It was Jack"s first voyage into such regions, and both he and Sam thrilled with the antic.i.p.ation of seeing the new sights and people. But all the time, Jack was aware that under their feet was a smoldering volcano. Covered for a time, and blanketed, it was still smoldering, of that he was certain. He caught himself wondering uneasily what form the next attempt would take.
It was his watch one night and he was turning over these things in his mind as the ship plowed steadily onward, when, on going to the door of his cabin for a breath of fresh air, he was surprised to see, not far off, the green starboard and white mast headlights of what, from the distance between the lights on her fore and main masts, appeared to be a fair-sized steamer. She was steaming in the same direction as the _Tropic Queen_ and going quite as fast.
Now, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, the sight of another craft on the same course would not have astonished one. But nowadays, when almost every ship is equipped with wireless, the operators of most vessels know precisely what craft are in their vicinity. Even in the case where ships are slow, and not equipped with radio apparatus, they usually signal, by day or night signals, to craft which have wireless, and ask to be reported. So that the sight of this stranger, moving along parallel with the _Tropic Queen_, gave Jack what was not exactly a thrill, but a sensation of vague uneasiness.
All at once, on her bridge, a red light began to flash. Like a blood-shot eye it winked through the dark night.
"By Jove, signals!" exclaimed Jack.
He got his signal code book and was able to read off, by his knowledge of Morse, the letters and words the strange craft was sending, as distinctly as if they had been printed. But they simply formed a meaningless jumble.
"It"s a code message to someone on board this ship," muttered Jack to himself, as the crimson eye ceased to wink.
As it stopped transmitting its untranslatable-except to one who held the key-message through the darkness, the strange ship began to drop back under reduced speed. Whatever its mission, it had been accomplished.
That much was plain. Jack wished that the jumble of words before him was as clear.
He sat there racking his brains over the matter till almost midnight, when Sam relieved him. The a.s.sistant operator looked at the message, over which Jack was knitting his brows, with astonishment.
"What in the world is that?" he asked.
"I wish I knew," was Jack"s enigmatic reply, "but there"s one man on board this ship who does, and I"m inclined to think that his name is James Jarrold."
CHAPTER XV
SECRET SIGNALS AT DAWN
The next morning both Jack and Sam were on the _qui vive_ for a sight of the mysterious steamer of the night. But not even a smudge on the horizon gave indication of what had become of her. When Jack went down to breakfast, he met First Officer Metcalf and spoke to him of the strange signals.
"Yes; Muller, the third officer, who had the bridge last night, reported them to me this morning," was the reply. "He jotted them down as they were flashed, but we can"t make head nor tail of them."
"Nor can I," confessed Jack. "It was a code message of some sort."
"Some would-be funny chump having a joke at our expense, I reckon," was the way that Mr. Metcalf, who, of course, knew nothing of the suspected machinations of Jarrold, dismissed the subject.
A lingering suspicion was in Jack"s mind that, by some queer chance, the message might have been for Colonel Minturn, so after the morning meal he drew him aside. But when shown the message, Colonel Minturn declared that, although the government used several codes, the one in question was not one of them.
"Then it was for Jarrold," declared Jack positively, for, knowing what he did, he could not share Mr. Metcalf"s "joker" theory.
"I believe you are right," responded Colonel Minturn, stroking his mustache thoughtfully. "Jove, this thing is taking some strange turns!"
Their eyes strayed to where Jarrold, sprawled out in a deck chair, was seemingly absorbed in a book. But Jack could have sworn that over the top of it he was covertly watching them.
"It is evident, to my way of thinking," Jack ventured, "that the strange craft was the _Endymion_, and that, despairing of getting a wireless to Jarrold, or else on account of a break-down in their wireless, they decided to chance that method of signaling him."
"That certainly appears plausible," said Colonel Minturn. "The _Endymion_, when pressed, can make twenty-five miles an hour. Our speed is about sixteen. Therefore, it would be an easy matter for her to overhaul us at night, slip away in the daytime, and sneak back at night once more."
"I think it would be a good plan to keep a sharp look-out to-night,"
said Jack. "I"ve a notion that there may be something in the wind."
"I agree with you," was the colonel"s rejoinder. "Although, if it comes down to that, there"s no reason why Jarrold shouldn"t, if he wishes to, exchange messages with any ship. At least, I know of no way of stopping him."
"That"s just the trouble, sir," said Jack, turning to go. "He"s too much of a fox to put himself into a position where we can get anything definite on him."
The day pa.s.sed uneventfully and the first part of the night was the usual unbroken routine. Jack spoke with two or three vessels in the West Indian and South American trade. But nothing unusual occurred to break the monotony. Midnight found him on the watch. When Sam, as much interested in the strange developments as was Jack, came to relieve him at the wireless key, Jack decided to forego his sleep and do some investigating.
Putting on a pair of light canvas shoes with rubber soles, Jack took up a position on the main deck as soon as the ship was wrapped in sleep, except for the watch and the officer who paced the bridge unceasingly under the blazing tropic stars. His vigil was not rewarded till some time before dawn, when, out of the blackness to port, came the sudden blinking of a scarlet disk, like the leering wink of an ensanguined eye.
It came so suddenly and startlingly that Jack knew that the stranger, the one he was now convinced was the _Endymion_, had crept up without lights, under cover of darkness. There came a few dots and dashes, indicated by the length of the flash of the red light. Then it ceased.
Then it began again, flashing like a night heliograph.
"By Jove! Somebody answered them from this ship!" exclaimed Jack in high excitement.
But the decks were bare. Not a soul was to be seen. Had it been anyone above, Sam was on the lookout there and would have notified Jack at once.
Suddenly a thought flashed across the boy. A thought that sent him, with a swift, noiseless stride, to the rail. He peered overside. It had just occurred to him that Jarrold"s cabin was an outside one on the port side of the _Tropic Queen_, which presented that flank to the stranger.
As he gained the side and peered over, he gave vent to what was almost a shout of triumph. He had solved part of the riddle at any rate. After a pause in the signaling from the stranger, there had come from the side of the _Tropic Queen_ a sudden flash of red light. It was reflected ruddily on the smooth water as it gleamed across the sea.
"So that"s it, eh, Mr. Jarrold!" cried Jack in a low undertone. "You"ve got some sort of a flash lantern rigged in your stateroom, connected with the electric light socket, likely, and you"re having a nice little talk with your friends over yonder."
All at once he slapped his thigh as a thought struck him. He knew that a common switch controlled the lights in each separate corridor of the ship. Thus, the four cabins in the section that Jarrold occupied, while they each had their individual light switches, were also controlled by a switch in the main corridor.
This was so that, in case of accident, the electricians could work more conveniently.
"I don"t know what the skipper would say to this," exclaimed Jack, "but here goes."
He darted below and soon reached the point in the main port corridor from which the pa.s.sage on which the four cabins in Jarrold"s section opened. He fumbled for the switch in the half darkness. First, though, he had looked to see that no other lights were shining in that section except the one he was sure was being used in Jarrold"s room.
Click! The switch was turned.
"Now we"ll see," exclaimed Jack to himself.
He hastened back on deck. Through the night, off to the port the strange craft was signaling frantically. Jack chuckled.
"Spiked your guns, Mister Jarrold," he laughed, as the signaling continued. Plainly on the other ship they could not understand why they no longer got flashed replies from Jarrold"s room.
"Oh, I"ll bet the air is blue below," chuckled Jack, delighted at the success of his plan. "Now I"ll just watch till they get sick of waiting for Mr. Jarrold, and then go below and put that switch on again."
For half an hour the vain red flashes came out of the night and then they ceased.
"I guess they"ve sneaked off for fear daylight would discover them,"
said Jack. "Now to switch the light on again, and then for a snooze. I think I"ve earned it."