Tom hesitated.
"I don"t--I don"t know if I should say, Aye, aye, sir--I hear some of "em doin" that," said Tom awkwardly.
"You mean, yes, you can?" said the captain, with the faintest suggestion of a smile.
"Yes, I--as long as he"s right there with me--yes, sir, I think I could."
"Well, then, you go down there now, and I"ll notify the steward."
Tom half turned, then hesitated, clutching his sleeve tighter. "I--I got to thank you," said he.
The captain nodded. "All right; keep your mouth shut, do your best, don"t make mistakes, and remember we"re at war. And maybe we"ll have to thank you," he added.
"It"s--it"s helping in the war, isn"t it?" Tom asked.
The captain nodded. For a moment Tom had a wild notion of asking whether he might continue in the wireless room when the ship was taken over for regular transport service, but he did not dare.
Those who saw him as he went back along the deck saw only the stolid-looking, awkward young fellow in the stiff white jacket three sizes too large for him who had come to be a familiar figure about the ship. And they did not know that the heart of Tom Slade was beating again with hope and joy just as it had beat when he had listened to Mr.
Temple and when he stood looking down from the office window into Barrel Alley. And if his hopes and triumphs should be dashed again, they would not know that either ...
On the deck he met Mr. Conne.
"Well, I see the captain beat me to it," said he. "I was thinking of working you into secret service work, but never mind, there"s time enough."
"Maybe I won"t satisfy them; sometimes I make mistakes," said Tom. "I made a mistake when I went into the wrong store-room, if it comes to that. They always called me Bull-head, the fellers in the troop did."
Mr. Conne c.o.c.ked his head sideways, screwed his cigar over to the extreme corner of his mouth, and looked at Tom with a humorous scrutiny.
"Did they?" said he. "All right, Tommy, Uncle Sam and I mean to keep our eyes on you, just the same."
So at last the cup of joy was full again--and that same night it overflowed. For as Tom Slade sat at the wireless table, while his new companion slept in his berth near by, there jumped before his eyes a blue, dazzling spark which told him that some one, somewhere, had something to say to him across the water and through the black, silent night.
Quickly he adjusted the receivers on his ears and waited. The clamorous buzzing sound caused the other operator to open his eyes and raise his sleepy head to his elbow.
Dash, dash, dash--dash, dot, dot, dot.
"What is it?" said the operator sleepily.
"Official business abbreviation," said Tom. "I"ll take it--lie down."
It was no more than right that he should take it.
Hold Adolf von Stebel using pa.s.sport Curry if on board. Tall, black mustache. Wanted for plotting and arson. New York.
"Huh!" said the chief operator sleepily. "Ring for a cabin boy and send it up to the bridge. Sign your own initials. G-good-night."
CHAPTER XXI
INTO THE DANGER ZONE
There was one part of the ship forbidden to pa.s.sengers and all but forbidden to crew, where Archibald Archer disported and which was a spot of fascination to Tom in his numerous leisure hours. This was the railed-off stretch of deck astern where Billy Sunday and the gun crew held constant vigil. This enticing spot was irresistible to the ship"s boys, and they lingered at the railing of the hallowed precinct, the bolder among them, such as Archer, making flank movements and sometimes grand drives through the rope fence, there to stand and chat until they were discovered by the second officer on his rounds.
The members of the gun crew who were not occupied in scanning the water with their gla.s.ses were glad enough to beguile the tedium of the days before the danger zone was reached in banter with these youngsters.
The next day after Tom"s promotion Archibald Archer came running pell-mell to the wireless room where he was reading in the berth.
"A submarine! A submarine!" he shouted at the top of his voice. "Come ahead, Slady!"
The regular operator did not seem in the least concerned, but Tom, roused out of his usual calm, followed Archer up the steps and to the rope railing where several of the ship"s boys were congregated.
"Let him see," commanded Archer.
Tommy Walters handed the marine gla.s.s to Tom. "Over there to the west,"
he said.
"It"s just a periscope," said Archer. "See? See it sticking up?"
Looking far out over the water, Tom could see through the long gla.s.s a dark, thin upright object which seemed to move as he looked at it.
"O-o-oh, ye-e-es!" he exclaimed, gazing intently. "It"s a periscope, sure!"
"Look over there to the west!" shouted Archer suddenly. "Is that another one?"
Tom turned the gla.s.s to the westward, and sure enough, there was another one.
"We"re surrounded! There"s a whole fleet of "em! Oh, joy!" exclaimed Archer. "Look there to the south!"
Tom looked, and to his great excitement there was another periscope.
"Now turn the gla.s.s upside down," said Archer.
Tom did so, and perceived to his amazement that the periscope stuck out of the sky instead of out of the water.
By this time everybody was laughing, and Tommy Walters leaned against the gun, shaking with glee.
"Now look on the other end of the gla.s.s," said Archer, dodging behind a stanchion.
Tom, in bewilderment, obeyed, and pulled out a match-end.
"Tag; you"re it," said Archer delightedly; "don"t throw it away."
"Why not?" said Tom, laughing sheepishly.
"Because you have to wear it with a ribbon," said the irrepressible Archer, fastening it to Tom"s b.u.t.tonhole with a piece of baby ribbon.
"You"re easy, Slady!"