CHAPTER VIII

THE DEATH OF THE SPY

The inability of Lieutenant Mackinson to add a single word of further information to what he had said as he regained consciousness on the promenade deck increased the mystery.

The young lieutenant, it seemed, had been following a trail which he believed was leading him closer and closer to the object of the hunt, and it was in forging the links of this chain of circ.u.mstantial evidence that the young officer was led into the lower depths of the ship.

"From a sailor who did not know why I was inquiring," he told the captain, "I learned that on the night the unknown man invaded the battery room this sailor had seen another member of the crew, presumably from the engine or boiler room, throw aside something as he hurried along the pa.s.sageway leading from the wireless room. He was in his undershirt.

"The sailor said he was about to investigate when he saw us come along, and you stooped to pick up whatever it was that had been thrown away.

"While I was talking to him another member of the crew, evidently also from the boiler or engine room, brushed by us. He had disappeared when the sailor said to me, 'I think that was the fellow--the one that just went by.' Not wanting to arouse his suspicions, I ended the conversation with a casual remark, and then strolled away until I was out of the sailor's sight, and then hurried as fast as I could toward the engine room.

"I do not know that part of the ship well, and it was very dark down there. I was groping my way along when I thought I heard steps just ahead of me. I stopped to listen, and when the sound was not repeated I proceeded onward.

"All of a sudden I was grasped by the neck and one arm from behind, and thrown into that closet. Before I could utter a word I was a prisoner behind a locked door. I called several times, and, receiving no response, realized that I must be some distance from anyone else and that the noises of the engines completely drowned out my voice.

"Every moment it became more stifling in there, and I had no doubt that I had walked directly into a death-trap. It was then I began signaling on the steam-pipe. I guess it was a mighty lucky thing for me that Slim Goodwin strolled out on deck just at the time he did."

And that was all that Lieutenant Mackinson could tell. The mysterious stranger remained what he had been from the first--a desperate and dangerous and unknown spy, lurking somewhere upon the American transport _Everett_ with the evident intention of making the ship's position known to German U-boats when the _Everett_ and her convoy of cruisers and destroyers entered the danger zone.

Then it was, with the lieutenant temporarily disabled as a result of his experience, that the three boys from Brighton, who seemed somehow to have been selected by Fate as the despoilers of all the spy's plans, put their heads together to devise a scheme of capture.

"We've got more than one good reason for wanting to get this fellow,"

Slim reminded the others with considerable warmth, during the course of their deliberations. "First and foremost, of course, is our plain duty to our country, to which he is an enemy and a traitor.

"But, in addition to that, there is that knockout that he handed to Joe, and the midnight scare he gave Jerry and me, and finally his effort to kill Lieutenant Mackinson by slow suffocation, not to mention the nerve of the fellow in coming back the way he has."

"Yes," added Jerry, "we owe him a lot, and it is up to us to figure out how we can square the debt."

"Well," said Joe, "I think I've got a plan that will work; but we've got to remember that we are dealing with a very shrewd man."

"Well, what's your suggestion?" Slim demanded.

"That we divide our forces," answered Joe solemnly, "lie in wait and try to ambush the foe."

"Right!" cried Jerry. "Joe, you'll be a general before this war's over."

"Along what lines do we disperse our forces, General?" asked Slim.

"Along what lines would His Royal Stoutness suggest?" demanded Jerry.

"Oh, you don't have to keep reminding me that I'm a trifle heavy," Slim replied in a peevish tone.

"A trifle heavy! Get that, will you," echoed Jerry with a gale of laughter. "A trifle heavy! Oh, my!"

"You'll find out if I sit on you," Slim threatened, in a belligerent tone.

"Come now," said Joe, "this isn't making any progress toward capturing the spy."

"No," Jerry responded, "and that's our first duty, even if it is a trifle heavy."

"I've warned you," Slim snapped out.

"Quit it now," ordered Joe. "Let's get down to serious business."

"All right," agreed Jerry. "Shake, Slim, just to show there's no hard feelings."

"Won't do it," Slim muttered.

"Oh, yes, you will," counseled Joe. "Shake hands, the two of you."

Slim's good nature overcame his feigned reluctance, but as Jerry grasped his hand he gave Jerry a jerk that nearly took him off his feet.

"Now we're square," said Slim, as Jerry rubbed his nearly dislocated shoulder.

"Well, that pull _was_ a trifle heavy," muttered Jerry, determined to have the last word.

"Now my plan is this," said Joe, facing the other two seriously. "The nearer we come to the zone of the German submarines, the more this man will try to arrange to notify them of our presence, and to do that he will have to use the wireless somehow. It seems likely that he would make his effort at night, because then it is easier for him to escape detection.

"Now if we let Lieutenant Mackinson sleep during the day we could so divide up the work as for all of us to get some sleep, and then all could do watch at night.

"The lieutenant could be in the wireless room, and one of us in the battery room, while the other two did duty outside. If one of us should hide under that stairway at the upper end of the pa.s.sage, and the other in that alcove at the other end, no one could reach the wireless or battery rooms without our seeing.

"It would be tiresome and monotonous work, all right, but it might accomplish the result."

"I'm willing," said Jerry, "but you and I will have to do the outside work. Slim's a trifle heavy to get into either one of those hiding places."

"Well, I'll cover the battery room," said Slim, ignoring Jerry's remark.

"Let's see Lieutenant Mackinson, then," suggested Joe, and they went to find the young officer who was convalescing from his encounter with the spy. When he had approved the plan they got the O. K. of the captain.

And so it was, four hours later, with the lieutenant in the wireless room, and Slim in the battery room adjoining, and Joe and Jerry stowed away in the hiding places selected, their long night vigil began.

Hour after hour dragged itself by without a development, the intense silence broken only by the sounds of the engines and the wash of the sea against the ship. To the three boys, unable to see or talk to each other, and Joe and Jerry scarcely daring to move, the minutes lagged like hours, and the hours like dull, black, endless nights.

Dawn came, and with it new activities in all parts of the vessel, but without a reward for their watch, and as the two lads crawled from their places of concealment at either end of the pa.s.sage, to join Slim and Lieutenant Mackinson, there were mutual feelings of disappointment, but none of weakened determination.

"What luck?" asked the captain, coming in at that moment.

"None, sir, at all," the lieutenant responded.

"Very well, then, try it again to-night," the commander ordered. "But in the meantime all of you get some sleep. You may get better results to-night, for by then we will be coming to the outer fringe of the submarine zone. I will arrange for another man to stay in the wireless room during to-day, and if an emergency arises he will call you."