The Intelligence officer sought to question Evans concerning his activities aboard the ship. All he could elicit from him was that he had been sent by the Bureau of Engineering to look after the efficiency of the radio apparatus in the fleet and to effect whatever repairs were needed to make it do what was wanted of it. More detailed questions brought out only technicalities that he did not understand. He tried frightening him into making confessions, but Evans’s equanimity remained unruffled.
The lieutenant was stumped, and was debating what his next move should be, when Evans said:
“Shall you see Commander Barton when you go ashore?”
“Yes. Why?” answered the other, taken aback.
“If you don’t mind, I should be grateful if you would tell him that I should like very much to see him as soon as possible. You have my name?”
“I have your name,” said the young lieutenant, astonished. “Perhaps you’ll see more of Commander Barton than you want.”
Here was a bit of cool effrontery the like of which he had never seen. What could it mean? Perhaps it might be a clue, but how to interpret it was beyond him. Perhaps he had better report his interview to Commander Barton and see if he could make anything of it.
First, he went to the executive officer and told him that the case was very puzzling, that he thought he had made a little progress, but had best confer with Commander Barton before going further. It was not till late that afternoon that Barton returned to Headquarters in Punta Delgada. As soon as he arrived, the young lieutenant who had interviewed Evans reported the whole story to his chief. Commander Barton listened gravely, and at the end said, “You did quite right to come back and report to me. I’ll go aboard and look into it myself.”
Barton lost no time getting aboard the flagship and down to Evans’s room. He dismissed the guard, and, entering, found Evans in a state of mind which showed him that a situation of no ordinary sort had arisen. Evans hastily told him what had happened and mentioned briefly his reasons for believing that Commander Rich was at the bottom of the plot, including what he knew of Long’s part in the Sheridan affair. Barton listened attentively and thought a moment.
“Some time I’ll tell you something else about that Sheridan business,” he said; “but now the thing to do is to get this man Long locked up at once.”