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Read Ebook: The Dreadnought Boys on Aero Service by Goldfrap John Henry
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Ebook has 415 lines and 15605 words, and 9 pages
I want to be paid in full and well, too, for anything we do."
Herc in the outer cabin heard the heightened tones.
"What's Ned up to now?" he wondered to himself, "I'll bet he's hit on some plan. I guess that whatever he says I'll follow his lead. I don't like playing at being a traitor, though, just the same."
Herr Muller and Ned now emerged into the outer cabin.
"Sit down," said the anarchist, pointing to a place beside Herc. Both boys instantly simulated great delight and surprise at seeing each other. Herr Muller looked on somewhat glumly.
"I wonder if they are making fools of me," he thought. "They are both sharp as steel traps, as they say in this country. It is possible. Well, I shall govern myself accordingly and watch them closely."
"Well," said Ned, when the first apparently warm greetings were over, "what is it you want us to do?"
"Yes. You are familiar with her, and I believe she is the finest ship of your navy."
"I can say 'yes,' to both questions," rejoined Ned. "What would you want this drawing to show?"
"For one thing, I should like to know where her armor is thinnest," was the rejoinder.
Herr Muller's eyes narrowed as he spoke, and he gazed sharply at the lad before him.
"You understand?" he asked, as Ned did not reply.
"That depends on the success of the grand project," was the rejoinder.
Ned looked puzzled. Into the anarchist's eyes there had come the same glare of fanatical fire that Herc had noted there before.
"What is this grand project, if I may ask?" he said presently.
"You may ask," was the reply, "but I shall not answer. The accomplishment itself shall be your reply--and the world's."
The man had risen to his feet and was pacing up and down the cabin excitedly. Suddenly he turned sharply.
"I shall ask for your reply in half an hour," he said abruptly, and plunged, rather than mounted, up the cabin stairs.
Ned sat lost in thought after his departure. After a long period of speechlessness, Herc spoke.
"What are you thinking about, Ned?" he asked.
"I'm trying to put two and two together," said Ned softly. "If I'm right in my conclusions, this fellow Muller is one of the most diabolical scoundrels that ever encumbered the face of the earth."
"BY WIRELESS!"
"Ye-es," drawled Herc judicially, "even without putting two and two together, I must say that I agree with you. But what particular brand of mischief is he up to now, do you think?"
"No, hardly. But it gets me what he does want them for."
"I've formed a pretty definite idea," rejoined Ned. "It was those torpedoes that set me thinking. Herc, I believe that a gigantic plot to injure the American navy is on foot. Those torpedoes are aboard to be used in pursuance of that purpose."
"We've got to keep calm," rejoined Ned. "Getting excited won't do any good. Look here, Herc, have you anything in the shape of a wrench about you?"
"I've got that small one I use on the motor of my aeroplane."
"Not any too big," commented Ned. "But it'll have to do. Now, Herc, you watch the stairway while I get busy."
"If any one comes down, shall I tackle them?" asked the freckle-faced youth, who was always ready for a rough-and-tumble.
"Good gracious, no! To arouse their suspicions that we are anything but friendly to them would never do. Just tell me if you hear any one fumbling with the door."
"All right," said Herc, taking up his position at the foot of the stairway.
The task kept him busy for half an hour or more. When he finally emerged from his cramped quarters into the cabin, he carried something very carefully wrapped in his handkerchief. Whatever it was, he threw it out of the cabin port and breathed a sigh of relief when he had done so. Two more trips were necessary before the flooring was replaced, and each time Ned threw something out.
Herc was about to ask his comrade what he was doing, when the preliminary fumbling at the bolts above warned him that they were about to have a visitor.
Instantly both lads resumed the same positions they had occupied when Herr Muller left the cabin. They had just time to assume them when the man himself opened the companionway doorway and descended.
"Well, have you made up your minds?" he began, without any preliminaries.
"We have," replied Ned. "I'll do as you wish in regard to the plan of the battleship. But you haven't mentioned anything about compensation as yet."
"It will be large. You have my word for that. Isn't that enough?"
Ned, inwardly thinking that it certainly wasn't, agreed that it was.
"I'll get you pencils and paper, and you can set to work right away," said Herr Muller.
But just as he spoke there came a loud crash on deck, and a series of alarmed shouts. Herr Muller turned and sprang quickly back up the stairway. The boys, feeling certain that some calamity had occurred, followed him.
As they gained the deck they were astonished to find that the sloop was out of sight of land. A desolate expanse of gray, tumbling billows was stretched about her. But their glances only dwelt on this for an instant. Their immediate attention was caught by a group in the stern, bending over a prostrate figure.
"It's Chance!" exclaimed Ned, hastening aft, followed by Herc.
"A block tore loose from above and struck him on the head," one of the followers of Herr Muller was explaining as the boys came up.
The leader of the strange band bent over the unconscious man and felt his head with a manner that betokened some medical skill.
"It is only a flesh wound," he said, "but the shock has made him unconscious. Carry him below, some of you. He'll soon be all right again."
Kennell was one of those who volunteered for this service. Merritt was another. As they passed the two boys, carrying their limp burden, Kennell turned to Ned:
"Well, my young sneak, they've got you collared this time," he said with a leer, "you walked into the trap like a baby taking candy."
Ned did not deign to reply to the fellow. Instead, he listened to Herr Muller who was talking excitedly.
"Of all unlucky things to happen at this time," he was saying. "We shall be within the wireless zone of the fleet at any time now, and the only man on board who understands wireless is incapacitated. It is most unfortunate."
A sudden idea came to Ned. Possibly by volunteering to act in Chance's place he might find a way out of the maze that involved them.
Acting on his impulse he stepped up to Muller.
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