The Secret Wireless Part 22

But Captain Hardy's disappointment was no whit keener than that of his fellows, nor his sufferings any more poignant; yet with the buoyancy of inexperienced youth, hope was not entirely crushed in the heart of any one of the young scouts. So absolute was their faith in their leader, so astonishing had been the good fortune that so far had attended their efforts, that each felt that in some way this present disaster would yet be retrieved. And with hope as a motive power, each began, in a manner true to his character, to attack the problem that confronted them, to get ready for further service. It was a splendid example of the spirit of "never say die" that their leader had drilled into them--an example that he would be quick to follow, once the shock of disappointment had pa.s.sed away.

Lew, hopeless of solving the puzzle of the spies' disappearance, was thinking of how the scouts should equip themselves if they should be called upon for a land pursuit; for at following trails and taking care of himself in the open he had no superior in the wireless patrol. Roy, keen minded as a Sherlock Holmes, was turning over in his mind the problem of the spies' escape, trying to reason out what their line of action would be in the immediate future. Willie was examining a mental landscape to decide the same question. With that wonderful facility of memory he had acquired by hours of practice at Camp Brady, he now called up the maps of the neighboring waters he had been studying; and in his mind's eye he could see every point and indentation of the sh.o.r.e-lines, every arm of water, every inequality of the land as pictured on the contour map, and the princ.i.p.al roads of the region.

And he was asking himself what a party of fugitives in a small boat would naturally do.

Henry, eager as always to learn more about the wireless, had ingratiated himself with the _Patrol's_ wireless man and was eagerly examining his instruments and plying him with questions. At first the operator answered with good-natured tolerance as one replies to the queries of a child. But when he saw how much Henry actually knew, and found that though he was only a boy he had already acted as operator at a government wireless station, he fell into an earnest discussion about the possibilities of wireless in police work--for in New York the police wireless was still in an experimental stage. Then he permitted Henry to clamp on the receivers and listen in.

Henry welcomed the opportunity, for in all the weeks they had been watching the Germans, the wireless patrol had hardly had an opportunity to listen to the myriad voices in the air. They had had to shut out all other sounds and tune down to the low lengths used by the Germans--and by n.o.body else. They had been like spectators at the opera with their ears plugged to shut out the music.

Now, as Henry eagerly listened in, he caught a sharp, whining note that vibrated powerfully in his ear. "There's the Navy Yard calling," he said, and a deep frown pa.s.sed over his face, for it made him think of submarines and the failure of the wireless patrol. For a moment he tuned to a short length and listened for a spy message, as he had done so many times before.

"That's the Waldorf-Astoria talking," said Henry a moment later, and he copied down the message and shoved it over to the police operator.

Then followed press despatches--stories of land and sea, of fires and battles, of shipwrecks and the arrest of a spy. And again Henry scowled and slid his tuning-coil and briefly listened in at lower range.

Down the river ploughed the little steamer, repa.s.sing, one by one, the landmarks it had pa.s.sed on its trip northward. As it steamed along and the meaning of their failure became more apparent to the young scouts, they became gloomier and gloomier. But Henry, exulting at the opportunity to handle such an outfit, almost forgot their failure, and drank in eagerly the gossip of the night. So engrossed was he, that he was startled when he heard the order to slacken speed, and heard his captain say, "Well, here we are, boys."

Reluctantly he removed the receivers. Then, as an after-thought struck him, he clamped them again to his ears, tuned his coil to a low length, and strained his ears in one last search for a forbidden voice in the dark. For a moment he sat listening vainly. Then, with unwilling fingers, he began to take the clamps from his head. But suddenly he jammed the receivers back on his ears and sat tense.

"Hurry up, Henry," called Captain Hardy. "We're waiting for you."

"Hush!" said Henry, lifting a warning hand. Then he sat rigid, bending eagerly forward. In his ear a call was sounding. It was the old familiar call of the motor station. He seized a pencil and began to write. A moment later he jumped to his feet and went rushing after his captain.

"Here!" he called, thrusting a paper into Captain Hardy's hand. "The motor-car station just sent this message."

"The motor-car station!" exclaimed Captain Hardy, in astonishment.

"Then Sanders can't be aboard the motor-boat. The Chief said he had him covered so closely that he could not escape--and evidently he couldn't." A moment later Captain Hardy stood frowning, trying to puzzle out the meaning of it. "I don't see how he could have sent a message," he continued, "if he is so closely watched that he couldn't get away."

"Perhaps the message will tell us," suggested Roy.

"Right again, Roy," said Captain Hardy. "We'll hurry to the office and decipher it."

On the run they made their way to the subway station at Bowling Green.

They caught a north bound train and shortly afterward swarmed up out of the subway and made a rush for the secret service offices.

With hardly more than a word of greeting they drew up at a table and laid the paper with the message before them.

"Forty," said Captain Hardy, counting the letters. "If they use the same cipher they did last time, that'll make five columns of eight letters each." Rapidly he set down the letters in the order indicated, thus:

T T E N R H A S E Y G Y U R A I L O E B N T V R O D C Z E H I A E V C M X D E E

Then slowly he read off the message: "ECHO--BAY--REVERE--RENDEZVOUS--EXACTLY--AT--MIDNIGHT."

With a cry of joy Captain Hardy leaped to his feet. "We've got another chance," he said. "Sanders must be going to meet them at Revere Rendezvous--wherever that is." Then, turning to a man at the next desk, he inquired, "Where is Echo Bay?"

"At New Roch.e.l.le," said the agent. "That's where Fort Sloc.u.m is."

"Fort Sloc.u.m!" cried Captain Hardy. "This may be even more serious than it seems. Can this man be spying on the fort, too? How far is New Roch.e.l.le from here?"

"Eighteen or twenty miles."

"Can we get there by twelve o'clock?"

"Sure. Why?"

"The spies we are after are to meet at Echo Bay, Revere Rendezvous, at midnight. Are you sure that we can get there?" Then he glanced at his watch. "It's already long past ten."

The Chief was still at the office. The agent went to consult him, and came back for details. Captain Hardy stepped into the Chief's private office and made the entire situation plain. The Chief sat like a cake of ice, a thinking machine immovable and unmoved, listening to the recital.

"How many men have you here?" he asked his subordinate, the instant Captain Hardy had done talking.

"Four."

"Two of you go by automobile, two by motorboat. Divide these boys and take half with each party. Let those who go by land approach the meeting-place on foot and hide. The motorboat must come in behind the spy boat and cut off retreat. Be sure you are armed."

CHAPTER XXI

THE CAPTURE OF THE SPIES

Without a moment's delay the party that was to go by boat, including Henry and Roy, rushed off to the dock where the secret service had a motor craft of the racing type, capable of making tremendous speed.

Almost as quickly the other party found itself seated in a powerful touring-car, speeding northward. Captain Hardy, Willie, and Lew were in the car, together with the two agents and the driver, who was likewise a secret service man.

Up Third Avenue rolled the big automobile, dodging wagons, shooting past motor-cars, darting by trolleys, its horn shrieking an almost unceasing warning as it charged onward at the very top of the speed limit. Never had Willie or Lew ridden so fast in crowded thoroughfares, and time and again they held their breath as the big car rushed toward some obstacle in its path, expecting a crash. But under the skilled hands of the driver the great machine swept in and out, weaving its way through the traffic as an eel glides through water growths.

The first thrill pa.s.sed, they turned to their captain and the secret service agents who were earnestly discussing the situation. Overhead the thunder of the elevated trains was such that at times they could hardly hear what the men beside them were saying.

"I am well acquainted with New Roch.e.l.le and the region of Echo Bay,"

said one of the agents, "but I never heard of any Revere Rendezvous there. However, the people of the town can doubtless tell us. We shall have time to make inquiries." And turning to the driver, he said, "Shove her to the limit, Jim."

Already the car was well up-town. Traffic had grown steadily less, and as steadily the driver increased his speed. Now they were rolling over the smooth asphalt at twenty miles an hour.

"No doubt they could tell us," replied Captain Hardy, "if there were any such place. But I fear that the name is one of the spies' own making," and he told the story of the Balaklavan rendezvous. "We think that meant h.e.l.l Gate," explained Captain Hardy. "The fact that the spies' motor-boat is now evidently on the Sound confirms that belief.

But the name was far-fetched. It took us a long time to work it out.

This new name may be equally obscure. We shall have to decipher it on the way."

The motor-car was approaching the Harlem River. "Your Balaklavan rendezvous is only a few blocks off there," said the agent, pointing to the east.

The car rolled up to the bridge and pa.s.sed over the dark waters where tugs were shunting car-floats into their docks and churning up white foam with their propellers. Thousands of lights were reflected in the black depths. In a moment the Harlem was behind them, and they were in the borough of the Bronx. On they sped up Third Avenue.

The two boys were distracted. They wanted to see the sights, utterly new to them, and they wanted to hear the discussion of their elders.

Willie, with that strange faculty of his for noting places and locations, kept watching the street signs and trying to remember where Third Avenue led to on the map.

"There are three places on Echo Bay where a motor-boat and a motor-car can easily meet," said one of the secret service men. "At the north side of the harbor entrance is a finger of land called Premium Point.

On the other sh.o.r.e is Huguenot Park. And an arm of the bay runs inland all the way to the main street pa.s.sing north through the town."

"Which place would they be most likely to select?" asked Captain Hardy.