"Oh! Who can it be?" murmured Ruth.
"You put a hard question, Miss Fielding. Surely it cannot be our friends coming back."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean a boat sent by Captain Hastings to make sure that n.o.body was left on the steamship."
"Do you consider that likely?" she asked.
"Well-no, I do not," he admitted.
"Then you think it may be people who have not our interest at heart?"
was her quick demand.
"I am afraid I can give you no encouragement. I cannot imagine Captain Hastings abandoning the ship without believing she would sink. In the darkness he must have got so far away that he would think she had gone down. He would be anxious, you understand, to get his crew and pa.s.sengers to land."
"Of course. I give him credit for being fairly sane," she said.
"On the other hand, who would have any suspicion that the ship would not sink save those who had brought about the panic?"
"The Germans!" exclaimed the girl.
"Exactly. I believe," said Dowd quietly, "that here come the men who caused the explosion in the fire room and opened the seac.o.c.ks. They purpose to take charge of the _Admiral Pekhard_, of course. If they get aboard we shall be at their mercy."
"Oh, can we stop them? Can we hold them off?" murmured Ruth.
"I do not know. I am not sure that it would be wise to offer fight. You see, we shall finally be at their mercy."
"If we can"t beat them off!" Ruth exclaimed. "Haven"t you arms aboard?"
"My dear young lady--"
"Oh, don"t think of me!" Ruth cried. "Do just what you would do if I were not here. Wouldn"t you and the radio man fight them?"
"I think we could put up a pretty good fight," admitted Dowd thoughtfully. "There are automatic pistols."
"Bring one for me," commanded Ruth. "I can shoot a pistol. Three of us might hold off a small boarding party, I should think."
"If they mean us harm," added Dowd.
"Make them lie off there and wait till morning so that we can see what they look like," begged Ruth.
"That might be attempted."
His lack of certainty rankled in the girl"s quick mind. She e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed:
"Surely we can try, Mr. Dowd! There is another thing: the deck guns! Had you thought of them?"
"My goodness, no!" admitted the first officer.
"If we could slue around one of those guns, a single shot might sink the boat off there. If they are enemies, I mean."
"Now you have suggested something, Miss Fielding! Wait! Let me have your torch. I will take a look at the guns."
He ran along the deck to the forward gun. After a minute there he ran back to the stern, but kept to the runway on the opposite side of the deck as he pa.s.sed the girl of the Red Mill. She waited in great impatience for his return.
And when he came she saw that something was decidedly wrong. He wagged his head despairingly.
"No use," he said. "Those fellows were sharper than one would think. The breech-block of each gun is missing."
"That light is drawing close, Mr. Dowd!" Ruth exclaimed. "Get the pistols you spoke of-do!"
But first Dowd called to the radio man up above them: "Hi, Sparks, see that boat coming?"
"What boat?" demanded the other, stopping his work for the moment. Then he saw the light. "Holy heavens! what"s that?"
"One of the boats coming back-and not with friends," said Dowd.
"Let me get these wires welded and I"ll show "em!" rejoined Rollife.
"I"ll send a call--"
At the moment the sudden explosion of a motor engine exhaust startled them. It was no rowboat advancing toward the _Admiral Pekhard_. Probably its crew had been rowing quietly so as not to startle those left aboard the ship.
"The pistols, Mr. Dowd!" begged Ruth again.
The first officer departed on a run. Rollife kept at his work with a running commentary of his opinion of the scoundrels who were approaching. Suddenly a rifle rang out from the coming launch.
"Ahoy! Ahoy the steamer!" shouted a voice. "We see your light, and we"ll shoot at it if you don"t douse it. Quick, now!"
Another rifle bullet whistled over the head of the radio man. Ruth removed her thumb from the electric torch switch instantly. But Rollife refused at first to be driven.
The next moment, however, a bullet crashed into the lantern on the roof of the radio house. The flame was snuffed out and the radio man was feign to slide down from his exposed position.
Dowd came running from the cabin with the pistols. He gave one to Ruth and another to Rollife. The latter stepped out from the shelter of the house and drew bead on the lamp in the approaching launch. Ruth heard the chatter of the weapon"s hammer-but not a shot was fired!
"Great guns, Dowd!" shouted the radio man, exasperated. "This gat isn"t loaded."
"Neither is mine!" exclaimed Ruth, who had made a quick examination in the darkness.
"Oh, my soul!" groaned the first officer. "I got the wrong weapons!"
"And no more clips of cartridges? Well, you--"
There was no use finishing his opinion of Dowd"s uselessness. The motor boat shot alongside under increased speed. There was a slanting b.u.mp, a grappling iron flew over the rail and caught, and the next moment a man swarmed up the rope, threw his leg over the rail, and then his head and face appeared.
Ruth in her excitement pressed the switch of her electric torch. The ray of light shot almost directly into the eyes of the first boarder. He was the flaxen-haired man-the man she believed she had seen hiding in the small motor boat before the explosion in the steamer"s fire room.