Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound Part 25

"That is no part of an underseas boat!" cried Boldig to the lookout.

"What is it?"

"There is a man in it-see! He waves his coat. It looks like a boat-no!

It is one mystery, Herr Boldig."

But the latter now had his gla.s.ses fixed on the drifting raft. He saw the broken stays, the slipper-shaped bow of the Zeppelin, and he suddenly understood. It was not the first wreck of a Zeppelin's frame work that he had seen floating in the sea; but it was the first in which he had seen a living man.

Boldig himself hailed-hailed in German. And fortunately for Tom Cameron he replied in the same language. His accent was irreproachable. Had it not been, the German officer might have thought twice about attempting to rescue the lone castaway.

The young American had no idea at first that this was a German-manned steamship-that she had been boldly taken over on the high seas by a gang of German pirates. Yet he was sharp enough to realize almost at once that there was something wrong with her.

No pa.s.sengers on her decks, no officers on her bridge until this one hailed him, and no crew along her waist watching him. Besides she was coming along at such a crippled gait.

He knew she must be a pa.s.senger ship, and the Union Jack at her masthead showed her nationality. But where was she going and why was she not convoyed?

Tom had already seen the smoke of several destroyers or converted trawlers, but had not been himself sighted by their lookouts. This was his first chance of rescue, and he was not at all particular just then who the people were aboard the _Admiral Pekhard_, as he saw she was named. With that name and under that flag she must be a British ship. As he was drifting in a part of a German Zeppelin, he naturally expected to be taken aboard as a prisoner. Yet he did or said nothing to reveal his true ident.i.ty for the time being. If they wished to think him a German at first, all right; explanations could come later.

Boldig called three men to man the motor boat that trailed astern. He had to stop the ship's engines to do this, for steam could not be kept up without the small force of stokers at his command working at top speed through their entire watch. The whole crew were almost exhausted.

Those whose watch it was below at this time must be allowed to sleep to recover their strength. It was a ticklish situation in more ways than one.

The _Admiral Pekhard_ began to roll in the trough of the sea. As she rolled toward him Tom could better see her deck and upperworks. He marked a woman's figure come out of the after companion on the upper deck. She stood there alone and shaded her eyes with her hand as she looked off at him.

The siege Tom Cameron had been through since the Zeppelin was wrecked had racked his body a good deal, but by no means had it weakened his mind. He was sure there was something wrong with this craft. The three men were an hour in tuning up the motor-boat engine and getting that craft near enough to his raft to take Tom aboard.

The latter saw that neither of the three men was an officer. One was Fritz, and he spoke to the castaway in English. But Tom was wary. There was a flaxen-haired, big-bodied fellow who glowered at him and spoke nothing but German.

"You fell with an airship-yes?" this man asked, and Tom nodded.

The American had done secret service work behind the German lines on one occasion. There he had a.s.sumed the character of a Prussian military officer, and gradually he took on the att.i.tude that he had used familiarly at that time. His speech and appearance bore out the claim he meant to make if these people proved to be Germans, as he more than half suspected. How the Germans ever got control of a British ship was a mystery!

Boldig met Tom Cameron at the rail when he came up the captain's ladder.

He offered a hand that the American was forced to accept.

"You have the good fortune to escape both peril by air and sea, _Mein Herr?_" said Boldig. "Your companions?"

"Are gone," Tom replied in German, shaking his head. "I am of all, the lone fortunate. 'The survival of the fit'-is it not so? We were bound for London. Because I had lived there much, I was to pilot _Herr Leutnant-Commander_ over the city!"

"Ah!" said Boldig. "I thought you did not seem entirely German."

"It is the heart that counts, is it not?" Tom returned.

He knew this arrogant-looking man must be a German through and through.

The British flag flying over the ship did not rea.s.sure him. He had ventured his story of being the Zeppelin pilot as a bit of camouflage.

If he was mistaken-if this was an honest vessel and crew-he carried papers in his money belt that would explain who he really was.

"And you, _Mein Herr?_" Tom asked with a gesture indicating the _Admiral Pekhard's_ empty decks.

"Our story you shall learn later," said Boldig. "But rest a.s.sured. You are among friends."

He hastened to show the flaxen-haired man and Fritz how properly to pay off the line holding the motor boat in trail. The engines started again, and the ship began to pull ahead.

Tom, standing upon the after deck, gazed quietly around him. He felt that the situation was strained. There was something threatening in the pose of Boldig after all. This was no tramp steam freighter with half a crew. No, indeed! She was a well found and well furnished pa.s.senger craft. Where were the crew and pa.s.sengers that should be aboard of her?

And just then he saw a white hand beckoning at the after cabin companionway. He remembered the woman he had observed from the wreck of the Zeppelin standing at that doorway. Swiftly Tom crossed the deck behind Boldig's back and reached the door which was open more than a crack.

The hand seized his own. The touch thrilled him before he heard her voice or caught a glimpse of Ruth Fielding's face.

"Tom! Tom Cameron!" she murmured. "You are saved and have been sent to me."

"Ruth!" He almost fell down the stairway to reach her. He took her in his arms with such ardor that she could not escape. In that moment of reunion and relief she met his lips with as frank and warm a kiss as though she had really been his sister.

"Tom! Dear Tom!" she murmured.

"Great heavens, Ruth! how did you come here? What is the meaning of this business? Those Germans out there--?"

"And there are only two faithful men aboard-the first officer and the radio chief. Both locked in their rooms, Tom. We are four against eleven of these pirates!"

"Pirates!"

"No less," the girl hastened to say. "I cannot tell you all now. The others escaped in the small boats; but Mr. Dowd, Mr. Rollife, and I were left. Then the German members of the crew, and this officer, Boldig, came back and took the ship. They expect a big submarine with an extra crew to pick them up."

"What under the sun--"

"Oh!" gasped Ruth, hearing Boldig outside. "Here he comes! He has been so brutal-so disgusting! Oh, Tom!"

Her friend wheeled and leaped up the stair again. As he went he drew the automatic pistol from his bosom where he had hidden it and kept it dry.

As Boldig thrust back the door Tom pushed the muzzle of his weapon against the man's breast.

"Up with your hands!" Tom commanded. "Quick!"

Boldig fell back a pace. Tom followed him out on the open deck. He reached quickly and s.n.a.t.c.hed the pistol from the German's holster with his left hand.

Then, his eye flickering to the men at the rail and seeing the flaxen-haired man trying to draw his pistol, Tom sent one bullet in that direction. The man, Guelph, sank, groaning, to the deck.

"Pick up that pistol, muzzle first, and bring it here!" commanded Tom to Fritz, and the latter obeyed quite meekly. Neither he nor the third seaman was armed. After all, Boldig did not trust his underlings.

"How shall we get your two friends out of their rooms?" Tom asked Ruth without looking around at her, for he kept his gaze upon Boldig and the others.

"That man has the keys to their staterooms."

"Come and search his pockets," said Tom. "Don't stand between me and him. Understand?" he added to Boldig. "I will shoot to kill if you try any tricks. Keep your hands up!"

Was this Tom Cameron, Ruth thought? She had never seen Tom a.s.sume such a character before. She had forgotten what army training had done for her childhood's friend. When he had come to see her on his leaves-of-absence from the front he had seemed all boy as usual. But now!

She found the keys, and in five minutes Mr. Dowd and Mr. Rollife, armed from the right collection of weapons in the captain's room this time, joined the wonderfully arrived castaway on the open deck.

Dowd had handcuffs, too, and Boldig, Fritz, and the other unwounded seamen were quickly manacled and shut into separate rooms below.