Kitabı oku: «Under Fire For Servia», sayfa 6
CHAPTER XI
CRAFT AGAINST CRAFT
In the boathouse where Stepan had left him, Dick knew almost as soon as he saw Mike Hallo's narrow eyes appear around the closet door, that Mike had not seen him as yet. But he was too frightened to take any advantage of that consciously. Dick had proved that he was not a coward, and yet he was afraid of Hallo. He knew that the man hated him, and, for some reason, feared him. And here, where he would be so completely in his power, there would be nothing to restrain Hallo. He would not even have to call in the police to help him; he could get rid of a boy who threatened him without a witness. And Dick knew enough of Mike Hallo to feel that he would not be deterred by any scruples.
In another moment Mike's little eyes, peering around the dimly lighted room, but not yet well enough accustomed to even that much light after the utter darkness of the closet, would have fallen on Dick. But fear loosened Dick's hold on the electric flashlight that, by pure chance, happened to be in his hand. He started with dismay and tried to catch it, succeeding partly, so that it made only the faintest of noises as it struck a button of his coat. But that was enough. Hallo heard it, and started.
Yet it was that trifling accident that saved Dick. For Hallo, startled, and nervous himself, as of course he had good cause to be, better cause than Dick could guess, darted back into his closet at once. For a moment as Dick stared at it with fixed eyes, the closet door remained ajar. Then very slowly, very quietly, it was drawn to, until it clicked, and was firmly closed. On the instant, then, Dick moved.
He took the chance of being heard, and made a swift dash for the boat. His reason was a twofold one. For one thing, it offered the only possible place of concealment, aside from the closet that Mike Hallo had already preëmpted for himself, and it contained the weapons of which Steve had told him. Dick knew how to use a pistol, and he felt that with a gun of some sort in his possession he would have a chance at least with Hallo, even if he were armed. He would not hesitate to shoot, he told himself, if he had to. He had reason enough to believe that Hallo would not spare him, and in self-defence he would be justified in taking any means to save himself.
But he did not think it was particularly likely that it would come to anything so desperate now as a hand-to-hand struggle. He was recovering his nerve, and the panic that had possessed him when he had first seen Hallo's face had passed. Once he was in the boat, well concealed by the steel hood, he felt that the odds were in his favor, rather than against him, and he could stop to think and reason, which he had certainly not been able to do in the first moment of shocked surprise.
He felt the main thing that favored him was that Hallo was at least as badly frightened as he was himself. And that, after all, stood to reason. The very fact that the man was here at all seemed to Dick proof that he knew the character of this place, and that he was here as a spy. Then he would naturally be startled by a sudden sound, for he would think that it betokened the return of one of the Servian spies who used this as a hiding place and refuge.
"He would know, of course," Dick thought, "that they wouldn't hesitate any more over shooting him than if he were a mad dog. They couldn't, because he isn't threatening only their safety by being here, but their whole plan. And men who are brave enough to be spies in time of war aren't thinking of themselves at all, but of their country."
This was comforting reasoning for Dick, because it made it vastly improbable that Hallo would come out to look for him. He would be concerned with the problem of escaping himself; he would not think of looking for anyone else, but of preventing someone who was looking for him from finding him. So it seemed likely to Dick that he would escape any sort of personal encounter with Hallo, and he was glad of that. He had the same feeling that Stepan had expressed to Milikoff, although, of course, he knew nothing of that talk, nor of how Hallo had happened to come to this place. It seemed to him that Hallo would be worth more to the Servians alive than dead, and it was certain that the only chance for the success of the mission that had brought him from New York to Semlin would be gone if anything happened to Hallo.
From his position, crouched down in the bottom of the boat, Dick could see the closet door. And, as it began to move again, after five nerve racking minutes, Dick clutched his revolver, feeling that it was a pretty good thing to have as an ally, even if it was so unlikely that he would have occasion to use it. His fear had passed away altogether by this time, and a bold plan was beginning to come into his mind. But its execution depended upon Hallo and what that swindler might do next.
For just a second, as Hallo came out into the boathouse, Dick thought of starting up suddenly, covering him with a revolver, and forcing him to surrender. But he decided against that. Mike Hallo, as he knew, was not without a certain crude sort of physical courage. If he was armed – as it was practically certain that he was – he might be able to put up a good struggle. And, though Dick was no longer afraid for himself, he felt that it would involve too great a risk of letting the man get clear away if he followed his impulse.
So he kept perfectly still, instead, while Hallo came out and finally stood in the middle of the part of the boathouse that had a floor. He leaned forward, like a bird dog when it is in doubt, and seemed to be sniffing the air, though Dick knew that he was really only listening with concentrated attention. He was listening, not for a real noise, but for those almost inevitable sounds that the quietest person must make. It seemed extraordinary to Dick that Mike could not hear his breathing, or the beating of his heart, which sounded so abnormally loud to him. But hear them Mike did not, evidently, for after a moment he relaxed and heaved a sigh of relief.
"I'm getting jumpy," he said to himself, aloud, in English. "I guess that wasn't anything I heard before. Just a board creaking, maybe!"
Dick grinned and maintained his silence. And then Hallo, after walking about for half a minute, looked toward the boat.
"If only I knew how to run that!" he said, still aloud.
But, fortunately for Dick, and for Servia, as it was to turn out, he knew nothing of the intricate mechanism of the boat, and so he did not even come over to the water's edge for a closer inspection. Instead, he made for the door, flung it open, and strode out as it banged to behind him.
Dick was after him like a flash, but with his hand on the knob some instinct made him let go and shrink back against the wall. His instinct served him well indeed, for as he did so the door was flung open violently, and Hallo stood in it, looking all about the boathouse a second time.
"Not a soul!" he said aloud. "I must have been dreaming when I heard that noise!"
And all the time Dick was within a foot of him, his pistol gripped tight, ready for anything that might happen!
This time he did not close the door, but turned and walked away. That very action proved that he was no longer afraid that anyone was behind him, for he would not have turned his back had there been any lingering doubt.
And now Dick, giving him a good start, stole after him. He had hesitated as to whether or not he should do so. He had promised to wait for Stepan's return, and he did not like to go without some explanation. But it seemed to him that it was of the utmost importance for him to follow Hallo.
"He's not supposed to be here or to know anything about this place," he said to himself. "And now he may do anything, or go anywhere. He may betray all sorts of secrets. I don't know how long he was in that closet before we came, nor how much he heard – nor what the things he heard meant to him. I didn't understand, but that's no reason for thinking that he didn't. Yes, I'll have to take the chance of worrying Steve and upsetting his plans. I'm going after Mike Hallo. He's my quarry to-night!"
Dick knew that he was taking chances, and perhaps big chances, when he set out to follow Hallo. But he did not stop to think very much about them. He did not have time to think of anything but the work in hand, for Hallo, not content with walking fast, had broken into a run.
Dick understood the reason for that when, in his turn, he heard footsteps; that was what had frightened his man into beginning to run. And Dick ran too, not knowing that the steps were those of Vanya, the soldier, who was on his way to the boathouse with the message from Stepan.
Hallo had all the advantage. He knew the country and Dick did not. Moreover, he could set the pace, and Dick had to follow. To lose sight of Hallo even for a moment meant to risk losing him altogether. And Dick, moreover, dared not follow too closely. He had to be far enough behind to make it impossible for Hallo to learn of his pursuit by stopping suddenly, or making a quick turn.
It was a wild chase that Dick had. Hallo, for a man of his size and years – he was well over forty – made surprisingly good time, and gave Dick, as a matter of fact, all he could do to keep him in sight. And the way was long. Dick was greatly relieved when they came at last from open country into a section where houses were closer together and streets began to take form. In a measure his own risk was greater as they approached the town, but it was also possible for him to get much closer to the man he was trailing, since shelter was so much more frequent. The danger here was of running into the police, but Dick did not greatly fear that.
"I needn't worry about the ordinary policemen," he told himself. "I don't believe they know me at all. I could probably go up to any of them and ask the time, or the way to the railway station, and get away with it all right. It's only the ones who were on my track after I'd been to Hallo's office that I've got to look out for, and I'm not sure that even they would know me."
And now Hallo himself unwittingly made it safer and easier for his dogged pursuer, for instead of going toward the central part of Semlin, where policemen would be more numerous, and where the men who had gone to make the arrest at Dick's lodgings were almost sure to be posted, he circled through the poorer quarter toward the commercial district by the river.
"Oh, this is fine!" thought Dick. "I'll bet he's going to his office before he makes any report. I wonder if Stepan will think of him when I'm missing?"
Dick had to move up very close here, for the streets were crowded with people, and it would have been easy for him to lose his man in the jumble of figures. Several times now Hallo, as he neared his office, was stopped by passersby. He shook them off impatiently when they tried to detain him, however, and once Dick was near enough to hear him say, in an impatient tone: "Let me go! I have an appointment to keep at my warehouse."
And now Dick had a new inspiration. He determined to take a chance. And instead of following Hallo, he seized the opportunity when someone had stopped the Hungarian for a moment, and darted well ahead. He got a good start, and turned the corner of the block leading to the warehouse well ahead of Hallo. In a moment he was inside. Luck was with him, and he hid himself behind a big packing case in Hallo's room.
CHAPTER XII
IN THE NICK OF TIME
Crouched behind the packing case, Dick waited, wondering what was to come next. Now that he was here, he felt that he had done a foolish thing, and one only likely to lead to more trouble. There was so little chance for him to accomplish anything of value, and he was not even sure that Hallo would come here at all. Perhaps he was going somewhere else, and he had simply walked into a trap without even a chance of getting any results.
Yet luck had been with him so far in good measure. He had been almost marvelously lucky in the boathouse. That Hallo had not seen him there had been due only to fortune, and scarcely at all, in the first perilous moment, to any action of his own. And he had been lucky again in his trip into the city with Hallo ahead of him. In war time, as he knew, people were likely to be suspicious of any stranger, even of one acting in the most ordinary fashion. And his behavior, as he dodged and trailed after Hallo, had been more than suspicious.
And finally, too, his getting into Hallo's office and finding a place to conceal himself so well had been luck of the greatest sort. He had taken a wild chance when he darted ahead of his man, for he might well have found the door closed and locked, and have been caught by Hallo before he could have got away. But he had staked everything on the hazard that there ought to be a night watchman, as there would be, he knew, in any American warehouse. And a night watchman there was. He had seen the light of a man's lantern, as he came up to the door, from a second floor window. The door had been open, and so he had slipped in.
The very fact that the door was open, too, encouraged him. It seemed to him to make it certain that Hallo was expected some time that night. And then a sound of brisk footsteps on the uncarpeted floor just outside the office set his pulses leaping. Was it Hallo?
He could not tell, and he dared not emerge from his shelter enough to see. In a moment the room was light, but Dick was still hidden, and the movements of whoever had come in were hidden from him, too. But he was sure of one thing after a very few moments. It was not Hallo with whom he now shared the room. The newcomer's movements were too brisk, too quick, for Hallo, who was slow moving, rather heavy footed, though agile enough when it was necessary. Consumed by curiosity, Dick gradually edged over so that he might have a chance to steal a look around the edge of the big packing case without being seen himself.
He succeeded at last, and just as he looked around, the door was opened. Hallo came in, and Dick darted back – but not until he had seen that the other occupant of the room was Stepan Dushan! Now he felt that he was amply justified for what he had done. Steve was here, and between them there should be a chance to do something, he thought!
"What are you doing here?" growled Hallo, as he saw Stepan.
"I came to try to catch up with my work, sir," said Stepan, meekly. "Since I could not be here to-day during the day, I thought it would be better if I got ready for to-morrow, so that in the morning no time would be lost."
"H'mph!" growled Hallo. He hesitated for a moment; then, half satisfied, sat down at his desk.
"Did you have a fall, sir?" asked Stepan, and Dick almost choked with laughter at his tone. "You're all covered with mud. Shall I get a brush and try to take some of it off?"
"No! Attend to your work!" roared Hallo. "Or here – clear out of here! I'm going to be busy, and I want to be alone."
It seemed to Dick that Stepan was hesitating, that he was on the verge of refusing to obey, and so of giving everything away. But he yielded, after just a moment's pause.
"Very well, sir," he said. "I'll go down to the stock-room and make the tally from last night's sheets."
"All right. Be off!" said Hallo, ungraciously.
And now one thing filled Dick's mind. How much had Hallo seen or heard while he was hidden in the closet of the boathouse? Did he know Stepan's real work, and the part he was playing in these stirring times? If he did, and had concealed his knowledge, it meant that he was laying a trap for Stepan, and it meant, too, that he was a good actor, for he had managed to conceal his knowledge admirably if he really possessed it.
Nothing that Dick knew of Hallo made it seem at all likely that he could dissemble well enough to keep from betraying his knowledge, if he had it. But Dick felt that it would not be safe to assume that, because his father had trusted Hallo to a great extent, and had supposed him to be an honorable business man, and there had certainly never been anything in his conduct to suggest that he would behave as he had done. And, moreover in New York he had seemed a plodding, stolid business man, and had never seemed to have it in him to play a part in the sort of intrigue that so evidently occupied much of his time in Semlin.
For a time the room was absolutely quiet. Dick wondered where Steve had gone. He was sure, somehow, that his chum was within reach, probably within hearing, waiting like himself for Hallo to do something. And Dick guessed, too, that Steve must have discovered by this time that the boathouse was empty, and thought that perhaps it was in search of him that Steve was here. That worried him, but for the time there was nothing to be done; he could only wait. The one preparation he could make for whatever might be coming was to get very close to the edge of his shelter, so that he could with little risk peep out from time to time. Each time that he looked out he saw Hallo, head bent low over the table, writing furiously.
Then came the break in the tension. Outside, echoing on the flags, came hurried footsteps. Dick listened eagerly. They turned in and came clattering up the steps. He dared not risk a peep just then to see who was coming. For the time, he decided, his ears must do the work of his eyes as well as their own share. He heard Hallo spring up, overturning his chair.
"You! Here?" cried Hallo, in a low voice. "Are you mad, man?"
"No. I had to come," said the newcomer. "It was impossible to send word, and you had to know – someone had to know! I suppose it was risky for me to come here, but they are all at work. All except Milikoff, and I don't know where he is."
"He led a band of assassins who tried to kill me earlier in the evening," growled Hallo. "But there are others, at least two others, here somewhere. They came in this evening, from the other side."
"From the other side?" said the stranger, in amazement. "But how could that be? The river front is guarded so that a strange fly could hardly cross from Belgrade to Semlin!"
"Don't you know of the boathouse near Milikoff's place?"
Hallo's tone was suddenly menacing. Dick could imagine that he was leaning forward, pushing his heavy jaw into the face of the other man. He remembered that trick of the Hungarian's.
"Boathouse – near Milikoff's? No!" stammered the other. "I never heard of it before!"
"H'mph!" Hallo's voice expressed doubt, distrust. "Perhaps not! Well, I came upon it by chance to-night, and it saved my life. They seized me to-night when I was in conference with them – the treacherous hounds! But they are Servians! I might have expected it! I escaped, and they chased me! They chased me right into the Danube! I swam, while they peppered the water. They had those new silencers, so that it was safe to shoot. And by the merest chance, when I was nearly exhausted, I suddenly saw a door in front of me, as I was trying to swim ashore in an inlet, in the hope of escaping after I had landed. I dived, and came up in a boathouse. The door could be raised, you see, to admit a boat. There was a closet, and I hid."
"That is news to me! I never heard that there was such a place!"
"I drew the closet door to when I heard a man come in. Soon afterward a motor boat entered, and two men landed from her. I could hear their voices dully – that closet door was thick, and it was so hot and close inside that I was almost suffocated. I do not know who they were except that I think Vanya, the soldier, was the man who opened for them. Later, when they had gone, I got out and came here."
"It is good that you came. Master, it is to-night that they plan to strike a great blow. They have dug a tunnel beneath the arsenal. I am almost sure that it is to-night they have chosen to explode a great mine that will destroy the arsenal completely, with all the stores and guns it contains!"
Hallo swore savagely.
"You have done well!" he said. "Eh, there is time yet, you think, to stop them? How is it that you do not know more concerning their plans?"
"They do not trust me wholly. I know only what I can learn by spying and ferreting about. They tell me almost nothing. But I am sure that I am right. Look – I will draw you a plan that will show you where the tunnel is. I think that if you hasten you can catch most of them like rats in a trap. Milikoff is not there. He is the most dangerous of all, save one."
"Who is more dangerous than Milikoff?"
"The boy Stepan Dushan!"
"Stepan Dushan! I do not believe there is such a boy! You tell me of him, but you can never show him to me!"
For a moment Dick could not understand. But then he smiled at his own stupidity. Of course Steve was known to Mike Hallo under an assumed name; he would never have used his own, so obviously that of a Servian.
"It makes no difference whether you believe me or not, I am telling you the truth," said the newcomer with a show of spirit. "He is young, but he has done more to discover the truth than any of them. He has brought information of the concentration of the Austrian troops along the Drina. It is through him that they learned where the stores and supplies were being massed in the mountains there. I told you yesterday of the plans that were made for a Servian raid, but it was too late. A raiding column crossed the Drina last night and destroyed most of the stores you had collected."
"There has been a leak somewhere in my own place!" said Hallo, savagely. "Even the men who executed the orders did not know where those supplies were going! I trusted no one!"
"That is just the bad part of it, master," said the spy. "They will be saying next that you yourself gave away the truth to the Servians."
"Who will believe them?"
"If it is known that you have been in touch with Milikoff?"
"It is known, fool! It is known that I am treating with them simply to gain information of their plans. But now – it is no time for talk. We must move quickly, or they will explode their mine."
He lifted his voice in a sudden shout.
"Jan!" he cried. "Jan!"
And then Dick's heart sank. That must be meant for Steve – and to answer meant deadly peril for Stepan Dushan, since the spy, who had so plainly been betraying Servian secrets to Hallo, knew Stepan. Dick edged forward, waiting, wondering. Now he caught a glimpse of the spy, and then he drew back, as he saw that both Hallo and the other man had come very close to him. They stood just by the box that sheltered him.
"Jan!" cried Hallo again.
"Here I am!" said Stepan's voice. And then, "Serge!"
"Stepan Dushan! That is Stepan Dushan!" shrieked the spy.
Then, before anything more could happen, Dick had an inspiration. He threw his whole weight against the heavy packing case, straining, pushing. It trembled, gave, and then crashed down, bearing Hallo and the spy down beneath its crushing weight, sending them down, stunned and helpless.
