"Or I"m wrong in those two guesses, sir."
"But you think they"re from the _Orchid_, don"t you?"
"On another guess, I"d swear it, sir."
"And you"re positive you never saw the yacht till yesterday--in any port?"
"Never, sir. I even made inquiry about her in Havana before we cleared to-day--that is, without exciting comment. A one-eyed stevedore said she drops in there maybe once or twice a year, but he didn"t know from where. _I"ve_ never seen her, and I"ve sailed close to thirty year most everywhere in these waters during winter seasons!"
"Well, I"m stumped," I admitted. "Let"s take this to the professor and see what he makes of it." So we went down together.
Monsieur, in his stateroom, sat bent over his counterfeit bill when I quietly shoved the bomb in front of him. He sprang up with a broadside of expletives that in the sunlight would have cast a wondrous rainbow.
It was a way with the little professor, and we had learned to keep respectfully distant during such periods of effervescing energy.
"Tied to our rudder post," I told him.
He seemed to grasp the entire situation at once. I have never known such a genius for corraling facts! In an instant his mind apparently galloped completely around the boundary of our discovery, and then circled in.
"You have made it harmless," was his first oral observation.
"Gates did, yes; he disconnected the clock-work."
"It is quickly made, and crude," he mused, turning it over in his hands, "but the work of one who is not a novice. Give me the other part!--um!
Very pretty, very pretty, indeed!" Then he looked up, calling: "My boy Tommy, come! We are to see what we shall see!"
"See what?" Tommy sauntered in; but as we explained the situation he looked positively hopeful. For the chief quality in Tommy that made him so likable was his abiding love of danger. He would rather flirt with death than a ravishing coquette--though I will not deny his preference to play the pair.
"Oh, boy!" he now chuckled, giving my arm a squeeze.
As we gathered about the table, Monsieur took a knife and began to press its blade into the covering of the bomb, saying:
"I have known the builder of one of these to leave his tracks inside, trusting the explosion to obliterate them. But sometimes the machine does not go off."
"Let"s hope this"ll be one of those times," Tommy murmured, "or we"ll pretty well leave our tracks all over the Gulf. Don"t use any bad judgment, Professor. Centuries are looking down at you!"
"I shall try not," he smiled, pushing the blade deeper and giving a gentle twist.
"I should say he ought to be doing that ash.o.r.e, sir," Gates whispered.
"Lor" knows this is no place----"
But Monsieur was speaking again.
"The gentleman who left it with us may have used bad judgment by not exploding it himself. So much the worse for him. Steady!" he grunted, peeling off another slice of the wrapper. "Yet, if criminals did not sometimes use bad judgment, a sorry plight would be ours, eh? Moreover, it is natural that they use bad judgment, for, being criminals, their judgment is bad--primarily bad, or they would not be criminals."
"Please work without your tongue or talk without your hands," I said, with a touch of irritation. "That thing"s nervous for undivided attention!"
The professor may not have heard, and in a monotone continued:
"The man who made it knew his business; therefore he is a student of this type of explosives; therefore a police agent, a--what you call--crank like myself, or a destroying criminal--that is, an anarchist. Therefore he is the last named, since neither of the others would want to blow up a gentleman"s yacht. It seems clear to you?" he asked, without raising his eyes; but none of us cared to divert his attention by answering.
By now Monsieur had peeled off several pieces of the wrapper, and was sprawled over the table with a powerful magnifying lens. For some time he minutely studied them, finally squinting closely at a particular one and beginning to show increased excitement. Arising and pushing by us, he went to his many boxes and returned with a small gla.s.s-stoppered bottle. It must have contained an acid; at any rate, he touched a drop of it to a piece of the inner wrapping, then bent over to watch results.
Finally, with very bright eyes, he looked up announcing in a voice of triumph:
"This paper is the kind they use for printing money on!"
We stared at him, but he volunteered nothing further, having again bent over his search. For several minutes we watched in silence. Then he sat up with a snap, as a steel spring might be released.
"The man who made this bomb made my counterfeit bank note," he cried.
Tommy and I jumped.
"Just so," he continued eagerly. "The bomb is a hurried affair, impromptu, constructed of materials happening to be at hand when needed.
That necessity, we a.s.sume, arose within the last few hours, since we have been in these waters but shortly. Here is a piece of the wrapper.
You make nothing of it, yet to my experienced knowledge I see the identical paper on which my money is printed. The counterfeiter, possessing a good resisting paper and suddenly desiring to make a bomb, employs it. So much for so much! Now we have him a bomb-maker and a counterfeiter;--then we shall eliminate the anarchist!"
"Why?" I asked.
"Because a counterfeiter of such skill--and this engraving is the work of a master--implies long and intense application; therefore a secluded life rather than one of following the red flag. Moreover, an anarchist would be tempted into this risk, such as tried upon us, only to destroy someone of great importance--which I may conclude no one of us is. And irrespective of these reasons counterfeiters do not sympathize with anarchy. The psychology of each must be diametric, for if there is no government to make money there is no money to counterfeit. So the anarchist in our case lacks motive, but the other finds it if he suspects us of knowing his secret. So much for so much. Do we know any counterfeiter"s secret? No. Then a final theory: the placer of this bomb has mistaken us for an enemy--he thinks we are whom we are not!"
"That"s what I said," Gates interposed.
"But he does suspect us of knowing it," Tommy exclaimed, "or why did he tell the waiter Jack was a detective?"
The professor, obviously disappointed, turned again to the bomb that was fast reaching a state of _deshabille_--if bombs can be said to reach that state.
"You a.s.sume this to be the work of people on that yacht," he said, with a touch of annoyance. "Can you sustain that theory?"
"Why, of course, sir," Gates declared.
"A mere presumption, _mon Capitaine!_"
"But the voice," I challenged. "Don"t you suppose I recognized it?"
"Tut-tut, my boy Jack! You have never actually heard the lady"s voice!"
And as this was true I had nothing further to offer; but he brightened up, adding: "We shall now go to the stomach of the bomb, if only to enjoy ourselves."
"You"ve a curious idea of fun," I grunted.
"Just go easy," Tommy said. "She may be ticklish."
"Why not sink the wicked thing at once, sir," Gates urged. "We"ve seen enough now to keep us awake nights, and I haven"t any craving to look at its stomach, Lor" knows I haven"t!"
But the professor would not listen. Already he had recommenced the exploration, gingerly removing some wires wrapped about the explosive center, while we almost held our breaths lest he touch the wrong thing.
Once he smiled, and murmured: "_Le capitaine_ is right--it was made on the _Orchid_!" Yet he did not stop work for this, and soon brought to view two half sticks of dynamite, one of them ingeniously capped.
Leaning above this now, with his elbows on the table and his head in his hands, he sank into a profound study, then startled us by giving a snort and springing up, jostling the table so violently that the dynamite slid gracefully toward the edge. Most happily Tommy grabbed it in time.
"Lor", sir, "twas a close shave," Gates whispered, wiping his forehead.
But Monsieur remained blissfully unconscious of the mess so narrowly averted. He was staring, breathing heavily, blinking and thinking. As though walking in his sleep he again went to his mysterious bags, took out something and began to study it through the lens. Then with a yell he rushed at me, hugged me, kissed me on the cheek, held me off, and hugged me again, crying over and over: