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CHAPTER V.
NIGHT SIGNALS
After supper Captain Simms suddenly announced that he wished to make a trip to the mainland to the town of Clayton. He wished to send an important telegram to Washington, he explained.
"How are you going?" asked Jack. "The hotel boat has stopped running for the day."
"I know that, but I'll go on the Skipjack. You lads want to come?"
"Do we? I should say we do."
"You lads must be full of springs from the way you're always jumping about," remarked Uncle Toby, with a smile, "but I suppose it's boy nature."
The run to the shore was made quickly. It seemed almost no time at all before they made out the string of lights that marked the pier and the radiance of the brilliantly lit hotel behind them. But as they were landing an unforeseen accident occurred. Mistaking his distance in the darkness, the captain neglected to shut off power soon enough, and the nose of the Skipjack bumped into the pier with great force. At the same time a splintering of wood was heard.
"Gracious, another wreck," exclaimed Jack.
"Wow! What a bump!" cried Noddy.
"Is it a bad smash?" asked Billy anxiously.
The captain was bending over the broken prow of the boat examining it by the white lantern.
"Bad enough to keep us here all night, I'm afraid," he said. "Do you boys mind? It looks to me as if it could soon be repaired in the morning, and the boat will be safe here to-night at any rate."
"It's too bad," exclaimed Jack. "We seem to be regular hoodoos on a boat."
"It was my own fault," said the captain, "but the lights on the pier dazzled me so that I miscalculated my distance."
"Well, it's a good thing no other harm was done," was Billy's comment.
The boat was tied up and the watchman on the dock given some money to keep an eye on it. They engaged rooms at the hotel, and while Captain Simms composed his telegram, the boys took a stroll about the grounds of the hostelry, which sloped down to the bay. They had about passed beyond the radiance of the lights of the hotel when Jack suddenly drew his companions' attention to a figure that was stealing through the darkness hugging a grove of trees. There was something indescribably furtive in the way the man crept along, half crouched and glanced behind him from time to time.
"A burglar?" questioned Billy.
"Some sort of crook I'll bet," exclaimed Noddy.
"He's up to some mischief or I'm much mistaken," said Jack, as he drew his companions back further into a patch of black shadow cast by some ornamental shrubs.
"Let's trail him and see what he's up to," said Noddy.
"Gracious, you're a regular Sherlock Holmes at the drop of the hat," laughed Billy. "What do you think, Jack?"
"I don't know. He's going toward the wharf and I don't see just what he could steal there."
"Look at him stop and glance all around him as if he was afraid of being followed," whispered Billy.
"That doesn't look like an honest man's action, certainly," agreed Jack. "Come on, boys; we'll see what's in the wind. Do you know, somehow I've got an idea that we've seen that fellow somewhere before."
"What gives you that impression?" asked Billy.
"I can't say – it's just a feeling I've got. An instinct I guess you might call it."
The three boys moved forward as stealthily as did the man whose actions had aroused their suspicions. Presently they saw him cut across a small patch of lawn and strike into a narrow path which led among some trees.
With every care to avoid making any noise, the three boys followed. The path led to the edge of a cliff, down the face of which a flight of stone steps ran down to the water's edge. The man descended these.
"What can he be? A smuggler," suggested Billy.
"I don't see any boat down there, if he is," rejoined Jack in low tones.
Suddenly a sharp, low exclamation came from Noddy, who had been looking out over the lake.
He caught Jack's arm and pointed.
"Look, boys, a yacht!" he breathed.
"Heading in this way, too," rejoined Jack. "It looks like – but no, it cannot be."
"Cannot be what?" asked Billy, caught by something in his companion's voice.
"Cannot be the Speedaway."
"Judson's craft, the one that ran us down? Nonsense, you've got Judson on the brain, Jack."
"Have I? Well, it's an odd coincidence, then, that the yacht yonder has a tear in her foresail exactly where our bowsprit tore the Speedaway's jib this afternoon."
"By hookey, you're right, Jack!" cried Noddy. "There may be more to this than we think."
Billy was peering from behind a bush over the edge of the cliff, which was not very high.
He could see below, the dark figure of a man making a black patch in the gloom upon the white beach. He was moving about and pacing nervously to and fro on the shingle as if awaiting something or somebody.
Suddenly he made a swift move.
"He's waving his handkerchief," whispered Billy to the others, as he saw the man make a signal with a square of white linen.
"To that yacht, I'll bet a cookie," exclaimed Noddy.
As if in answer to his words there suddenly showed, on the yacht, a red lantern, as if a scarlet eye had suddenly opened across the dark water.
CHAPTER VI.
IN THE DARK
"Something's in the wind sure enough," said Jack. "Hark, there's the plash of oars. They must be going to land here."
From below there came a man's voice.
"Right here, Judson; here's the landing place. Are you alone?"
"No, my son is with me," came the reply, "but for heaven's sake, man, not so loud."
"There's no one within half a mile of this place. I came down through the grounds and they were deserted."
"Humph, but still it's as well to be careful. One never knows what spies are about," came the reply.
The boys, nudging each other with excitement, heard the bow of the boat scrape on the shingly beach and then came the crunch of footsteps.
"They are coming up the steps," whispered Jack in low, excited tones.
"That's right, so they are," breathed Billy cautiously. "Let's get behind the trees and learn what is going on."
"It's something crooked, that's sure," whispered Noddy.
"I begin to think so myself," agreed Jack, "but that man's voice, as well as his figure, seemed familiar to me when he hailed Judson, but I can't, for the life of me, think where I heard his voice before."
The three lads lost no time in concealing themselves behind some ornamental bushes in the immediate vicinity. They were none too soon, for hardly had they done so when the figures of two men and a boy appeared at the top of the steps.
"Phew," panted Judson, "I'm not as young as I was. That climb has made me feel my age. Let's sit down here."
"Very well, that bench yonder will be just the place," agreed the man the boys had followed, and who had seemed so oddly familiar to Jack.
The seat they had selected could hardly have been a better one for the boys' purpose. It was placed right against the bush behind which they were hiding. The voices came to them clearly, although the speakers took pains to modify them.
"Well, I've been waiting for you," came in the voice of the man the boys had instinctively followed.
"We'd have got here sooner, but were delayed by an accident, or rather a sort of accident on purpose that occurred this afternoon. I was glad to see that you hadn't forgotten our night signal code," said Judson.
"What was the accident?" asked the man, who was a stranger to the boys, who were listening intently.
"Oh, just three brats who are summering here," scoffed Donald Judson. "They appeared to think they owned the bay, and I guess it was up to me to show them they didn't. I guess Jack Ready will be on the market for another boat before long and – "
"Hold on, hold on," exclaimed the strange man. "What was that name?"
"Ready, Jack Ready. He thinks he's a wizard at wireless. Why, do you know him, Jarrow?"
Jarrow, at the sound of the name there, brought into Jack's mind the recollections of the rascally partner of Terrill & Co., who had financed his uncle's treasure hunt and had then tried to steal the hoard from him. It was Jack who had overthrown the rascal's schemes and made him seek refuge in the west to escape prosecution. Yet he had apparently returned and in some way become associated with Judson. Noddy, too, as had Bill, had started at the name. Both nudged Jack, who returned the gesture to show that he had heard and understood.
"So Ready is here, eh?" growled Jarrow. "Confounded young milksop."
"You appear not to be very fond of him," interjected the elder Judson.
"Fond of him! I should think not! I hate him like poison."
"What did he ever do to you?"
"He – er – er – he upset an – er – er – business deal I was in with his uncle."
"The one-legged old sea captain?"
"That's the fellow. He trusted me in everything till Jack Ready came nosing in and spoilt his uncle's chance of becoming a rich man through his association in business with me."
"I've no use for him either," exclaimed Donald vindictively. "I'll give him a good licking when I see him."
"Well, well, let's get down to business," said the elder Judson decisively. "You have been to Washington, Jarrow?"
"Yes, and found out something, but not much. The new naval wireless code is not yet completed. I found out that by bribing a clerk in the Navy Department and – "
"This business is proving pretty expensive," grumbled Judson.
"We're playing for a big stake," was the reply. "I found out that the code has been placed in the hands of a Captain Simms, recently attached to the revenue service, for revision. I believe that it is the same Captain Simms against whom I have a grudge, for it was on his ship that I was insulted by aspersions on my business honesty, and that, also, was the work of this Jack Ready."
"Pity he didn't tell them that he was in irons at the time," thought Jack to himself.
"Where is this Captain Simms?" asked Judson, not noticing, or appearing not to, his companion's outbreak.
"That's just it," was the rejoinder. "Nobody knows. His whereabouts are being kept a profound secret. Since it has become rumored that the Navy wireless code was being revised, Washington fairly swarms with secret agents of different governments. Simms is either abroad or in some mighty safe place."
"Our hands are tied without him," muttered Judson, "and if I don't get that code I don't stand a chance of landing that big steel contract with the foreign power I have been dealing with."
"I'm afraid not," rejoined Jarrow. "I saw their representative in Washington and told him what I had learned. His answer was, 'no code, no contract.' I'm afraid you were foolish in using that promise as a means to try to land the deal."
"I had my thumb on the man who would have stolen it for me at the time," rejoined Judson, "but he was discharged for some minor dishonesty before I had a chance to use him."
"The thing to do is to locate this Captain Simms."
"Evidently, you must do your best. The wind has died down and I guess we'll stop at the hotel till to-morrow. Anyhow, it's too long a sail back to-night. Come on, Donald; come, Jarrow." The bench creaked as they rose and made off, turning their footsteps toward the hotel.
Not till they had gone some distance did the boys dare to speak, and even then they did not say much for a minute or two. The first expression came from Jack. It was a long, drawn-out:
"We-e-l!"
"And so that is the work that Captain Simms has been doing in that isolated retreat of his," exclaimed Billy.
"And these crooks have just had the blind luck to tumble over him," exploded Noddy. "Just wait till they take a look at the hotel register."
"Maybe by the time they enter their names the page will have turned," suggested Billy.
"No," rejoined Jack, "our names were at the top of the page and there would hardly have been enough new arrivals after us at this time of night to have filled it since."
"We must find Captain Simms at once and tell what is in the wind," decided the young wireless man a moment later. "I guess the instinct that made us follow Jarrow was a right one."
"I wonder how the rascal became acquainted with Judson?" pondered Billy.
"Mixed up with him in some crooked deal or other before this," said Noddy.
"I shouldn't wonder," said Jack.
They began to walk back to the hotel. They did not enter the lobby by the main entrance, for the path they followed had brought them to a side door. They were glad of this, for, screened by some palms, they saw, bending intently over the register, the forms of the three individuals whose conversation they had overheard.
CHAPTER VII.
THE NAVAL CODE
"Now that you boys know the nature of the work I have been engaged on, I may as well tell you that confidential reports from Washington have warned me to be on my guard," said Captain Simms. "It was in reply to one of these that I sent a code dispatch to-night."
It was half an hour later, and they were all seated in the Captain's room, having told their story.
"But I should have imagined making up a code was a very simple matter," said Billy.
"That is just where you are wrong, my boy," smiled Captain Simms. "A commercial code, perhaps, can be jumbled together in any sort of fashion, but a practical naval code is a different matter. Besides dealing in technicalities it must be absolutely invulnerable to even the cleverest reader of puzzles. The new code was necessitated by the fact that secret agents discovered that an expert in the employ of a foreign power had succeeded in solving a part of our old one. It was only a very small part, but in case of trouble with that country it might have meant defeat if the enemy knew even a fragment of the wireless code that was being flashed through the air."
"Have you nearly completed your work?" asked Jack.
"Almost," was the reply, "but the fact that these men are here rather complicates matters. At Musky Bay, the name of the little settlement where I am stopping, they think I am just a city man up for the fishing. I do not use my right name there. By an inadvertence, I suppose it was habit, I wrote it on the hotel register to-night. That was a sad blunder, for it is practically certain that these men will not rest till they have found out where I am working."
"At any rate I'm mighty glad we followed that Jarrow," said Jack.
"And caught enough of their plans to put you on guard," chimed in Billy.
"Yes, and I am deeply grateful to you boys," was the rejoinder. "'Forewarned is forearmed.' If Judson and his crowd attempt any foul tactics they will find me ready for them."
"Judson apparently wishes now that he had not been so anxious to secure that contract as to promise the naval code as a sort of bonus," said Jack.
"I don't doubt it," answered Captain Simms. "Now that I recall it, I heard rumors that Judson, who once had a steel contract with our government, is not so sound financially as he seems. I judge he would go to great lengths to assure a large contract that would get him out of his difficulties."
"I should imagine so," replied Jack. "What was the reason he never did any more work for the government?"
"The inferior quality of his product, I heard. There were ugly rumors concerning graft at the time. Some of the newspapers even went so far as to urge his prosecution."
"Then we are dealing with bad men?" commented Jack.
"Unquestionably so. But I think we had better break up this council of war and get to bed. I want to get an early start in the morning."
But when morning came, it was found that the repairs to the Skipjack would take longer than had been anticipated. While Captain Simms remained at the boat yard to superintend the work, the lads returned to the hotel and addressed some post cards. This done they sauntered out on the porch. Almost the first person they encountered chanced to be Jarrow. He started and turned a sickly yellow at the sight of them, although he knew, from an inspection of the register the night before, that they were there.
"Why – er – ahem, so it is you once more. Where did you spring from?"
"We came out of that door," murmured Jack, while Noddy snickered. "Where did you come from?"
"I might say from the same place," was the rejoinder, with a look of malice at Noddy.
"We thought you were in the west," said Billy. "Great place, the west. They say the climate out there is healthier than the east – for some folks."
"Boy, you are impudent," snarled Jarrow.
"Not at all. I was merely making a meteorological remark," smiled Billy.
"Wait till I get that word," implored Noddy, pulling out a notebook and a stub of pencil.
"Splendid grounds they have here for taking strolls at night," Jack could not help observing.
From yellow Jarrow's face turned ashen pale. Muttering something about a telephone call, he hurried into the hotel.
"Goodness, that shot brought down a bird, with a vengeance," chuckled Billy.
Jarrow's head was suddenly thrust out of an open window. He glared at the boys balefully. His face was black as a thundercloud.
"You boys have been playing the sneak on me," he cried angrily. "If you take my advice, you will not do so in the future."
He withdrew his head as quickly as a turtle draws its headpiece into its shell.
"He's a corker," cried Noddy. "I'll bet if he had a chance, he'd like to half kill us."
"Shouldn't wonder," laughed Jack, "but he isn't going to get that chance. But hullo! What's all this coming up the driveway?"
The others looked in the same direction and beheld a curious spectacle.
CHAPTER VIII.
A MONKEY INTERLUDE
"Well, here's something new, and no mistake," cried Billy.
"Good, it will help pass our morning," declared Noddy, who was beginning to find time hang heavily on his hands now that he had nobody to play pranks on, like those he used to torment poor Pompey with.
An Italian was coming up the road toward the hotel. Strapped across his shoulders was a small hand-organ. He led a trained bear, and two monkeys squatted on the big creature's back. He came to a halt near the grinning boys.
"Hurray! This is going to be as good as a circus!" declared Noddy. "Start up your performance, professor."
"They're off!" cried Billy.
Summer residents of the hotel, anxious for any diversion out of the ordinary, came flocking to the scene as the strains of the barrel organ reached their ears, and the bear, in a clumsy fashion, began to dance to the music of the ear-piercing instrument.
"Where are you going, Noddy?" asked Jack, as the red-headed lad tried to get quietly out of the crowd.
"I just saw a chance for a little fun," rejoined Noddy innocently.
"Well, be careful," warned Jack. "This is no place for such jokes as you used to play on Pompey."
"Oh, nothing like that," Noddy assured him as he hurried off.
"Just the same I'm afraid of Noddy when he starts getting humorous," thought Jack.
He would have been still more afraid if he could have seen Noddy make his way to the hotel kitchen and bribe a kitchen maid to get him three large sugar cakes. Then he made his way to the dining-room, and boring tiny holes in the buns filled each of them with red pepper from the casters.
"Now for some fun," he chuckled.
"I just know that boy is up to some mischief by the look on his face," remarked an old lady as he hurried by.
Quite a big crowd was round the Italian when Noddy got back. Almost as soon as he arrived the man began passing the hat, and taking advantage of this, Noddy proffered his buns to the animals. They accepted them greedily.
"Peep! Peep!" chattered the monkeys.
"You mean 'pep,' 'pep'," chuckled Noddy to himself.
Both bear and monkeys tore into their buns as if they were half starved. In their hunger they got a few mouthfuls down without appearing to notice that anything was wrong. Then suddenly one of the monkeys hurled his bun at the bear and the other leaped on the big hairy creature's head. Apparently they thought the innocent bear had something to do with the trick that had been played on them.
"Da monk! da monk!" howled the Italian, "da monk go a da craz'."
"He says they are mad," exclaimed an old gentleman, and hurried away.
Just as he did so, the bear discovered something was wrong. He set up a roar of rage and broke loose from his keeper. The monkeys leaped away from the angry beast and sought refuge. One jumped on the head of an elderly damsel who was very much excited. The other made a dive for a fashionably dressed youth who was none other than Donald Judson.
"Help!" screamed the old maid. "Help! Will no one help me?"
"I will, madam," volunteered an old gentleman, coming forward. He seized the monkey and tugged at its hind legs, but it only clung the tighter to the elderly damsel's hair.
Suddenly there came a piercing scream.
"Gracious, her hair's come off!" cried a woman.
"She's been scalped, poor creature!" declared another.
"Oh, you wretch, how dare you!" shrieked the monkey's victim, rushing at the gallant old gentleman. She raised her parasol and brought it down on his head with a resounding crack. In the meantime the Italian was howling to "Garibaldi," as he called the monkey, to come to him.
But this the monkey had no intention of doing. Clutching the old maid's wig in its hands, it leaped away in bounds and joined its brother on the person of Donald Judson.
"Ouch, take them off. They'll bite me!" Donald was yelling.
The monkeys tore off his straw hat with its fancy ribbon and tore it to bits and flung them in the faces of the crowd. Then, suddenly, they both darted swiftly off and climbed a tree, where they sat chattering.
It was at that moment that the confused throng recollected the bear, which had not remained in the vicinity but had gone charging off across the lawn looking for water to drown the burning sensation within him. Now, however, an angry roar reminded them of him. The beast was coming back across the lawn, roaring and showing his teeth.
"Look out for the bear!"
"Get a gun, quick."
"Oh, he'll hug me," this last from the old maid, were some of the cries which the crowd sent up.
"He's mad, shoot him!" cried somebody. The Italian set up a howl of protest.
"No, no, no shoota heem. Mika da gooda da bear. No shoota heem."
"If you don't want him shot, catch him and get out of here. You'll have my hotel turned into a sanitarium for nervous wrecks the first thing you know," cried the proprietor of the place.
"Somebody playa da treeck," protested the Italian. "Mika da nica da bear, da gooda da bear."
"I guess he's like an Indian, only good when he's dead," said the hotel man. "I'm off to get my gun."
Noddy watched the results of his joke with mixed feelings. He had not meant it to go as far as this. He looked about him apprehensively, but everybody was too frightened to notice him.
Suddenly the bear headed straight for Noddy. Perhaps his red head was a shining mark or perhaps the creature recollected the prank-playing youth as the one who had given him the peppered bun. At any rate he charged straight after the lad, who fled for his life.
"Help!" he called as he ran. "Help, help!"
"Noddy's getting a dose of his own medicine," cried Jack to Billy.
"But we don't want to let the bear get him," protested Billy.
"Of course not, but he'll beat the bear into the hotel, see if he doesn't."
The hotel front door was evidently Noddy's objective point. It appeared he would reach it first, but suddenly he tripped on a croquet hoop and went sprawling. He was up in a minute, but the bear had gained on him. As he rushed up the steps it was only a few inches behind him.
Noddy gave a wild yell and took the steps in three jumps. The next second he was at the door and swinging it shut with all his might. But just then an astonishing thing happened.
Just as Noddy swung the door shut the bear made a leap. The result surprised Noddy as much as Bruin.
The edge of the door caught the big creature's neck and held him as fast as if he had been caught in a dead-fall. He was gripped as in a vise between the door and the frame. But poor Noddy was in the position of the man who caught the wild cat.
He didn't know how to let go!
