"I was at the table, taking a message," panted Harvey, in a voice little above a whisper. "I remember hearing a footstep behind me, but before I could turn around somebody struck me on the head, and I knew nothing more until I came to and found you boys here. Is the safe all right?" he exclaimed suddenly, as a terrible thought crossed his mind.
"I"m afraid that whoever hit you robbed the safe, too," replied Bob.
"It"s empty now, anyway. The door of it was open when we came in."
"Good Heaven!" exclaimed Harvey, and would have leaped to his feet had the boys not restrained him. "Why, there was over three thousand dollars in that safe! I had been meaning to go to the bank, but the weather was so bad that I let it slide. I can"t imagine who the thief could have been."
The same thought occurred to all the boys at once, and was voiced by Bob.
"I"ll bet any money I know who the thief was!" he exclaimed. "It must have been that low-down crook, Dan Ca.s.sey. He was hurrying away from here when he b.u.mped into us, fellows."
"That"s about the size of it!" Joe e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "And to think that we let him get away from us!"
"Dan Ca.s.sey?" queried the wireless man. "Why, that"s the same man my cousin was telling me about; the one you fellows had trouble with last spring. Are you sure this was the same one?"
"No doubt of it," declared Bob. "We had a scrimmage with him not half an hour ago, but in the darkness he managed to get away from us. If we had had any idea that he had attacked and robbed you this way, though, we"d have gone after him."
"But we can"t be sure that he was the thief, anyway," said Brandon Harvey. "How did you boys happen to be coming here?"
"Before we talk any more I"m going to fix your head up," said Bob.
"You"ve had a pretty bad crack there, and you"d better stay as quiet as you can. After I"ve fixed you up, I"ll tell you what we came for."
The wireless station was equipped with a complete medical outfit. Bob sponged the ugly looking gash, then applied iodine and bandaged the wound as well as he could.
"There!" he exclaimed. "That isn"t very fancy, but it"s a whole lot better than nothing. How do you feel now?"
"Pretty much all in," Harvey confessed, essaying a smile. "I don"t mind the rap on the head as much as I do the loss of the money. I"ll have to make it good, and that will take some while out of a wireless operator"s pay."
"Don"t worry about that money," said Joe. "It isn"t as though you didn"t know who took it. There isn"t a doubt in any of our minds but Ca.s.sey is the guilty party. If we can locate him, we"ll either make him give it back or else wish he had."
"Well, I only hope so," said Harvey doubtfully. "But you haven"t told me yet what lucky accident brought you to my a.s.sistance."
"Why, we wanted to find out if there was any news of the _Horolusa_, the steamer that our folks are coming home on," explained Bob. "We"ve been listening at our set all the afternoon for word from her, but haven"t heard anything. We thought that perhaps you had caught something that got past us."
"No, I haven"t heard a thing from that particular ship," said Harvey, shaking his head. "There are plenty of others, though, having a hard time of it. This is the worst storm on record for this time of year. I don"t remember-ah! there"s a distress signal now. I"ll have to answer it," and he attempted to get to his feet, but fell back on the couch with a face as white as chalk.
The boys looked at each other in dismay, for while they had been practicing sending and receiving in the international code, they hardly felt competent to take an important message like this. But after a second"s hesitation, Bob jumped to the big table.
"I"ve got to try, anyhow," he muttered, grimly. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the head phones and fastened them over his ears. At first he was so excited that he could make nothing of the jumble of buzzings in the receiver that sounded like a gigantic swarm of hornets. But in a few seconds he began to catch words here and there, and, seizing a pencil, he began feverishly jotting them down.
"Steamer _Horolusa_," he wrote. "Have struck derelict-sinking-help-quick-are about five miles-Barnegat shoals."
Bob reached for the sending key, while the other boys, their faces white, read the message that he had just written down.
Outside the wind roared and howled, the rain dashed against the windows in sheets, and, although they were quite a way from the beach, the boys could hear above everything else the angry roar of the breakers. They could envision the ill-fated vessel fighting a losing battle with the elements, and their hearts stood still as they thought of the terrible peril in which their dear ones stood.
Bob manipulated the sending key slowly and no doubt made more than one mistake, but nevertheless succeeded in making himself understood by the operator on board the _Horolusa_.
"Message received at Station YS," he sent. "Will relay to all ships. How are things with you now?"
"Lifeboats smashed as soon as put overboard," came back the answer. "Only chance is to be picked up by other vessel. For G.o.d"s sake, do your best."
"They"re in a pretty bad fix," said Bob, turning a tragic face to his friends, "I"ll relay the S. O. S. call, and probably we"ll reach ships that the _Horolusa"s_ wireless couldn"t, as this station is so much more powerful. While I"m doing that, why don"t you fellows call up the life saving station at Barnegat, and tell them to be on the lookout."
"That"s a good idea!" exclaimed Joe, and he rushed for the telephone, while Bob sent out the call for help for the _Horolusa_.
"Central must be asleep!" exclaimed Joe impatiently. "I can"t get any answer at all to this blamed thing," and he worked the hook up and down, but to no effect.
Meanwhile Bob had had better success with his instrument, and had got into communication with two ships that promised to go immediately to the aid of the _Horolusa_. They were both only a few miles from that unfortunate vessel, so when at last Bob left the key, the load of anxiety that had lain so heavily on his heart was considerably lightened.
"What"s the matter, Joe?" he inquired of his friend, who was still making frantic but ineffectual efforts to get into communication with the life saving station. "Can"t you get any answer?"
"Not a word, worse luck!" exclaimed Joe. "I guess the wires must have been blown down by the storm."
"Yes, or they might have been cut by the thief before he attacked Mr.
Harvey," suggested Herb, struck by a sudden thought.
"I"ll bet that"s just what"s the trouble!" exclaimed Joe. "I"m going outside and investigate."
He caught up a flashlight that was lying on the table, and dashed outside, followed by the others. Sure enough, the telephone wires had been cut a few feet above the ground. Evidently the thief had planned everything carefully.
"Good night!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Joe disgustedly. "No wonder I couldn"t get any answer. And all the time I was blaming the poor operator for being asleep."
When the boys went inside again they found Brandon Harvey sitting up, and he declared that he felt a good deal better.
"I"ll be as good as ever in a little while," he declared. "I guess I was in the land of dreams for a little while, though. What"s been going on while I was down and out?"
The boys told him about the message from the _Horolusa_ and about the telephone wires being cut.
"Well, I guess you"ve done about all that can be done," he remarked, after they had finished. "Chances are those two vessels you spoke will stand by the _Horolusa_ and take the pa.s.sengers off in case it becomes certain that she"s going to founder. But I think I"m strong enough to push a key down now, if you"ll help me over to the table."
This was soon done, and while the wireless man was still somewhat shaky, he nevertheless stated that he had recovered enough to carry on the duties of the station.
"You fellows don"t need to worry about me," he said. "I"ll hold down the station all right, if you want to go after this Ca.s.sey. You might be able to catch him before he leaves the town, because he didn"t leave here in time to catch the last train out, and I doubt if he"d be able to hire an automobile on a night like this. It would be worth an attempt, anyway."
"It doesn"t seem right to leave you here alone," said Bob doubtfully.
"But I suppose you know best how you feel."
"We"ll hook up the telephone before we go, and get a message through to the life saving station," said Joe.
The radio boys set about this task without loss of time. They soon had the instrument working again, and this time had no difficulty in getting a connection with the life saving station. The life savers reported that there was no vessel near the shoals at that time, but promised to keep a vigilant lookout.
"Well," said Bob, when this had been accomplished, "I suppose there isn"t much more that we can do around here, so let"s get after Ca.s.sey.
We"ll have to flash a lot of speed if we"re going to stand any chance of catching him."
"I guess we can do that, all right," said Joe. "Let"s go," and with that the boys were off on the trail of the thief.