Part 6 (1/2)
CHAPTER VII.
THE NAVAL CODE.
”Now that you boys know the nature of the work I have been engaged on, I may as well tell you that confidential reports from Was.h.i.+ngton have warned me to be on my guard,” said Captain Simms. ”It was in reply to one of these that I sent a code dispatch to-night.”
It was half an hour later, and they were all seated in the Captain's room, having told their story.
”But I should have imagined making up a code was a very simple matter,”
said Billy.
”That is just where you are wrong, my boy,” smiled Captain Simms. ”A commercial code, perhaps, can be jumbled together in any sort of fas.h.i.+on, but a practical naval code is a different matter. Besides dealing in technicalities it must be absolutely invulnerable to even the cleverest reader of puzzles. The new code was necessitated by the fact that secret agents discovered that an expert in the employ of a foreign power had succeeded in solving a part of our old one. It was only a very small part, but in case of trouble with that country it might have meant defeat if the enemy knew even a fragment of the wireless code that was being flashed through the air.”
”Have you nearly completed your work?” asked Jack.
”Almost,” was the reply, ”but the fact that these men are here rather complicates matters. At Musky Bay, the name of the little settlement where I am stopping, they think I am just a city man up for the fis.h.i.+ng.
I do not use my right name there. By an inadvertence, I suppose it was habit, I wrote it on the hotel register to-night. That was a sad blunder, for it is practically certain that these men will not rest till they have found out where I am working.”
”At any rate I'm mighty glad we followed that Jarrow,” said Jack.
”And caught enough of their plans to put you on guard,” chimed in Billy.
”Yes, and I am deeply grateful to you boys,” was the rejoinder.
”'Forewarned is forearmed.' If Judson and his crowd attempt any foul tactics they will find me ready for them.”
”Judson apparently wishes now that he had not been so anxious to secure that contract as to promise the naval code as a sort of bonus,” said Jack.
”I don't doubt it,” answered Captain Simms. ”Now that I recall it, I heard rumors that Judson, who once had a steel contract with our government, is not so sound financially as he seems. I judge he would go to great lengths to a.s.sure a large contract that would get him out of his difficulties.”
”I should imagine so,” replied Jack. ”What was the reason he never did any more work for the government?”
”The inferior quality of his product, I heard. There were ugly rumors concerning graft at the time. Some of the newspapers even went so far as to urge his prosecution.”
”Then we are dealing with bad men?” commented Jack.
”Unquestionably so. But I think we had better break up this council of war and get to bed. I want to get an early start in the morning.”
But when morning came, it was found that the repairs to the _Skipjack_ would take longer than had been antic.i.p.ated. While Captain Simms remained at the boat yard to superintend the work, the lads returned to the hotel and addressed some post cards. This done they sauntered out on the porch. Almost the first person they encountered chanced to be Jarrow. He started and turned a sickly yellow at the sight of them, although he knew, from an inspection of the register the night before, that they were there.
”Why--er--ahem, so it is you once more. Where did you spring from?”
”We came out of that door,” murmured Jack, while Noddy snickered. ”Where did you come from?”
”I might say from the same place,” was the rejoinder, with a look of malice at Noddy.
”We thought you were in the west,” said Billy. ”Great place, the west.