The Ocean Wireless Boys and the Lost Liner Part 11

Jack rubbed his mental eyes. He could have sworn he had left the man lying across the lounge, to all appearances stunned. Now, in the brief interval that the boy had been out of the cabin, the man had gone.

"He must have been playing 'possum," said the surgeon, when Jack had briefly explained the circ.u.mstances; "but now let us see to Colonel Minturn."

The doctor bent over the officer's form as it lay in the bunk. The colonel was breathing heavily, his pulse was slow, his face gray.

"Run to my cabin for my medicine bag," ordered the doctor to Jack. "You will find it on my lounge. Hurry back."

Jack waited to ask no questions but sped off. The corridors were still choked with pa.s.sengers discussing the fire scare. Most of them appeared to think it had been a grim and criminal form of joke on somebody's part. There was talk of offering a reward for the discovery of the culprit.

But Jack, knowing what he did, placed, as we know, a more sinister construction on the midnight alarm. He was soon back with the doctor's bag. The surgeon took out of it a small syringe and injected some sort of solution into the unconscious man's arm.

"What is the matter with him, sir, do you think?" ventured Jack, as the doctor, his hand on Minturn's pulse, sat by the side of the bunk.

"He has been drugged. That much is plain. Although what the agency was, I cannot guess," was the rejoinder.

A small gla.s.s article lying on the floor caught Jack's eye. It was an atomizer, such as are used for perfumes. But this was filled with a gray powder. He pressed the rubber bulb and an impalpable cloud of the powder was sprayed into the air. He immediately felt sick and dizzy.

"Look here, sir, what do you make of this?" he cried excitedly, handing it to the doctor. "I found it on the floor. It must have dropped from Jarrold's pocket while we were struggling. I'm sure that that powder in it is some sort of drug. When I sprayed it out, it made me feel weak and faint."

The doctor took the gla.s.s vessel, unscrewed the top and shook out a small quant.i.ty of the powder on his palm.

"This is an important discovery, indeed," he exclaimed. "It is a sleeping powder used by a certain South African tribe. A sufficient quant.i.ty sprayed into the atmosphere would send anyone into a coma. It is not poisonous, merely sleep producing."

"Then you think that some of it was sprayed into this room, possibly through the transom, by Jarrold before--"

"We'll leave Mr. Jarrold's name out of this for the present," said the doctor shortly. "Remember, we have no proof against him. For all you know, and for all that appears, he broke in here to try to save the colonel when the cry of fire occurred."

"But he attacked me," protested Jack.

"His answer to that would be that you were not at your post, where you should have been."

Jack colored. This was true. Jarrold had indeed a rejoinder to everything he might say against the man. When it came to a point, the lad had plenty of suspicions and theories, but absolutely no proofs to offer. He couldn't even state positively that the atomizer full of the sleeping powder was Jarrold's.

The colonel moved uneasily and opened his eyes. In a few moments he was able to talk.

"Why, what has happened?" he asked drowsily, looking first at the doctor and then at Jack.

"First, will you tell us the last thing you recollect, Colonel?"

"Most a.s.suredly. I came to bed early. Before turning in, I examined certain papers of mine and found they were all in perfect order. This done, I lay down with a book. Suddenly I felt unaccountably drowsy, and-and that's all. But what has occurred in the meantime? I can tell by your presence in the cabin that something out of the ordinary is up."

"Will you first oblige me by making sure your papers are safe?" asked the doctor.

"Certainly; they are in this box under my pillow. Ah yes, everything is in perfect order. As you see, this is a combination lock. I could tell in an instant if it had been tampered with."

"Then, Colonel, I think that you should thank this young man here for saving you from a theft that might have cost you dearly," said the doctor, indicating Jack.

CHAPTER XIV

THE WINKING EYE

"I-I must confess I don't understand," said the colonel, looking bewilderedly from one to the other of his two companions.

"Then let me enlighten you." And, supplemented from time to time by Jack, the doctor gave a concise account of the incidents leading up to the discovery of Jarrold breaking into the colonel's cabin.

The officer could hardly believe his ears.

"Of course I have suspected Jarrold all along, and cannot be too grateful to this young man for his vigilance," he said; "but the diabolical ingenuity of the man is beyond me."

"He ought to be in irons at this minute," a.s.serted the doctor, "but so far as I can see, he has covered up his tracks so cleverly that we have nothing upon which to base a complaint against him."

"At the present time, no, unfortunately," said the colonel reluctantly.

"And if it had not been for Mr. Ready, here, the whole plot might have proved a complete success."

"I think it is reasonably certain that when you awakened, which might not have been till late to-morrow morning, you would have found your papers gone," said the doctor.

"But in that case, I should have instantly suspected Jarrold," was the reply. "And exercising my authority as an officer of the United States army, I could have had him detained under suspicion while his baggage and his person were searched."

"I am afraid that that would have been very much like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Dr. Flynn. "A rascal as clever as he is would have found some way to dispose of the papers, where it would be highly improbable that they could be found."

"You are right," agreed Colonel Minturn. "Well, gentlemen, I think that for the sake of all concerned, we had better keep this secret among us three and await developments."

"But Jarrold knows that Ready suspects him," objected the doctor.

"Oh, well, for that very reason, he won't do any talking," was the colonel's response. "We must watch and wait, and the next time catch him red-handed."

"Then you think he will make another attempt?" asked Jack.

"I have not the slightest doubt of it. Whatever nation is paying him, it has set a high price on the successful issue of his venture; and he will stop at nothing to put it through, if I have any knowledge of the man,"

was the response.

"I think the best thing we can all do now is to turn in," said Dr.

Flynn.

This was generally agreed and good-nights were said; but before Jack sought his cabin, he visited the doctor's room, where his face was attended to so as to leave hardly any marks of his encounter with Jarrold.

The latter did not appear the next day, but his niece, radiant and smiling, was at breakfast as if nothing had occurred. Jack looked at her wonderingly. He had not the slightest doubt that her part in the plot had been the cry of "Fire"; but she appeared as carefree and debonair as if she had nothing more important on her mind than making a charming appearance.

Jack could not help grinning to himself when Jarrold did not come down.

"I guess I gave him something to think about," he remarked with a chuckle to Sam, as the two discussed the subject.

Jarrold appeared the next day. A dark mark under his left eye was the only visible sign of the encounter in Colonel Minturn's cabin. He studiously avoided the other pa.s.sengers, however, and spent most of his time pacing the deck with his niece.

The weather was steadily growing warmer now. Porpoises appeared in rolling, leaping schools, and flying fish were stirred up in whole coveys by the ship's bow. The officers donned white uniforms, as did our wireless boys, and everything indicated that the steamer was entering the tropics.