'll trouble you to show your papers."
+
+"Why, Mr. Radwig knows me and my friend here," burst out Jack.
+
+"I know nothing but what I suspect," snarled Radwig, his eyes gleaming
+viciously. "Colonel, will you allow me to search these boys?"
+
+The other nodded assent.
+
+"I would rather be searched by somebody else," protested Jack, guessing
+what sort of treatment they would get from the man who hated him.
+
+"Herr Radwig will search you," was the rejoinder, and then, in German,
+he gave orders to a non-commissioned officer,--a sergeant,--to get a
+meal ready within the house. Radwig compelled the indignant boys to turn
+out everything in their pockets and Pottle's camera was ordered
+destroyed forthwith.
+
+Radwig's search was rapid and thorough. When it was concluded, he turned
+to the colonel.
+
+"There is nothing incriminating on any of them, but on this one here,"
+he declared.
+
+He pointed at Jack as he spoke.
+
+"And he----?"
+
+"Has two passes on the Belgian railroads in his pocket."
+
+This was true, for Jack had not given up both passes the last time they
+had to show them.
+
+"That seems to prove that he has some position of trust with the Belgian
+government," declared Radwig, "and as such is properly a prisoner of
+war."
+
+Jack looked his dismay; but the colonel gave a sharp order. Two soldiers
+laid hold of the boy. He started to shake them off indignantly while his
+friends looked on aghast.
+
+"I can explain all this," he cried; "this man Radwig had trouble with
+me. He's trying to get even. He----"
+
+"Take him away," came the cold order in unmoved tones. "You are
+responsible for him," added the colonel to Jack's two captors. "See that
+he is carefully guarded till the court martial."
+
+"The court martial!" cried Jack. "Why, I--I'm an American citizen
+and----"
+
+"There is no more to be said," and Jack, with an armed guard pressing a
+revolver to either side, was marched off without a chance to say more.
+As he went on, he could hear his friends protesting indignantly and
+then, they too, were taken in charge by the soldiers and escorted to the
+automobile. Then came a sharp order to them to drive back to Louvain on
+pain of death. There was nothing for them to do but to obey. The iron
+discipline of the German officers allowed no argument. And so, leaving
+Jack to his fate, they were compelled to drive off with heavy hearts.
+
+"Don't worry, we'll get the American consul and get him out all right,"
+said Tom, as cheerfully as he could.
+
+But Bill, with the thought of a court martial in his mind, sat in a
+miserable state all the way back to the town which they reached only
+after making a long detour, necessitated by the blown-up bridge.
+
+His chum in the hands of the Germans, and subject to court martial, Bill
+had good cause to feel worried and oppressed as to the outcome when he
+realized the influence that Radwig, Jack's enemy, appeared to possess.
+To what terrible lengths might not his desire for vengeance lead him?
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+                            COURT-MARTIALED.
+
+
+Poor Jack, with feelings that may be imagined, was roughly thrust into a
+smoke house and the door slammed. Outside the sentries paced up and down
+ceaselessly, showing him that to think of escaping would be useless.
+There he must stay at the mercy of Radwig till his fate was decided.
+
+No wonder, as he sank on a rough stool, he felt for a moment sick and
+apprehensive. The glitter in Radwig's eyes when he saw who it was he had
+made prisoner had warned Jack to expect severe treatment. The hours
+dragged by and no one came near him. It was pitch dark in the smoke
+house, which, of course, had no openings and hardly any ventilation.
+
+The clank of the sentries' sabres, and their steady, monotonous tread,
+were the only sounds that disturbed the stillness except for an
+occasional, far-off rumble of cannonading. Evidently the main tide of
+the battle had rolled back from the scene of the morning's engagement.
+If it had not been for the presence of the sentries, which showed that
+he was not forgotten, Jack would have been inclined to think that his
+captors had ridden on and left him.
+
+But the steady tramp-tramp outside precluded all possibility of this. At
+last the door was flung open, and the two men guarding him entered the
+dark smoke house. Jack saw then that it was late twilight, but a cloudy
+sunset, threatening a coming storm, made it appear later.
+
+"Come," ordered one of the impassive, gray-uniformed Germans, who
+seemingly possessed a knowledge of a little English.
+
+There was no resource but to obey. Jack, with a beating heart, fell in
+between his two guardians.
+
+[Illustration: "You have heard yourself accused of being a spy," began
+the Colonel harshly.--Page 229]
+
+"I've got to be cool and keep my head," he told himself as he was
+marched toward the house. "Any false step now might be fatal."
+
+Within the farmhouse, kitchen lights had been kindled. Two yellow
+flaring lamps showed the group of officers about the table with their
+swords laid among the remains of a meal. Wine spilled on the cloth and
+empty glasses showed that the farmhouse cellar had been raided for their
+entertainment.
+
+At the head of the table sat the hawk-nosed colonel. Next him was
+Radwig. One of the officers, a major, was tilted back in his chair
+snoring noisily. Jack's heart sank. He saw no signs of a fair trial.
+
+"You have heard yourself accused of being a spy," began the colonel
+harshly. "What have you to say to the charge?"
+
+"Simply that it's ridiculous. If you will give me time my friends will
+be back here with ample proof that I am an American citizen, a wireless
+operator and----"
+
+"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the colonel, placing one finger to the side of his
+hawk-like beak and looking cunning. "So that is it. A wireless operator
+with Belgian passes in his possession. It looks bad."
+
+Radwig bent over and whispered something in the colonel's ear.
+
+"Herr Radwig tells me that you are a hater of Germans. That you had him
+placed in custody in England and that he only escaped to join our army
+after surmounting great difficulties. What have you to say to that?"
+
+"As to being a hater of Germans, no American is that," said Jack. "We
+are all neutral in this struggle. So far as Herr Radwig being imprisoned
+in England, he was already in irons on the ship before she docked."
+
+"Is that true?" demanded the colonel of Radwig, who smiled and waved his
+hand with a gesture that signified "absurd."
+
+"You see Herr Radwig denies that you tell the truth," remarked the
+colonel.
+
+"Surely my word is as good as his," protested Jack, trying to keep cool,
+although he saw that things looked black indeed for him before such a
+prejudiced tribunal.
+
+"Herr Radwig is a German we all know and honor," retorted the colonel.
+"Who you are we do not know. Therefore, between you, we must believe
+him."
+
+"You don't mean that you believe I am a spy?" blurted out Jack.
+
+"The evidence shows it," rejoined the colonel coldly. "You are aware of
+the rules of war?"
+
+The whole room suddenly swam before Jack's eyes. A deadly chill passed
+through him. For an instant he could not assure himself that it was not
+a hideous dream from which he must soon awaken. But the next instant,
+the reality, the horrible fact that he was about to be sentenced to
+death as a spy, rushed back upon him. He tried to speak but his dry lips
+refused to deliver a word.
+
+The colonel and Radwig whispered, and then the former announced in his
+harsh grating voice:
+
+"It will be at reveille to-morrow. Remove the prisoner."
+
+"But you don't understand," he choked out, "surely you don't mean to
+execute me, an American citizen, without a chance to explain. I----"
+
+"I will assume full responsibility," was the cold reply.
+
+Jack struggled with his captors, but a cruel blow in the small of the
+back with the butt of a rifle so dizzied him, that by the time he
+recovered his senses, he was back in the dark, foul-smelling smoke house
+once more.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+                            THE LONG NIGHT.
+
+
+Then followed the blackest hours of Jack's life. Outside the sentries
+kept up their eternal pacing. In the distance a dog barked, and there
+was still scattered firing. For a long time the unfortunate young
+wireless man sat huddled on the floor of his prison in a sort of torpor.
+
+All at once he recollected that one of his guards spoke English. Perhaps
+he could get the loan of pen or pencil and paper to write some last
+words. But when hammering at the door for some moments brought a
+response, his request was gruffly refused. The sentry resumed his
+measured pacing.
+
+One--two! One--two! Hour after hour the sound beat into Jack's brain
+till he thought his head would burst.
+
+Then came another sound.
+
+The sound of digging! The blows of a mattock!
+
+A cold perspiration broke out on Jack's forehead as he realized the
+import of this. They were digging his grave, and by a refinement of
+cruelty, within earshot of his prison place. Whether by accident or
+design, poor Jack was being forced to hearken to the most grisly of the
+preparations for the next morning's reveille.
+
+So the hours crept by leaden-footed. Sleep was out of the question as
+much as was possibility of escape. The sound of the digging, which Jack
+had stopped his ears to keep out, had ceased.
+
+Then came a sudden stir outside. The sound of hurrying feet and commands
+barked in sharp, quick voices. Jack's heart gave a bound.
+
+Could it be a detachment of Belgians summoned by Tom and Bill coming to
+wipe out the small force occupying the farm?
+
+He flung himself against the door of the smoke house, listening
+intently. There was a tiny crack at one of the posts and through this he
+could command a limited view of the moonlit farmyard. Then came an odd
+sound. Like the dry whirring of insects in the fall. It grew in volume.
+The hurrying and the shouts increased, too. Shots were heard, scattering
+one after the other and a yell that sounded like a shout of warning.
+
+Then the world rocked and spurted flame. Screams and groans filled the
+air.
+
+Again there came an explosion that shattered the night and sickened the
+senses. Jack, half stunned, fell to the floor of the smoke house as part
+of its roof was torn off.
+
+Then came silence, broken an instant afterward by groans and moans and
+swift, alarmed orders. There was a rat-a-plan of hoofs. The queer
+whirring sound died out. Only the moans still continued. Dizzy and sick,
+Jack got to his feet.
+
+As yet he could not quite realize what had happened. Suddenly followed
+realization.
+
+A night raiding aircraft had spied the shifting lights of the encampment
+and, by the moonlight, caught the gleam of stacked arms, and had struck.
+
+The sound of the sentries' ceaseless pacing had stopped. Jack shouted
+and pounded on the door of the partially wrecked smoke house, but there
+was no answer but the moans and cries that were now getting fainter and
+less frequent. The sides of the smoke house were of rough logs and
+without much difficulty Jack clambered to the shattered roof.
+
+He raised himself and clambering over, gave a hasty glance about him. It
+was a terrible scene of wreckage that he surveyed. In the earth two
+immense holes, big enough to bury two horses, had been torn, and close
+by lay two men. Over toward the house was a third figure stretched out.
+Three horses, one of which died as Jack was looking over the carnage,
+lay not far off.
+
+There was nobody else in sight.
+
+Jack clambered over the edge of the gap the shell had torn in the roof
+and dropped lightly to the ground.
+
+"Wasser!" moaned one of the wounded men, whom Jack recognized as one of
+his guards. The boy sped to the well and hastened back with the big
+earthen pitcher from which they had refreshed themselves earlier that
+day.
+
+But he was too late. Even as the boy held the cooling draught to the
+sentry's lips, the man died. The other was already dead when the boy
+dropped to the ground, his body frightfully shattered by the aerial
+bomb.
+
+There was still the third man lying by the house and Jack, thinking he
+might be able to minister to him, hurried over. But here, too, the bomb
+had struck fatally.
+
+A shaft of moonlight fell through the poplars and illumined the man's
+face. It was Radwig, struck down in death even as he had planned a cruel
+revenge for another. Jack covered the dead professor's face with the
+man's huge blue cloak and then stood silent for a moment. The rapidity
+with which it had all happened almost stunned him.
+
+Fifteen minutes before he had been a prisoner with the hideous sounds of
+spade and mattock in his ears. Now he was, by nothing short of a
+miracle, free again. He raised his face to the sky and his lips moved
+silently. Then, with a last look about the place, he prepared to leave,
+fervently hoping that before another day had passed he would be with his
+friends once more in Louvain.
+
+All at once he heard a loud whinny. One of the dead troopers' horses had
+been left behind in the mad flight from the farmhouse. It was saddled
+and bridled, although the girth had been loosened. Jack untied it,
+tightened the girths, and mounted. He did not know much about riding,
+but somehow he managed to stick to the animal's back as he directed it
+down the road.
+
+Every now and then he drew rein and listened. He had no desire to
+encounter prowling bands of Uhlans or to run into the small force that
+had evacuated the farmhouse, no doubt believing him to be dead. But dawn
+broke while he was still traveling, not at all certain that he was going
+in the right direction.
+
+Jack decided to abandon his mount. Taking off its bridle so that it
+could find forage along the roadside, he patted its neck and said:
+
+"Thanks for the ride, old fellow."
+
+Then bareheaded, and tired almost to exhaustion by all he had gone
+through, yet driven on by dire necessity of reaching the Belgian lines,
+the lad struck off across a wheat field into a path of woodland. On the
+edge of the field he shrank suddenly back into the tall wheat. There lay
+a man's coat, a stone jug and a basket. No doubt the man was close at
+hand. But although he crouched there for a long time, nobody came, nor
+was there any sound of human life. Birds twittered and once a rabbit
+cocked an inquisitive eye at the lad as he lay crouched in the wheat.
+
+Cautiously Jack raised himself and parting the stalks, peered out. He
+saw something he had not noticed before. The man, who doubtless owned
+the belongings which had alarmed Jack, lay stretched out at the foot of
+a tree. He was on his face sleeping.
+
+But was he sleeping?
+
+An ugly, dark stain discolored the ground around him. His shirt was dyed
+crimson. Jack saw, with a shudder, that he had nothing to fear here. The
+poor peasant was dead. Shot down by wandering Uhlans no doubt, as he was
+about to gather his harvest.
+
+"Poor fellow, he'll never need these now," said Jack, as driven by
+thirst and hunger he investigated the stone jug and the basket. One held
+cider, the other the man's dinner of black bread, onions and coarse
+bacon.
+
+Too famished to mind the idea of eating the dead man's dinner, Jack
+stuffed his pockets, took a long pull of the cider jug and then plunged
+into the wood. Here he flung himself down to rest and eat. Then, tired
+as he was, he forced himself to rise and travel on again.
+
+Faint and far off the distant rumble of cannonading came to his ears,
+but here in the woods it was as calm and peaceful as if war, death and
+slaughter were forgotten things. At length he came to a place where the
+woods thinned out and there was a small clearing. He was about to
+advance across this when he saw something that caused his heart to give
+a quick leap and stopped him short in his tracks.
+
+At one side of the clearing was an aeroplane!
+
+It was a big monoplane with gauzy, yellow wings and a body painted the
+color of the sky on a gray day, no doubt to make it invisible at any
+considerable height.
+
+Any doubt that it was a war machine was removed by the sight of a small
+but wicked-looking rapid-fire gun that was mounted on its forward part.
+
+Jack was still looking at it, rooted to the spot as if he had been a
+figure of stone, when there was a sudden crackle on the floor of the
+wood behind him.
+
+Then came an order sharp and crisp.
+
+"Arrette!"
+
+Jack was not a French scholar but there was something in the way the
+command was given that made him stand without moving a muscle. Footsteps
+came behind him and then he felt rather than saw a man passing from the
+rear to face him.
+
+He worked round to the front of the boy and then Jack saw that he was a
+small man with carefully waxed mustache in whose hand was a particularly
+serviceable-looking revolver, which he held unpleasantly level at Jack's
+head.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+                       THROUGH BULLET-RACKED AIR.
+
+
+The man with the revolver gave a sudden cry:
+
+"_Mon ami_ Read-ee!"
+
+"Great Scott, de Garros!" gasped Jack, recognizing the French aviator.
+"What are you doing here?"
+
+"I might ask zee same question of you," smiled the other. "I leave you
+on zee sheep and now, voila! I find you in a Belgian wood wizout zee
+hat, wiz your face scratched by zee bramble and looking--pardon me,
+please,--like zee tramp."
+
+"I guess I do," laughed Jack, in his relief at finding that instead of
+falling again into the enemy's hands, he had met an old friend; "but I'm
+lucky that there's nobody to say 'how natural he looks'----"
+
+"Pardon, I don't understand," said de Garros in a puzzled tone.
+
+Jack plunged into a recital of his adventures, interrupted frequently by
+a hail of "_Sacres_," "_Nom d'un noms_," and "_Chiens_," from the
+Frenchman.
+
+"And now it's up to you to explain how I find you here in the heart of a
+Belgian wood with a war machine," said Jack as he concluded.
+
+"Zat is eezee to explain," said the Frenchman. "After you leave me in
+New York I get passage on a French liner for Havre. We arrive and I am
+at once placed in command of zee air forces of Belgium. Since zat time,
+pardon my conceit, monsieur, I think zat wizout bragging I can say I
+'ave cause zee Germans very much trouble. Last night I fly over zee
+country and where I see Germans I drop a little souvenir,--but what is
+zee matter, monsieur, you look excited."
+
+"No, no, go on," said Jack; "I was just thinking that it's possible the
+day of miracles has come back."
+
+De Garros stared at him but went on:
+
+"In zee course of my journey I see a farmhouse where Gerrman cavalry
+horses and stacked arms show in zee moonlight," said the Frenchman.
+
+"How did you know they were Germans?" asked Jack.
+
+"Did you not know all zis territory is now overrun by zem? Yesterday
+they advance. They are now near Louvain. But nevaire fear, someway we
+drive zem back. But to continue. I drop one, two bomb wiz my compliments
+and----"
+
+"Saved my life!" exploded Jack.
+
+De Garros looked concerned.
+
+"Once more pardon, my dear Readee, but you are well in zee head? Zee
+sun----?"
+
+"No, no, don't you see?" cried Jack; "those were your bombs that
+resulted in my being saved from a spy's death."
+
+"_Sacre!_ Ees zat possible? And yet it must 'ave been so! Embrace me, my
+dear Readee, nuzzing I 'ave done 'ave give me so much plaisair as zees."
+
+Jack had to submit to being hugged by the enthusiastic little aviator to
+whom, as may be expected, he felt the deepest gratitude.
+
+"And now what are zee plan?" asked de Garros, when his enthusiasm had
+subsided.
+
+"I want to join my friends in Louvain," said Jack.
+
+"_Nom d'un chien!_ You are trying to walk zere through zees part of zee
+country!"
+
+"Why, yes. I----"
+
+"_Mon ami_, you might as well commit zee suicide. It is swarm wiz
+German. I hide in zees wood till night when I can travel wizout having
+zee bullet swarm like zee bee round what you call zee bonnet."
+
+"Then what am I going to do?" he demanded. "I can't stay here and I've
+had one experience with the Germans, and I assure you it was quite
+sufficient to last me for a lifetime."
+
+"I 'ave zee plan," said de Garros.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"My aeroplane hold three people."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"You shall fly wiz me."
+
+"To Louvain?"
+
+"If that is possible. If not, to some place where you can communicate
+wiz your friend. 'Ow you like zat?"
+
+Jack hesitated a moment. He was not a timid lad, nor did he fear
+ordinary danger. Yet flying above the German troops, between the place
+where they were talking and Louvain, was a risky business to say the
+least of it.
+
+Yet there was no alternative that he could perceive. The mere idea of
+getting captured by Uhlans again gave him goose flesh. As if he read his
+thoughts de Garros said:
+
+"You run no more of zee reesk in zee flight than you do on zee ground.
+Not so much. At night I fly high and I promise you I will not make any
+attacks."
+
+"You're on," said Jack, extending his hand.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+                          A FLIGHT OF TERROR.
+
+
+"Take zees. You need zem. We fly fast. _Tres vite._"
+
+De Garros was speaking as he handed Jack a pair of goggles. It was dusk
+and they, having finished an excellent meal from the aviator's provision
+pannier, were about to start on their flight across the war-smitten
+country.
+
+Already the flying man, aided to the best of Jack's ability, had gone
+over the aircraft, testing every part of it. Everything was in perfect
+order, from the big Gnome eight-cylindered, self-contained motor,
+mounted with the big propeller forward, to the last bolt on the
+dragonfly tail.
+
+Just before full darkness fell, which might have involved them in an
+accident in rising, de Garros gave the word to get on board. They
+clambered aboard, Jack with a heart that beat and nerves that throbbed
+rather more than was comfortable.
+
+There are few people who do not feel a trifle "queer" before their first
+flight above the earth, and in Jack's case the conditions of danger were
+multiplied a hundred-fold, for before they had cleared the woods and
+risen to a safe height they might be the target for German rifles and
+quick firers. De Garros wore a metal helmet padded inside. Jack had to
+be content with an old cap that happened to be in the aeroplane, left
+there by some machinist.
+
+But, as de Garros said, the metal helmet would not be much protection
+against the projectile of a quick firer, or even a rifle.
+
+The fighting aircraft was fitted with a self-starter, obviating the
+necessity of swinging the great propeller.
+
+"All ready?" asked the Frenchman of Jack, who sat behind him, tandem
+wise, in the long, narrow body of the machine.
+
+"Ready," said Jack, in the steadiest voice just then at his command.
+
+"Then up ve go."
+
+The self-starter purred, and then came the roar and a crackle of the
+exhausts as the propeller swung swiftly till it was a blur. Blue smoke
+from the castor-oil lubricant spouted, mingled with flame, into the
+thickening air of the evening. The wholesome smell of the wood was
+drowned in the reek of gasoline and oil fumes.
+
+"Gracious, if there are any Germans within a mile, they'll hear this
+racket," thought Jack, with a gulp. "It sounds like a battery of gatling
+guns."
+
+De Garros took his foot from the brake lever and the machine darted
+forward. Jack clutched the sides desperately till his knuckles showed
+white through the skin. Then he gave a shout of alarm.
+
+The machine had suddenly reared up like a startled horse. The jolting
+and bumping of the "take-off" stopped. The boy realized with a thrill
+that they were flying.
+
+At that instant from the trees on one side of the clearing burst several
+Uhlans.
+
+"Germans!" cried Jack.
+
+"Maledictions!" exclaimed the Frenchman.
+
+For a second or two the Uhlans stood paralyzed as the machine shot
+upward. They had heard the staccato rattle of the engine from where they
+lay camped, not far off in the same woods that had sheltered de Garros
+and Jack. Thinking it betokened a skirmish, they had hastily run toward
+the noise just in time to see the wasp-like machine whirr its way
+skyward.
+
+But the machine was not well above the trees when they recovered from
+their surprise. Rifles were leveled.
+
+"Look out!" cried Jack, "they are going to fire on us."
+
+"Hold tight now, I show you zee trick," rejoined the flying man quietly.
+
+The aeroplane was now above the wood which on that side was a mere belt
+of tall trees. Suddenly the machine ceased its upward flight. It
+rocketed downward like a stone. Above it bullets whistled harmlessly as
+the Uhlans fired at the place where it had been and was not.
+
+The ground rushed up to meet them as the machine plummeted downward.
+Jack's head swam dizzily.
+
+"We'll be killed sure!" he thought, but strangely enough, without much
+emotion, except a dull feeling that the end was at hand. Then just as
+disaster seemed inevitable, the machine suddenly began to soar again as
+Jack could have sworn it grazed the tall grass.
+
+Up and up they shot, in a long series of circles, and then de Garros
+turned and grinned at Jack, showing his white teeth.
+
+"'Ow you like?" he asked.
+
+"I--I guess. I'll tell you after a while" rejoined Jack, with suspended
+judgment.
+
+The earth lay far below them now, although it was still light enough to
+see the fields marked off like the squares on a chess board and the
+countless fires of the Germans that dotted the landscape almost as far
+as could be seen. At every one of them were men, who, if any accident
+befell the machine and it had to descend, would make things very
+interesting for the air travelers.
+
+Jack could not help thinking of this as the aeroplane flew steadily
+along, her motor buzzing with an even sound that told all was going
+well. But he knew they were not out of danger yet.
+
+A hundred things might befall before they arrived safely in Louvain.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+                        THE BULLY OF THE CLOUDS.
+
+
+And then all at once the danger came.
+
+Ahead of them loomed, in the darkness, for the moon had not yet risen, a
+bulking dark form.
+
+An exclamation burst from the Frenchman's lips.
+
+"A Zeppelin. Malediction!"
+
+"Do you think she'll attack us?" asked Jack.
+
+"I don't know. I can't tell yet which way she is coming. Ah!"
+
+A long ray of light, like a radiant scimitar, glowed suddenly from the
+mighty aircraft, 400 feet long and capable of carrying many men and tons
+of explosives.
+
+Hither and thither the ray was flung.
+
+"Zey heard our engines. Zey look for us!" exclaimed de Garros.
+
+He shot up to a greater height. He was manoeuvering to get above the
+Zeppelin, where her guns would be useless against the aeroplane, which
+was more mobile and swifter in the air than the Kaiser's immense
+sky-ship.
+
+But suddenly the glowing light enveloped them in its full blaze.
+Dazzlingly it showed them in its rays. It was the most peculiar
+sensation Jack had ever experienced. It was like being stood up against
+a wall with a fiery sabre pressed to your breast.
+
+With a quick movement of the wheel, de Garros sent the aeroplane out of
+range of the revealing light. The next moment came a sharp crackle and
+something screamed through the air.
+
+"Missed!" exclaimed the aviator with satisfaction.
+
+Again the questioning finger pointed its interrogating tip hither and
+yon across the night sky. Others from below now joined it in its quest.
+
+The firing from above, and the sight of the searchlight had been rightly
+guessed by the Germans encamped below. They knew that a hostile aircraft
+was above them and were helping in the search for it.
+
+A sharp exclamation broke from the Frenchman. He bent and fumbled with
+some contrivance on the floor of the aeroplane.
+
+There was a sharp click.
+
+"What have you done?" asked Jack.
+
+"I have released zee bomb."
+
+"The dickens!"
+
+"Watch! Now you see!"
+
+Fascinated, even in the midst of the awful danger they were facing high
+above the earth in the upper air, Jack leaned over and stared at a
+battery of searchlights sending out fan-shaped rays on every side.
+
+He guessed this was the objective of de Garros' bombs. He was right.
+
+As he gazed there was what looked like the sudden opening of a flaming
+fire below, and the searchlights went out as if a giant had snuffed a
+monstrous candle.
+
+Then came the report, booming upward through the air.
+
+"Aha! Zere are some Germans below zere who will not do zee mischief
+more!" exclaimed the Frenchman with vicious satisfaction.
+
+But his congratulations to himself were premature.
+
+Again the light of the Zeppelin enveloped them. The glare seemed like a
+warm bath of all-revealing light. There was a flash and then the shriek
+of a projectile as the aeroplane dipped under the glow of the light.
+Then came the boom of the report.
+
+"Zey ought to learn to shoot," muttered de Garros.
+
+"Thank heaven they can do no better than they are," rejoined Jack.
+
+"Now we show zem zee clean pair of heels and run away," said de Garros.
+
+"I'm glad to hear that. I couldn't stand much more of this," thought
+Jack.
+
+"If I was alone, or had an officer wiz me, we go above zat Zeppelin high
+in zee air and blow him up," announced de Garros cheerfully, after a
+minute or two. "Ah! zey get us again. _Peste!_"
+
+The whine of a machine gun sounded as the searchlight of the pursuing
+Zeppelin again enveloped the bold little aeroplane. Her great bulk, big
+as a steamship, was rushed at top speed through the air. They could
+catch the roar of her four motors being driven at top speed.
+
+De Garros had dropped again, and thanks to his skill, the aeroplane was
+still unhit, although the projectiles from the quick firer had come
+close enough for the occupants of the monoplane to hear their whine.
+
+"We beat zem out!" exclaimed the Frenchman.
+
+"Then we are faster than they are."
+
+"Oh, very much."
+
+"Well, we can't be too fast for me," muttered Jack. "I----"
+
+"_Sacre!_"
+
+The searchlight had again caught them, and again there had come reports
+from her underbody. This time the sharp crackle of rifles.
+
+"Are you hurt?" cried Jack, as the Frenchman gave a sharp exclamation
+recorded above.
+
+"Malediction, yes. Zey nick my hand. Eet is not bad. But worse zey hit
+zee motor I think."
+
+The smooth-running machine was no longer firing regularly. Its speed had
+decreased.
+
+"What are you going to do now?" cried Jack. "We'll be mowed down by
+those machine guns if we slow up."
+
+"We must come down."
+
+"But the Germans?"
+
+"There are no campfires below us now."
+
+"But can you make a good landing?"
+
+The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"_Parbleu!_ If I cannot zen all our troubles are over, _mon ami_."
+
+The aeroplane began to descend, slowly at first and then faster. The
+dark earth sky-rocketed up at them from below.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+                          A MYSTERIOUS CAPTURE
+
+
+But the disaster de Garros had feared more than admitted did not happen.
+Between two patches of wood lay an open field, readily distinguished
+even in the dark by its lighter color. In the stubble of a mown crop the
+aeroplane alighted, not without a considerable jolt to its occupants.
+
+Their main anxiety now was the great Zeppelin they could hear, but not
+see, above them. Jack trusted they were equally invisible and that the
+searchlight would not reveal them, for high explosive bombs in a deadly
+rain from above would certainly follow.
+
+De Garros, while wringing his wounded hand with pain, was helped out of
+the machine by Jack.
+
+"Malediction, and I not get zee chance to fire on zat _chien_ of a
+Zeppelin," lamented the Frenchman. "Some day I pay zem back."
+
+"Is your hand badly hurt?" asked Jack anxiously.
+
+"I do not know and we dare not yet use zee electric torch I 'ave on zee
+machine."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"It would show zee Zeppelin where we 'ide."
+
+"Then you don't think they guess that we have descended?"
+
+"No, if they had zey would search zee ground wiz zeir light."
+
+"That's so."
+
+"But now they are point eet 'ere, zere, all over zee sky. If zey no find
+us zey think zat we are keel and zey go away."
+
+Jack shuddered at the narrow escape they had from this being made
+literally true.
+
+For a long time, or so it seemed to the anxious watchers below, the
+Zeppelin soared above them, her searchlight swinging in every direction.
+But at last the noise of her engines grew dimmer and the light vanished.
+
+"Zey go away disgoost," said de Garros, shrugging his shoulders. "Now we
+see what are zee chances of patching up my hand and getting zee engine
+going again."
+
+The electric light, carried to locate engine trouble at night, was
+switched on and brought out by its long wires over the side of the
+craft. Then began an anxious examination of the aviator's hand.
+
+It proved that the tip of his thumb, where it had laid on the edge of
+the wheel, had been badly nicked by a bullet, but luckily it was the
+left member.
+
+"If zee engine ees capable of being fixed I can drive wiz my right
+hand," declared the aviator. "Thank the _bon Dieu_ that it was not zee
+steering wheel zat was struck."
+
+With the first aid kit, carried by all soldiers in the field, they soon
+dressed and bound the injured member, and then came the examination of
+the engine, an investigation on which much depended. If it proved to
+have been too badly damaged to be repaired, they would not stand much
+chance for escape in a country so overrun with German troops. For all
+they knew some might be camped not far off. But they had to take their
+chance of that.
+
+"_Ciel_, we are in zee luck!" exclaimed de Garros, after a brief
+examination, "the _chiens_ only smashed a spark plug. I soon fix 'im and
+zen once more we start."
+
+The repair kit contained the necessary plug, which he quickly replaced.
+Then the journey through the night, which had already proved so
+eventful, was renewed. But now Jack felt a fresh alarm. How would they
+be able to tell at Louvain that it was a French and not a German
+aeroplane hovering above them.
+
+He put the question to de Garros.
+
+"Zat is easy. I 'ave on zee side of zee machine a set of four electric
+lights. Two are red, one is green, one is white. Zat is zee secret night
+signal of zee French machines."
+
+"But suppose the Germans should find out your code?" asked Jack.
+
+"Eet is changed every night. Sometimes two green, one white, one
+red--many combinations are possible."
+
+"By Jove, I never thought of that!" exclaimed Jack, struck by the
+simplicity of the idea, and relieved at the thought that there would be
+no danger of being attacked by mistake.
+
+Half an hour later they landed at a sort of fair ground in Louvain after
+answering all challenges satisfactorily. The Germans were not yet at the
+gate of the city. But they were near at hand and the place was wrapped
+in darkness. However, on account of de Garros' rank, they obtained an
+escort to the hotel.
+
+Tired from the excitement and nervous strain, Jack went to bed, sighing
+with relief at the thought that all was so promising.
+
+In about an hour or so he awakened from a deep sleep. The night was
+sultry, and there was a strange calmness in the atmosphere seemingly
+weighed with grave and impending events.
+
+Jack could not resist an impulse to leave his room and wander out into
+the deserted streets of Louvain.
+
+He had not taken a dozen steps when a heavy hand fell on his shoulder.
+Before he could turn to see his assailant, he was whisked from the
+ground and swept onward to a great height.
+
+Still dead silence reigned.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+                        THE MIGHT OF MILITARISM.
+
+
+It was some time later that Jack began to realize that he was a prisoner
+and borne on a giant aeroplane.
+
+How did he get there?
+
+Try as he would he could not answer that question. He gazed about him.
+Away in the distance he could distinguish small specks of light, which,
+were they not moving so rapidly about space, he would have mistaken for
+stars.
+
+Below searchlights swept the horizon. Here and there were the
+glimmerings of fast dying out camp-fires. Suddenly a faint streamer of
+red light shot high into the air, held steadily for a moment, and then
+broke into a million colored globules.
+
+"A signal," thought Jack. "I wonder if it will be answered."
+
+He then became aware of a movement on the part of the air pilot. Till
+that moment he had not noticed the least sign of life from the wheel
+man. Now there came a soft _blob_ and a red light shot into the air.
+
+Almost instantly there again was darkness.
+
+"By Jove!" whispered Jack to himself, amazedly. "This certainly is
+marvelously fast work!"
+
+There was no repetition of the signals.
+
+For a while Jack was content to gaze about him in idle wonder. He seemed
+indifferent to his plight. He drank in the scenes about him, gazed
+interestedly at other air-craft that passed them, and watched the sky
+begin to turn a dull slate color. It was the dawn of another day of
+carnage.
+
+Others, too, were on the watch for these faint signs of day. From
+somewhere came the long, awful boom of a huge cannon.
+
+Jack tried to get up, but fell back to his former position. He only then
+realized that he was chained to his seat. He had a certain amount of
+freedom, but beyond that he was a prisoner, helpless.
+
+"Well," mused Jack upon this discovery, "even if my hands and feet were
+free, I could not escape from this height. We must land some time, and
+then I'll have more need to use them."
+
+So Jack settled back to watch developments. Now everything was astir. A
+faint murmur was wafted to him on the morning breeze.
+
+He could see the soldiers moving about, the great cannons and howitzers
+beginning to lumber onward, the column of Uhlans already in saddle, and
+the hundreds of air-craft rising to greet the early sun's rays.
+
+"It's wonderful!" whispered Jack, fascinated. "Yes, wonderful, but how
+terrible! This whole array is primed to create nothing but havoc,
+sorrow, destruction, and death! Gee, but I'm glad the good old United
+States has no need for such military organization!"
+
+Another sound came to his ears, and cut short his thoughts of America.
+In an astonishingly brief time, the Army of the Invasion had completed
+its formations and was on the march, the rank and file, all
+deep-throated men, singing _Das Fatherland_.
+
+"Good God!" gasped Jack. "They are going to their death with a song on
+their lips!"
+
+From somewhere in front of these columns came a roar of cannon. The air
+was filled with shrill, piercing shrieks as tons upon tons of metal,
+charged with fearful destructive powers, tried to stem the human flood.
+
+For a few minutes the smoke and steam hid the dreadful spectacle from
+Jack. He gazed intently below him, anxious to see the victor of this
+clash.
+
+Of course, it must not be forgotten that the human waves of men were
+supported by great artillery fire on their own side. Unaided entirely
+these men would have been annihilated miles before the fortresses.
+
+The ranks were on the double run now. Their bayonets glistened in the
+dull sunlight. On, on, ever on, they went, keeping perfect stride, never
+faltering.
+
+Jack could not tear his eyes from the sight.
+
+Even while storming the redoubt, the ranks held firm. Another sheet of
+flame checked them for a moment. They tried to recover, and somehow
+couldn't. Again came that destructive, raking fire. The lines faltered.
+
+Jack trembled from excitement. Was this magnificent effort to fail? He
+was not thinking of them as Germans. He was only aware of brave,
+dauntless men trying to best steel and explosives.
+
+Again came a sheet of flame.
+
+The ranks actually seemed to fall back.
+
+Then once more, from the rear, rose the deep notes of _Das Fatherland_.
+It stiffened the thinned ranks. They rushed forward, the fierce cry of
+victory mingling with the strains of their national anthem.
+
+"That was great!" cried Jack. "My sympathies are not very strongly with
+the Germans, but I'm bound to give credit where credit is due. Well,
+what now----?"
+
+Jack became aware that the machine on which he was a prisoner was going
+to make a landing. Silently, swiftly, the winged mechanism was guided
+toward earth behind the German lines.
+
+Jack smiled with satisfaction.
+
+"I'll have a chance to stretch my legs," he said. "As long as Radwig is
+dead, I have not so much to fear. I wonder what they want of me?"
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+                       MILITARY CROSS-EXAMINATION
+
+
+The machine came to a stop. The pilot never moved from his seat.
+Instead, he motioned to a soldier to come to him. Evidently a few words
+were exchanged.
+
+A sharp command was issued.
+
+Two soldiers came up to Jack. He held up his hands to show that he was
+chained. One of the soldiers leaned forward, and pressed a button at the
+side of the car. The chains fell from Jack.
+
+Without comment the two soldiers seized Jack and flanked him. A detail
+of six additional men fell in step, a petty officer wheeled about,--a
+movement that acted as a signal for the soldiers to march.
+
+A five-minute walk brought them to a small cottage. Here they halted.
+Jack was blindfolded. When the bandage was removed, he found himself
+facing an elderly man seated at a desk. Jack could not make out his
+features, as they were hidden in a gray mask.
+
+"_Sprechen sie Deutsch?_" he was asked.
+
+Jack understood the question, and replied:
+
+"No."
+
+"What is your nationality?" came the question in English.
+
+"American."
+
+"What part of America?"
+
+"New York."
+
+"Your occupation?"
+
+"Wireless operator."
+
+"For your government?"
+
+"No, for the Transatlantic Shipping Combine."
+
+There followed a short pause. Jack was wondering what next to expect.
+The questions had been brief and propounded in a crisp, commanding way.
+There was no leeway for equivocation.
+
+"Do you tell the truth?"
+
+"I do," replied Jack quietly.
+
+"Why do you tell the truth?"
+
+"Because I believe in it," said Jack simply.
+
+"Under what circumstances did you first meet Herr Radwig?"
+
+Jack, greatly surprised, hesitated. Would it be wise to tell everything?
+How under the sun did this man in the gray mask know so much?
+
+"Remember, the truth."
+
+Jack thought quickly. The question implied that this officer had some
+knowledge of his dealings with Radwig. Possibly, also, the officer was
+about to test the value of his declaration that he told the truth. So
+Jack figured. But was this not an amazing illustration of the wonderful
+efficiency and thoroughness of the German Secret Service.
+
+"Speak!" came the imperative command.
+
+"Very well," replied Jack calmly. "It was on the _Kronprinzessin
+Emilie_. It seemed that we were about to be dashed to pieces on floating
+icebergs. Some shrieked:
+
+"'The _Titanic_!'
+
+"'The boats!' shouted a man. He violently pushed two women aside, wedged
+in the panic-stricken throng. I stood at the head of the companion way.
+The man told me to get out of the way. I tried to calm the people. But
+this man seemed to have lost his reason. He rushed at me, trying to
+strike me. I was too quick for him. I struck first. He staggered back,
+subdued. It was only later that I learned this man's name."
+
+"And then--how and when did you meet Herr Radwig?"
+
+So Jack had to relate incident after incident. Always, at the end of a
+recital, came the same question, asked in the same matter-of-fact tone
+of voice:
+
+"And then--when and where did you meet Herr Radwig?"
+
+Everything must have its end. At last Jack had modestly related every
+episode with which the reader has been made acquainted. The even tone of
+his questioner, his piercing eyes, and the unbroken silence was
+beginning to weary Jack. He felt that he could hardly keep his wits
+about him.
+
+Evidently the German officer noticed these signs and was patiently
+waiting for them. He leaned forward, and the steady monotone now gave
+place to a rasping, menacing gruffness.
+
+"Who are you?" he suddenly snapped.
+
+"An American," came the tired reply.
+
+"An American!" jeered the officer.
+
+"Yes, and I'm proud of it!"
+
+"Why should you be proud of something you could not help?"
+
+"I don't understand you," replied Jack, passing his hand over his brow
+as if to clear away the ever increasing drowsiness.
+
+"You don't understand me?"
+
+Jack shook his head.
+
+"Answer me!"
+
+Jack opened his mouth to speak, his lips moved, but he could utter no
+sound. He stood still, staring stupidly at the man in front of him. His
+thoughts were befuddled. What did he--the man in the gray mask--want?
+
+"I wish those eyes wouldn't glare at me so," Jack mumbled to himself. "I
+didn't do anything to them."
+
+But the eyes behind the gray mask became larger, rounder, more
+compelling. Jack knew instinctively that they meant him harm. What power
+they held! Something within him fought to arouse him. He tried to move
+and could not. Larger, ever larger those eyes seemed to grow! The
+features of the man were lost; in fact, those eyes seemed to belong to
+no one; they seemed to have life and power, dreadful power, of their
+own.
+
+Jack shrieked with terror!
+
+Was he lost?
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+                        SHATTERING THE SHACKLES.
+
+
+Did it ever occur to you that nature plays many pranks? From the many
+learned books and men--and from daily events--we are lead to assume that
+nature is grim, relentless. On the whole, this assumption is true. But
+one of the things that has made nature a harder problem for man to solve
+is that there are the most unexpected exceptions to the most carefully
+proved rules. Sometimes these exceptions take place with things and
+sometimes with persons.
+
+Nature had played a prank with Jack.
+
+When he came to his senses he found de Garros solicitously bending over
+him, his broken English running riot in his native French.
+
+"What's up?" questioned bewildered Jack.
+
+De Garros shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I--er--_phew_! Zee--la--_compron_--eh---- I understand not! You make
+zee big cry, I in rush--excited much--_phew_!"
+
+Jack sat up in bed.
+
+"Are we still in Louvain?" he demanded.
+
+"_We_, _we_, certainly!" de Garros hastened to assure him.
+
+A big sigh of relief welled from Jack.
+
+"De Garros," he said, "I have had the most remarkable nightmare!"
+
+Whereupon Jack related to de Garros, as well as he could recall the
+details, the dream that had seemed so real.
+
+De Garros was thrilled. Every now and then he broke into the recital
+with exclamations most expressive of the impressions they made upon him.
+
+"And now," Jack said in conclusion, "I think it is best for us to dress.
+I have never dreamed before, and I never want to dream again, if all
+dreams are so terribly real."
+
+De Garros laughingly agreed with him.
+
+When Jack had dressed, he began to explore the corridors of the hotel.
+He felt that Bill, Tom Jukes and Pottle were guests of it. Of course,
+the easiest way about it would have been to inquire at the office.
+
+As the hour was rather early he did not care to do this at once. A
+little later Jack was joined by de Garros, and together they walked into
+the dining room. Even at this hour several tables were occupied.
+
+Almost at once the two were espied by their friends. A more amazed and
+glad set of chaps would have been indeed difficult to find anywhere.
+
+"Honest, Jack," cried Bill, tears of real joy in his eyes, "we had given
+up all hope of ever seeing you again."
+
+"Man alive!" declared Tom Jukes, "you can't imagine how we felt, for we
+knew that there was no chance of getting through to save you."
+
+"Blues--here--everybody!" exploded Pottle. "Funeral cheerful in
+comparison--no eat--no food--just blues!"
+
+"Come, Jack," invited Bill, "and de Garros, breakfast with us and tell
+us about it."
+
+So, between mouthfuls, Jack related his experiences with Radwig's party
+of Uhlans. Affectionately he placed his hand on de Garros' arm, and
+soberly said:
+
+"I owe my life to you. If it hadn't been for you----"
+
+"It was sure luck, the greatest ever," declared Tom Jukes.
+
+"Fine stuff--fooled the enemy--shot at sunrise--others get shot
+instead--up in the air--down again--all safe--at last--hurray!" cried
+Pottle, capering about wildly.
+
+"I can't think it was luck," said Jack gravely. "I think there was a
+higher power than that concerned in it."
+
+"You are right," agreed Bill.
+
+"Read--ee--_mon ami_, you 'ave not forget zee dream," slyly remarked de
+Garros.
+
+Jack turned scarlet. Somehow he felt that it was not very manlike to
+have even bothered with nightmares.
+
+"What's this?" demanded Bill.
+
+"Come on, now," coaxed Tom; "don't hold anything back."
+
+"Dreams?" questioned Pottle. "Dreams? Great stuff--big inventors--and
+Columbus--dreamers!"
+
+So Jack went over that adventure again.
+
+This time, however, he decided to tell it in the way it actually
+happened. The result was that when Jack led them up to the climax he
+held even de Garros spellbound.
+
+Jack ceased to speak and looked at his friends.
+
+"How did you get away?" asked Bill.
+
+"I didn't," was the smiling reply.
+
+"You didn't!" came the perplexed chorus.
+
+De Garros was chuckling softly. He had to admire Jack's cleverness.
+
+"Battle--prisoner--great fight--man in gray mask--disappear--eyes bigger
+and bigger--what's this--fairy tale?"
+
+"No, Pottle," replied Jack, "it was only a dream."
+
+For a moment there was silence and then they all broke into peals of
+laughter, laughter that seemed so strange and out of place in these days
+frought with war's devastation.
+
+So they had the good sense to check their merriment, especially as they
+saw the eyes of many surprised men and women upon them.
+
+They soon left the dining room, and prepared to leave Louvain. Late that
+afternoon arrangements were completed.
+
+Regretful good-byes were said to plucky little de Garros, whose
+demonstrative eyes were wet as he clasped their hands in farewell.
+
+"We may nevaire meet again," he stammered, "but I nevaire forget you
+all."
+
+"Nor will we forget you!" cried Jack warmly. "You--you, if it hadn't
+been for you----"
+
+"Read--ee, _mon ami_, you 'ave forget what you do for me long ago. A
+fair exchange. You save _my_ life."
+
+"You're fine," exploded Pottle. "Legion of Honor cross for you--long
+war--much dead--much wounded--but you'll live!"
+
+A prediction, strangely enough, that came true.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XL.
+
+                            OLD GLORY AGAIN.
+
+
+Before the fall of Louvain, Jack and his friends were across the border
+in France. Ultimately they were lucky enough to rejoin the _St.
+Mark_--sent for the accommodation of refugees--at Marseilles.
+
+A cable was despatched to America, telling of Tom Juke's safety.
+
+Pottle, the young photographer, cabled his paper, asking for permission
+to remain in the battle zone. This was granted.
+
+So the trio--Jack, Bill and Tom--said farewell to Pottle.
+
+"When I get back--possible--the paper will make--hurrah!--look me
+up--eh?"
+
+"We sure will, old top," promised Tom.
+
+The voyage across was without incident, save that, as was expected, they
+were stopped by British warships.
+
+So, one fine morning, unannounced, Jack called upon Uncle Toby Ready.
+The old tar gave vent to a great cry of joy. Though Jack had often been
+away for long periods, Uncle Toby never fully knew the thrilling
+adventure Jack had participated in. Now there was no hiding of the
+truth. The war was at hand. The Germans were sweeping everything before
+them. How had it fared with Jack? This uncertainty had worried Uncle
+Toby. He felt that he would never be able to forgive himself, had
+anything happened to Jack.
+
+When the first greetings were over, Uncle Toby could not help but ask
+about his Golden Embrocation and Universal Remedy for Man and Beast.
+
+"Did you meet up with the King of England?" he queried.
+
+"No, Uncle Toby," laughed Jack, "I did not."
+
+"Be it so with the Kaiser?"
+
+"No, not the Kaiser, either."
+
+"How now--was it the Czar?"
+
+Jack shook his head.
+
+"But made a--use of 'em?"
+
+"Yes," replied Jack with a twinkle in his eye. "I did make----"
+
+At this moment there came a sharp rap on the door. Jack opened it, and a
+messenger, upon ascertaining who he was, handed him a telegram.
+
+"What now?" demanded Uncle Toby.
+
+Jack tore open the envelope. The inclosed sheet read:
+
+    "Congratulations and grateful appreciation. Report immediately.
+
+                                                      "JACOB JUKES."
+
+"Yeou ain't a-goin' back to Europe!" declared Uncle Toby emphatically.
+
+"Don't worry, Uncle," replied Jack. "I don't think it is for that Mr.
+Jukes wants me."
+
+"Well, if he don't," replied the old captain, "give 'im a bottle of my
+Golden Embrocation and Universal Remedy for Man and Beast with my
+compliments."
+
+"All right," laughed Jack as he put the bottle in his pocket, never
+intending, of course, to carry out the errand.
+
+Jack found Mr. Jukes in earnest conversation with his son, Tom. However,
+the moment Jack entered, father and son arose.
+
+"Jack," said Mr. Jukes, extending his hand, "let me thank you."
+
+It was said sincerely and simply. Their handclasp was hearty and true.
+
+Mr. Jukes began to pace the office.
+
+Tom looked at Jack and winked.
+
+"Young man," suddenly said Mr. Jukes, sternly addressing Jack, "you are
+bound to succeed in life. You have the _makings_. You have your
+trade--or shall I call it profession? But operating wireless is not
+everything. You can be a wireless operator all your life and your salary
+will be your only means of keeping the wolf from the door. Too many of
+our people have to depend on that means of support. Some day I feel it
+will be different. At all events, I shall make a beginning with you. So
+Tom and I have decided to give you a number of shares in our Combine."
+
+Thereupon Mr. Jukes went on to explain the value of the shares,
+instructing Jack just what he should do with them. To tell the truth,
+Jack had never troubled himself very much with the intricacies of stock
+values.
+
+Finally Jack left Mr. Jukes' office feeling like a millionaire.
+
+"Strange," mused Jack, "that this good fortune should come to me when
+thousands of others are losing their all in Europe."
+
+Feeling thus satisfied, Jack decided to acquaint Helen Dennis with the
+good news. As he strolled down to the dock, he could not help but note
+that in so far as New York was concerned, the war did not exist. People
+went about their business in their accustomed way. Beyond the usual set
+or serious expression characteristic of the average New Yorker when he
+is engaged in earning his dividends or salary, as the case may be in
+different instances and walks of life, the average person seemed
+absolutely unconcerned of the World Tragedy that was unfolding itself
+across the sea.
+
+At the docks, however, there was increased activity. The demand upon
+American ammunition and commodities had jumped by leaps and bounds.
+Shippers were reaping a harvest.
+
+The _Silver Star_, Captain Dennis' ship, was in port. Jack had little
+difficulty in getting aboard. Captain Dennis was delighted to see Jack.
+He could spare but little time, so when Jack had told him only briefly
+of his experiences, the wise tar, his eyes twinkling with mischief,
+said:
+
+"Really, Jack, don't you think Helen would be more interested in your
+adventures?"
+
+Jack blushed.
+
+"Never mind, lad," laughed the captain, "we all have those days, you
+know."
+
+So Jack made his way to the captain's cabin.
+
+But let us say nothing more of them; rather let us ask what became of
+Bill Raynor?
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XLI.
+
+                         WAR IN TIMES OF PEACE.
+
+
+Just before Jack called upon his Uncle Toby, Bill had expressed a desire
+to stroll about the Great City.
+
+"You see," Bill said in explanation, "the sight of old New York makes me
+glad to be back again. They say it's a selfish place. Well, perhaps
+there are towns that make you feel more at home, but once you know
+Manhattan's ways, you don't want to change!"
+
+"Have it your way," agreeably laughed Jack.
+
+So they parted for the time being.
+
+Feeling hungry, Bill decided to visit one of the select downtown
+restaurants his purse seldom allowed him to patronize. Now, as the
+reader will remember, Bill had no need to worry over funds--at any rate,
+not for the immediate future.
+
+Bill thoroughly enjoyed his meal. He left the restaurant feeling like a
+prince.
+
+"Those prices are steep," he reflected, "but the food and service are
+worth it."
+
+Barely had he walked a block when he recognized Tom Jukes a few strides
+in front of him. Bill's first impulse was to hail Tom, but something
+about the latter made him hesitate.
+
+"Something seems queer," muttered Tom, puzzled. He was undecided. Should
+he follow the millionaire's son?
+
+Tom Jukes seemed anxious to avoid being seen. Every now and then he
+glanced about him hurriedly. He kept close to the building line, his cap
+pulled over his eyes. He turned into one of those ancient alleys down in
+the financial district of New York.
+
+Bill Raynor came to a quick decision.
+
+"I'll follow him!" he muttered.
+
+A moment later Bill was also in the moldy alleyway. Tom swung south,
+then west, and south again, and finally halted before a pair of
+ornamental iron gates of the most antique and peculiar design.
+
+Bill, mystified that such places still existed in the Great Metropolis,
+dogged Tom's footsteps, always careful to keep well out of sight.
+
+He saw Tom pass through these iron gates. A moment later Bill had
+followed Tom through, though now he had to be far more careful, for
+every flagstone seemed to give up a hollow bellow.
+
+Tom walked up an iron staircase clinging to a decaying bulk of a
+dirt-gray stone ramshackle building. He climbed one flight and then
+disappeared from view.
+
+Bill, very carefully--every nerve alert--followed. A moment later he
+stepped into a long, dim, lofty corridor, walled with marble of a
+greenish tint, and smelling faintly of dry-rot.
+
+Picking his steps with the greatest caution, Bill felt his way forward.
+Somewhere in front of him he saw the shadowy form of Tom.
+
+Bill saw Tom pause before a door, which he opened very slowly. A faint
+light came from within. A moment later Tom had disappeared from view.
+
+Bill crept forward.
+
+Should he open the door?
+
+"I wish Jack were here," said Bill to himself.
+
+Jack, it was, who had won the approval of Jacob Jukes, head of the great
+shipping combine, and father of Tom, for his masterly handling of many
+difficult situations.
+
+Under the circumstances, Bill did not flinch in his determination to
+learn _what was going on behind that door_!
+
+Bill put his ear to the door--and at once heard a faint _tick-tick_, as
+well as a muffled voice. Slowly Bill felt the door for the knob and to
+his surprise he found there was none!
+
+"Entrance by signal only!" instantly decided Bill.
+
+But how was he to get in without it?
+
+His eyes were now more accustomed to the gloom. He looked about him,
+hoping to find a window or some outlet that might lead to the barred
+room.
+
+Farther down the corridor, to his right, he saw a stairway--or what
+appeared to be a stairway. He walked toward it, always bearing in mind
+to be extremely careful.
+
+He climbed up one flight without mishap. On this floor, the feeling of
+desertion and forlorn desolation grew deeper. Bill could barely suppress
+a shiver.
+
+Suddenly a rat scampered across the floor.
+
+"Phew!" ejaculated Bill, "this is _some_ place!"
+
+He noticed a thin ray of daylight a short distance from him. Bill at
+once decided to discover its origin. A moment later he saw that the
+light flowed from the cracks of a door.
+
+A brief investigation proved the door to be unlocked. As he quietly
+pulled the door open he saw that the room was absolutely bare, and that
+the light came from the mud-pasted windows facing a brick wall not five
+feet from them.
+
+Bill tip-toed across the room, and raised one of the windows. To his
+satisfaction he at once noticed the drain pipe at arm's length. A moment
+later he had slid to the floor below.
+
+To his surprise he saw the window of that mysterious room wide open. He
+could see only part of it. There seemed many men listlessly sitting
+about, though the majority kept unseeing eyes on a blackboard.
+
+"A blind tiger!" breathed Bill, amazed.
+
+Bill meant that it was a fake racing broker's place. In years gone by
+there were many such dens of evil in New York, where congregated the
+broken-hearted, the reckless, the unscrupulous, all of whom tempted fate
+on this horse or that. As a rule the proprietor controlled the destinies
+of his victims, for he could "fake" any information he desired as to
+what horse won or lost. Happily these dens are now more scarce than
+hen's teeth. It was these dens, the graves of dupes, that were called
+_blind tigers_.
+
+"Does Tom play the ponies?" wondered Bill.
+
+He listened intently.
+
+Somewhere a ticker droned, and a husky voice announced:
+
+"Gas a half--five eighths; Steel six--nine hundred at a quarter--a
+thousand--five-hundred--a quarter--an eighth--Erie--an eighth--Steam--an
+eighth----"
+
+"What does this mean?" questioned Bill. "It sounds like stock
+quotations. Can it be----?"
+
+He decided to risk glancing into the room.
+
+At some risk of losing his hold he balanced himself in order to
+accomplish his wish.
+
+He saw a room, unclean and unwholesome. The men seemed to be of the
+discarded of the street, the diseased and maimed of the financial
+district; here and there was a younger, smarter type, the kind that
+makes the gangster, the pickpocket and worse. He also saw Tom sitting
+quietly yet alert. At his elbow was a young man, somewhat older than
+Tom. On the wall facing the window was a great blackboard, and as the
+ticker spelled out its information, and the slovenly dressed clerk gave
+it voice, a second clerk chalked away without cessation.
+
+Beyond this clerk's announcements everything was quiet. Bill felt
+himself slipping, so he silently swung back to his former position. The
+light of understanding was in his eyes.
+
+"By Jove, it's a bucket shop!"
+
+Now a bucket shop is where people buy and sell stock on less margin or
+in smaller quantity than is accepted on the curb on Broad Street or on
+the Stock Exchange. These establishments, too, are fast disappearing,
+though as is always possible in New York, an exception--as in all
+directions of semi-organized crime--manages to keep from the sharp
+talons of the law for a longer period of time.
+
+The bucket shops were where messenger boys and clerks gamboled with Dame
+Fortune. Sooner or later they lost--lost not only every cent to their
+names, but much of their self-respect and honesty. It was also the place
+for the men who had gone down to defeat in the great battle fought
+bitterly every minute of the day in the great financial arena. These men
+were unfit for everything else, so they turned to the bucket shops as a
+drowning man grasps at a straw. But we have digressed enough--though
+this was really necessary--and let us continue with the narrative.
+
+Bill did not know what to make of it all.
+
+Surely Tom Jukes had little need to play for stakes. His father was
+sufficiently wealthy and knew the great money game, and its pitfalls,
+not to have acquainted his son with them. The more Bill thought, the
+more puzzled he became.
+
+Suddenly he heard Tom shout:
+
+"You robber, you thief!"
+
+"Git out," bawled the voice, evidently that of the proprietor, "or I'll
+have you put out!"
+
+"You do, and I'll have you in the hands of the police within twenty-four
+hours!"
+
+"You will, will you?" came the snarling challenge, followed by a general
+commotion.
+
+"Here's where I take a hand!" decided Bill, and leaped into the room,
+now in fearful confusion.
+
+"Stop!" cried Bill, drawing his revolver, which he had a special permit
+to carry at any time he wished, "or I'll fire!"
+
+His command was obeyed.
+
+"Stand where you are!" Bill demanded, noting a suspicious movement on
+the part of several to escape.
+
+"Bill, good old Bill!" exclaimed Tom, overjoyed.
+
+"Yes, it's Bill," was the reply. "Call up Headquarters while I hold them
+in line."
+
+"That's your tip, Fred," said Tom, turning to the young man Bill had
+noticed before. "On the run now!"
+
+The young man called Fred seemed to need no further invitation.
+
+Tom now joined Bill. From one of the drawers of the desk at which the
+proprietor had been seated, Tom brought to light an ugly-looking Colt.
+
+"Let's move 'em toward the rear!" suggested Tom. "Some of 'em are
+showing signs of restlessness."
+
+"All right!" acquiesced Bill.
+
+So, at the point of the revolvers, everyone in the room was lined up
+against the rear wall. The older men, who had seen better days, appeared
+indifferent to it all. To them life meant very little. Spirit, youth,
+ambition, success had long passed them by. They still clung to the vain
+hope of winning something out of sheer habit. Stock gambling, like
+opium, oftentimes urges on its victim until the sands of life slowly ebb
+away. The younger no-accounts scowled darkly. But what could they do?
+Those two lads were too business-like to attempt anything rash.
+
+"Say," growled the proprietor, addressing Tom, "can't we call this
+quits?"
+
+"Nothing doing!" was the curt reply, both boys at once becoming more
+alert that ever.
+
+"Aw, take a joke," pleaded the man. "I'll square it with you. Honest I
+will."
+
+Both boys remained silent.
+
+"I'll tell you what," continued the owner, "just to square myself, I'll
+throw in one hundred dollars."
+
+Silence.
+
+"Five hundred!"
+
+"You're going out of business," announced Tom. "Save your breath!"
+
+"One thousand dollars!"
+
+"One more word," warned Bill, "and I won't be responsible for my action.
+Keep still."
+
+Defeated, the man depicted his silent disdain.
+
+A moment later Fred and the police arrived. The police captain in charge
+wanted the boys to go along to press the charge, but Tom, upon quickly
+satisfying the officer of their intentions of doing so the next
+day--especially establishing that Tom was the son of Jacob Jukes, the
+multimillionaire--were at liberty to proceed as they pleased.
+
+"Explanations are now in order."
+
+"Correct," replied Tom. "Let me first introduce Fred Strong, an old-time
+friend of mine. Bill Raynor, one of the finest boys in the world!"
+
+The introduction was acknowledged with appropriate remarks. Tom then
+unfolded a most interesting story. Fred was a Wall Street clerk--and,
+like many others, dabbled in stocks. He kept on losing. So, desperate,
+he attempted to court luck at the bucket shop a friend of his had told
+him of. For a time he won. His hopes rose. Then the inevitable reverses
+began. The proprietor meanwhile had studied his victim. Fred, without
+realizing it, became one of his dupes. He loaned money from every one.
+He began to tamper with his books. Disgrace stared him in the face when
+he met Tom. A few hours had straightened out all tangles. Tom, however,
+insisted on bringing the bucket shop keeper to book.
+
+"Well, that's all to it!" interspersed Tom.
+
+"Hold on," expostulated Bill, "why did you sneak along the street as if
+wishing to be unrecognized?"
+
+"Easy," replied Tom. "Saw dad, across the street, so had to--as you
+say--_sneak_."
+
+"_Phew!_" whistled Bill, astonished. "I never saw him. One other point,
+how did you know the revolver was in that desk?"
+
+"It seems," answered Tom, "that the bucket shop proprietor made it a
+practice to show new customers that weapon. I suppose it was an
+effective reminder that all disagreements might be settled rather
+abruptly."
+
+"Well," chimed in Fred, "let us forget about it. I'll never play the
+market again. But, boys, I want you to come with me. I have to tell this
+story to the sweetest girl in town. You've got to meet her!"
+
+"If you insist, lead on," replied Tom. "But suppose you tell her the
+truth of the matter, and then,--well--I guess Bill and I will be
+honored, I'm sure!"
+
+Bill laughed outright.
+
+"I never suspected," he said, "you had so much of the so-called 'society
+sass'."
+
+Tom chuckled with glee. He was highly satisfied with the first day's
+adventure in America. In excellent spirits, the trio rode uptown. While
+en route Bill briefly told, in turn, of catching sight of Tom, and the
+consequences thereof.
+
+An hour later Fred brought them to a neatly nestled house. There was a
+hand-ball court on the property, and Fred saw to it that they were made
+to feel at home. Then he entered the house.
+
+"Elsie," said Fred, when first greetings were over and they were
+comfortably settled, "I've something to tell you."
+
+"What is it, Fred?"
+
+"I--I couldn't buy you the engagement ring--be--because I lost the
+money."
+
+"That is _too_ bad! But don't mind it, dear. I can wait."
+
+"It's nice of you to say it, but I lost the money on stocks."
+
+"Tell me about it," she requested calmly, though there was a break in
+her voice.
+
+So Fred related the facts already familiar to us. Nor did he spare
+himself in the recital. At its conclusion, there was a moment's silence.
+Then----
+
+"Fred," said the girl softly, "I'm glad you told me of this. Please,
+Fred, don't gamble again--whether it be on cards or stocks--and if you
+were younger--I'd add buttons and marbles."
+
+"I've already promised not to do so--but Elsie, I have something else to
+tell you. I have a new position at a higher salary--thirty dollars a
+week."
+
+"That's great!"
+
+"It'll be more--if I make good."
+
+"Fred, I'm _so_ glad."
+
+A pause.
+
+"The cost of living is very high now," asked Fred--"isn't it?"
+
+"I should say so! Diamonds will soon be cheaper than onions or potatoes
+or cut sugar."
+
+"Elsie!"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Would you like--could you--I mean--er--do you think two persons could
+live on thirty dollars a week?"
+
+"_Certainly!_"
+
+"How about _us_?"
+
+"Oh, George!"
+
+"Elsie!"
+
+A blissful interval. Then--
+
+"Elsie--I've completely forgotten! Those two boys I told you of are
+playing handball. They insisted that I confess my crimes before you met
+them!"
+
+A moment later Fred was introducing Tom and Bill to Elsie. The young
+lady's form of greeting was most unexpected and unconventional. Before
+either of the boys could surmise her intention, she had kissed them!
+
+Of course general laughter and banter followed. Of this let us say no
+more.
+
+The reader, however, may rest assured that the boys whose adventures we
+have followed through six volumes were always true to American ideals
+and aspirations. They participated in many strange and thrilling
+adventures. We may write of these in the near future, but for the time
+being, with every good wish for the bright future that appears assured
+to them, we will bid farewell to the Ocean Wireless Boys.
+
+                                THE END.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+  1. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+  2. Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the original document
+     have been preserved.
+  3. Underscores indicate text originally in printed in italics.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ocean Wireless Boys on War Swept
+Seas, by Wilbur Lawton
+
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