“You recall that when the Sheridan asked for bearings, Fourth Cliff was reported out of commission and Gloucester gave a bearing that was found afterwards to have been sixteen degrees in error? I sent one of the best Intelligence officers in the Bureau to investigate. He found that a certain chief radio electrician named Goss, from the Bureau of Engineering, had been to Fourth Cliff early that morning to inspect the station, and had come to Gloucester at noon. He was alone in the radio-compass shack there for a few minutes just after lunch, and again about dusk just after the Sheridan went aground. The most careful examination of the apparatus revealed nothing definite, but the set-screw which holds the circular scale in place looked as if it had recently been tightened.”
“My God!” cried Evans, “what a jackass I was not to get on to that. It fits into the rest like the last piece in a picture puzzle. Look here! The activities of those two men, Goss and Long, must have been carefully planned beforehand. One of the most puzzling things of all was the way those three bearings, although two of them were wildly inaccurate, checked up with each other well enough to convince a careful navigator in a fog. If the gear had been thrown out of true by haphazard amounts they never would have given bearings so consistent with each other, except by the merest chance. Those devils must have decided where they wanted to locate the ship in order to put her aground; then they must have worked out the errors scientifically in the light of the ship’s actual position; and they did a damn smart job of it.”
“Possibly Long sent a message from the ship in some secret code, telling Goss where they were, so that he could calculate the desired error,” said Barton.
“That’s the most probable bet,” said Evans. “Anyway, it shows clearly that there was careful planning from some headquarters of deviltry, which, unless I’m much mistaken, means Rich.”
“Goss is being watched, but thus far we haven’t pinned anything on him,” said Barton. “No suspicion of Rich has been mentioned hitherto.”
“Seems to me,” said Evans, “it’s up to you to go to Washington as quick as you can get there, and have him strung up.”
Barton looked perplexed.
“It would be rather hard to arrange,” he said, “and would attract attention that might prove embarrassing. Then, too, it might be very hard to pin anything on Rich with the evidence we have at present. He’s so clever, and so well entrenched, he can probably work all kinds of alibis. I think perhaps the best policy is just to keep the lid on tight out here, and not let any strategic messages go out to Washington at all.”
“But he may have other men like Long planted here in the fleet with all kinds of secret methods of sending messages in code,” said Evans. “It’s too dangerous to let a man like that stay where he can function as the brains of the whole intrigue. We don’t know how he may contrive to cripple us. If he gets on to the secret of Wellman’s code book we’ve lost a weapon worth many ships. As to evidence, I’ll bet I can get some information straight from headquarters through Kendrick and Heringham.”
Barton shook his head.