"Oh, here you are," burst from the inventor. "I"ve been looking for you everywhere, since you were not at home. Two things of the utmost importance have happened."
"Some other things, also, of which I do not believe you yet know,"
smiled the boatbuilder. "But let"s have your news, first, Dave."
"A thief, dressed in a uniform very much like Jack"s, and of the same size and similar build to our captain, broke into my room and stole the drawings for the automatic closer for the torpedo tube," hastened on the inventor, almost breathlessly. "I fired a shot at him, from my window, but he escaped."
"We know the fellow, I guess," nodded Jacob Farnum, "and we know he disposed of some blank paper to-night. But I did not know your drawings had been stolen."
"Say," broke in Jack Benson, thoughtfully, "do you remember the two holes in the right side of the fellow"s coat?"
"Yes, I do," rejoined the boatbuilder.
"Probably he"s the same fellow. A bullet, pa.s.sing through his coat, might have made those two holes without touching his body."
"Jove!" muttered Farnum. "Yes; that"s so. I believe your guess is wholly right, Jack."
"Tell me about that," begged Mr. Pollard.
"One thing at a time, please," urged the boatbuilder. "Now, if that young rascal had the drawings, did he turn them over to Don Melville before the arranged meeting that I saw? For our prisoner had no such papers aboard him when I searched him."
"That will have to be solved," muttered Jack, seriously. "We can"t afford to have those secret drawings in the possession of the rival submarine boat builders."
"But what about your other news, Dave?" interposed Mr. Farnum.
"This telegram!" burst, eagerly, from the inventer, producing a yellow envelope. "It was addressed to you, but in your absence I opened it."
While Jack struck a match, the boatbuilder read with feverish interest showing in his eyes.
"Oh, but this is great news!" he gasped. "We"ve finally got the Navy Department awake. This dispatch inquires how soon we can be ready to run the "Pollard" through an exhaustive trial trip with a board of Naval officers aboard. Do you grasp it, Jack? If the trial succeeds we"ll sell our first boat to the Government and be on the high road to success and fortune! Oh, this is the grandest news! It overshadows everything else!"
It truly did.
CHAPTER XIII
ON TRAIL AS YOUNG EXPERTS
Very early the next morning Jacob Farnum sent the following telegram to the Navy Department at Washington:
_"Send board of officers as soon as you desire. Everything in readiness.
Advise me promptly, and how many will be in party."_
Then, knowing that he could not expect to hear from the national capital for at least several hours, and feeling that he simply must have something absorbing on his, hands, the boatbuilder turned his attention to following up the business of the night before.
He soon learned, through means of his own, that Don Melville had engaged a driver and had left Dunhaven during the night.
"Pooh!" snapped the boatbuilder. "If we want that young man, detectives will find him sooner or later. Or else, he"ll be compelled to hide at the ends of the earth, so that he"ll give us no further trouble."
The young stranger at the lock-up steadfastly refused to admit that he was David Pollard"s burglar of the night before. Naturally, therefore, he failed to disclose what had become of the envelope of drawings stolen from the inventor"s room.
Yet the lawyer engaged by Mr. Farnum had strong hopes that, eventually, the prisoner would be forced to reveal all that he knew. Another attorney, engaged, presumably, by Mr. Melville, had also seen the prisoner, and probably had succeeded in making the young man feel that he would be well paid for silence.
During the forenoon the prisoner"s case was called in the local justice"s court, but Farnum"s lawyer had no difficulty in having the hearing postponed. The prisoner gave the name of James Potter, which undoubtedly was fict.i.tious. No bail was offered for "Potter." If Mr. Melville felt inclined to do that, he undoubtedly dreaded that such an act would be construed as a tacit admission of Don"s connection with the strange business.
Captain Jack was sent, with an officer, to see whether he could identify the two Italians who had trapped him the night before. Though all the workmen of the yard were rounded up, Jack could not find his recent a.s.sailants among them.
"And now," cried Mr. Farnum, when Captain Jack returned to the Farnum yard, "you will have to get busy with any preparation on board the boat that has to be made."
"No preparation is necessary," replied Benson, "except to remove the automatic closer from the after port of the torpedo tube, so the Navy men won"t see it. That can be done in ten minutes or less. The "Pollard" is all ready for inspection or any kind of tests, sir."
So Jack spent his time at leisure aboard the submarine. Eph and Hal listened enviously to the recital of his night"s adventure.
"And all that time," grumbled Hal, "I was taking an extra nap in the starboard stateroom."
"And I was reading a great story about the boy scouts of the War of 1812," sighed Eph, regretfully. "Doing that when something real was happening within a long stone"s throw of here. Oh, Jack, Jack! Why didn"t you tip us off?"
"If I had only suspected that something was up, I would have done it,"
Jack replied. "I tell you, fellows, there was a time, when those Italians were marching me through the woods, that a little company of my own sort would have been mighty pleasant. I couldn"t be very sure, at one time last night, of whether you"d ever see me again. But I had the conviction that, if I tried to put up a useless fight against those two powerful fellows, there"d be sure to be a new captain aboard the "Pollard.""
It was well along in the evening when Mr. Farnum received a telegram from Washington, informing him that a board of three Naval officers, provided with proper credentials, would arrive in Dunhaven on the next morning but one.
The boatbuilder came promptly on board the submarine with the news, adding, earnestly:
"Don"t you boys leave this boat unguarded for an instant until after the trial trip is over. Mr. Melville will very likely hear about this and I"m not sure he"d hesitate to disable our boat if he could. At the rate at which work is going on at his yard his boat may be finished before our second submarine is ready for demonstration. It would be greatly to his interest to have a boat to show the Government first, especially if he now has the plans of our automatic closing device."
It turned out that the suspicion of Mr. Melville receiving the news of the coming trial trip was wholly correct. The next morning that capitalist called at Jacob Farnum"s office.
"Farnum," he announced, "I"ve decided that, in order to heal all breaches, and also to make what is very likely to be a good investment for myself, I"ll be ready to put in all the money desired with you, and on what I think will be your own terms."
"Of course I feel greatly obliged to you," rejoined the boatbuilder, with evident sarcasm. "But to put money into this enterprise, Mr. Melville, would be to encourage, needlessly, compet.i.tion with your own submarine building."
"Oh, we can merge the two yards, Mr. Farnum," responded the capitalist, with a wave of his hand.
"Some little time ago, Mr. Melville, I would have been very greatly pleased with your offer. Now, Mr. Emerson stands ready with hundreds of thousands of dollars. He knows that a trial trip is being arranged for the Government, and he stands ready to act by the result. If we can sell our first boat to the Government he stands ready to turn over all the money we can possibly use."
"But what if the Government doesn"t buy?"
"Then there would be no sense in using more capital for the present."
"The Government may be fairly well satisfied, and yet there may be a hitch about buying one of your boats. What, then?"
"We shall have to wait and see," replied Mr. Farnum.
"But my offer, Mr. Farnum, if not accepted to-day, will not be repeated,"
warned the capitalist.