CHAPTER IX-QUEER FOLKS
In school Ruth Fielding and her cla.s.smates had taken German just as they had French. Jennie Stone often said she had forgotten the former language just as fast as she could and had felt much better after it was out of her system.
But the girl of the Red Mill seldom forgot anything she learned well.
She had not used the German language as much as she had French.
Nevertheless she remembered quite clearly what she had learned of it.
The seaman who was talking so excitedly to Irma Lentz, and whom Ruth overheard on the deck of the _Admiral Pekhard_, used Low German instead of the High German taught in the educational inst.i.tutions. Ruth, however, understood quite a little of what was said.
"Stop talking to me!" Miss Lentz commanded, breaking in upon what the man was saying.
"I must tell you, Fraulein--"
"Go tell Boldig. Not me. How dare you speak to a pa.s.senger? You know it is against all ship rules."
"Undt am _I_ de goat yedt?" growled the man, in anger and in atrocious English, as the young woman swept past him. Then in his own tongue-and this time Ruth understood him clearly-he added: "Am I to work in that fireroom while you and Boldig live softly? What would become of me if anything should happen?"
Fortunately the woman did not come Ruth"s way. She whisked out of sight just as the tramp of a smart footstep was heard along the deck. An officer came into sight.
"Here, my man, this is no part of the deck for you," he said sharply.
"Stoker, aren"t you? Get back to your quarters."
The flaxen-haired man stumbled away. He almost ran, it seemed, to get out of sight. The officer pa.s.sed Ruth Fielding, bowing to her politely, but did not halt.
The girl of the Red Mill was greatly disturbed by what she had seen and overheard. Yet she was not sure that she should speak to anybody about the incident. She let the officer go on without a word. She found a chair on a part of the deck that had already been swabbed down, and she sat there to think and to watch the first sunbeams play upon the wire rigging of the ship and upon the dancing waves.
The ocean was no novelty to Ruth; but it is ever changeable. No two sunrises can ever be alike at sea. She watched with glowing cheeks and wide eyes the blossoming of the new day.
She was not a person to fly off at a tangent. No little thing disturbed her usual calm. Had Helen been there, Ruth realized that her black-eyed girl chum would have insisted upon running right away to somebody in authority and repeating what had been overheard.
There was just one circ.u.mstance which kept Ruth from putting the matter quite aside and considering it nothing remarkable that two people should be speaking German on this British ship. That was her conversation the evening before with Irma Lentz, the artist.
The woman had made a very unfavorable impression on Ruth Fielding. Any person who could speak so callously of the war and wartime conditions in Paris, Ruth did not consider trustworthy. Such a woman might easily be connected with people who favored Germany and her cause. Then-her name!
Ruth realized that one of the greatest difficulties that Americans, especially, have to meet in this war is the German name. Many, many people with such names are truly patriots-are American to the very marrow of their bones. On the other hand, there are those of German name who are as dangerous and deadly as the moccasin. They strike without warning.
In this case, however, Irma Lentz, it seemed to Ruth, had given warning.
She had frankly displayed the fact that her heart was not with her country in the war. After what Ruth had been through it annoyed her very much to meet anybody who was not whole-heartedly for the cause of America and the Allies.
She thought the matter over most seriously until first breakfast call.
By that time there had appeared quite a number of the pa.s.sengers. The more seriously wounded had all the second cabin, so those pa.s.sengers who could get on deck were like one big family in the first cabin.
As the sea remained smooth, the party gathered at breakfast was almost as numerous as that at dinner the night before. Irma Lentz did not appear, however; but Ruth"s Red Cross friend was there to give her such aid at table as she needed.
"What would you do," she asked him in the course of the meal, "if you heard two people speaking German together on this ship?"
He eyed her for a moment curiously, then replied: "You cannot keep these stewards from talking their own language. Some of them are German-Swiss, I presume."
"Not stewards," Ruth said softly.
"Do you mean pa.s.sengers? Well, I speak German myself."
"And so do I. At least, I can speak it," laughed the girl of the Red Mill. "But I don"t."
"No. Ordinarily I never speak it myself-now," admitted the man. "But just what do you mean, Miss Fielding?"
"I heard two people early this morning speaking German in secret on deck."
"Some of the deckhands?"
"One was a stoker. The other was one of our first cabin pa.s.sengers."
The Red Cross man"s amazement was plain. He stared at the girl in some perturbation, at the same time neglecting his breakfast.
"You tell me this for a fact, Miss Fielding?"
"Quite."
"Have you spoken to the captain-to any of the officers?"
"To n.o.body but you," said Ruth gravely. "I-I shrink from making anybody unnecessary trouble. Of course, there may be nothing wrong in what I overheard."
"But a pa.s.senger talking German with a stoker! What were they saying?"
"They appeared to be quarreling."
"Quarreling! Who was the pa.s.senger? Is he here at table?" the Red Cross man asked quickly.
"Do you think I ought to point him out?" Ruth asked slowly. "If it is really serious-and I asked for your opinion, you know-wouldn"t it be better if I spoke to the captain or the first officer about it?"
"Perhaps you are right. If it was a merely harmless incident you observed it would not be right to discuss it promiscuously," said the man, smiling. "Don"t tell me who he is, but I do advise your speaking to Mr. Dowd."
Mr. Dowd was the first officer, and he presided at the table on this morning as it was now the captain"s watch below. Ruth had been careful to say nothing which would lead her friend to suspect that the pa.s.senger she mentioned was a woman.
"Yes," went on the Red Cross officer firmly, "you speak to Mr. Dowd."
But Ruth did not wish to do that in a way that might attract the attention of any suspicious person. The woman, Irma Lentz, had mentioned another person who seemed to be one of the queer folks. "Boldig." Who Boldig was the girl of the Red Mill had no idea. He might be pa.s.senger, officer, or one of the crew. She had glanced through the purser"s list and knew that there was no pa.s.senger using that name on the _Admiral Pekhard_.
Even if Miss Lentz was out of sight, this other person, or another, might be watching the movements of the pa.s.sengers. Ruth did not, therefore, speak to the ship"s first officer in the saloon. She waited until she could meet him quite casually on deck, and later in the forenoon watch.
Dowd was a man not too old to be influenced and flattered by the attentions of a bright young woman like Ruth Fielding. He was interested in her story, too, for the Red Cross officer had not been chary of spreading the tale of Ruth"s courage and her work in the first cabin.
"May I hope the shoulder and arm are mending nicely, Miss Fielding?" Mr.
Dowd said, smiling at her as she met him face to face near the starboard bridge ladder.