The Radio Detectives Under the Sea

by A. Hyatt Verrill

The stream they were following was now running with quite a swift current and the boys noticed several side branches or smaller creeks flowing into it. They had just passed one of these and were about to turn a bend when with one accord they stopped rowing, their eyes grew wide with fright and they sat listening breathlessly. From ahead had come the sounds of human voices! Just around the bend were men!

To go on meant certain discovery. What should they do? For a brief instant they had thought it might be some of their own party, but the next second they knew better, for the words that came to them were in a harsh guttural tongue—the same tongue they had so often heard through their receivers.

Then, a sudden desire, an overwhelming curiosity to see the speakers, to learn where they were and what they were doing swept over Tom. With signs he motioned to Frank and an instant later they had run their boat into the side creek, had beached it noiselessly upon a narrow strip of soft earth and like snakes were wiggling silently up the bank among the trees. For some strange psychological reason they were no longer afraid; no longer did thoughts of the risk they ran enter their heads. Their entire thoughts were centered on seeing these men, on learning what they could, for they realized instinctively that they had stumbled upon the secret of the gang’s hiding place, that they had found what their friends had been searching for night after night and that, did they ever regain their own submarine, their knowledge would be invaluable.

But they were cautious. They had no intention of being either seen or heard and before they reached the summit of the bank they carefully raised their heads and peered between the bases of the trees beyond. They had no means of knowing what lay beyond that bank. It might be open land, it might be brush or woods or it might be water. They knew, however, that the men must be close at hand and yet, when they peered through, they could scarcely repress surprised exclamations at what they saw.

Within a dozen yards, a boat was lying beside the bank of the stream and just beyond, beneath a wide-spreading tree, two men stood talking.

One was the big, red-bearded fellow the boys had seen in the boat as it left the submarine. The other, who half leaned upon a repeating rifle and who wore an immense automatic pistol at his belt, was tall, well-built and most striking in appearance. He was dressed in light, neat clothes and leather puttees; a broad-brimmed Panama hat was on his head, his face was tanned but clean shaven, except for a small, sharply upturned, iron-gray mustache, and in one eye he wore a monocle.

So totally unlike his companions was he that the boys almost gasped in astonishment. There was nothing about him, nothing in his appearance, that spoke of lawlessness, of a thug or a criminal. Indeed, he was a most distinguished-looking gentleman, such a figure as one might expect to see at a meeting of scientists, at some state function, at a directors’ meeting in some bank or business house.

But when he spoke the disillusionment was complete. His voice had the strangest sound the boys had ever heard. It was cold, grating, inexpressibly cruel and sent shivers down the boys’ backs as they listened. What he was saying they could not grasp, but that he was angry, that he was reprimanding the giant before him, the boys could tell by his tones, the hard reptilian glitter of his light gray eyes and by the expression of the red-bearded fellow.

The latter, with hat in hand, fairly cowered before the other. His head was bent, his eyes downcast, his face and neck were flushed scarlet and his replies came in a low, humble, apologetic tone.

Those in the waiting boat were silent, only the two uttered a single word. For a space the boys watched, fascinated, and then it occurred to Tom that they must get away, that somehow they had taken the wrong channel and that if they were to escape unseen they must leave at once, retrace their way to where they had seen the submarine and from there try to reach the entrance to the bay.