Saboteurs on the River Part 23

Throwing the door open wide to admit more light, Penny darted into the cabin. Bending over the prisoner, she began to untie the cords which bound his wrists.

"I'll have you free in a minute, Mr. Oaks," she encouraged him.

The cords had been loosely tied. Undoing the knots, she next pulled away the gag which covered his mouth.

"What happened, Mr. Oaks?" she demanded. "Who did this to you?"

The old watchman sat up, stretching his cramped arms. He did not reply, but watched Penny intently as she loosened the thongs which bound his legs. Getting up, he walked a step or two across the cabin.

"Tell me what happened," Penny urged impatiently. "Don't you feel able to explain?"

"I'm disgusted," Mr. Oaks returned. "Plumb disgusted."

"I don't doubt you feel that way," agreed Penny. "This barge is floating in mid-channel, a hazard to incoming and outgoing vessels. We'll have to do something about it."

"I'm through with this job! I didn't want it in the first place!"

"That's neither here nor there," Penny replied, losing patience. "Suppose you stop grieving over your bad luck for a minute, and explain what occurred."

"Well, it was about midnight when they sneaked aboard."

"The men who attacked you?"

"Yes, there were three of 'em. I was in the cabin at the time, reading my newspaper. Before I knew what was happening, they were on top of me."

"Did you recognize any of the men, Mr. Oaks?"

"No."

"What did they look like?"

"It was dark and I didn't see their faces."

"How were they dressed?"

"Didn't notice that either," Mr. Oaks returned grumpily. "I was too busy tryin' to fight 'em off. They trussed me up and then cut the barge loose."

"Saboteurs!"

"Reckon so," the old watchman nodded.

"Well, what will we do?" Penny asked, scarcely able to hide her growing irritation. "It's still foggy on the river. I've put up signal lights, but an approaching freighter might not see them in time to change her course."

"There's nothing more to be done," Carl Oaks responded with a shrug. "The Coast Guard boat will come along after awhile. I'm not going to worry about it--not me! I'm done with this lousy job, and you can tell your father so."

"My father can bear the shock, I think," Penny answered coldly.

Thoroughly disgusted at the indifferent att.i.tude of the watchman, she ran out on deck. Looking down over the side, she saw Louise waiting anxiously in the dinghy.

"Oh, there you are!" her chum cried. "I thought you never were coming!"

Penny explained that she had found Carl Oaks lying bound and gagged inside the deck house. As the old watchman himself came up behind her, she could say nothing about his indifferent att.i.tude.

"I wondered how you got out to this barge," Oaks commented, gazing down at the dinghy. "You can take me to sh.o.r.e with you."

"Isn't it your duty to remain here until relieved?" Penny asked.

"I resigned, takin' effect last night at midnight," Oaks grinned. "I've had enough of Riverview. I'm getting out of this town."

Penny faced the watchman with flashing eyes.

"My father obtained this job for you, Mr. Oaks. You'll show very little grat.i.tude if you run off just because you're in trouble again."

"A man's got a right to do as he pleases!"

"Not always," Penny corrected. "Saboteurs are at work along this waterfront, and it's your duty to tell police what you know."

"I didn't see the men, I tell you! They came at me from behind."

"Even so, you may be able to contribute information to the police. In any case, you'll have to stay here until relieved--"

"Penny!" interrupted Louise from below. "There's a boat coming!"

The steady chug of a motor could be heard, but for a moment the swirling mists hid the approaching vessel. Then a pleasure yacht, with pennants flying, came into view.

"It's the _Eloise III!_" Penny cried, recognizing the craft as one belonging to Commodore Phillips of the Riverview Marine Club.

Waving their arms and shouting, the girls tried to attract the pilot's attention. To their relief, the yacht veered slightly from her course, and the engines slackened speed.

"Yacht ahoy!" called Penny, cupping hands to her lips.

"Ahoy!" came the answering shout from Commodore Phillips. "What's wrong there? Barge adrift?"

Penny confirmed the observation and requested to be taken aboard.

Although she was not certain of it, she believed that the _Eloise III_ was equipped with a radio telephone which could be used to notify Coast Guards of the floating barge.

Leaving Carl Oaks behind, the girls rowed to the yacht and were helped aboard. Commodore Phillips immediately confirmed that his vessel did have radio-telephone apparatus.

"Come with me," he directed, leading the girls to the radio room.

The Commodore sat down beside the transmitting apparatus, quickly adjusting a pair of earphones. Snapping on the power switch, he tuned to the wave length of the Coast Guard station. While the girls hovered at his elbow, he talked into the radio telephone, informing the Coast Guard of the floating barge and its position. The message, he explained to Penny and Louise, would be received in "scrambled speech" and automatically transformed into understandable English by means of an electrical device.

"How do you mean?" inquired Louise, deeply puzzled.

"Nearly all ship-to-sh.o.r.e radio telephone conversations are carried on in scrambled speech," the Commodore replied. "Otherwise, eavesdroppers could tune in on them and learn important facts not intended to be made public."

"But you spoke ordinary English into the 'phone," Louise said, still perplexed.

"The speech scrambler is an electric circuit which automatically transposes voice frequencies," the Commodore resumed. "The words are made unintelligible until unscrambled by a similar device at the receiving station. For instance, if I were to say 'Mary had a little lamb,' into this phone, anyone listening in would hear: 'Noyil hob e ylippey ylond.'