Part 27 (1/2)
”That's good; but say, Bill, you're off watch to-morrow and I want you to do something for me.”
”Anything you say.”
”This may involve danger.”
”Great Scott, you talk like Sherlock Holmes or a dime novel. What's up?”
”I've got the man who stole those diamonds.”
”What!”
”Don't talk so loud. I mean what I say. Listen.”
And Jack related everything that had occurred.
”Now, what I want you to do is to watch Prof. Dusenberry, as he calls himself, to-morrow when we get into the harbor. His is an inside stateroom so that he can't throw it out of a porthole from there. He'll most likely go to one at the end of a pa.s.sage.”
”Yes, and then what?”
”I'd do it myself but the old fox suspects me, I half fancy, and if he saw me in the vicinity he'd change his plans. You'd better take two of your huskiest firemen with you, Billy. He's an ugly customer, I fancy, and might put up a bad fight.”
”U-m-m-m, some job,” mused Billy. ”Why don't you put the whole thing up to the captain?”
”It would do no good the way things are now, and he might get wind of it and hide the jewels so that they couldn't be found. Anyhow, we've no proof against him till he is actually caught throwing the jewels out in that life-preserver to his confederates in the motor-boat.”
”I see, you want to catch him red-handed, but what about those cipher radios?”
”There's no way of proving that I read the cipher right,” said Jack.
”Our only way is to do as I suggested.”
”I hear that Rosenstein has offered a big reward for the recovery of the diamonds,” said Billy. ”He's up and about again, you know.”
”Well, Billy, I think he'll have his diamonds back by to-morrow noon if we follow out my plan.”
And so it was arranged. The next morning Jack received a message from Southampton:
”All ready. Does our man suspect anything?”
This was Jack's answer:
”Not so far as I know. Have a plan to catch him red-handed. You watch the motor-boat.”
Saluted by the whistles of a hundred water craft, the _Columbia_ made stately progress into Southampton harbor. As her leviathan bulk moved majestically along under reduced speed, her whistles blowing and her flag dipping in acknowledgment of the greeting, Jack with a beating heart, stood on the upper deck watching earnestly for developments.
He knew that Billy and the two firemen he had selected to help him, on what might prove a dangerous job, were below watching Prof. Dusenberry.
They all wore stewards' uniforms so that the man who Jack believed struck down the diamond merchant and stole the stones might not get suspicious at seeing them about in the corridors.
”I believe they must have changed their plans, after all,” Jack was thinking when, from the sh.o.r.e, there shot out, at tremendous speed, a sharp-bowed, swift motor-boat. It headed straight for the _Columbia_. As it drew closer, Jack saw it held two men. Both were blowing a whistle, waving flags and pointing at the big s.h.i.+p as if they, like many other small water craft, were just out to get a glimpse of the triumph of American s.h.i.+pbuilders.
They maneuvered close alongside, while Jack's fingers grasped the rail till the paint flaked off under the pressure he exerted in his excitement. What was happening below? he wondered. Could Billy and his companions carry out their part of the program? Not far from the boy the diamond merchant, unconscious of the drama being enacted on his account, stood, with bandaged head, explaining for the hundredth time the beauty and the value of the gems he had lost.