Part 23 (2/2)

”Be very careful. F. is on board,” it had read, and Jack interpreted this to be meant as a warning to the diamond merchant. But he did not devote much attention to it just then, except to rouse the sleepy stewards. Within a few minutes the captain and the doctor were on the scene.

”A nasty cut, done with a blackjack or a club,” opined Dr. Browning, as he raised the man.

”Is it a mortal wound?” asked the captain. ”This is a terrible thing to have happen on my s.h.i.+p.”

”I think he'll pull through if no complications set in,” said the doctor, and ordered the man removed to his cabin. Suddenly Jack recollected what the purser had said about the diamonds.

”I beg your pardon, sir,” said he to the captain, ”but I heard that this man carried about valuable diamonds with him. He was probably attacked for purposes of robbery.”

”That's right,” answered the captain, with a quick look of approval at Jack. ”Browning, we'd better examine the contents of his pockets.” They did so, but no traces of precious stones could be found.

”Whoever did this, robbed him,” declared the captain, with a somber brow, ”and the deuce of it is that, unless we can detect him, he will walk ash.o.r.e at Southampton or Cherbourg a free man.”

The door of the stateroom opposite to which the injured man lay opened suddenly, and a little, wizen-faced man, wearing spectacles, looked out.

He appeared startled and shocked as he saw the limp form.

”Good gracious! This is terrible, terrible, captain,” he sputtered.

”Is--is the man dead?”

”No, Professor Dusenberry, although that does not appear to be the fault of whoever attacked him,” was the rejoinder.

”He was attacked, then, for purposes of robbery, do you think?”

”I suspect so.”

”Oh, dear, this has so upset me that I shan't sleep the rest of the night,” protested the little man, and withdrew into his stateroom.

The next day, naturally, the whole s.h.i.+p buzzed with the news of the night's happenings, and speculation ran rife as to who could have attacked the diamond merchant, who had recovered consciousness and was able to talk. He himself had not the slightest idea of his a.s.sailant. He had sat up till late in the smoking saloon, he said, and was coming along the corridor to his stateroom when he was struck down from behind.

A black leather wallet, containing three diamonds, which were destined to be sold to the scion of a European royal house, was missing from his pocket, and the loss nearly drove the unfortunate diamond man frantic.

He valued the stones at $150,000, so that perhaps his frenzy at losing them was not unnatural.

In the afternoon, Professor Dusenberry, dressed in a frock coat and top hat, although he was at sea and the weather was warm, came into the wireless room. He wanted to send a message, he said, a wireless to London. He was very cautious about inquiring the price and all the details before he sat down to write out his dispatch. When it was completed he handed it to Jack with his thin fingers, and asked that it be dispatched at once. Then he retreated, or rather faded, from the wireless room. Jack scanned the message with thoughtful eyes. It seemed an odd radiogram for a college professor, such as he had heard Prof.

Dusenberry was, to be sending. It read as follows:

”Meet me at three on the granite paving-stones. The weather is fine, but got no specimens. There is no suspicion as you have directed, but I'm afraid wrong.”

F.

”Well, that's a fine muddle for somebody to make out when they get it,”

mused Jack, as he sent out a call for the Fowey Station.

”Must be some sort of a cipher the old fellow is using. He's a dry sort of old stick. Goodness! How scared he was when he saw that man lying outside his door. I thought he was going to faint or something.”

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