Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound Part 23

The Germans had taken a big chance. Of course, the s.h.i.+p and the submersible might not meet at all. Instead, a patrol boat might hail the _Admiral Pekhard_, or catch her wireless calls. The Germans would be in trouble then without doubt.

Of course they had the motor boat in which they had got away from the s.h.i.+p in the first place. They could pile into that and make for some port where they knew they had friends. There were such ports to the south, for Spain was not as successfully neutral as her government would have liked to be. German propaganda was active in that country.

Ruth was not in much fear at present as to her own treatment. The mutineers had their hands full. What would finally happen to her if the Germans carried their plans to fulfilment, was a question she dared not contemplate.

Dowd and Rollife she presumed would be removed to the submarine and taken back to Germany-if the submarine ever reached her base again. But there were no provisions on submarines, she very well knew, for women-prisoners or otherwise.

This uncertainty, although she tried to crowd the thought down, brought her to the verge of despair when she allowed the topic to get possession of her mind. And she despaired of Tom Cameron, as well. What had become of him-if he was the pa.s.senger the unfortunate Ralph Stillinger had taken up into the air with him on his last flight?

Had Tom really been killed? Had Helen learned his fate by this time?

Ruth wished she was back in Paris with her chum that they might inst.i.tute a search for Tom Cameron.

Nor was the girl of the Red Mill free from worry regarding those at home. Uncle Jabez's letter, which she had received before leaving the hospital, had filled her heart with forebodings. She had written at once to a.s.sure him and Aunt Alvirah that she was returning soon.

But now the time of that return seemed very doubtful indeed. If she was sent to Germany as a prisoner-or kept aboard this steams.h.i.+p which the Germans intended to make into a "mother s.h.i.+p" for U-boats-it might be long months, even years, before she reached home.

Tom had said the war would soon be over; but there was no surety of that. It was only a hope. Ruth might never again see the dear little old woman whose murmured complaint of, "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" had become the familiar quotation of Ruth and her young friends.

Aunt Alvirah was dear to Ruth. The girl desired more strongly than ever before in her life to be with the poor old woman again.

She could no longer hear the snapping of the radio, now that daylight had come. Either Krueger, the a.s.sistant and traitorous radio operator, had managed to communicate with the commander of the German U-boat 714, or further effort to this end was considered useless now. Another attempt might be made again when night came. Ruth knew it to be a fact that the German submersibles seldom rose to the surface of the sea and put up their radio masts except at night.

It was during the dark hours that those sharks of the sea received orders from Nauen, the great German radio station, and communicated with each other, as well as with such supply s.h.i.+ps as might be working in conjunction with the submarines.

If these mutineers were successful in carrying out their plan, and made a junction with the U-boat that carried a crew to supplement those Germans already aboard the _Admiral Pekhard_, the enemy might succeed in putting into commission a craft that would greatly aid in the submarine warfare.

Thus far it had been so daringly conceived and well carried through that the conspiracy promised to rise to one of the very greatest German intrigues of the war. Its final success, however, rested on time and place. The submarine and the stolen steamer must come together soon, or the latter would surely run across one of the innumerable patrol s.h.i.+ps with which the Allies were scouring this part of the Atlantic.

It was noon before the beat of the _Admiral Pekhard's_ propellers announced that she was again under control. The rolling motion that had finally become nauseating to even as good a sailor as Ruth, was now overcome. The s.h.i.+p plowed through the sea steadily, if slowly.

Occasionally the girl heard a footstep pa.s.s her stateroom window; but she kept the port nearly closed so that n.o.body could peer in. Some time after the screw had started a man came and knocked on the pane.

She smelled coffee and heard the rattle of dishes; so she opened the window.

The man thrust in to her a pot of coffee and a platter of ham and eggs-coa.r.s.e fare, but welcome, for Ruth found she had a robust appet.i.te.

She placed a piece of silver in the man's palm and heard a muttered "Thank you!" in German.

She felt that it might be well to make a friend among the mutineers if she could do so.

It was not long after she was fed that another footstep halted at her open port. The voice of Boldig, the recreant officer of the s.h.i.+p came to her ear.

"Do you want anything, Miss Fielding?" he asked.

At first she would not speak; but when he repeated his question, adding:

"You know, I can draw those nails in your door as well as I could hammer them in," she hastened to reply:

"I want nothing."

He laughed most disagreeably. "You might as well be good natured about it, my dear," he said. "No knowing how long we shall be s.h.i.+pmates. I am quite sure the commander of the submersible will not take _you_ aboard his craft; so I fear you are apt to remain with us."

She said nothing. The threat was only what she had feared. What could she do or say? She was adrift on a sea of circ.u.mstances more terrifying than the ocean itself.

Boldig went away laughing; she threw herself upon her berth, trembling and weeping. All her spirit was broken now; she could not control the fears that possessed her.

CHAPTER XXIII-AT THE MOMENT OF NEED

The bravest and most cheerful person will come after a time to a point where he or she can bear no more with high courage. Nerves and will had both given way in Ruth Fielding's case. For an hour or more she was merely a very ill, very much frightened young woman.

The injury she had suffered when the Clair hospital was bombed-that injury which still troubled her physically-had naturally helped undermine her wonderful courage and self-possession. The news from Charlie Bragg of Tom Cameron's possible disaster had likewise shaken her. What had happened aboard this steams.h.i.+p during the past twenty-four hours had completed her undoing.

Ruth Fielding had an unwavering trust in a Higher Power that guides and guards; but she was no supine believer in what one preacher of a robust doctrine has termed "leaving and loafing." She considered it eminently fit, while leaving results with the Almighty, to do all that she could to bring things out right herself.

Therefore she did not wholly give way to either aches or pains or to the feeling of helplessness that had come over her. Not for long did she lose courage.

She got off her bed, closed the window, and proceeded to make a fresh toilet. Meanwhile she considered how she might barricade her door if Boldig removed the nails and attempted to enter the stateroom against her will. Of course, the lock could easily be smashed.

She finally saw how she might move the bed between the door and the washstand, so that the latter would brace the bed in such a way that the door could not be forced inward. She could sleep in the bed in that position, and she decided to take this precaution.

That was in case Boldig removed the spikes holding fast her door. Now that she had considered the matter from every side, she was not sure but she desired to have the German officer release her-no matter what his reason might be for so doing.

She must, however, gain something else first. Her wit must win what her physical force might not. She bided her time till evening.

Again the man came to her window with food. It proved to be another platter of ham and eggs, flanked this time with a pot of wretched tea.

"Goodness!" exclaimed Ruth, "is ham and eggs all you know how to cook? I shall be squealing, or clucking pretty soon. Is there nothing else to eat aboard?"

"Ain't no cook, Miss," the man said. "We're all so busy, anyway, that we just have to get what we can quickly. I'm sorry," for she had dropped another half-dollar into his palm.

"Is there n.o.body to cook for you hard-working men?" repeated Ruth briskly. "How many of you are there?"

"Eleven, Miss, counting Mr. Boldig."

"Why, that's not so many. And you feed Mr. Dowd and Mr. Rollife, of course?"

"They haven't had as much as you, Miss. Mr. Boldig said they could stand a little fasting, anyway. We haven't had any decent grub ourselves."

"I could cook for you!" Ruth cried eagerly. "I'll do it, too, if you men want me to. I'd rather do that than be shut up here all the time.

And-then-I'd like a change from ham and eggs," and she laughed.

"Yes, ma'am. I s'pected you would. But I don't see--"

"You tell the other men what I say-that I would cook for you all if I were let out of here. But I must be guaranteed that you will not harm me if I do this."

"Who'd want to harm you, Miss?" returned the man, with some sharpness.