"Sure we"ll waits" repeated one of the pair.
It was several minutes ere Jack returned, coming up almost breathlessly.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, boys," he spoke, hastily. "But I"m here at last."
"Oh, that"s all right, messmate. Come along and we"ll pilot you straight to your friend, Winter--"
"Somers," corrected the other sailor.
Between the pair, some two minutes later, Jack Benson turned off a side street into an alleyway. The houses down in this alley were dark. Most of the little buildings here were occupied only in the daytime, as junk shops and old rag stores.
"Don"t mind the dark," spoke one of the sailors, as he pushed open a door. "There"s light enough on the second floor. That"s where you"ll find your friend, Winter."
"Somers," remonstrated the second sailor.
On the dark stairway Jack Benson found himself suddenly attacked, not only by the sailor pair, but by at least two other men, as well.
CHAPTER IX
BUT SOMETHING HAPPENED NEXT
"Oh, you--" Jack shot out, hoa.r.s.ely, he felt himself borne under by crushing weight.
"Go easy, messmate, and you"ll sleep more peaceful to-night!" chuckled one of the sailors, holding a big hand over the submarine boy"s mouth, while another unseen a.s.sailant pinned Jack"s hands at the wrists.
Flare! A sudden glow of light illumined the dark hallway. Then more light.
"Jerusby!" howled one of the sailor pair, leaping to his feet.
Instantly there was consternation among all the a.s.sailants.
In the excitement, young Benson was forgotten. Freed from a.s.sault, he leaped to his feet.
The flare of light had come from two bull"s-eye police lanterns, held in the open doorway below.
"There are the scoundrels, men! Grab them!" shouted a voice of authority.
The speaker and two other men were in police uniforms. Four other men there were in ordinary civilian garb.
In the excitement Jack Benson let his fist fly, knocking one of the sailors headlong down the stairs. But the submarine boy did not pause there. His other fist, landed on the second sailor, sending him after the first.
"Club their heads off, if any of "em put up a fight," commanded the police officer in charge.
Two other men, not in sailors" uniform cowered on the stairs, close to the young submarine captain. There was no fight, beyond the blows that young Benson struck. Cowed by the unexpected appearance of the law"s force, the quartette of rascals surrendered. There was a clicking of handcuffs.
"Your chief thought I was crazy, or telling him fairy stories over the telephone," laughed Captain Jack Benson. "Now, I guess--"
"I am the Chief of police," retorted the officer in authority. "I thought that, if anything such as you described were happening in Colfax, then I"d better come along myself to investigate. But now, perhaps you can explain more than you did over the "phone from the Somerset House?"
"I have the best of reasons," Jack replied, "for imagining that two of my friends have disappeared by the same trick that was tried on me. If that is so, I"m mighty anxious to find them as soon as possible."
"Do any of you scoundrels know where this young gentleman"s friends are?"
demanded the chief, turning to glare at his prisoners, lined up along the wall in the lower hallway. "The man that talks quickly now may get off easier than the rest, later on."
"There"s two boys bound and gagged in the sub-cellar of this place,"
spoke one of the two prisoners not in uniform.
"Good enough," nodded the chief of police, looking at the informant.
"Officer Davis, you come with me. You may come, too, Mr. Benson. The rest of you wait where you are."
The door to the cellar was locked, but the police chief, with a skeleton key, soon had the lock forced. Pa.s.sing down into the cellar, their way lighted by one of the bull"s-eye lanterns, they found a trap opening upon a stairway down into the sub-cellar below.
Here they came upon Hal and Eph, both securely bound and gagged, and lying on piles of old rags. It was not long ere the two submarine boys were free and on their feet, wholly overjoyed.
"Great Scott! How did you ever find us here?" quivered Eph Somers.
"I"ll tell you when we get away from here," smiled Skipper Jack.
Up the stairs they went. One of the police party, in the meantime, had gone out to telephone for a covered police van. Into this the four prisoners were hustled and locked securely in.
Those of the police party who did not go with the van soon vanished, all, save Chief Ward.
"Now, Captain Benson," muttered the chief of police, "I want to congratulate you on your clever wit and sound judgment. I also want to thank you for enabling me to run down a gang like that. I fully understand that in the morning, you have to be away on a very important submarine test, and that it would be wholly inconvenient for you to have to appear in court. So I won"t expect you. On the testimony that my men and I can give the judge will continue the case until such time as you can appear. My men already understand that none of the prisoners are to be allowed to communicate with outside friends to-night or to-morrow morning. So you may be sure that no news of their arrest will leak out.
And now, good-night, boys. Congratulations, again, and thanks!"
Nor were Jack Benson and his friends long in vanishing, either. They did not go back at all by the way of the Somerset House. They went down to the water-front by a different route. Yet they were fortunate enough to find a sh.o.r.e boat that put them out on board the "Benson."
"And now, Jack, old fellow," exploded Eph, as they sat in the snug security of their little cabin, "don"t you dare think of anything else until you tell us how you brought a seeming miracle about."
"Oh, that was easy," laughed Jack Benson, gleefully. "In the first place, it was mighty queer, Eph, that we left you on that corner--and you vanished. Then we left Hal on that same corner--and the earth swallowed him up. Then two fake sailors stopped me at that very same corner--"
"How did you know they were fake sailors?" broke in Hal. "I never suspected their genuineness."
"Why, see here," glowed Jack, "a United States Man-of-warsman has respect for an officer"s uniform drilled into him twenty-four hours in the day. We"re not officers of the Navy, but we wear a uniform that is very much like the uniform of a naval officer, all but the insignia of rank. What is the consequence? Every sailor we meet sees the uniform, and says "sir" to us by sheer force of habit. Why, you both know that a good many sailors who pa.s.s us give us the regular salute.
Yet these two fake sailors hailed me as "messmate" and were as familiar in every other way as they knew how to be."
"Gracious! When they spoke to me, I never thought of that little point,"
confessed Hal.
"So I told the pretended sailors," continued Captain Jack, "that I"d run down to the hotel, and that I"d be right back."
"Did you tell anyone where you were going?" demanded Eph.
"No one was there that I knew. Instead, I slipped into the telephone room, at the side of the lobby, and called up the chief of police.
I happened to get the chief himself on the wire. He thought I was a drunken sailor, or else that I was out of my head. But he finally agreed to have some detectives on hand to see the sailors take me away in tow."