CHAPTER XV
CAPTAIN JACK BECOMES SUSPICIOUS
So successful and enjoyable a trip did the naval officers have that, as the "Benson" was gliding back to the harbor, Lieutenant Commander Kimball broached a subject that had begun to interest the society people among the winter visitors to Spruce Beach.
"Mr. Farnum," inquired the naval officer, "I have a favor to ask of you."
"You know in advance, Mr. Kimball, that it is granted."
"I hope it is, if it's a wise favor to ask," smiled the naval officer. "In brief, the idea is this: Naturally people in this neighborhood are all agog over this submarine craft. Some of the more daring of the ladies have besought me to arrange for a few of them to have a trip on board, even to running beneath the surface. Will you do that, for a party of our friends, to-morrow afternoon?"
"We've been a good deal beset by spies lately as you have means of knowing," replied Mr. Farnum, slowly. "You'll guarantee all of the guests, of course."
"As a naval officer I wouldn't bring anyone aboard here whom I doubted," replied the lieutenant commander, flushing.
"I didn't mean to be offensive, Mr. Kimball. But I have as great a reason as Uncle Sam can have for wanting to preserve the secrets of this boat from all but sworn officers and men of the Navy. You and I are one in that desire, Mr. Kimball, so we'll gladly take out any party, ladies included, that you bring on board."
"Thank you," answered Kimball. "And I can assure you that I shall be very careful in making up my party. Oh, but won't there be fluttering hearts at Spruce Beach tonight And I'm more than half afraid that I shall make an enemy of every lady of my acquaintance whom I have to leave out of the affair. How many, guests can you take, Mr. Farnum?"
"Not above fourteen, all told," replied the shipbuilder.
"Then I shall go ashore myself this evening, to deliver my invitations."
The shipbuilder also went ashore that evening, just to see whether he could learn anything about M. Lemaire and Mlle. Nadiboff. Almost the first person Farnum encountered was reporter Hennessy.
"Oh, your people are still here," answered Hennessy, in response to the shipbuilder's question. "They're both keeping in the background, though. It looks as though they feared to run away, and were waiting to see whether the lightning were going to strike them. Now, that I've told you so much, Mr. Farnum, can't you give me a little more of the inside of this whole strange business?"
"If I did," smiled the shipbuilder, "you'd send it to your paper."
"Of course," admitted the reporter, honestly.
"I'll tell you the best I can do, Hennessy. You keep your eyes and ears open for us, and I'll give you this news story before I give it to any other newspaper man."
"You surely will?" demanded the newspaper eagerly.
"I will."
"Then I'm here to help you"
As the lieutenant commander had predicted, the ladies at the hotels were in a flutter of excitement that evening. Every one who heard of the projected trip on the submarine boat, it seemed, wanted to be invited. By the time that Mr. Kimball's list was made up it consisted of three men and nine women, these in addition to the lieutenant commander himself and Mr Featherstone.
As Jack paced the far end of the veranda that evening a girlish figure, only poorly concealed under a light wrap, stole after him. As the young woman reached him she threw back a light veil, revealing the very pretty face of Mlle. Nadiboff.
"So, my Captain," she cried, "you would forget me when you are getting up a party to take a cruise on your wonderful craft?"
If young Benson felt anything as he looked, he was staggered by this amazing bit of effrontery.
"You do not answer me," cried Mlle. Nadiboff. "You feel guilty indeed, then?"
"Perhaps 'astonished' would be the more accurate word," Jack replied, smiling now.
"My Captain, you were very pleasant with me, the first evening that we met."
"That was before," nodded Captain Benson, still smiling. He stood cap in hand, his whole bearing respectful, for he did not intend to be discourteous even to this known adventuress. He would grant her at least the courtesy due her sex.
"Before what?" she asked.
"Well, er—before that automobile ride the day."
"And why should that change your attitude toward me, my Captain?" asked the young Russian. Her tone was coaxing, almost cooing; her eyes extremely moist, as though the tears would spring forth in another instant.
"Why, you see, Mademoiselle," laughed Jack, coolly, "the finish of that automobile ride was just a trifle too exciting for me. I have plenty of the strenuous side of life out at sea. When on shore my tastes are all for the quiet, peaceful life."
"But surely you do not reproach me with having made the automobile ride unpleasant?"
"Only that, as I remember it, you dropped some dust—or something—into my eyes, and right after that two men took me away in your car—and then things happened to me."
"Why, that was all a joke," protested the handsome young woman, gazing keenly into his eyes.
"Then I'll laugh now—ha! ha! But seriously, Mademoiselle, I haven't a sense of humor that will appreciate carrying a joke quite as far as that one was carried."
"It was all a joke," Mlle Nadiboff insisted. "At least, M. Lemaire so assured me. What ever you may have thought, my Captain, I beg you will not believe that I had any notion of helping to cause you real discomfort."
Her tone was so sincere in its ring, her eyes looked so honestly and appealingly into the boy's that Jack, for an instant, had to wonder whether he were dreaming.
"My Captain," continued the Russian girl, in a voice that trembled softly, "I see, now, that I have been fearfully—cruelly—misunderstood by you. That is more than I can bear. Come, let us take a little walk together in the grounds. I want you to tell me just what part you thought I had in some affair against you. I insist; it is my right to know this. Your arm, my Captain!"
As she spoke, Mlle. Nadiboff slipped her soft little right hand inside of Captain Jack's arm.
Captain Jack took hold of that hand to disengage it. But Mlle. Nadiboff merely held the tighter, while the boy was conscious that she was gazing up at him appealingly.
"I don't wish to be rude, Mademoiselle; don't, force me to be," the submarine boy urged. "Will you kindly release my arm?"
Then, with a subdued though angry exclamation, the girl obeyed.
"You will not even hear me?" she cried, stamping one foot lightly against the veranda boards, while now her eyes brimmed with tears.
"By jove, but she's a bully actor," thought Benson, with a sort of admiration.
"I am sorry, Mademoiselle," he replied, "But I am wanted now. I am forced to say 'good evening.'"
With a bow he turned and left her, replacing his cap as he strode away.
"Oh, that fool, that unnatural young man!" she cried, angrily, to herself. "He prefers what he calls 'duty' to the friendly glance of a pretty eye. Bah! Perhaps he is laughing at me at this moment. If he is, he is laughing much too soon, for I shall teach him a lesson or two. You are not yet beyond my reach, my brave young Captain!"
The veil that Mlle. Nadiboff carefully wound so that two folds fell across her face concealed a hard, sneering, almost barbaric look that had crept quickly into that handsome young face.
But Jack joined his own party at once. Through the rest of the evening he did not encounter either the young woman or M. Lemaire. The latter, in fact, had made himself practically invisible of late.
The next afternoon, early, a launch from the gunboat brought off the pleasure party that was to make the trip on the submarine boat.
Mr. Farnum and David Pollard were ashore at this time. Captain Jack and
Eph Somers stood on the platform deck to receive and welcome the party.
The first young woman to whom Benson extended his hand to help her aboard held up a camera for him to take first of all.
"Thank you," responded the young skipper, gravely. "We will send this camera to the engine room. It will be returned to you at the end of the trip."
As he spoke, he slipped the camera box back to Eph, who started for the conning tower with it.
"But I wish to take some photographs with it," cried the young woman, indignantly. "Especially, a flashlight when we are below the surface of the ocean."
"I am most sorry, madam," Captain Jack replied, politely, "but it is wholly out of the question for any photographs to be made aboard the boat."
"No cameras! No photographs?" cried two other young women, in something like consternation. Then one of them added:
"But we want two or three photos as souvenirs—Mr. Kimball, we appeal to you."
"I am wholly powerless in the matter," replied the lieutenant commander, gravely. "Mr. Benson commands aboard this boat, and enforces the rules. I may add, however, that am wholly in sympathy with his decision. You will understand, ladies, that there are many secrets in the handling of a submarine craft like this, It would be absolutely out of the question to allow anyone to carry away photographs of the interior or the working parts of the 'Benson.'"
With that, two more cameras were passed up. Eph as quickly handed them through the conning tower to Hal, who took them down to the engine room.
Then Jack helped his visitors aboard, while Eph slipped forward to let go the moorings at the order.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen," announced Captain Jack, "I think there will be room for all on deck. If it pleases you, therefore, I propose that all remain on the platform deck while we make our run out to sea. Then, when it comes time to dive and run under the surface, we can go below."
This plan appeared to suit nearly everyone.
"But I believe I'll go below, now," proposed one tall, blond, strongly built young woman who looked somewhat Swedish. "I am afraid of too much chill air on the sea."
"Then, if it please the rest, we will all go below," Jack answered amiably.
There was instantly a chorus of dissent. The tall, blond young woman had already made her way to the conning tower, accompanied by a young man of English appearance. But Eph unconcernedly barred their way.
"Step aside, if you please, young man," urged the Englishman. "The lady wishes to go below."
"Captain's permission necessary, sir," replied Somers, quietly.
"You see, ladies and gentlemen," Jack explained, "it won't be quite possible to let visitors roam at will over the boat. It would be against my instructions from the owner. Either all must remain on deck, or all must go below."
As he spoke the young skipper thought he saw a swift look pass between the young Swedish woman and her English escort.
"Oh, well," replied the young woman, shrugging her shoulders, "I do not intend to be disagreeable. If the others wish to remain on deck, I will do so, too."
"Very good, Miss Peddensen," murmured the young Englishman.
Jack Benson took his place at the deck wheel, and Eph, after Hal had come to the conning tower opening, hurried forward once more to cast off the moorings. Then speed was called for, and the "Benson" made a graceful sight as she swept out of the little harbor with such a brilliant, interested company aboard.
The submarine continued until she was three miles out at sea.
"Now, if it pleases the company," Captain Jack called out, "we will go below and dive. Then you, will know what it feels like to be running under the surface."
From the ladies came a few little gasps of excitement. Some of them, now that the moment had come, almost wished they had remained ashore.
"No one need be afraid," smiled Jack. "This boat has been thoroughly tested. We shall go below the surface, true, but we shall come up again the instant that the proper devices are applied to our machinery. Let no one be afraid. There is not even a particle of danger."
"Not a particle," repeated Lieutenant Commander Kimball. "This is an even safer sport than automobiling."
"Let the Navy officers go below first, please," urged Jack, as the ladies began to crowd about the conning tower. He wanted this done in, order that both Mr. Kimball and Mr. Featherstone might be able to use their eyes on the guests below.
At last all had passed down the iron staircase save Eph, who remained by the wheel in the conning tower.
"Pass directly aft, everybody, please," called Jack, quietly.
"What's that for?" asked Miss Peddensen.
"We cannot allow anyone except naval officers to see how our diving apparatus is worked", replied Jack. "Some of you step into the staterooms, on either side, please. All of the visitors must be aft of this curtain."
The extreme after end of the cabin had been rigged with a heavy curtain that could be dropped into place.
"Why, I feel as if we were all being penned up here and held for the slaughter," gasped one American girl, in a tone of fright.
"Yes, indeed!" protested Miss Peddensen. "This is going too far."
"It strikes me as being a good deal like an outrage," blurted the young Englishman. "Mr. Kimball, can't you—won't you interfere in this matter?"
"I am very sorry," replied the lieutenant commander, "but I cannot. This step is necessary, in order to prevent anyone from having an improper view of the working of the craft. I am going behind the curtain with you. Mr. Featherstone will remain out in the cabin to aid in the handling of the boat. You need none of you feel any uneasiness."
Both Miss Peddensen and the Englishman ceased their objections. But Jack, remembering the glance that had passed between the pair on deck, remained behind the curtain, too, as he dropped it.
"Go ahead, Hal!" he called. "Fifty feet under the surface. Dive gently."
"O-o-o-oh!" came in little screams of alarm as the guests felt the floor on which they stood inclining at a sloping angle.
"We're going below the surface now," young Benson informed them. "We'll soon be running on an even keel."
"All below," called Hal Hastings in a few moments.
"And all clear?" asked Jack.
"All clear, Captain."
"Jack Benson threw aside the heavy curtain, come forward, slowly ladies and gentlemen, and take seats," was Jack's invitation. "I am sorry I shall have to ask you all to remain seated, but we cannot have any serious shifting of weight while we are running under the water."
Though Eph was at the tower wheel Hal Hastings was now virtually in command of the boat, by previous arrangement, for young Benson meant to keep a sharp, though covert, eye on passengers.
The young skipper noted, swiftly, that Miss Peddensen had taken the seat furthest aft in the cabin, while the young Englishman was seated at the forward end of the party of guests.
"Oh, I say, Captain Benson," called the Englishman, "are you permitted to show me how you know just how far below the surface you are?"
"The gauge tells that," replied Jack. "But I will ask you to excuse me from describing it, as I wish to keep my mind on the running of the boat. Mr. Hastings will oblige you; or, I don't doubt, one of the naval officers will."
Even this momentary distraction, however, had given Miss Peddensen time to slip something out of one of her wide sleeves into her lap. And now the young Swedish woman sat so that the object taken from her sleeve was concealed behind the woman who sat next to her.
It wasn't many moments ere Jack noted some thing about the young Swedish woman that caused the young skipper to turn, every now and then, for a swift though hidden glance in her direction.
"What on earth is Miss Peddensen doing?" wondered the submarine boy. "Hang it, I believe she's up to something that she ought not to be doing!"
Through he did not turn and walk in her direction, Jack, thereafter, kept the young Swedish woman much more under secret observation.
"By Jove, I know what she's doing, now," muttered the young skipper. "That movement of her elbow betrays her, and her eyes are fixed, much of the time on her lap. If she isn't sketching something, on the sly, then my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be!"
Captain Jack Benson found himself quickly aquiver with suspicion and indignation.
"Yet I can't afford to make any mistakes," he told himself, uneasily. "I've got to be absolutely sure before I can take the risk of starting a human cyclone about my ears!"