CHAPTER XV

A SPY ON BOARD

Porky rubbed a hand across his eyes, as though to shut out a disagreeable sight. Beany shook his head. The boys evidently hated the pictures that memory drew.

"Let's have the rest of it, boys," said the Captain of the Firefly. "We may as well have the whole thing at once."

"Well!" said Porky 'sighing, "that's how things went until to-day--or I guess it was yesterday, wasn't it? Anyhow, I can't tell just when anything happened. All I know is that everybody was just as though they were strung on wires.

"And that Captain got uglier and uglier. He talked German to the men, and then he would turn around and speak the best English you ever heard. It seemed awfully funny. He knew a lot of people back home, all the high-brows, and when he got pretty full, he would commence to sing. And say he had that Caruso guy lashed to the mast, I bet. He sang love stuff, and sob stuff, and a lot of opera stuff that sounded like gargling. Gee, it was great!

"Then he would make me and Beany stand at attention, and he would tell us all about the German army, and how strong it is, and all about their navy, and how we just had to be wiped off the map.

The United States, I mean, and he would make us repeat all sorts of statistics about what the Germans had won and done."

"He said there was one chance in a million of our escaping," said Beany, "and he wanted us to have a lot of inside dope to tell our people. Of course it was all brag, almost every bit of it. We could see one thing. Those fellows were all sore. They didn't know what at, but they were sore just the same. Our fellows are never like that."

"You bet they are not!" said Porky, fondly and proudly. "The difference is plain as the nose on your face. I tell you what I did do; I made some little drawings of some of the things we heard. Sort of plans they were talking over. But you can see the submarine yourselves. You say she is safe."

"Get to what happened this morning--I mean yesterday," said Beany.

"Well," said Porky, "first thing we knew, the Captain looked through the periscope, and then he turned around and told the others something, and, say, they were pleased to death! You see they wanted to make up their required number of ships torpedoed, and get back to port. The Captain called me over, and told me to look, and there you were, way off, but plain. It was not really light. We submerged right away, and the Captain told me to fix some coffee. They wanted coffee nineteen times a day or so. I went over to the little corner where they cooked what few things they did cook, and then I happened to think of that bottle.

The one with Anesthetique on it. That looked near enough to Anesthetic to be the same thing; and I wondered what would happen if I dumped some of it in the coffee. I didn't know what it was; but there was a chance anyhow for it to work. It might make 'em sick if nothing else, and I couldn't seem to see them pegging away at one of our ships with one or two or three of those torpedoes, even if I had monkeyed with their tail feathers.

"So I tipped the wink to Beany to kind of hold the center of the stage, and, say, that was funny! Beany braced up to the Captain, and saluted and said, 'Is it an American ship out there, sir?'

and the Captain said, 'Sure thing, kiddo!' He could talk just like anybody, you know. Then Beany looked as though he was going to cry; and he said, 'Can't you make an exception, Capt, let this one go?' The Captain thought that was a big joke and pretended to think about it, and finally he said, 'No, I can't see my way clear to do that; but I'll tell you what we will do. We won't leave a single boatful to starve. We will destroy every human-being on the transport and the convoys. I think we will meet a sister U-boat here this morning, and we will have a real good time.'

"Beany saw I had dumped the stuff in the coffee pot, and he just hung his head and walked off, the Captain looking after him and sneering.

"Gee, I was in a cold chill! I didn't know but the coffee would taste queer, and then they wouldn't drink it, and would kill us besides, before we had a chance to report to anybody. And I didn't dare taste it, for fear it was an instantaneous actor, and would do for me first. So I just pa.s.sed the cups, and filled them up, and trusted to luck. And every man put his down without a word until it came to the Captain and, he said, 'It was worth keeping you for a little while. You make real German coffee, best in the world.' Everybody wanted two cups, and it took all there was; and the Captain thought that was a scream because there wasn't any left for Beany and me.

"Well, then, we commenced to wait to see what happened. And nothing happened. Nothing! The whole shooting match acted peppy. Beany whispered to me, 'Was it the wrong bottle?' And I didn't know what to think. I guess we came close enough to fire, and as soon as the machinery was ready, they swung a torpedo into the chute right behind that dead sailor, pressed the lever, and the dead man and the torpedo went shooting out together. Then they sent out another torpedo; and the Captain, at the periscope, commenced to talk in German, and the gunner looked and, say, his eyes bulged! But then something hit us a sort of glancing blow and we submerged right away. And my word! Just as we got down there, the Captain turned to the man at the steering gear to order him to the surface again I guess, and there he was all doubled over. He was out.

"The Captain took a couple of steps toward him, and a silly kind of look came into his face, and he just went down in a heap, and in one minute every man was flat on the floor. Well, there we were, alone you might say, with that submarine to get to the surface! And what we don't know about those boats would fill a dictionary.

"Beany said, 'Get her up if you can, Pork,' and he jumped for some rope, and commenced to tie everybody up. We didn't know how long that Anesthetique stuff was apt to work, and we didn't feel like taking any chances.

"So Beany made a good job of it, and I monkeyed with the steering gear the way they had told me, and the way I had seen, and up she came. Beany was just finishing, but I hurried up on deck, and, say, I thought you were going to do for me, anyhow!"

Porky seemed wholly unconscious of having accomplished anything out of the usual routine. He leaned back. "So that's all there is of that," he said.

"When did those fellows wake up?" asked Beany, "or did it kill them?"

Captain Greene laughed. "I am sorry you didn't keep the bottle,"

he said. "Your friends are only just now waking up. It is a prolonged process, and rather distressing, I should judge."

"I did save the bottle," said Porky. "Here it is, if you want it. I had to put it in my pocket, because I wanted to get it out of sight as soon as ever I could.

"Sensible of you," said the Captain. "I will have that bottle a.n.a.lyzed if there is anything left in it. There may be a new combination there that will be of value sometimes."

"What else happened!" asked the Colonel.

"Not a thing, sir," said Porky; "don't see why we are so done up, either. We didn't do much."

"It was a slight nervous strain, I think," said the Captain, "cooped up there, expecting to be killed."

"Did he threaten you many times?" asked the Colonel.

"Yes, sir, a lot; but we got so we didn't mind much except the time he did for Heinrich. Then we sort of felt as though it was getting personal, as you might say. Oh, I'm glad to be out of it!"

The ship's doctor stepped up to Porky and felt his pulse.

"Just a trifle under par yet," he said, arranging Beany's bandages. "I would suggest another nap or two."

"All right," said the officers and they moved toward the door.

"We aren't sleepy," said Porky. "How could we be sleepy at this time of day?" He yawned widely. Everybody laughed.

"Just try it and see what you can do in the way of snoring," said the doctor. "One more good snooze, and you will be ready to bring in another submarine and some more prisoners."

He left the room, and in two minutes the boys were both asleep.

They were exhausted, with the trying mental exhaustion that people feel who have undergone great anxiety and danger.

The two Captains and the Colonel went into Captain Greene's cabin and for a long time talked the matter over. They could hear the crew and the soldiers making merry. It had been a great experience; an experience which fortunately had had a good ending.

Already a lot of the boys were writing highly-colored, lengthy accounts home--accounts which were doomed never to pa.s.s the censor!

Colonel Bright was happy as a boy. He chuckled and laughed and patted his friends on the back. He was so glad to have his two boys restored to him that he didn't know what to do. He kept tiptoeing back to look at the boys as they slept. And sleep they did hour after hour, until their young bodies were renewed and refreshed. When they finally awoke, it was with the feeling that they never could sleep again. They went up on deck to take their usual morning look around. It was not yet time to report to Colonel Bright. To their great surprise, they were lying outside a harbor. In the distance they could see through the morning haze the lines of shipping and the bright tiled roofs of the houses. There was a feeling of expectation on board the ship.

Porky hailed a sailor and asked where they were.

"In Europe," said the Jacky, smiling, and hurried away.

"In Europe!" repeated Porky. "I bet Colonel Bright will tell us." They hurried below. But to their eager questions the Colonel merely repeated the sailor's reply. The boys hurried on deck again. They stood by the rail, staring at the purple sh.o.r.e, when they were startled by a shot below, the sound of a scuffle, and as they turned a man raced past, leaped the rail and was swallowed by the sea. Scarcely had his head appeared again when with a rush Captain Greene gained the rail. For a moment he took aim; a steady, relentless aim. A puff of smoke marked the shot, and the black head, bobbing on the waves, disappeared. A hand was raised, and seemed to wave a good-by.

The boys watched breathlessly, then turned to stare at the Captain, who was peering intently at the water. There was something in his stern, set face that forbade questioning. For once they were completely silenced.

When the head, did not come to the surface, the Captain turned and went hastily down the companionway. The boys looked at each other.

"What on earth does it all mean?" Porky demanded of no one in particular.

They, too, hurried, down. The door of the Captain's cabin was ajar. Colonel Bright, very pale, and supported by the purser, sat opposite the door. When he saw the boys' anxious faces he nodded, and they went silently to his side.

Then they saw that on the Captain's bunk a form, limp and ghastly, was stretched out under the hand of the surgeon. It was the Captain of the Firefly, and as they looked, the surgeon stood upright.

"He is dead," he said briefly. He came around by Colonel Bright, and a.s.sisted him to his feet.

"Better come to your own cabin, sir," he suggested.

"Come, boys," said Colonel Bright. Then to the surgeon, and the purser: "I am merely scratched. I do not need further a.s.sistance. See you can't do something further for that poor fellow." He turned and, followed by the boys, walked slowly down the pa.s.sage to his own large, comfortable cabin, where he dropped wearily into a chair, and with a gesture directed the boys to remove his tunic. No one spoke until he had been partly undressed, and had laid down on the bunk.