"This will make an interesting souvenir to keep aboard the boat," mused Benson, swinging the stick as he continued his walk.
At the veranda Jack came face to face with Mlle. Nadiboff, just returning from an unaccompanied stroll down by the water front. To the submarine boy"s astonishment the handsome Russian greeted him most amiably.
"You have not forgotten old friends, I hope, my Captain?" she added, smiling and with a pretty little coaxing way.
"There are some old friends," replied Captain Jack, lifting his cap, "whom it is impossible to forget."
"I hope you will continue to regard me as a friend," responded Mlle.
Nadiboff, more seriously, looking him fully in the eyes.
"Why?" queried Jack.
"I may need a friend," she replied, dropping her glance for a moment.
"You in need of anything--even a friend?" cried Captain Jack, incredulously.
"I may need a friend who can speak a good word for me; who can forget things, or explain them." went on Mlle. Nadiboff, resting a hand pleadingly on his sleeve "My Captain, if need be, I shall send for you.
Do not fail me! You won"t?"
It looked as though the tears lay just behind her eyes. The submarine boy felt that the situation was becoming too interesting, so he lifted his cap once more as he turned on his heel.
"Mlle. Nadiboff," he sent back to her, "I trust you will never want for the most reliable friends."
He turned down the veranda to go toward the office door, when he encountered another surprise.
Leaning against one of the posts stood Kamanako, as natty and trim as though he had come from the tailor"s.
Looking up with a most friendly smile, the little j.a.panese saluted.
"Why, how do you do?" Jack greeted him, halting. "I had an idea you had left Spruce Beach."
"I should have done so, but I started too late," replied Kamanako, still smiling. Nothing ever daunts that j.a.panese smile. One of these little men, being led away to have his head chopped off, goes with a smile on his little brown face.
"Started too late?" asked Jack. "How was that?"
"Now, you laugh at me," replied the j.a.panese.
"Laughing at you? Not a bit!"
"You have told some one that I am a spy," replied Kamanako, without a trace of grudge in his voice. "So now, I cannot leave Spruce Beach.
Ticket agent, he will not sell me. If I try to go on foot, the roads are watched. If I take to woods, even, I shall be found."
"Sorry," nodded Jack Benson, and pa.s.sed on. "So the Secret Service net is around the place, and no suspected person can get away?" muttered the submarine boy. "Well, that"s it should be. I wonder if there are any more of this strange crew--men or women spies that don"t happen to have suspected so far? If there are, I don"t believe they"ll wriggle through the meshes of old Uncle Sam"s Secret Service net, anyway."
His mind full of the doings of the day, Captain Jack Benson found Messrs.
Farnum and to whom he surely had much to tell.
CHAPTER XVIII
"REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO THE "MAINE"!"
"We"ll have no more trouble, I imagine," nodded Jacob Farnum, with a satisfied air, when Jack, at a table in the corner of the dining room, had told, in low tones, all that had happened.
"The spies are all on the defensive, now, beyond a doubt," added David Pollard. "They"ll be too busy keeping their wrists out of handcuffs to devote any of their time to trying to get at the secrets of the "Benson.""
"I hope you"re both right," said Captain Jack, gravely.
"Why, what leads you to think that we may not be?" asked Farnum, curiously.
"Nothing in the way of facts," Jack admitted. "Yet there may be others of this infernal spy gang who have not yet shown their hands, of whose existence the Secret Service knows nothing."
"Well, what can they do, if you don"t allow any strangers on board the boat?" asked Mr. Farnum, point blank.
"Nothing much," muttered Benson, "unless--"
"Well, unless what?"
"See here," asked the submarine boy, "what is usually done to such spies by the United States Government?"
"Why, the law provides that, in war time, such spies can be shot in mighty quick order," replied Mr. Farnum. "In peace times the law doesn"t allow anything but sending spies to prison."
"But what does the Government usually do?" pursued Captain Jack. "It seems to me I"ve read of suspected spies being caught around American fortifications, trying to make notes, or take photographs."
"Yes," nodded the shipbuilder.
"And I think I"ve read, also, that such spies are generally warned and then let go."
"That"s the usual procedure, I believe," admitted Farnum.
"Then, after the spies who have been bothering us have all been rounded up and scolded, they"ll be given railroad tickets and allowed go on their way?" asked Jack.
"Frankly, I"m afraid that"s just what will be in the present case,"
admitted Jacob Farnum.
"Then," grumbled Captain Jack, making a rather wry face, "it would seem that being a foreign spy, in this country, provides one with a calling that is a good deal safer than being just a lightning rod peddler or a bill collector."
"Yes; it"s really so," admitted the shipbuilder, thoughtfully.
"If that is the case," muttered Captain Jack, "the spies here at Spruce Beach will probably keep a bit quiet until they see how things are going to turn out. As soon as their minds are made easy by our generous government, then they"ll plot their next moves. If they can"t accomplish anything more, they may content themselves with a general revenge of some sort on the whole lot of us."
"You"re not afraid of their vengeance, are you?" asked Mr. Farnum, looking up, and into the eyes of his young captain.
"I"m not afraid, of anything, sir," retorted Jack. "The master of a submarine boat has no right to be afraid of things. Even if these scoundrels should get me, in the end, all I can to is to smile, and say: "So be it.""
Then, in the next breath, Benson added, earnestly: