Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound Part 19

CHAPTER XVIII-THE CONSPIRACY LAID BARE

It was too late then for Mr. Dowd to correct his mistake. In the dark he had gone to the wrong closet in the captain's chart room. There were loaded small arms of several kinds in one closet, while in the other were stored spare arms that were not oiled and loaded and ready for use.

The flaxen-haired man swarmed over the rail. He had a pistol in his hand. A moment later another man came up the ladder that had been put over the rail when the captain's launch was manned for departure. This second man bore a powerful electric lamp.

"Drop that torch and your guns!" he commanded sharply. "Put up your hands!"

"It's Dykman!" muttered Mr. Dowd. "The cut-throat villain!"

But he obeyed the command. So did Rollife. And could Ruth Fielding do otherwise? They stood in line with their hands in the air, palms outward. Dykman crossed the deck with his lamp warily, while the flaxen-haired man held the three under the muzzle of his pistol.

"What do you mean by such actions, Dykman?" demanded Dowd angrily.

"I'll let you guess that, old man," said the other. "But I advise you to do your guessing to yourself. We are in no mood to listen to you."

Then he shot a question at the radio man: "Did you get those wires fixed?"

"Hanged if I don't wish I hadn't touched 'em," growled the radio man.

"You've sent no message, then?"

Rollife shook his head.

"All right. Krueger!" shouted Dykman, who seemed to be in command of the traitors.

"I thought so!" muttered Rollife. "That squarehead never did look right to me."

Several other men as well as Krueger came up the ladder. Their dress proclaimed them seamen or stokers. Ruth wondered if Miss Lentz was with them.

She began to feel fearful for herself. What would these rough men do, now they had possession of the s.h.i.+p? And what would they do to her? That was the princ.i.p.al query in her mind. Dykman merely patted the pockets of Dowd and Rollife to make sure they had no other arms. He gave Ruth slight attention at the moment.

"I'll have to lock you fellows in a stateroom," Dykman said coolly.

"Can't have you fooling around the s.h.i.+p. You'll both be taken home in time and held as war prisoners."

"By 'home' I suppose you mean Germany!" snorted Rollife.

"That is exactly what I mean."

"But man!" exclaimed Dowd, "you don't expect to get this s.h.i.+p through the blockade? And you've got to repair the damage your explosion did, too."

"Don't worry," grinned Dykman. "She's not damaged much. We opened seac.o.c.ks--"

"Oh, yes, I found that out," admitted Dowd. "And I closed them."

"Thanks," said the other coolly. "So much trouble saved us. We'll get to work at the pumps. We ought to be clear of the water by morning. Only one boiler is injured. We can hobble along with the use of the other boilers, I think."

"Man, but you have the bra.s.s!" exclaimed Dowd. "Some of these destroyers will catch you, sure."

"We'll see about that," grumbled Dykman. "We'll put you two men where you will be able to do no harm, at least."

"And Miss Fielding?" questioned Dowd quickly. "You will see that she comes to no harm, Mr. Dykman?"

"She is rather an awkward prisoner, considering the use we intend to make of the _Admiral Pekhard_. Women will be much in the way, I a.s.sure you."

"But there is Miss Lentz," murmured Ruth.

"Miss Lentz? She is not here. She went in the captain's boat," the sub-officer said shortly. "I wish you had gone with her."

"It was your fault I did not," said Ruth boldly.

"Perhaps," admitted the German. "But necessity knows no law, Miss Fielding. It was said you knew too much-or suspected too much. I dislike making a military prisoner of a woman. But, as I said before, necessity knows no law. You and Dowd and Rollife had to be separated from Captain Hastings and the rest of them. There are only a few of us-at present,"

he added.

"And how the deuce do you expect to augment your crew?" demanded the chief officer. "You can't work this s.h.i.+p with so few hands. And you've got none of the engineer's crew."

"I am something of an engineer myself, Mr. Dowd," returned the other, smiling with a satisfied air. "We shall have proper a.s.sistance before long." He hailed Krueger, who had climbed to the roof of the radio house. "Is everything all right?"

"Will be shortly, Mr. Boldig," said the a.s.sistant radio man.

Ruth started. Then "Dykman" was "Boldig," whose name she had formerly heard mentioned between Irma Lentz and the flaxen-haired man. The man with two names turned upon Ruth.

"You had better go immediately to your own room, Miss Fielding," he said respectfully. "I shall be obliged to lock you in, as I shall Mr. Dowd and Rollife here. I a.s.sure you all," he added significantly, "that it is much against my will that you remain prisoners. I would much rather you had all three gone with the captain.

"By the way, Dowd, Captain Hastings was told you were in command of this small motor launch. I am afraid you will have much to explain, later.

And you, too, Rollife."

Rollife only growled in reply and Dowd said nothing. When they started aft with Boldig, Ruth followed. She knew it was useless to object to any plan the German might have in mind.

Before they left the deck she heard the spark sputtering at the top of the radio mast. Krueger was at the instrument, and without doubt he was sending a call to friends somewhere on the ocean. It would be no S O S for help in the Continental code, but in a German code, she was sure.

The jar and thump of the pumps already resounded through the s.h.i.+p. By the light of Boldig's electric lamp they went below to the cabin. Ruth again produced her own torch and found her way to her stateroom, while Dowd and Rollife went the other way.

Alone once again, the girl of the Red Mill gave her mind up to a thorough and searching examination of the situation, and especially her own position.

She was the single woman with and in the power of a gang of men who were not only desperate, but who were of a race whose treatment of women prisoners had filled the whole civilized world with scorn and loathing.

Ruth wished heartily that Irma Lentz had come back with the motor boat.

She would have felt safer if Miss Lentz had been of the party.

Ruth realized that neither Dowd or Rollife could come to her help if she had need of them. They would be locked in their rooms at so great a distance from hers that they could not even hear her if she screamed!

One thing she might do. She hastily secured the key that was in the outside of the stateroom lock and locked the door from the inside.

Scarcely had she done this when Boldig came along the corridor. He rapped on her door; then coolly tried the k.n.o.b.

"Unlock the door and give me the key, Miss Fielding," he commanded. "I will lock you in from outside and carry the key myself. n.o.body will disturb you."

"No, Mr. Boldig. I shall feel safer if I keep the key," said Ruth firmly.